Union news in brief: Unison LG, First Buses, Karen Reissman

Submitted by Anon on 12 September, 2008 - 11:42

UNISON: activists in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are angered by news from the national office on progress on pay negotiations.

Scottish Unison stated they are preparing for further action; they oppose multi-year deals, and state that "talks are welcome but not a means in themselves", Unison in England and Wales thinks differently.

Members are told that Unison wants to resolve this dispute as soon as possible, but that the framework for talks is until end of December

We have gone into open ended discussions, calling off all action for negotiations, with the employers putting nothing on the table in advance.

Anyone with common sense would realise that as every week passes without action, the employers know our resolve will weaken, and their ability to force us to accept an under-inflation deal will strengthen.

We in Unison allowed this to happen. The left allowed this to happen. The majority of the left did not debate how to hold the leadership to account, or how to win this dispute. Just calling for more all-out action, or saying “wait until October when we can unite with others”, isn’t a strategy. The lack of a real rank and file mechanism for bringing together local government activists across unions, branches and regions has helped the "leadership" get away with this.

Some of us in Workers’ Liberty, and with support from other activists helped initiate a local government activists’ email group (See tinyurl.com/6ku36x to join), but this is still very small. This and other attempts to share reports from branches, not just of action, but issues linked to single status results or negotiations, can influence how we fight over pay.

The consultations over pay show that the leadership has little understanding of what’s going on in branches. Meanwhile the response in Scotland — on paper at least — shows a very different story.

Arguing for and mobilising for joint action is our best strategy. Ensuring we challenge the leadership, and using this to build a cross-branch, cross-region rank and file is vital.

We should challenge the leadership to:

• pull out of negotiations and call action, selective or otherwise, alongside other unions;

• this should include: closing schools alongside the NUT, depots and street cleaning alongside the GMB;

• meet now in a high profile manner with other unions in dispute with the message that we will coordinate action;

• call open activists’ meetings in regions to build local protests and lobbies of MPs;

• reject multi-year deals.

We need a bit of imagination about what we could practically contribute to joint public action. Unison is still one of the biggest unions in Britain, and local government is a significant workforce. We shouldn’t allow the mis-leadership to continue.

UNISON local government worker

FIRST CENTREWEST BUS DRIVERS are set to take a further 48 hours strike action starting 3am this Friday, 12 September, following a solid strike day two weeks ago. An overwhelming vote by Metrobus drivers will see garages in Croydon, Orpington and Crawley join the action.

Unite the union, which represents London's 28,000 bus drivers, submitted a London-wide pay claim of £30,000 in March, to redress discrepancies in pay of up to £6000 between different companies. This is understood as a strategic step towards a fight for re-nationalisation.

However it seems that First Capital East drivers, who took action last time, are no longer in the picture! And the prospect of Metroline, Arriva North and South joining this week seems unlikely, potentially squandering another year of opportunity, when drivers seem convinced of the need to go on the offensive at a time of economic hardship.

The union may have turned a corner from its overtly corrupt conduct in recent years, but a democratic union culture is some way off. These percentage point pay disputes are set by officials, and drivers are expected to rally behind them with no input into the planning of the dispute.

Active rank-and-file participation over a range of local demands on rosters and conditions, combined with a unifying London-wide strategy, with proper co-ordination among accountable and recallable reps, is the way forward, in what has the potential to be one the most significant fronts in the class struggle.

Robin Sivapalan

DEFEND KAREN REISSMAN: Karen Reissman, the trade unionist and nurse sacked by Manchester Mental Health trust for speaking to the press about privatisation of services, has had her tribunal postponed until December.

On the eve of the date due for the ET and following developments in the negotiations between Karen and the Trust, UNISON, Karen’s union, withdrew support for her case, despite an initial pledge to support her throughout the process.

This case has never been about financial compensation. Karen has stood out for the right of workers to speak out publicly against cuts and privatisation and for trade unionists to do their job without fear of persecution from employers. The campaign in defence of Karen has demanded her job back and raised the broader issue of the lack of legal right to this for trade unionists. The legal route would never have been enough to win this case, and the strong industrial action that started the campaign last year was always the key.

The recent resignation of the chief executive who sacked Karen has shown the pressure that the campaign had been able to build. It is a sad shame that despite this the leadership of UNISON are unwilling to make a stand on something as basic as the right of a trade unionist to go public on the disarray in the NHS. This sends a dangerous message to other NHS employers.

The solidarity displayed at the beginning of the campaign now needs to be rebuilt to demand that UNISON reinstate their support before the next tribunal date and to support Karen through the rest of her case.

Any support to Manchester Community and Mental Health UNISON, c/o staff side office, Chorlton House, 70 Manchester Rd, Manchester M21 9UN.

A Unison health worker

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