Some 50 striking NHS workers joined the rally at the Maudsley Hospital on the last strike earlier this year
Unison union members at four hospitals in Greater Manchester are on strike this week in a dispute over pay for covering staff shortages.
More than 350 employees at Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust (NCA), including nurses, clinical support workers and housekeepers, will walk out this Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
This comes after an offer to “resolve” the dispute was withdrawn by bosses before discussions could take place.
The row centres on the trust’s use of an agency called NHS Professionals (NHSP) to manage overtime.
When covering staff shortages, workers are entitled to time-and-a-half pay.
However, NHSP have reportedly paid staff less than they would on a normal shift, with some missing out on more than £80 a shift.
With cash-strapped NHS trusts trying to make savings by slashing spending, much of the cuts have been to jobs. It has put massive pressure on the workers that remain to meet the demand.
Unison north west regional organiser Kevin Dolan said, “Through our current industrial action, staff have identified that their colleagues are burnt out due to understaffing in theatres.
Our members are working significant extra hours to cover sickness, fatigue and strategic understaffing.
“Understaffing pushes staff towards working extra hours at lower rates of pay, which they do because they are passionate about patient safety. The trust can alleviate this issue but choose not to.”
Workers across NCA hospitals work tirelessly to provide high-quality care.
However, the burden of responsibility for the growing NHS financial crisis should not be allowed to fall on the workforce.
- Strikers will hold picket lines on Monday and Friday at all four hospitals. Wednesday’s mass rally assembles at 10.30am in Buile Hill Park car park, Eccles Old Road, Salford, M6 8GL to march to Salford Royal Hospital
Strikes return to the Slam
Unite union members at the South London and Maudsley (Slam) NHS Foundation Trust are set to strike this week over pay and conditions.
The estate workers—electricians, decorators, joiners, painters and plumbers—work at sites including Bethlem Royal, Lambeth, Lewisham and Maudsley hospitals.
Some are being paid at band 3 or 4 on the NHS pay scales, despite doing the same work as others who are being paid at band 5.
To add insult to injury, the two top earners at the trust take home £400,000 between them.
Some 97 percent of Unite union members voted to walk out earlier this year and they have so far taken five days of action.
They are set to strike from Tuesday afternoon until next Monday morning.
And, they have further dates already announced from 1 to 7 September, if the dispute is not resolved.
- Offer solidarity to the strikers on their picket line at the Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AZ on 26 to 28 August, from 11.30am to 2pm
- Send solidarity messages to [email protected]
- Donate to the strike fund— Ref: CEF strike, Account name: UNITE LE/7105L, Sort code: 60-83-01, Account number: 20469210
Bognor Butlin’s workers tell bosses to bog off
Workers at Butlin’s holiday resort in Bognor Regis, Sussex, are set to walk out over the busy August bank holiday this weekend.
The resort safety officers are members of the UVW union. They plan to strike this Friday to Sunday, the 4-7 September, 10‑15 September and continuously from 21 September unless their demands are met.
They are responsible for dealing with incidents including violence, medical emergencies and lost children. Yet understaffing and faulty equipment leaves them unable to do their jobs properly.
Resort safety officer Adam said, “Every day, we dedicate ourselves fully to our work, consistently going above and beyond to embody the Butlin’s values of creating smiles, getting stuck in, and caring for one another.
“However, in recent months, it has become sadly clear that we are not being listened to or adequately supported, particularly when responding to serious incidents.”
The workers are also asking for a pay rise to £14 per hour and repayment of wages they say were unlawfully deducted.
Workers to kick off new academic year with strikes
Workers at the University of Nottingham have announced 67 days of strikes throughout the autumn.
The UCU union members were on strike throughout the whole of June and July.
They now plan to walk out on 30 September and 1 October followed by a sustained period of action from 5 October onwards.
The second phase of the university’s Future Nottingham plan will mean course closures and redundancies that will undermine the future of the university if it goes ahead.
The UCU says the restructure is not just cruel but also unnecessary as the institution now says it is in surplus.
But UCU union leaders are asleep at the wheel when it comes to declaring a national dispute.
Bosses’ organisation Ucea offered a pay rise of 2 percent for university leaders this year. Five unions representing university workers ran a consultative ballot of members.
Nearly 70 percent of UCU members voted to reject the offer but turnout was just 30 percent. Unite members voted to reject by nearly 90 percent. Members of the EIS and Unison also voted to reject. The GMB has not released its results yet.
But the UCU higher education committee is not set to discuss its next steps until 9 October. It’s a car crash for members. Bosses are not implementing the 2 percent uplift until Ucea receives a formal response from the unions.
UCU also appears to have abandoned plans to launch a trade dispute with the secretary of state over redundancies. UCU members in the universities are being left without leadership even as branches prepare for strikes.
Striking over safety at the V&A museum
PCS union members at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum in London have overwhelmingly voted for action. They are demanding management give them a real living wage.
But they are also taking action over the climate crisis. Workers want heat mitigation measures put in place.
This includes a policy of closing access to the museum for the public at any temperature above 30 degrees for workers’ and visitors’ safety.
Join their demonstration on Wednesday 2 September from 8am at the V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
…and on the East Midlands Railway
RMT union members have called fresh strikes at East Midlands Railway (EMR) over safety concerns with a new fleet of trains.
It says the Class 810 Aurora fleet trains have a “significant number” of faults.
Workers are set to strike for 48 hours from this Sunday and for 24 hours on Wednesday 16 September.
Workers are also continuing their action short of strike, including refusing to work on Class 810 trains.
Recent derailment incidents have heightened attention on network safety and infrastructure vulnerabilities from extreme weather.
No one should be forced to work on trains while these faults exist.
…and at City of Glasgow College
EIS-Fela education union members at City of Glasgow College held a rally last week as part of their ongoing action over health and safety.
The college lecturers teach welding and fabrication. They are in dispute over management’s refusal to provide safety equipment in the form of air fed masks.
The workers say this puts both them and their students at risk of inhaling harmful fumes.
EIS-Fela members who teach welding at the college have been taking action, including several rounds of strikes, since late March.
Electric strike at energy regulator
Workers for the Ofgem energy regulator kicked off three days of action on Monday over pay, job security and conditions.
The strike has been planned to coincide with Ofgem’s announcement on Wednesday of a new energy price cap.
Last year, the PCS union members won a 9.9 percent pay rise over two years. But management have drawn out negotiations over implementing this.
Far right scumbags out for all of us
Reform UK are at the centre of a shift in far right politics (Photo: reformparty_uk/X)
Reform UK has a racist plan. The far right party plans to deport hundreds of thousands if it ever gets elected. It aims to bully around 2 million more into leaving their homes, families, communities and jobs.
Reform UK wants to stop migrants from ever being allowed to settle or to claim any support.
And, it is shifting even further to the right.
Reform UK claims to “protect British culture”—its idea of British culture is “built on Christian values”.
At the heart of those “Christian values” is the family. Suella Braverman, Reform UK’s equality spokesperson, will rip up the Equality Act and replace it with the Women and Motherhood Protection Act.
Braverman said, “A Reform UK government will be the most pro-woman, pro-mother and pro-family government in British history.”
Braverman is scrapping women’s legal protections against discrimination, then bringing a few back—but only if the women are mothers.
The Motherhood Act is deeply sexist. It promotes the idea that women are valued only for giving birth and that it is a woman’s job to bring up children.
Leading members of the far right party, such as Danny Kruger MP and head of policy James Orr, have long been muttering about family values and denigrating gay parents.
Kruger wants to “reset Britain’s sexual culture” by undoing the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Orr is coming after gay marriage, which, he says, is not “real marriage”.
Now, Reform UK MP Richard Tice has ramped up this nonsense. He says the party’s social housing policy will be reserved for “married couples” with children.
Party leader Nigel Farage wants to make it harder for women to get abortions and Kruger says women don’t have “an absolute right to bodily autonomy”.
These Reform UK scumbags have a vision of society in which marriage is a prison and divorce is something shameful.
It is one where women are forced to turn to backstreet abortionists, where white women’s lives revolve around breeding, gay people are back in the closet and trans+ people don’t exist.
And they are hypocrites. They get divorced and live with their lovers. But they want to stop us living as we choose.
Their fake Christianity has nothing to do with beliefs and principles—it is all about sucking up to the far right in the US.
Reform UK is after our friends and families. It is after our freedom to love who we want. And, it is after our right to control our bodies.
Reform UK is a threat to us all.
Resist Burnham’s backtracking
Andy Burnham promised the “biggest change in 40 years” when he was sworn in as prime minister at the end of July.
But in the six weeks since, he has backtracked so much he’s worn a hole in the carpet of Number 10 North.
He promised Britain “the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period”.
But, on Monday, it was revealed that of the 700,000 homes to be built, only 60 percent will be socially controlled. And he’s slashed the planned funding down to only a quarter of his promised £39 billion.
Alongside pledges to end rough sleeping, Burnham’s housing promises are starting to look like little more than a facade.
And, Burnham has shelved plans to bring the privatised Thames Water back into public control. He has left the failing company to appoint new administrators, hike up bills and rinse people.
In the coming weeks, disability benefits, youth unemployment and migration will be discussed under the new Labour leader.
We need more than banning online subscription traps and booking fees. The cost of living crisis is set to worsen this autumn as the US war against Iran continues.
The working class should hold Burnham accountable—and demand much more.
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