DVLA workers in Swansea on the picket line (Picture: Matt Shepherd)
The PCS union has called more driving test examiners’ strikes across Britain. Workers were set to strike on Thursday and Friday this week and next Monday in London, south east England, south west England and Wales.
Then workers plan action in Scotland, north east England, north west England, Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, and parts of London on 22 and 23 June. Some 258 different Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency centres will take part.
Security workers employed by OCS at the HM Courts and Tribunals Service estate are voting on whether to strike over pay. The latest pay offer tabled by OCS would mean a mere 38p an hour above the minimum wage. This is despite OCS being an accredited Real Living Wage employer.
“OCS continues to offer below-inflation pay rises and our members deserve better,” said PCS union rep Martyn Warner. Workers also highlight opposition to “micro-management systems” and say there is a culture of low morale.
“A successful ballot could see a significant disruption to the opening and running of courts in England,” added Martyn.
Around 100 workers at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea began a 15-day strike on Sunday. It is part of the national action over pay, pensions and conditions.
Heathrow airport workers have scheduled strikes covering 31 days beginning on 24 June. Over 2,000 security officers have combined their disputes.
For the first time workers at Terminal Three, who voted for strikes recently, will join those from Terminal Five and campus security on the picket line. The workers rejected a pay offer of 10.1 percent. Heathrow security workers are paid between £500 to £6,000 less a year than those in other London airports such as Stansted or Gatwick.
The walkout by workers at Terminal Three will hit airlines including Virgin, Emirates, Qatar, United, American and Delta. The strikes at Terminal Five will heavily affect British Airways’ summer schedule.
Workers lobbied South Gloucestershire council on Monday—the newly-elected Lib Dem and Labour coalition is already facing two disputes. Unison union members in adult social care are angry because the council awarded staff in children’s services an additional temporary £3,000 payment on top of their basic annual salary. But this uplift was not offered to those doing the same job in adult services.
This has led to walkouts, and social workers and occupational therapists were on their sixth strike day of strike at the start of the week.
And around 150 workers employed by Suez emptying bins on behalf of South Gloucestershire council are striking over pay. They planned to strike all this week and then from 26 June until 9 July.
The union says “If the dispute is not resolved, industrial action will intensify over the summer”. The workers voted 89 percent for strikes after rejecting an 8 percent pay offer from the company.
The company’s South Gloucestershire bin loaders earn just £11.53 per hour. The treatment of workers gives a vision of what a Keir Starmer-Lib Dem coalition might be like.
Sandwell refuse workers in the West Midlands struck for four days last week and were set to be out from Monday to Friday this week. Serco Sandwell, the outsourced refuse provider, has offered a below-inflation 7.5 percent uplift with strings.
The action covers GMB union members in street cleansing, waste sites, drivers and loaders on the bins and administration workers. The GMB last week called on Serco management to act urgently after picket line observers reported senior managers at Serco driving aggressively around strikers.
Justine Jones, GMB organiser, said, “Our members’ safety on the picket line is non-negotiable. This kind of behaviour is reckless and needs to end. We’re calling on Serco to act urgently.”
Leeds employment tribunal has started hearing a case bought by Paul Holmes. He is a former Unison union national president and branch secretary of Kirklees Unison, one of the union’s largest branches.
Paul has bought a case of trade union victimisation and unfair dismissal against Labour-run Kirklees council after being suspended in November 2019 and then dismissed in February 2022. The tribunal heard from Unison officials who represented Paul that nearly all of the witnesses called by the council had no direct evidence to support complaints and based their evidence on hearsay.
The tribunal heard evidence that there was an orchestrated political and anti-union campaign against Paul by the council’s senior management. At the time Paul was suspended he was involved in three consultative industrial action ballots against Kirklees Council, one of which was branch-wide.
One councillor on hearing news of Paul’s suspension emailed his colleagues to say, “Christmas has come early.” The hearing continues.
Plus: 500 on Leeds unity march
Pressure from below has forced a housing director responsible for contracting lethal cladding in west London out of her job
