Strikes and lock-outs

Nearly 1,000 construction workers at a gas plant in Shetland staged a sit-down strike in their workplace canteen on Monday 21 July, over safety concerns. The sit-in also raised a number of long-running grievances, including some workers being deprived travel allowance, inadequate accommodation for non-Shetland-resident workers, and Total and Petrofac’s (the companies which run the plant) refusal to pay workers for a previous 2.5 hour safety stoppage, which workers are legally entitled to undertake if working conditions are unsafe. A further sit-in on 23 July drew in greater numbers, and the...

Tube cleaners who are refusing to use “biometric fingerprinting” machines to book on for shifts remain locked out by their employer, ISS, with the lock out now stretching into its third week. ISS want the machines, which take unique DNA-based data from everyone who uses them, to replace the existing method of booking on using telephones, and have already admitted that the data collected would be shared with the UK Border Agency and the Home Office. One cleaner told Solidarity: “This is a racist attack on a predominantly immigrant workforce.” The locked-out cleaners are using their time to...

After just a single day’s strike over pay by workers local government, education, and the civil service, the press and the Tories are on the offensive against unions, highlighting the low turnouts in ballots, and pushing for new anti-union legislation. We are right to highlight the hypocrisy of these calls coming from a government elected by a minority of voters with low turnouts in many constituencies, but in our own movement, we cannot be complacent. We have to honestly assess how we are organising for action and how best it can win. Turnouts and getting strong “yes” votes for industrial...

Public sector union Unison has confirmed it will ballot its 300,000 health sector members from 28 August to 18 September for strikes against the “1% or increment” offer from the employers (which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt believes is already too high!). Unite, GMB, and the Royal College of Midwives have also announced they will ballot for strikes. If the ballots return a yes vote, they create the potential for a coordinated mass strike on 28 September (the date Unison has announced for its next local government strike, and in which the other public-sector unions which struck on 10 July could...

Student debt explodes: HE, FE (Daisy Forest, Ed Whitby) Out Proud and Organising (Daisy Forest) Diary of a tubeworker: Phew, what a sell out! Troops used against firefighters dispute (Chris Jones) The rail sell out Strike against casual labour Defeated council plans library closure To download PDF click here

Union negotiators for lecturers at Lambeth College have failed to reach an agreement. Management have failed to show any movement on proposed new contracts which would see increases in hours, cuts in pay, reduced holidays and cuts in sickness entitlement. However workers ended their strike on Wednesday 9 July, committed to working during enrolment, and have agreed to re-ballot for further industrial action in the autumn. • Lambeth College Strike

The individual members’ ballot in the election for the new General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers’ union (RMT) begins on Monday 21 July, after a period of branch nominations. RMT members face serious industrial and political challenges. Significant staffing cuts are threatened in the railway industry, the union’s largest industrial sector, as bosses implement the recommendations of the McNulty Report, commissioned by Labour and completed by the Tories. Some train companies are pushing for “driver-only-operation”, scrapping the guard grade altogether, and companies like...

10 July saw the biggest strike in Britain since the 30 November 2011 pensions strike. The strike, which involved hundreds of thousands of teachers, council workers, civil servants, fire fighters, and other public sector staff, shut down schools and local government services across the country. Workers’ Liberty members participating in the strike sent reports to Solidarity . In Leeds, activists say the number of pickets matched the levels of the 2011 strike. Around 4,000 attended a city centre rally. 65% of schools in Newcastle were closed to pupils, with almost all council facilities shut...

Firefighters in England and Wales began strike action on eight consecutive days this week, in an increasingly acrimonious and protracted battle over pensions. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has organised strikes from 6 until 8 in the morning and 5 and 7 in the evening from Monday to Thursday, and on Monday week. Friday’s strikes are 6-8am and then 11pm-1am. On Saturday the strikes are 11am-1pm and 11pm-1am. On Sunday they are 5-7pm. The union also commences action short of a strike from 7pm on 21 July. The FBU said it called the extended action because the government is merely ploughing ahead...

Power control workers on London Underground began an eight-day strike on Tuesday 1 July. Workers are resisting attacks on terms and conditions, and want conditions for formerly-outsourced workers to be levelled-up. Members of the RMT, TSSA, and Unite unions are participating in the strike. London Underground station staff are also discussing the possibility of taking further action in their ongoing jobs dispute, as talks have found LU bosses desperate to weasel out of a commitment they made not to cut pay for workers affected by their planned reorganisation of the staffing model. The RMT union...