Union solidarity round-up: 22 to 28 June

At PCS, a massive win over new government commitment to insource around 2,000 members, significantly improving their pay and conditions while also improving taxpayers’ value for money. The workers who are on facilities management contracts managed by the Government Property Agency will be brought back into the civil service. PCS General Secretary, Fran Heathcote said: 

“This is a huge victory for members and a clear vindication of our campaign for insourcing. For too long, outsourced workers have faced lower pay, poorer conditions and been treated as second-class citizens. 

"This achievement demonstrates what can be won through collective action. The Government should now apply the same approach to other outsourced services, including pension administration.”

UK activity

Action short of a strike continues for PCS members at the Civil Aviation Authority (with Prospect), and at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where there is a mandate for further strike action. And members are still balloting at the Department for Education over office closures until 21 July), and at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office over planned 25% job cuts (closing today, 22 June).

More than 1,000 Unite members working as maintenance and repair workers for local government in Bristol, Southwark, Stoke-on-Trent, Newham, Leeds and Babergh and Mid-Suffolk will strike again tomorrow (23) over low pay. Members working as leisure centre staff at Tower Hamlets London Borough Council will take strike action again over unfair contract practices and management bullying, this week on Tuesday 23 and Thursday 25. Unite workers at Walsall Village Hotels continue last week’s action over the employer’s refusal to pay the Living Wage; they will strike on Tuesday 23, Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28, with further dates planned next month. 

Around 300 Unite members working as HGV drivers employed by DHL for Jaguar Land Rover in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Solihull and Widnes remain on strike indefinitely over real-terms pay cuts. And RMT members at Heavy Haul Rail Ltd will take a 48-hour strike action on 25 and 26 June over management’s restructuring plans which threaten redundancies.

Unite members working as biomedical staff working at two Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust sites will strike again this week from Monday 22 to Friday 26; the employer continues to refuse the holiday pay they are entitled to (i.e. calculated from average of total earnings, not on the various shifts worked across different pay periods), even after one worker won a tribunal.

Unite members working as health visitors at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board in south Wales remain on strike until 17 July. Unison members working in critical care at Salford Royal, Royal Oldham and Fairfield Hospital remain on strike since May after Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust announced cuts to overtime pay. And BMA members working as NHS consultants in Norther Ireland will strike on Thursday 25 over a low pay-offer.

NEU members at Woodfield School have strike days every week until the end of term over employer Compass Learning Trust’s attack on the pay of junior teaching staff: this week on Monday 22, Thursday 25, Friday 26. UCU members at at London South Bank University will strike today (22) and Thursday 25 over management plans to tear up contracts, change pensions and open the door to possible redundancies. 

UCU members at Durham University, University of Leicester and University of Nottingham continue action short of a strike. And members at Goldsmiths, University of London continue indefinite strike action (begun 8 June) over redundancies and union busting. 

International

In Uganda, members of a major construction union have won a collective bargaining agreement with the Zhongmei Engineering Group, the Chinese firm contracted by the World Bank for a major road project. The union’s general secretary said the agreement proved that economic growth need not be funded by the loss of workers’ dignity.

In Turkey, teachers in Ankara protesting the loss of employment rights were met with tear gas and police violence. As the state turns over schools to private operators, teachers are losing their legal guarantee to a base salary, leaving them on poverty wages.

And the International Labour Organization has adopted a global convention for the rights of platform workers such as taxi and delivery drivers, care workers and online freelancers. once adopted by governments it will serve to give these workers protections such as fair pay, health and safety, and collective bargaining.