NEU members on strike at Reading School for Girls (Photo: twitter: @SouthEastNEU)
Teachers and support staff at two schools in Reading and Slough walked out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week. They are fighting their trust’s policy on leave for medical appointments.
Workers at the Thames Learning Trust, which manages six schools across Berkshire, must take unpaid leave to attend medical appointments during school hours.
Members of the NEU education union at Reading Girls’ School and Baylis Court School in Slough are fighting back.
Allison Hadwin, a striker at Baylis Court, told the Slough Observer that trust bosses say medical appointments “should be arranged outside work hours”. “In this day and age you just can’t do that,” she said. “The overwhelming majority of schools pay their staff for medical and hospital appointments. It’s poor working conditions.”
She added, “Teachers do hours and hours of work unpaid beyond the classroom. Schools work on good will and the expectation is we all do hours unpaid supporting students—and we do.”
The NEU says that Thames Learning Trust stopped allowing staff paid time off for medical appointments when it took over Baylis Court School in 2021.
NEU education union members voted by 80 percent to strike, but won their demands before industrial action took place. Workers were frustrated at management’s lack of consultation with workers in the decision-making process and a lack of a clearly defined management time table.
School bosses have agreed to now consult teachers and support workers over class placements and to reduce marking and assessment. The NEU union will also survey the school to identify workload problems.
Pablo Phillips, joint district and branch secretary, of Waltham Forest NEU, told Socialist Worker, “The workers are happy with the win. Mechanisms are now in place to ensure that there’s involvement of the workers in how the school moves forward.
“It’s important to have worker involvement. It’s another ballot success alongside a number of ballot success in the last couple of years.”
Refuse workers in Sheffield are keeping up their struggle for union recognition. The workers, employed by Veolia, have been on all-out strike since 20 August.
Bosses claim that the GMB union is the recognised union because it’s the majority union throughout Veolia’s depots. But at the Lumley Street depot in Sheffield, the Unite union is the biggest union—and bosses are refusing to recognise it.
Since the strikes began, there have been stories of intimidation and the sacking of Unite members. And bosses are bringing in scabs from Barnsley in an effort to break the workers’ resolve.
Workers at Lumley Street are right to strike—they deserve proper workers’ representation. They should keep going until their chosen union is recognised.
Transport workers in Sheffield and Doncaster in the Unite union are taking action over poverty pay. In Sheffield, refuelling and cleaning workers employed by Bidvest Noonan on behalf of First South Yorkshire began strikes in September.
Bosses told the workers their wages would not be increased beyond the minimum wage of £11.44 an hour.
The Unite union members in Sheffield are set to be joined by their colleagues in Doncaster. Workers in Doncaster voted overwhelmingly to join the Sheffield strikes.
In April, First Group, the owners of First South Yorkshire, announced it was a living wage employer and paid all its employees at least £12 an hour. First Group stated that applies to those employed in subsidiary companies.
The Sheffield workers were set to strike from Tuesday to Thursday this week.
Security guards in the PCS civil service workers’ union are set escalate their strikes over pay.
The workers are employed by G4S and work in jobcentres across the country. Bosses at G4S previously offered workers a pay rise to 32p above the national living wage. Members voted by 84 percent to reject the pay offer and 89 percent voted for further strikes.
The workers have already taken 41 days of industrial action in their dispute, resulting in jobcentres being closed and a reduced service being offered in others.
PCS union members continued their strikes through the pay ballot. The new strike dates are from Friday next week to 11 November.
Other jobcentre security guards are represented by the GMB union. Last week, GMB members voted by 65 percent in favour of the same offer. GMB suspended their strikes during the ballot.
Workers employed by Livv Housing are set to strike over pay after many years of below-inflation pay rises.
The workers, in the Unite union, have rejected a 5 percent pay offer. They have announced strike dates for Wednesday next week and 23 October. An overtime ban will be in place over that period.
Livv Housing manages and maintains over 13,000 properties primarily in Knowsley on Merseyside. Livv Housing is officially a not for profit organisation, but it made a profit of £40,000 per employee last year.
Livv has also established a bonus pot of £140,000 for its small executive management team.
Essential maintenance workers employed by Altrad Services in Cumbria are set to strike over their employer’s broken promises.
The Unite union members are responsible for access and maintenance of the Fellside site which produces steam for the wider Sellafield nuclear plant. Workers are set to strike from Thursday this week to Tuesday next week, 17 to 22 October and 24 to 29 October.
Workers initially agreed to an 11.3 percent pay rise in January—but bosses have now implemented a 7.3 percent increase.
Bosses are claiming they are giving a smaller amount because they paid an additional 4 percent during a period of high inflation.
Workers employed by Greener Ealing have announced new strike dates over union recognition.
Unite union represents around 40 traffic wardens working for Ealing council, but Greener Ealing is refusing to recognise the union. Ealing MP Deirdre Costigan previously supported the workers, but abandoned them when she was elected.
Greener Ealing is now using agency labour to try and break the strike. But workers remain resolute. Workers began strikes in August, and the new round of industrial action began on Monday this week, set to end on 3 November.
Around 1,000 rail engineering and maintenance workers are celebrating after scoring an improved pay offer from bosses. Unite members in Network Rail have accepted an increase of 4.5 percent for 2024.
And workers in the train operating companies—outsourced firms that run the services—have settled on a two year deal. The new deal will see them receive 4.75 percent for 2023 and a further 4.5 percent for 2024.
Their union is calling for renationalisation of the railways.
Some 150 aerospace workers, represented by the Unite union, have announced new strike dates over pay. Eaton Ltd in Fareham produces essential parts for the aerospace industry.
But fitters, technicians, supervisors and other workers are paid, on average, over £3,000 below the industry average. Management offered workers a three-year pay deal, but it would not align salaries to the national industry average.
Workers are set to strike on Wednesday to Friday next week, 21 to 26 October, 29 October to 1 November, 4 to 9 November and 11 to 16 November.
Fridge and freezer manufacturers are getting ready to strike in Bradford. Workers rejected a pay offer of 4 percent and are paid just above minimum wage.
The Unite union members undertake skilled work where they build, paint, test and pack industrial fridges and freezer units for major supermarkets.
Strikes are set for Tuesday and Thursday next week, 21 and 23 October.
Around 150 workers, who are predominately women, at Tata Consumer Products who make Tetley Tea, struck on Friday last week.
The workers in the GMB union are striking over poverty pay and were set to walk out again on Friday this week. Workers previously rejected the 4.4 percent pay rise offered by bosses.
Bosses called the police on the striking workers for being “intimidating”.
Now, Tata has launched an injunction against the workers for trespass. It’s disgraceful that bosses are attacking the legitimate right to strike.
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