Tube strikes are scheduled (Pic: wikimedia commons)
London Underground workers are set to walk out for five days commencing Sunday 7 September in a dispute over pay and conditions.
RMT union reps met with the firm in an attempt to avert strikes, but bosses made no improvement to their offer.
Workers are demanding better pay, and that management tackles issues of fatigue due to extreme shift patterns. They also want real progress on the shorter working week.
Socialist Worker spoke to Sadie, a London Underground worker and RMT union rep.
“We had two ballots,” she said. “One was over pay because we should have had a pay rise in April—and we haven’t. The other ballot was over general conditions.”
Workers want a reduction in the working week to four days. This would address the fatigue that workers are experiencing and the way that affects their health.
Tube bosses have used this issue time and again to try to impose a compressed working week, meaning that the workers work longer hours across fewer days. But the RMT union says that workers want a reduction in working hours without surrendering conditions.
Sadie said that she hopes the strike goes ahead “because the last three times we’ve voted for strike action they’ve been called off”.
“So many people have never been on strike before, people need to get an experience of it, to learn their own power,” she said.
As management has already failed to honour previous agreements, there is a widespread feeling of distrust among the workforce.
“Previous strikes have been called off for very little or no gain, and with vague promises that often didn’t turn into anything.
“There was a lot of anger about strikes being called off before because it was a top-down decision. The workers and reps weren’t consulted.
“If we do get offered a deal before we go out on strike, the RMT negotiators need to consult the workers before calling off the strikes.
“The only way of applying pressure to the company, and having our demands met, is if the strikes are kept on.”
Strikes are set to take place at the same time as a separate dispute over pay and conditions. Workers on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) will also be striking over the same period. This could mean disruption across London.
London’s tube workers generate over £30 million a day for the capital’s economy. But the value of their work is only ever acknowledged when they stop doing it.
Workers are rightfully refusing to stand back while the firm’s top executives get massive payouts while they are being forced to work harder for less.
Healthcare assistants (HCAs) in Blackpool, Lancashire, have voted to strike over pay banding and back pay.
Bosses have for years wrongly placed the several hundred Unison union members in pay band 2, the lowest grade in the NHS.
That’s despite the workers regularly carrying out clinical duties, such as blood taking and ECG tests, which would put them in band 3.
The Trust now recognises its error and has rebanded the HCAs. But many workers are now owed thousands of pounds in back pay that the trust is refusing to pay in full.
Announcing the ballot result, Unison said, “This result reflects the determination and togetherness of the HCA workforce, who have been angered by the persistent inaction of the Trust, who have failed to resolve this escalating dispute despite being given ample opportunity.
“The ball is firmly in the Trust’s court to do the right thing and pay up to ensure that disruption is avoided.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of HCAs employed by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust have also voted to strike over the same issue.
Some 99.4 percent of Unison members there voted for walkouts.
If the Trust does not come back with a better deal on back pay, the union says it will call strikes shortly.
Despite months of negotiations to settle the dispute, a fair offer has still not been put forward.
Durham and Darlington is the fifth trust in the north east to be in dispute with staff over wage banding. Previous disputes have ended with workers winning significant back payments.
Elsewhere, more than 150 hospital workers, including porters, security staff and cleaners, are set to walk out later this month in a dispute over unequal pay and working conditions.
The GMB union members at Airedale NHS Trust in Bradford say they will strike on 12, 15 and 16 September.
As Socialist Worker reported last week, the workers are furious that they do not receive the same pension, holidays and sick pay as other colleagues.
That follows bosses’ decision to outsource them to a wholly-owned subsidiary firm, AGH Solutions.
GMB organiser Joe Wheatley called for “urgent talks”. “The trust claims to value dignity and inclusion yet allows AGHS to treat its workers as second-class citizens,” he said. “It’s time to match words with action and give NHS pay for NHS jobs,” he added.
Pathology workers at laboratories across London are to take industrial action over pay and grading.
Over 800 Unite union members employed by Health Services Laboratory (HSL) are set to strike on Wednesday to Friday this week.
Last year HSL made profits of nearly £100 million.
Workers at the laboratories conduct blood, skin and tissue tests for two London healthcare trusts.
They are furious over grading. They often do the work of senior colleagues without being properly paid.
The privatised service does not follow NHS pay scales and workers earn less money than those directly employed by the NHS.
Pathology workers provide more than 70 percent of all diagnostics in the health service and operations across seven NHS hospitals in north London.
Unite regional officer Mark Boothroyd said, “Our members at HSL are standing up for the health service and simply want the same conditions as their colleagues in the NHS.”
Workers at Newham Centre for Mental Health are striking from Monday to Friday this week after voting unanimously for action.
The Unite union members keep the east London mental health facility going. They are fighting for decent wages.
The strikers are facilities workers including chefs, domestic assistants, porters and maintenance workers. They are employed by a private sector outsourcing company, Grosvenor Facilities Management (GFM).
Despite working in an NHS hospital, the workers earn less than those directly employed by the NHS.
They are demanding to be paid the same as their NHS equivalents. They want a proper sick pay policy and union recognition.
Strikes are set to continue on 15 to 21 September.
PCS union members who administer Civil Service Pensions for MyCSP begin their ninth week on strike in a dispute over union recognition.
The contract to deliver the work transfers from current owners Equiniti to outsourcing firm Capita on 1 December.
Equiniti are insistent that the union has never been recognised at MyCSP. But this is contradicted by the former branch secretary of the Liverpool Home Office branch, where the work was transferred from in 2012.
The latest management wheeze in the dispute is to hold an internal “poll” organised by Equiniti on recognition. This is instead of a legal ballot, in which the union would have a chance to put its case.
In this poll, management alone will decide who takes part and the PCS union has no input in the process. Strikers are also excluded from the poll and there is no independent scrutiny of the result.
One picket described the poll as being “like a Russian election”.
Quite why Equiniti are digging their heels in is open to interpretation, as they lose the contract at the end of November, while the backlog of work piles up.
This is to the detriment not only of the workforce but also of Civil Service Pensioners.
Dave Owens
Workers for the energy regulator Ofgem, who are members of the PCS union, struck over three days last week.
Ofgem is part of the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
It plays an important role in the government’s ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions, as well as protecting consumers from high energy tariffs.
But Ofgem workers earn between 10 and 20 percent less than their DESNZ colleagues.
This grievance is compounded by senior management’s disregard of lower management changing workers’ contracts without proper negotiation and consultation with the union.
PCS members took the serious decision to strike for three days. Their picket lines have been lively with around 15 attendees, and much support from revenue and customs colleagues, who work in the same building.
There were discussions about combining trade union activity between PCS members in the wider civil service.
The strikers make clear their demand that they are taken seriously, reflecting a wider mood of anger within the civil service.
Karen Tyre
Over 1,100 PCS members at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) struck this Monday.
The union plans to follow this up with walkouts, including 170 workers striking between 2 and 25 September.
Action has been timed to coincide with the end of the parliamentary recess. Workers are taking action over office closures, mandatory attendance and recruitment.
Up to 2,000 bus workers at London United and London Transit struck last Friday and this Monday as they fight for better pay.
Around 30 strikers, members of the Unite union, joined the picket line in Hounslow, west London on Monday, and picket lines were held at five other locations.
One striker said, “The company are making millions and they won’t pay us what we are owed. We work really hard with poor conditions.”
On the Hounslow picket line one striker spoke about it being important to press ahead with the next round of strikes, set to take place on 11 to 14 September.
The Unite union members are angry that not all parts of the latest pay offer are being backdated to the pay anniversary date in December. And London United is refusing to reinstate shift work premiums.
Local anti-racists on the picket lines handed out leaflets for Stand Up To Racism’s counter-demonstration against Tommy Robinson on 13 September.
A striker spoke about how they thought Robinson is a “wrong’un”. He has given confidence to protesters outside hotels housing refugees.
Strikers chanted on the picket line and got lots of support from the public. They say if they stick together they can win it.
Jack Do-Rosario
Health workers set to strike across four Manchester hospitals
Bus workers rejected an offer and came back out
Deadline to accept new conditions approaches
