On the coffin makers’ picket line
The 50-strong workforce at the Co-op Funeral Care factory at Shieldhall in Glasgow walked out last week.
The week-long action stopped production at the Co-op’s only coffin–making factory in Britain. Workers have rejected a pay offer of less than 5 percent. All week the Unite union picket was solid.
The entire workforce was involved, and there were regular picket line meetings. Other groups of workers turned up to show solidarity.
When Unite officials attended a meeting with bosses organised by the Acas arbitration service, they expected an improved offer. Instead, they were offered a worse deal and further attacks on sick pay.
The angry workforce is now more determined than ever to win and will come out on strike for another week of action beginning next Monday.
They will escalate this further if they don’t get an acceptable increased offer
Dave Sherry
Workers at Jacob’s biscuit factory in Aintree, Liverpool, are poised to begin an all-out strike.
Around 650 members of the GMB union are demanding a pay rise of at least 8.5 percent. Bosses are offering less than half that. Picket lines have remained strong throughout the dispute with hundreds of strikers involved.
In a recent video GMB Branch 84 secretary Tim Collins said at the gates of the factory, “We are prepared to do what we need to do. “We are going to continue with the action until we get proper pay deal.”
Some 150 Petrofac workers stationed across several North Sea rigs are set to strike this month over pay and conditions.
The Unite union members work on Repsol Sinopec Resources UK onshore and offshore sites. A 48-hour strike is set to begin on 16 November.
It would cover sites including Arbroath, Auk, Bleo Holm, Claymore, Clyde, Fulmar, Montrose, Piper, Saltire, Tartan and the Flotta oil terminal on Orkney.
A further 48-hour action is scheduled to take place on 30 November and 1 December. The action involves a range of trades workers, from mechanics and electricians to safety technicians, pipe fitters and deck crew.
The union is now seeking the reinstatement of a 10 percent equal time payment which was previously removed, an additional 3 percent wage increase to cover “years of below-inflation increases”, payment for offshore medicals as well as increases to mileage payments.
Petrofac is a signatory to the Energy Services Agreement which is a collective bargaining agreement covering around 5,000 workers.
The action follows a swathe of official and wildcat strikes by offshore workers, most recently involving hundreds of drilling workers represented by the United Kingdom Drilling Contractors Association (UKDCA).
Unite last month called off strikes after one day of some other 450 north sea workers after accepting a 10 percent offer.
Workers at Barnet and Southgate college plan to strike on Wednesday of next week, the college’s open day.
The members of the UCU union have already struck for three days after college bosses only offered them a 1 percent pay increase for last year and this year.
Workers at Darlington college in County Durham are voting on whether to strike. They were offered a 1 percent pay offer and a one-off payment of £250.
Workers at Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale in Greater Manchester, have accepted a 9.2 percent pay rise for the majority of college lecturers.
Refugees slam plans to tear up asylum system
But where there is repression, there is resistance.
Strikers are demanding an unallocated €1.6 billion go towards workers' pay rise
London march on 27 October
