Archived forum thread for discussion of the struggles over cost of living pay increases in the public sector in 2008.
Thread for discussion and updates of public sector pay disputes in 2008, mainly around the annual cost-of-living pay rises, which the government is trying to cap at 2% while inflation is 4.2%.
Coverage on libcom:
http://libcom.org/tags/pay-2008
Related threads:
http://libcom.org/forums/organise/making-pay-claim-2008-14122007
http://libcom.org/forums/organise/local-government-pay-disputes-15022008
last year's thread:
http://libcom.org/forums/organise/uk-public-sector-pay-dispute-nurses-local-gov-civil-service-post-office-etc
Comments
Joint NUT/UNISON action now off as UNISON have fucked the strike ballot timetable:
http://libcom.org/news/council-workers-vote-action-22052008
we got our strike vote! word on the street is the Industrial Action Committee will approve it this time:
http://libcom.org/news/local-government-workers-strike-over-pay-23062008
strike will be 2 days 16-17 july
Unite council workers also due to strike the same day, extra 40,000 people:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91bcc5cc-43e8-11dd-842e-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
PCS already has a postive ballot for strike action in some departments, and Serwotka's saying they might go out on the same day. Likely.
http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/2008-06-30-Civil-servants-set-to-join-council-workers-in-national-strike-action
fuckin a! I've been rallying people the past few days, got meetings about the strike organised for thursday. responses mostly positive. Some people a bit scared about losing 2 days pay, but looking solid...
Council workers in Scotland also being balloted now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7482675.stm
Sellafield is being balloted: http://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/latest-north-west-news/Sellafield-workers-to-vote-on.4231713.jp
Steven, Catch, et al....have you discussed the possibility of a new look (and hopefully renamed) Dispatch for these strikes?
Alf, yes.
HSE staff going to work to rule, overtime ban, withdrawal of good will over a relocation:
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5goWKZSI5gVgmrwoh_iIX9sqiR10g
Ok, let us know what you decide.
We have produced the front page of the new World Revolution in PDF format which can be downloaded as a leaflet:
http://en.internationalism.org/files/en/wr316-united-struggle-needed.pdf
BBC bosses get pay rises in the region of 33% while staff pay is capped at 2% - but it's ok because they're based on similar rises at the Royal Mail, Network Rail and the private sector, and they have to remain 'competitive.'
So 'competitive' means 'massive pay rise' if you're rich already, and 'work longer for less to compete with chinese sweatshop workers' if you're not. I see.
Looks like FE lecturers will be asked to accept 3.2% following strikes:
Argos are going out on the 17th and 24th July. Then a staggered four day strike on the 30th (each depot for four days, but staggered starts, so a total of six days)
http://www.tgwu.org.uk/Templates/News.asp?NodeID=94411&int1stParentNodeID=42438&int2ndParentNodeID=89396&Action=Display
strikes looking ok in my dept so far... looking forward to it
my hand is actually on the front page of the unison site at the moment, ha ha
Fair pay?
What's that?
Alf, as we both know, wages are the cost of reproduction of labour power. Fair pay would then be the full cost of reproduction of the worker. It's quite fundamental to Marx's arguments in Capital that wages are fair, an equal exchange, and that the exploitation of labour power occurs within the productive process, after the exchange of equivalents has taken place.
That's true, but it didn't prevent Marx from attacking the slogan 'a fair days work for a fair day's pay' as a 'conservative motto'. I don't think we should use slogans which hide the process of exploitation. The idea of 'fairness' clearly does this which is why I don't think you'll find it in Marx.
Unison fucked up a notification in Tyneside so a bunch of people can't strike. Reminiscent of the CWU last year when a whole bunch of places were excluded from some of the rolling strikes and had to do different days. What's interesting is the angry quotes from the local rag complaining about the back down:
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Union-blunder-bars-staff-from.4280062.jp
The feeling I get from my FE colleagues is that they are very pissed off with rising prices and some of them who had never been on a demonstration before took part in a march through the city centre. I'd say UCU is very worried that if it goes to a ballot then the 3.2% offer would be rejected. Hence the emergency conference and branch meetings to gauge the situation and manage the outcome. I wouldn't be suprised if it went either way.
Our Principal has already given us 3% from August regardless of what happens, and was very confused about why staff were taking strike action in support of a national pay claim. Then on the *very last* day of term, when most staff were in the pub enjoying a liquid lunch, the HR department sent an e-mail announcing the opening of a 'voluntary redundancy scheme'. The government funding (via the LSC) for huge amounts of 'in college' provision has been slashed, which will mean we'll be turning away thousands of applicants in the autumn and pointing them in the direction of the Job Centre. Watch the unemployment figures rise in the autumn...
It's getting much easier for workers to see the connections between the cuts in state spending leading to low increases in pay which are being eaten up by inflation. Who said education was a good place to be during a recession?!?!
B.
apparently this has happened in a few places. a side effect of the anti-union laws.
I've spoken to a few people at some of the council run places I've been to, half of them knew nothing about it. Apparently care homes are "exempt" from all of this anyway, which is unfortunate, but it'd hard to get around the fact that if nobody's working, a lot of our residents would starve to death or have a serious accident, slow downs aren't really an option either.
The important thing thing being the exact political ramifications of the slogans on Unison placards
But surely these are political slogans that are carefully selected by the unions? At one level the Unison slogan reinforces the illusion that capitalism can be reformed to give workers 'fair pay'. It also hides the 'unfairness' of workers being exploited, of having surplus labour extracted. It's the appropriation of unpaid labour that's the problem, which only the abolition of the wages system can overcome. Surely that's what we should be pointing out to our co-workers?
I also noticed that there is a 'day of protest' in the NHS on Friday:
http://www.amicustheunion.org/default.aspx?page=8614
FInally, with inflation today jumping to 3.8%, if FE staff accept the 3.2% offer from the AoC then that's already a 0.6% pay cut, and with inflation surely to be higher in the autumn this differential will increase. Even FE lecturers should be able to do the maths on that one!
I don't think it's as sinister as all that, trade unions are not revolutionary organisations, so they're obviously not going to produce placards that call for the overthrow of capitalism. In any case, of all the shitty things Unison does, coming up with slogans that don't account for a Marxist critique of wage labour is not the worst.
Kind of difficult to fit on a placard though
So on strike for two days tomorrow and picketing the Town Hall. Unison notices etc out very late but did arrive.
I have struggled to win anyone of the 'non union' fellow workers over on solidariy grounds, they are sympathetic but not suprisingly sceptical about our abillity to win, especially with the likes of Unison.
I am also hearing stories of 'cock ups' over notices to some of the newly formed 'housing Co's' which have taken Council Stock but still have workers on Council contracts (though they are in a minority in many cases).
Still trying to find out more about the wages rounds in these new Co's. Many workers actually got better deals when these were first set up but I'm sure 'divide and rule' will come even more into it's own as the current economic downturn takes effect.
I am going to try and dig out more info' on this issue. You get nothing from Unison so have to do a bit of my own research.
Funnily enough on the subject of "fair pay" the cheif executive of Lewisham council, possibly the country's weakest unison branch, sent out a patronising notice to all their staff saying the offer was "fair". Of course for him it probably is- 2.45% of a six figure sum is fairly tasty. He added that the lowest grades would all get £100 extra a year - which will probably just about cover the increase in council tax, let alone the other price rises.
Regards,
Martin
Engels proposed this alternative (apologies for long quote, but it is actually quite a short article):
Whilst at any particular point in time an increase or decrease in the likes of income tax will affect workers wage level, in the longer run it would be more accurate to say that in Marxian terms that taxes are essentially on rents and profits rather than wages and that most tax issues are essentially matters of dispute between different sections of the ruling class.
But back to the strike.
It looks like a lot of services in Manchester -Social Services, Libraries, Housing benefits etc were closed today but with only very small pickets viseable.
My stint on the morning Town Hall picket I have to say was pretty demoralising. It was small, made up mostly of the regular Union officials and a handful of lefties. I didn't see hundreds going into work but lots of workers, union members and non union members,did cross the picket line with very few bothering to stop and argue.
I have to say that in the area I work in it was non union members who showed the least understanding of the issues and the least sense of the need for solidarity. In this sense at least, whilst union membership guarantees nothing in itself (and the unions have operated in their usual divisive way) the drop in union membership in some areas does seem to reflect a a general lessening in basic class awareness.
No rallies or meetings organised by anyone as far as I am aware and few opportunities so far to distribute any more radical leaflets. We will see what tomorrow brings.
I would be interested to get feedback from others over the two days strike in other areas.
my first day mixed but good, will post proper update friday.
jack's was excellent! he'll post too...
I wasn't on strike (UCU - who probably won't be on strike until next year, and Unison workers at my job weren't included in the strike action), but popped out to Lincoln Inn Fields/Holborn on my lunch break for the Unison rally/march. Met up with Ed, Steven. and Alf, and handed out some Tea Breaks. Wasn't that many people there - somewhere between 800 - 2000, and at least 50 were lefties of one sort or another. I spotted SWP, SP, Workers Power, Permanent Revolution, NewsLine probably a couple of others. A fair few contingents from Unison locals (and one NUT), so quite weighted towards left groups and union activists. Tea Break was well received - even got asked for a copy due to the name, but the high ratio of lefties to normal people made me feel dirty... I did a bit of the march, then had to go back to work - so not sure how the rally at the end was.