Unison Follow

ANGER OVER low pay and anger at New Labour dominated this year's Unison union local government conference in Bournemouth on Monday of this week. Delegates passed a motion severely criticising the union's National Local Government Committee for submitting a pay claim of only 4 percent this year.

JUST HUNDREDS of people turned out for the pensions demonstration in Edinburgh organised by the Scottish TUC. My union, the teachers' EIS, sent only one A5 leaflet to each school. The Unison union did not even have its banner at the demonstration. It is clear that the union leaders will not act unless they are pushed from below.

NEWHAM COUNCIL has been forced to back off again over its attacks on the Unison union. Workers have been fighting against council bosses' attempts to derecognise Unison. The New Labour-run council evicted the union from its offices, banned us from putting out our own publicity materials and stopped union officers having any facility time.

OVER 200 health workers in the Unison and Amicus unions at Sunderland Royal Infirmary staged an unofficial walkout on Thursday of last week. They were protesting against changes to their pay under the government's Agenda for Change scheme-the biggest ever shake-up of pay and conditions in the NHS. Sunderland hospital is an "early implementer" site being used as a test-run for the government's plan. A week before the walkout, management started to send out letters to inform staff of their new pay bands.

CAROLINE IS a Unison shop steward in Birmingham. She works at a small day centre for people with learning difficulties. Because she has a network of regular paper readers around her she was able to organise a workplace meeting recently at short notice.

WORKERS AT Newham council, east London, were set to strike for two days this week. We are protesting against the council's attack on our union, Unison. This includes evicting the union from its offices and axing facility time for union offices.

BLAIR'S FAVOURITE New Labour council is trying to break our union. We are absolutely clear that Newham council in east London intends to lead the way in smashing the town hall union to force through Blair's plans to \"restructure\" public services-cutting our pay and jobs and selling off the people's assets to the fat cats. We are going to step up our action and we are determined we are going to win. But in discussing strategy with Unison union regional officials, the question of our political relationship to the government dominates the debate.

OVER ONE million local government workers could be heading for a major pay battle. Last week both sides in the negotiations over the local government pay and conditions deal upped the ante. The giant Unison, TGWU and GMB unions agreed to consult their members over the deal and possible action unless the employers back down before 21 May. The employers issued a press release saying that they would stand firm over their offer of a derisory 7 percent over 3 years.

THE STRIKE in Newham on 22 April shook the council hard, and that's why we were to strike again this week. Over 2,000 Unison members stopped work last time to show the council we will not let them take away our union rights. Now we have to show the council that our action wasn't just for a single day and that we will take further action to defend our union.

SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES and offices in Newham, east London, were closed on Thursday of last week as members of Unison struck to defend their union. The one-day strike is the first blow in a campaign to force the council to recognise our democratic right to be represented by the union officers we elect, to decide what we put in our newsletters and to defend facility time.

HEALTH WORKERS in the Unison union assembled in Glasgow on Monday for the union's health sector conference. It discussed issues that could lead to a major confrontation with the government in the autumn.

THOUSANDS of nursery nurses across 17 councils in Scotland were still on all-out strike as Socialist Worker went to press. They were battling on even though officials of their union, Unison, had abandoned the key plank of their fight.