I hear that UNISON's National Joint Council Committee has agreed to proceed with a strike ballot rather than recommend acceptance of the employers' (slightly) improved offer of 2.475% (with 3.4% for those on the lowest point of the pay spine).
If this decision gets the support of the Industrial Action Committee - which it should as it is in line with the policies of Local Government and National Delegate Conference - we could see national strike action in the autumn.
The GMB are holding a delegate meeting on Thursday to consult on the pay offer and have suspended preparations for industrial action in the mean time.
I'll post more information when it is to hand.
Update - the Industrial Action Committee will be meeting soon (I hope it will be next week in Brighton) and a strike ballot in the autumn could see strike action in mid November.
UNISON branches and activists need to prepare our members for the likelihood of strike action.
Membership lists need to be as up to date as possible - particularly the addresses!
We need to recruit all the non-members we can so they don't cross our picket lines (agency workers can join the union too - and any one who is a human being can respect a picket line!)
We need to put a bit of money aside from our inadequate salaries in September and October so we can stand the deductions for strike action when they begin to hit us later in the year.
This will not be an easy fight but it is a very important one.
The NJC decision took a wise decision (by a wide margin) and now we need to knuckle down and get on with the hard work of winning the ballot and then winning the strike.
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3 comments:
Hi
I see that the 3.4% offer is described as a "breakthrough" for the lowest paid on UNISON's website.
However do you know how many people are on the lowest point on the pay scale? I suspect that the numbers are very low...
Anyway I reckon it's a sad day when an offer which amounts to a real terms pay cut is described by our union as a breakthrough!
Regards
Cameron
UNISON member
Sandwell
Hi
I see that the 3.4% offer is described as a "breakthrough" for the lowest paid on UNISON's website.
However do you know how many people are on the lowest point on the pay scale? I suspect that the numbers are very low...
Anyway I reckon it's a sad day when an offer which amounts to a real terms pay cut is described by our union as a breakthrough!
Regards
Cameron
UNISON member
Sandwell
Congratulations to members of the National Local Govt Committee for this decisive vote, despite clear pressure from the bureaucracy to accept the offer. Sadly I see that it was only the delegates from the NW, the biggest and strongest region of the union, that wanted to accept the offer. This was certainly not based on any consultation, but shows that our regional leadership can be relied upon to back up the national bureaucrats at key times. No doubt the result of all this will be an intensification of the witch-hunt of the left in the union.
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