Defending jobs

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Action should not stop for talks (John Moloney's column)

Our national ballot closed on 7 November. We expect to have the full results by 9 November, ready for the National Executive on Thursday 10th. PCS disaggregated the ballot into 214 separate units and we are confident of hitting the thresholds in a significant number of areas, including major government departments where workers have particular leverage. Our National Executive will further meet on 18 November to discuss proposals for action. In the week between getting the results and the 18 Nov meeting, the union will write to the Cabinet Office to reiterate our demands put in the ballot: a 10...

Reinstate Freedman and Khiabany!

Sign the open letter here Since the beginning of April, the University and College Union (UCU) at Goldsmiths University of London has been engaged in a marking and assessment boycott, continuing an academic-year-long fight to stop the compulsory redundancies of 20 members of staff and a damaging restructure. In response to the boycott, the Senior Management Team (SMT) introduced Exceptional Academic Regulations (EARs), which removed academic oversight, and the use of incomplete sets of marks to progress and graduate students on a formal but provisional basis. This move is not in the interests...

Jobcentre workers demonstrate against fixed-term sackings

On Friday 10 June jobcentre workers in Lewisham (South London) demonstrated against the sacking of fixed-term staff taken on early in the pandemic, with the support of other local trade unionists, Labour Party activists and Labour councillors. They also received a statement of solidarity from Lewisham Deptford MP Vicky Foxcroft, which was read out at the protest at Lewisham town hall. The background is the sluggishness of their union PCS nationally in doing anything to help these mainly young workers oppose thousands of job losses across the country. One of the Lewisham reps, Tom Harris...

A wild move for job cuts in civil service (John Moloney's column)

The announcement that the government plans to cut 91,000 civil service jobs is overtly political. Senior managers in the civil service weren’t even aware of it until the Cabinet decided on it. It’s part of an agitation by right-wing politicians who think that cutting the civil service staffing budget will free up funds for tax cuts, and, more widely, it’s part of an ideological drive by people who want to physically reduce the size of the state. On its own terms, it is an irrational decision that will massively backfire. You can’t get rid of one-fifth of an organisation with any meaningful...

P&O defies jobs protests and law

RMT and Nautilus, unions representing seafarers sacked en masse by P&O Ferries, are continuing protests at ports in Liverpool, Dover, Hull, and Cairnryan in Scotland. A further protest is planned outside the London headquarters of DP World, P&O’s parent company, on Thursday 21 April. One of P&O’s vessels, the Spirit of Britain, was detained after a two-day inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency revealed deficiencies in a number of key safety areas. Several other P&O vessels have been detained recently, which unions say confirms that vessels crewed by inadequately-trained agency...

University disputes: don't postpone!

Delegates from University and College Union (UCU) branches meet on 20 April to debate next steps in the “Four Fights” dispute on pay, equality, casualisation and workload. The dispute has seen thirteen days of strike action since November, but with the mandate expiring after six months, the union was forced to reballot. A parallel reballot was organised in the dispute over cuts to the USS pension scheme, with a special conference on that issue due on 27 April. The reballot saw a drop, for both disputes, in the number of branches reaching the turnout threshold for action. In Four Fights 39...

Goldsmiths starts marking boycott

On Monday 4 April, Goldsmiths University and College Union (UCU) began a marking and assessment boycott as the latest action in their long-running fight against compulsory redundancies at the college. On Friday 8 April the Senior Management Team (SMT) sent out compulsory redundancy notices to 16 members of staff in English, History and Professional Services. This, during a period of talks at ACAS between UCU and the SMT! This is just the first (of three) tranches of job cuts in the college plan. The jobs cut include those of the Goldsmiths UCU Co-President, one of the UCUs Treasurers, and both...

Rail ballot from 26 April

The rail union RMT will ballot members from 26 April to 24 May on action for the following demands: • A substantial increase in the rate of pay • A no-compulsory-redundancy guarantee • No detrimental changes to working practices and terms and conditions. It will be a disaggregated ballot across Network Rail and 15 Train Operating Companies (TOCs), so enabling legal strikes in every area which gets sufficient turnout even if the aggregate turnout is not high enough. Clear, concrete, and ambitious demands will help get ballots over the threshold and engage members in the dispute. The union has...

P&O faces court, but workers still sacked

P&O Ferries faces criminal and civil investigations into its recent summary dismissal of nearly 800 seafarers. The government says it wants the Insolvency Service, which launched the investigations, to consider disqualifying CEO Peter Hebblethwaite from serving as a company director. However, with the announcement that all but one of the sacked workers have signed up to P&O’s severance terms, which include a commitment not to take the company to Employment Tribunal, the prospects for reinstatement for the workers seem to be shrinking. RMT and Nautilus, the unions which organise on P&O, have...

Next steps on pay (John Moloney's column)

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of our union, PCS, will shortly be discussing the next steps in the union’s fight over pay and other cost-of-living issues, on the basis of a full analysis of our recent consultative ballot, broken down to workplace level. The NEC will consider whether to move to a statutory ballot, and if so, over what timescale. Clearly, doing nothing is not an option. The context for the NEC’s discussions is the cost-of-living crisis, which will continue to affect PCS members. It’s vital the union gives a lead and empowers members to fight back. I believe we need to...

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