Bus drivers protesting in central London (Picture: Guy Smallman)
First Bus drivers in Fareham, Hampshire began an eight day strike on Sunday 2 February.
The Unite union is escalating the dispute about pay and conditions. “Bully Boy” managing director Simon Goff is refusing to negotiate with the union.
He has falsely claimed that strikers must pay tax on their hardship payments, and has threatened to cut jobs if the dispute continues.
Usually, 80 vehicles run on a Saturday and 52 run on a Sunday.
But on strike days these numbers drop to a maximum of 18 and 14.
Taking buses off the road for the whole of the working week will massively hit the company’s ticket sales.
Another eight day strike begins on 16 February, with further weekend strikes on 12-14 and 25-27 February.
Goff’s bosses may start to question how he is handling the dispute when they see the impact on their profits.
With so much uncertainty over future rates of inflation, the drivers do not want to be locked into a two year pay deal.
The mood on the picket lines is good and strikers are determined to dig in and win the dispute.
Jon Woods
Huddersfield First Bus drivers were set to strike through February and March.
Around 150 Unite members walked out after waiting ten months to receive pay parity with West Yorkshire colleagues.
But an improved last minute offer means strikes are suspended while workers are balloted over the offer.
Bus drivers in Gloucestershire have won an 11.1 percent pay rise.
The Unite workers voted to strike, forcing bosses to concede to demands.
The new pay deal secures a £1 per hour pay rise, plus a one-off payment of £400. It also protects weekend and bank holiday rates, which bosses were trying to slash.
The drivers are based in depots in Cheltenham, Coleway, Gloucester and Stroud.
The UCU Left grouping launched an electoral campaign within the educators’ union last week.
UCU Left is campaigning for a fighting union. It comes as universities face a wave of redundancies and workers across post-16 education have seen their pay eroded.
They want a union that acts on members’ decisions rather than delaying, overturning or frustrating them.
Rhiannon Lockley is the UCU Left candidate for Vice President of the union. Speaking at the launch event, Rhiannon said, “We are living at a time of real crisis and we have to make the connection between the wider global crises that are going on and the dismantling of the education system.
“Higher education has been defunded, further education, adult and community education and prison education have been vandalised over a long period of time.
“This isn’t isolated from the wider picture. The Keir Starmer government is failing to make any real change in society.
“And there is a real threat of a Reform UK government chasing on the tail end of this Labour government. We need to build confidence and build hope that the union can be and is a force for good in these difficult times.
“The right of the union has a message of despair, that all we can really do is keep our heads down and try to manage decline and save the odd job. That’s not the purpose of a trade union. Our purpose as trade union activists is to organise and it is to be the resistance in times like this.”
Rhiannon is a lecturer at Birmingham City University and chair of the union branch. She has previously worked in further education.
The vice president of the UCU usually goes on to become its president where they chair the union and are part of the negotiating team.
UCU Left is also backing several independent candidates for roles in the union.
Voting runs from 27 January to 3 March.
At the University of Dundee, a strike ballot ended with strong support for action. There was a 74 percent yes vote for strikes and a 64 percent turnout.
Speaking at a rally last week outside the Scottish parliament, Dundee UCU co-president Carlo Morelli linked the job cuts to the wider issues facing the education sector.
He said, “Marketisation in higher education has failed. Redundancies are at levels we have never seen.”
Staff at the University of Sheffield International College (Usic) also voted for strikes over job cuts. There was a whopping 72 percent turnout and 100 percent of those who voted saying yes to action.
Usic is run by the private company Study Group. It charges international students up to £26,000 per year to take courses in English, study skills and subject specific learning to prepare them for a university degree. Usic has threatened to cut 36 jobs.
UCU branch chair Sam Morecroft said that the redundancies have “nothing to do with falling student numbers”. Instead, they result from “an attempt to force an untested standardised operating model on our college”.
A strike ballot at the University of East Anglia was set to close on Tuesday this week. UCU branches at Newcastle University and Brunel in west London are also balloting for strikes over budget cuts and redundancies.
Meanwhile, Cardiff University announced plans to cut 400 jobs and Durham University said it wants to cut 200 jobs in the first wave of its plan to reduce costs.
These branches may need to take significant action to make it impossible for management to go ahead with redundancies.
Everyone who cares about education should support these strikes. Other UCU branches should donate to them and ask them for speakers for their own branches.
More than that, the union should launch a national campaign against the tornado of redundancies tearing its way through higher education.
Camilla Royle
Over 1,000 workers at outsourcer Capita began a week-long continuous strike last Wednesday, taking to the picket lines in Glasgow and Manchester.
The Unite union members are angry that Capita bosses have refused to negotiate a pay rise for 2024.
Bosses postponed the yearly pay talks with Unite with the assurance that the workers would be given a pay rise in October. But this hasn’t happened.
Unite rep Linda told Socialist Worker, “Capita has not given us a pay raise for last year.
“They basically turned round and told us that there’s no money even though we know there is money in the pot.
“A lot of the staff members are on adjustable minimum wage—I’ve been here nearly two years and never had a pay raise.
“So we’re trying to get the money that we’re due for last year.”
Bosses have tried to appease workers by offering one extra day of paid holiday.
If Capita continues to refuse to give workers what they’re owed, workers should escalate strikes.
Security guards at the Natural History, Science and V&A museums have escalated their dispute. They will strike continuously for the whole of February.
Last October, around 100 workers in the UVW union took the fight to their employer Wilson James, demanding dignity, equality and fair treatment.
Bayo Owolabi, a guard at the Science museum, said, “We have been ignored and treated with utter disdain for too long.”
Workers have already taken 22 strike days, but Wilson James continues to ignore their demands. Workers are fighting for full parity with directly employed museum staff, a pay rise to £16 per hour and sick pay from day one.
Strikes are ongoing at food producer Bakkavor in Spalding.
Over 500 workers in the Unite Union went on continuous strike for 12 weeks in October last year, and have continued this strike this year. Bakkavor pays poverty wages, but refuses to engage with workers after years of below inflation pay rises.
Unite has now made an official complaint to the Ethical Trading Initiative. Major supermarkets, including those Bakkavor supplies ready meals to, are part of the initiative.
Workers at Livv Housing have escalated their strikes for better pay in Knowsley.
The Unite union workers have had years of below inflation pay rises. Hundreds of low paid repair and maintenance workers struck in October, November and January after rejecting a 5 percent pay rise.
But as Livv continues to ignore workers’ demands, workers began a month-long strike on Monday. Over 13,000 homes will be affected, but workers will announce more strike dates if Livv continues to brush them aside.
Over 350 refuse workers in Birmingham are escalating strikes. Earlier this year, the Unite union workers took to the pickets to oppose cuts to the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer role.
Not only would the cuts mean around 150 workers lose up to £8,000 a year, but it would endanger workers.
February strikes began on Tuesday. These are now set to be 12 days rather than four. There will be 13 strike days in March, also up from four.
Health workers set to strike across four Manchester hospitals
Bus workers rejected an offer and came back out
Deadline to accept new conditions approaches
