NHS workers in fight for pay

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More than 300 nurses and nursing assistants in East Sussex and North East Essex are voting to strike

A rally of ESNEFT workers in May this year (Image: @UnisonEastern Twitter)

Poorly paid health workers in England are determined to keep striking – despite pressure from the new Labor government to call them off.

Thousands of nurses and nursing assistants are calling for them to be re-classified from NHS band 2 to band 3. This, they insist, reflects the clinical work they do in addition to personal patient care.

Unison union members across the country have already won several key battles over the issue. Most trusts now accept the principle of regrouping, but are fighting over how many years of back pay workers will get.

Unison’s top wins have resulted in back pay over the past five years, with a payout totaling thousands for some long-serving workers.

Hundreds of nurses at five hospitals in Leicester and Northamptonshire struck last week after rejecting a weak offer from management.

They stood with junior doctors on strike just days before the general election. And new groups of workers are entering the fray all the time.

More than 300 East Suffolk and North Essex NHS workers voted to strike last week. They could soon be joined by thousands of cleaners, porters and housekeepers after trust bosses threatened to privatize their services.

Sign their petition to end outsourcing at tinyurl.com/ESNEFTpetition

Almost 300 porters, cleaners and catering workers at Sherwood Forest hospital trust in Nottinghamshire began a five-day strike on Monday this week.

Members of the GMB union are employed by Medirest, a private contractor for the NHS.

Workers are furious because bosses have refused to keep terms and conditions in line with those of the NHS, creating a two-tier workforce.

Strikers will walk out at King’s Mill, Mansfield Community and Newark Community hospitals.

By Yuri Prasad

Trust the UCU union workers’ strike in a long-running struggle

Almost 200 workers employed by the UCU union are stepping up their strike in protest at their management’s working practices.

The Unite union represents UCU staff and they have voted on the complete breakdown of industrial relations and the unreasonable approach taken by their employer to negotiations.

United members voted overwhelmingly to strike. Workers then went on strike on Monday and Wednesday last week.

They were also scheduled to strike on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Unite regional officer Rose Keeping said: “The UCU’s undermining of existing industrial recognition agreements, failure to agree key working principles and heavy-handed use of disciplinary procedures have left our members with no choice but to to strike.

“Our members employed at UCU will receive the full support of Unite.”

Barnet social workers stand firm against strikes

Adult mental health social workers in Barnet started the week on day 77 of their strike, with their final five days of action planned until Friday this week.

Strikers gathered outside Hendon Town Hall on Tuesday night against the North London Labor Council’s release of strike action.

After striking for 27 days between September and February, the strikers walked out for two weeks in April. They then organized three weeks of action in May and planned four in June and July.

But they escalated and have been out continuously since May 13. Strikers in the Unison union want the council to give them higher recruitment and retention pay.

Yet shamefully the council refuses to acknowledge that there is a retention problem.

Barnet Unison said: “In recent weeks Labour-controlled Barnet Council has paid for a recruitment agency to provide social workers to carry out the work that our strikers would have done had they not been on strike .

“Unison believes this is a strike. Barnet council’s actions to use conservative tactics and anti-union laws to strike is an attack on the trade union movement.

“It provides cover for other employers to use the same tactics to break other strikes.”

Almost half of the tractor strikers reject the wage deal

Workers have narrowly voted to end strikes by more than 500 workers at CNH Industrial’s Basildon tractor plant in Essex.

But 46% of Unite union members voted against the offer. Unite previously called off planned action while strikers vote on the 5% offer.

In 2022, bosses agreed to pay the rate of an annual average of CPI inflation, which stands at 7.4% for 2024.

But they gave 4% for the CPI inflation rate in January 2024, rather than as an average for the entire previous year.

And they want the 2025 pay rise to be based only on December 2024. Unite made no recommendation on the offer, but the close result shows how many in the workplace wanted to fight for what was theirs.

About 90 workers also had their line allowance withdrawn. Unite sent a petition to the company’s headquarters in Italy about the bullying culture and another petition to the factory manager to review pay grades for the first time in 30 years.

But action is the best way to get bosses to listen. Those who wanted to continue fighting should be ready to leave again if conditions continue to deteriorate.

One striker said: “A lot of people thought it wasn’t much of a choice because of how much salary they would sacrifice in the short term and the company continued to be tougher on them.”

Unite should have given them the confidence to continue.

Eurostar workers have won Olympic gold

Eurostar workers in the RMT union won improved pay after negotiations and suspended their strike vote.

The rail company has agreed to significantly improve bonus payments for staff working during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

Eurostar will now offer a one-off payment of at least £650 to eligible employees, replacing the shift-based system.

The strike vote at Cammell Laird

Hundreds of members of the GMB and Unite union at Merseyside shipbuilders Cammell Laird began a strike ballot this week.

It follows management suspending seven workers after 450 people refused to cross the RMT union picket line during a June 25 strike.

Voting is scheduled to end on August 5.

Re-bulletin EIS to renew payment action

Scottish college workers are continuing their re-vote to renew their strike mandate in a long-running pay battle. Voting will end on July 22.

The EIS union said it “could be the most important vote members will cast this summer”.

It said: “This is the only means of continuing to put pressure on both the Scottish employer college and the Scottish Government.”

Tram engineers win pay deal

London Trams engineers have ended their strike after agreeing a new deal.

Workers who are members of the Unite union have been angered by the pay gap between them and colleagues on the London Underground who perform the same role.

The new offer from Transport for London will see an increase of up to 20% in engineering grades of London’s trams.

Five days of strikes planned last week and starting this Thursday were called off after workers accepted the deal.

Workers who refuse can cause a marginal odors

Waste services workers in 13 Scottish councils have voted to strike. Members of the GMB union could strike during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which takes place in August.

The unions submitted their demands for payment in January this year — Cosla, the Scottish local authority convention, made an offer in May which was promptly rejected.