Trade unionists and campaigners were set to join a lobby on Wednesday to defend Ameen Hadi (pictured centre in baseball cap) and the Salford Unison union branch in Greater Manchester. Council bosses suspended Ameen after a smear campaign from the far right, including Nazi Tommy Robinson.
Activists in the Unison union are gearing up for a strike ballot of council and school support workers.
Unison is set to launch the ballot on 9 July in England and Wales after it rejected the Labour government’s paltry pay offer of 3.3 percent.
The union says it is “balloting members in strategically targeted employers”, but is still due to release a list.
But activists are already organising for the pay fight.
Ameen is the Unison union branch equalities officer at Salford City Council in Greater Manchester.
He told Socialist Worker, “I put a motion to my branch and around 15 to 20 reps backed it.
“The point was to get people thinking about it and to put pressure on the union to organise for a national fightback on pay.
“The pay ballot opens in July so we’re going to be organising a pay rally before it starts, and we’ll be seeking support from our local MPs, mayor and local councillors.”
The motion committed the branch to arrange meetings in every workplace possible and to set up a strike campaign committee open to all
members.
The union’s pay claim for local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was submitted in December.
It demanded an increase of at least £3,000 or 10 percent, whichever is greater, on every pay point.
The claim also called for a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour for all workers, a two‑hour reduction in the working week and an increase of one day annual leave.
Ameen said, “We’ve had 15 years of real terms pay cuts—almost 30 percent of our pay has been lost.
“People are working longer days already and there are huge staffing issues.
“There are council workers using food banks—that’s how bad things are. People are really angry about the pay offer—3.3 percent is nothing.”
Ameen argued that trade unionists can’t treat this ballot like a routine exercise. “People have been suffering for years—and I think some believe that the union bureaucracy isn’t going to do anything,” he explained.
“But we as members have to push it to do something.
“Unions need to turn it into a serious campaign that can mobilise workers on the ground and prepare for strikes.
“What happens if we don’t fight back is that things will only get worse.”
Union leaders must argue for mass meetings, workplace rallies and visible campaigning to drive up turnout and confidence.
Local government workers face the same attacks nationwide, and they need a national response.
This ballot should be the starting point for a national fight over who pays for the crisis—and workers must refuse to pay any longer.
The significance is far wider than Unison, local government or schools.
Millions of working class people across Britain face a social emergency amid the shock waves from Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
Inflation fell slightly last week—but that is only because the energy price cap was set before the war began.
On 1 July energy prices will go up—and come autumn, inflation is likely to be much higher.
The trade union movement has to meet this challenge by organising for strikes this autumn.
Are you a Unison union member? Then you should vote for Liz Wheatley in the by-election to the union’s national executive committee (NEC).
Voting in the by-election to the local government women’s seat runs until Friday.
Liz, who’s the branch secretary of Camden Unison in north London, is standing as part of the Time For Real Change left wing grouping in the union.
She told Socialist Worker, “I’m standing because I think Unison can and should be a union that fights austerity, stands up for working class people, and opposes racism, discrimination and bigotry.
“Since I’ve been branch secretary for Camden Unison, I’ve put those principles, and those aims, into practice.
“I’ve helped organise traffic wardens, mainly migrant workers employed by a private company, to win huge pay rises.
“In the last dispute, they were on indefinite strike which won them a £5,000 pay increase. We currently have two strikes in schools in Camden, where teaching assistants are fighting for pay. We know we can win this fight.”
Liz said that she would campaign on the NEC for local and national action to resist any attacks on conditions or pay.
“We now face a government dead set on continuing with austerity, and that puts warfare before welfare,” she said.
“And we face Reform UK councils that want to attack our union.
“This makes the pay ballot in local government really important.”
Liz has a proven track record of fighting racism and standing in solidarity with Palestine.
“It was really great to march with my branch and other Unison branches on 16 May against the far right and to oppose the genocide in Gaza,” she said.
“I’ve campaigned for years for divestment of our pension funds in favour of ethical investment.”
Around 400 workers at Britain’s biggest exam board struck last week to demand pay restoration.
Unison union members at AQA walked out last Thursday and Friday across sites in Manchester, Milton Keynes and Guildford.
Laura, an AQA worker in Manchester, told Socialist Worker that her branch organised a rally and invited other unions and local councillors to show solidarity.
“We had over 80 people at the event,” she said.
“There were lots of trade unionists and activists there—including Manchester Trades Council, Unite North West, UCU branches and the Defend Ameen and Salford City Unison campaign.”
AQA workers have taken action short of a strike since 12 May—meaning they have not undertaken weekend work, overtime or been on call.
Laura said, “The summer is our busiest time of the year and it relies on a lot of overtime to get the exams processed.
“We’re not stopping there—we want to escalate and have more strike days to keep up the pressure.”
Unison is set to announce more strikes soon.
GP surgeries across Britain could move towards a public‑private hybrid model that would mean they are more like dentists in how they are run.
A motion passed at this month’s conference of UK Local Medical Committees—which represent GPs in the BMA union—called for contracts that allow GPs to provide private services.
It resolved to ballot the profession on offering “a means-tested, subscription‑based service, such as those being offered currently by NHS dentists”.
GP services are at breaking point and some doctors say the hybrid model is the “only option for the future”.
GPs are not employed by the NHS because Labour caved in to right wing pressure from the BMA in 1948.
GP Danny told Socialist Worker, the conference vote comes from “exasperation” among doctors as they “have been banging their heads against a wall in a persistently underfunded system”.
But he added that it will “inevitably lead to a two-tier healthcare system”.
All GPs should be salaried workers within a properly funded NHS. The BMA plan would instead be a step towards a system where patients pay.
Workers at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) are set to strike for the first time in the organisation’s history.
The Unite union members plan to walk out on Wednesday and Thursday of next week and on 9-11 and 15-18 June at sites in Sutton in south London and Chelsea in west London.
The ICR does world‑leading research and has hundreds of millions in cash reserves. Its CEO is paid £400,000 per year.
Yet pay has fallen behind inflation for years.
The workers have been offered a 3.75 percent pay increase in the middle of a cost of living crisis and when many earn barely above the £14.80 London Living Wage.
Around 500 workers at Cambridge University began a four-day strike on Tuesday in a fight over pay.
The Unite union members struck this month and last month to demand “Cambridge Weighting”, which would boost their pay to reflect the higher cost of living in the city.
Striker Anna told Socialist Worker, “If you compare the job pages of Cambridge and Oxford universities, there are real differences in the wages on offer.
“That’s because of the Oxford weighting. Their starting salaries are £1,730 more.”
Anna explained that the workers—including library, student support and IT workers among others—have been hit hard by the cost of living crisis. “They live outside of the city, because it’s become so unaffordable,” she said. “They have much longer travel times to get in and now they’re being hit by the price of petrol.”
The workers have already forced the university back to the negotiating table, with a meeting scheduled for early June.
Strikes are building the union. Anna said, “Lots of people who work at the university aren’t in a union. But I heard the other day that at least 60 have joined since the start of our strike.”
They’ve had support from students at the university as well as members of the UCU union.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham visited the striking workers last week, and slammed the university for claiming to be too
cash-strapped to cough up.
The university’s net assets totalled £8.26 million in 2025. And its endowment tops out at more than £4.5 billion.
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