GMB

Workers at two Remploy sites will strike on 26 January against the semi-privatisation of their factories. Remploy, a government-owned manufacturing company established in 1945 specifically to provide protected employment for disabled workers, has faced a number of attacks – including part-privatisations and sell-offs – in recent years. Now its Chesterfield and Springburn (Glasgow) sites face merger with private orthotics firm Websters to create a new part-private company, R Healthcare. As a result, non-disabled apprentices and shopfloor workers have been taken on with substantially worse pay...

The headline media reports - that is, the story as received by the big majority of public sector workers - are that most unions have accepted the 19 December Government terms on public sector pensions, quit the campaign, and settled down to negotiate fine detail. A closer look at union statements [below] indicates that many unions have not quite accepted the Government terms. That means the sell-out can be stopped. It also means something else, though. Unison, GMB, and Unite signed a joint letter with the local government employers. That seems to be the only document actually signed so far...

Public sector union committees, branches, and workplace groups should call emergency meetings to reject the sell-out on pensions outlined at the TUC public sector group meeting on 19 December. The Government has not shifted a millimetre on any of its three main plans for public sector pensions. [ Click here for the Government's official announcement .] a 3.2 percentage point increase in contributions by 2014/2015: the Government has already announced that the increased contributions will start for teachers and civil servants from April 2012 ; pegging the pension age for public sector employees...

Unilever workers struck for a day on Friday 9 December as part of their battle to defend their pensions. Members of the Unite, GMB and USDAW unions took action, with the strike being reported solid in most Unilever facilities. Unite said that no engineer had gone to work at Unilever’s Burton site, and USDAW reported the strike 100% solid at the Port Sunlight research and development facility. According to workers, management had been bullying and intimidating people into going to work, including by holding meetings threatening people with losing their jobs, particularly construction workers...

A strike by thousands of workers at Unilever (which manufactures well-known food products including Marmite and other household goods) could be the first major set-piece pensions battle in the private sector, after Unite, GMB and USDAW all returned massive majorities for strike action. Workers are attempting to prevent the abolition of their final-salary pension schemes, for both new and existing members. Existing scheme members will retain accrued benefits, but will not receive their full final-salary pensions and will instead be transferred onto career-average pensions on 1 January 2012...

Aviation workers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport will strike on Wednesday 23 November as part of a rolling programme of action which will continue into December. Ground service provider Servisair, which serves airlines including Ryanair and EasyJet, had initially threatened to axe 75 jobs. Although negotiation reduced the figure to 47, the workers’ union – the GMB – has maintained its opposition to any compulsory redundancies whatsoever and will now strike in an attempt to save the jobs. Union members working for Servisair vote 85% in favour of taking strike action and 95% in favour of taking...

GMB, Britain’s third largest union, launched its ballot for strike action on public sector pensions on Monday 31 October. GMB members across three different pensions schemes (local government, civil service and NHS) will be balloted in a vote that close on 16 November. Also balloted will be GMB members working in Parliament, meaning that MPs will be met with picket lines at the House of Commons. The ballot for the parliamentary workers (including catering and security staff) closes on 15 November. In the past months, GMB officials have been most explicit about the need for further action...

A study conducted by the GMB union has revealed that real wages have fallen for 90% of the UK workforce since 2007. The study provides a breakdown of by occupation, and reveals that workers in energy and skilled manufacturing workers such as moulders, core makers and die casters have suffered losses of more than 20%. Company secretaries and printing workers have also seen their wages fall by between 15-20%. • More information: see tinyurl.com/gmbstudy

Unions have set 30 November as the date for another one-day strike against pension cuts. The teaching unions NUT, ATL, and UCU, and the civil service union PCS, have still-valid mandates for action from ballots earlier this year. Unions such as Unison, GMB, the Fire Brigades Union, and teachers’ union NASUWT are now balloting. It is important that the ballots be for discontinuous action (rather than for a single day’s strike); and activists should demand that unions name a date for a further strike now rather than waiting until after the November action. Workers must also start putting in...

By a GMB activist So visible was the Police presence when I turned the corner on to Croydon's high street that you could have been forgiven for thinking a mass protest of thousands was about to march through the town centre. Not so, merely a GMB and Croydon Uncut day of action, comprising of peaceful protest and creative direct action. And what a wonderfully creative and peaceful day it was turning out to be. As I walked down the pedestrianised high streets 'No Cuts' signs had been stuck to the rows of trees lining the street. In a notoriously busy area our group of activists from Croydon...