Unison
Mental health workers on strike in support of colleague
Nearly 700 UNISON members in Manchester Community and Mental Health branch went on strike yesterday in support of their colleague Karen Reissman, suspended from work since June.
About half the strikers were on lively picket lines at the four main sites - at Wythenshawe Hospital, Chorlton House (Trust HQ), Manchester Royal Infirmary and North Manchester General Hospital.
Glasgow: Social care workers win strike
Social Care workers who struck for twenty consecutive days in Glasgow returned to work last week having won most of their demands.
The deal will mean most staff move up one grade, "role profile" five to six by August 2008. Around 600 workers were on strike, with support from workers in other sections of the council, all of which were regraded following the "single status" review.
Edinburgh council workers to strike
Council services across Edinburgh are set to grind to a halt after workers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a one-day strike.
The industrial action is set to take place next Thursday, and union leaders said today it will affect services "right across the board". About 8000 Unison members have voted by more than two-to-one in favour of the walk-out in protest at cuts and possible redundancies.
As health workers prepare for ballot, Unison leaders back off
Unison national secretary has angered union activists by demanding that local branches take a position of neutrality on the issue of a below inflation pay offer.
With Unison also preparing to ballot members for strike action over pay on the 20th August, days after 95% Royal College of Nursing members asked to be balloted for strike action, Unison’s leadership have sent a message to all branches demanding that activists take no position on the government’s below inflation pay offer.
UK: Local government workers reject pay cut
The threat of strikes across England, Northern Ireland and Wales has moved closer with Unison's local government workers voting overwhelmingly to reject a below-inflation pay offer of 2%.
In a branch consultation covering all relevant regions, 81% voted to reject the offer, giving a major thumbs-down to the suggested 'pay cut' that a below-inflation 2% pay "increase" would represent.
UNISON education workers accept pay offer
In a UNISON consultation, only four of fifty-three colleges reject 2% and 1% sequenced pay increases. Offer is "not quite bad enough," national officer comments.
Workers in England's further education and sixth form colleges have voted to accept the employers' 2007/8 pay offer.
UNISON's consultation with members saw 53 colleges respond, with only four rejecting the offer of a 2% rise from 1 August 2007 and a further 1% increase from 1 February 2008, applying to all salaries and allowances.
NHS/UNISON health workers disappointed at low pay increase offer
UNISON calls government pay increase "paltry." Improved offer expected; NHS ballot in August-September will determine outcome.
NHS employers and union representatives meet today to discuss a new settlement for health staff in England.
Mike Jackson, UNISON’s lead negotiator, said the unions were hopeful there would be more money on the table.
Anger at cuts as £500m NHS surplus found
Union leaders today reacted angrily to the news that the NHS has underspent by £500m as a result of aggressive cuts imposed by Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary.
Faced with projected deficits for the second year running, NHS trusts were put under pressure to economise by closing wards, laying off staff and delaying patients' operations until the start of the new financial year. A Guardian analysis of health authority figures has revealed the huge surplus.
NHS workers threaten summer strike
A summer of discontent across the NHS in England and Wales was threatened yesterday by Unison, the public service union, in protest at a below-inflation pay increase.
John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday April 24, 2007
From The Guardian
Representatives of the union's 450,000 health workers voted unanimously at their conference in Brighton to ballot for industrial action up to and including strikes.
Hospital cleaners stage walk out
Cleaners and catering staff at a hospital in Neath, Wales, staged a 24-hour strike in protest yesterday at what they say is a decrease in working hours.
Staff at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, contracted by OCS Ltd, say they have been told their hours are to be cut. Officials from trade union Unison said the 140 staff affected are angry and added an independent report recommended hours should in fact be increased. But a spokesperson for OCS denied there had been a cut in working hours.
