discussion of this article

Tina said…

At Alperton School in the London borough of Brent, strike action closed one of the sites in this split site school. Support for the strike was solid amongst the Unison members with pickets of up to 30 on both days of the strike. NUT members at the school raised over £1000 for the strikers. Many of the workers on strike had never been involved in the union, let alone strike action. The union rep, who herself only took up the post of rep recently, and with no prior experience of union organisation, recruited 14 new members to the union in the weeks running up to the strike. 15 of the strikers attended the rally and spoke of the inspiration they felt by being part a movement that united workers in a collective fightback against government attacks. Again for some of these, mainly low paid women workers, this was a new experience that they would certainly like to repeat again!

Prior to the strike, Alperton had not experienced action on this scale. The feeling of anger over the government’s pay freeze for workers who are already low-paid and suffering the effects of price rises clearly presents the labour movement with an opportunity to go out and start rebuilding rank and file union organisation.

Sat 19, July 2008 @ 09:09

Jason said…

Excellent. Our school sadly didn't close nor have a pciket line but two local ones did close and one other had an enthusiastic picket line which I visited. Overall about half schools closed. I get the impression the strike was patchy but overall quite a good start with schools perhaps being one of the weaker sectors. However, plenty to build on - not least getting an NUT ballot and making sure that NUT, Unison, GMB, Unite, PCS, UCU and other public sector unions such as CWU, RMT, FBU activists link at the rank and file level to start planning actions including defiance of anti-trade union laws and not crossing picket lines!

Sat 19, July 2008 @ 09:26

SteveR said…

in Birmingham, the 'leaders' of the large local Government UNISON branch had spent their time talking down the prospect of 2 days of strike action -

"strike-weariness" is how they put it, as we have had a 1 then a 2 day strike over single status/imposition of disputed contract this year...

one of my points is that we have GAINED from all action taken: "if we went on all-out strike we would soon be rich!"

and earlier in the week it was confirmed that we had won our shift-pay back + back-pay to April 08 (that is, a few hundred care-workers who had had a small gain from single status), which i attribute to the impending strike

anyway, the traditonal rally in city centre wasn't organised, and it seems that 2 weeks before the planned action the local UNISON branch/Unite as well didn't even know what was going to happen for the 2 days

in the end, it was announced at a "strike meeting" on 10th July that there would be a "cavalcade" of cars around the city centre/later amended to cars and bikes

starting with a "meet" at a park with a large-ish car-park in the south of the city. of course, i asked the question of the 'leaders' often and perinently why they thought strikers/supporters wouldn't turn up to a city centre rally which is what we 'usually' do (last time, 24th April we assembled and marched around the city centre which was great) but they WOULD turn up to a 'strange' venue to take part in a quite complicated action with hard-to-spot benefits...

Less than 100 assembled at cannon hill park (opposite to the derelict site of what was BBC Pebble Mill), including 10 cyclists (I'm one!).....

the "cavalcade" was in no way a success, which i can describe but

then to the "Rally" called a "buffet with speeches" at the Tower Ballroom which lots of people i spoke to in the preceding days thought was shut (it WAS shut last year but has evidently 'risen again'!)

There were less than 50 there, and i did count/recount and stay til the end.

everything about it was crap, from the large amounts of processed pig on offer to the lack of even a tea urn (the bar was charging nightclub prices, apparently!)

3 speakers: Chair of UNISON Branch (and Trades Council) chairing with a PCS member [?] and a local UNISON bureaucrat who's also on the NEC. The PCS guy was on about public sector unity when it was the PCS who clearly broke what existed of this over pensions 2 years ago, and he complained that there's no money for public sector pay tho there's plenty for wars (as if the 2 are counterposed!); the UNISON bureaucrat said that the Bank of England "must lower interest rates to create jobs" and "bring about a fair redistribution of wealth"; "those earning more than £100,000pa should be taxed more", so Dave Prentis would just escape unless he has a paper round too or does the odd casual shift in a care home...

the sectarian Respect Renewal crowd were waiting for us as we got to the Ballroom, and did make a small effort to intervene, saying among other un-noteworthy things that TUists should have the opportunity to vote on funding Labour: well, Maggie Thatcher did introduce that as law in the '80s!

for the second day of strike, UNISON/perhaps T&G-Unite recommended picketing your own workplaces til 10 then "take the day off - go shopping or whatever"!

there's more of course, but i am on a late shift soon!

Sat 19, July 2008 @ 10:56

George B said…

This report focuses mainly on the London Borough of Camden, where I work and am the UNISON convenor for a directorate with some 400 members, concentrated mainly at the Town Hall complex. All told the branch has some 3,000 members among direct council employees, though we have seen significant job losses over the last year to 18 months as the Tory/Lib Dem partnership administration enthusiastically implements a cuts programme originally conceived under the former Labour group.

 

More than 120 people had joined the branch in the fortnight immediately prior to the strike days - over four times the usual rate of recruitment during a two-week period. UNISON density is in excess of 50% among those who are directly employed, but the GMB had already swallowed the pay deal and usually refused to honour the strike in most areas. In addition, there are in any given week 1,600-1,800 agency workers in Camden - a picture replicated across most of the London boroughs. All but a handful of these are not unionised.

 

Thankfully, the branch produced and distributed its own publicity a fortnight before the strike days after we had started building for action back in early March with a well attended general meeting. The national publicity arrived only the Friday before the scheduled strikes, though I would have to admit that the union's website was unusually useful.

 

Our ability to hit strategic services is now quite limited in Camden and most of the London boroughs with so many blue-collar services privatised. Overall, the two-day strike in Camden was not effective as the 28 March 2006 walk-out over the attack on the Local Government Pension Scheme, but at the Town Hall complex we did attract pickets more readily than two years ago, at least on the first day of the action. There were also real pockets of strength. At least 16 schools were either entirely or partly shut, including one secondary (Haverstock) and there was a vibrant if ultimately unsuccessful picket line from 5.00 AM at the South Camden Community School, where the majority of support staff remain in the GMB. Nine libraries shut for the duration along with two children's centres.

 

Whatever else the reality of what happened made a mockery of the Council's own propaganda, which claimed "no major disruption to services". As one woman trying to register a birth put it to a Guardian reporter, "It's like a three-ring circus in there."

 

In my own directorate we estimated that 80% of staff were on strike in the Benefits section, where UNISON density remains very high. The figure was reversed in Council Tax, however, where the GMB has retained a significant membership and there has not been a UNISON steward since mid-2006, while the number of stewards in Benefits has fallen from four to two in recent years so not enough to plug the gap. For the first time ever there was strike action by Registrars where UNISON membership has risen from just one a year ago to a majority of the workforce (nine in all). Three of these workers joined the picket line in the latter part of the morning and then went on the central London march. For all three women it was the very first time they had taken part in any strike action and one of them who had been wavering on the Tuesday told me that she had "found the whole experience very empowering".

 

The march attracted 1,000 to 1,500, despite very little (and late) publicity from the regional office. The concluding rally at Friends Meeting House was very flat until PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka spoke and struck a resonant chord with much of the 800-strong gathering. Even he, though, refused to utter a critical word against other elements in the union bureaucracy.

 

Elsewhere in London there was a magnificent display of solidarity by the bulk of NUT members on the first day of the strike at St Paul's Way secondary school in Tower Hamlets as teachers swelled the UNISON picket to 65 people who had a good deal of fun at the expense of self-important deputy headteacher. Tina has already reported on the very encouraging strike days at Alperton School. In Waltham Forest, I know that GMB workers - after initially crossing a UNITE-dominated picket line - had a mass meeting and decided that the bin lorries would not roll out of the depot on day one of the strike.

 

In terms of my personal experiences, one of the most uplifting moments came when UNITE members employed by Veolia, the French multinational which holds the refuse and recycling contracts in Cmaden refused not once, not twice, but three times to cross a picket line at the Town Hall complex and so the rubbish went uncollected on Thursday morning! In addition, one of the cleaners employed by MITIE on another outsourced contract, who joined UNISON only last month, honoured the picket line. Needless to say, we will do our damnedest to protect this young man on a wage of £6.50 an hour should MITIE management lift a finger against him. He certainly put some of our whingeing scabs to shame!

 

Where to now?!? I think it is fairly certain that there won't be any further action until September. There is certainly in the meantime the possibility of the employers making minor concessions and then the bureaucracy trying to sell a deal at or slightly above 3%, though I don't think that the most likely scenario. The message from Darling at No 11, combined with the fact that the Tories now run the employers' umbrella group, suggests to me that there won't be any new money on the table without further strikes. In that context, what happens with the NUT is quite crucial. The reality remains though that UNISON's national leadership (and likewise one suspects for UNITE, which is much, much smaller in local government anyway) is so wed to holding the line for Brown in the run-up to the demise of the New Labour government that we are very unlikely to see a serious and sustained attempt to break the policy of public sector cuts.

 

Now, how do we prove that downbeat assessment wrong in practice?

 

Listen to George's assessment of the first day of the strike here

 

 

 

 

Sat 19, July 2008 @ 11:31

Dan said…

I'm a UNISON rep at Lambeth Council.

Overall a good if tiring two days. My building got about 60% out, which was actually good on previous strikes apparently (about 120 went in out of about 3-350, but some might of worked from home). But a lot of consultants and senior managers in my building so there's always gonna be scabs.

The building over the road (where there is another rep who is in Permanent Revolution) only had 12 out of 150 in and 9 of those were managers. A number of agency staff went on strike in this building showing what can be done once you get enough solidarity going. Indeed one brilliant bit in the strike was when two new workers went into the building and seeing how empty it was thought better of it and came out joined UNISON, joined the picket and went on the London demo. We also have an extremely active rep who is an agency worker and is now the young members officer.

Indeed we got quite a lot of new members in the run up to the strike as well as 3 new stewards. We produced a lot of local posters and leaflets (including using art work from 1968 ;) ) and for future strikes we should make more effort to send stuff to other branches that they can use.

Many of our pickets were very good (postal workers and many delivery drivers refused to cross the picket lines) and the local Lambeth rally (called by Save our Services) on the Thursday had about 100 people and got a good response from the public and quite a few tenants on the rally/march. The rally also had quite a few UCU and NUT members on it and the UCU branch brought their banner along.

Overall I'd say we got about 50-60% out on strike across the borough, but as with Camden we have less strategic strength because of the privatisation of a lot of the blue collar sections. But housing benefits was good with only 38 out of 250 going in to work.

The London wide demo was about 1-2000 and the union bureaucrats were boring and hypocritical (talking about senior managers earning 50k when they earn far more than that). The only one that got a good response was Mark Serwotka who was saying how important it is to link up different union struggles, but as said above he didn't criticise other union leaders which he never seems to do at big meetings.

Can't see an all strike yet but I think there is the spirit for a series of strikes which could put a lot of pressure on Brown. However the big danger is the bureaucracy calling off the whole thing like they did with the pensions dispute and the London Weighting. The best way to stop this is if we can build as much as possible at a local level. In Lambeth we're gonna make a drive to get a steward in every workplace by having a rolling series of meetings.

I might come back later to put some more suggestions up and where we could of done things better but have to be off.

All in all a positive couple of days. Very tiring, and quite emotional at points, but definately something that can be built upon.

Sat 19, July 2008 @ 16:44

Kirstie - Greenwich NUT said…

Greenwich Unison reported that their local office was inundated with new members asking to join leading up to the strike. On the day there was a good turn out from Riverside House, Refuse were solid, as well as many other council departments. Pickets were visable on all the main council offices. After various early starts from various picket lines, over 40 pickets assembled outside Greenwich Town Hall at 10am in Woolwich where Onay Kasab, the Unison secretary and Tim Woodcock, NUT secretary, addressed the strikers. The mood was militant and boyant and we then met in the local pub where tea and sandwiches were put out for the strikers to discuss and plan the next day's pickets. The plan was to join the demo and rally in central london later that afternoon.

Traditionally it has always been a little harder to organise in schools. Support staff are often isolated in small workplaces (over 100 primaries and about 10 secondaries in Greenwich for example). It has also been the case that the GMB have traditionally recruited in schools amongst premises, kitchen and teaching assistants.

Unison did picket at some schools and managed to close 12 schools, all primary schools I suspect. However from my own anecdotal experience, there seems to be a renewed interest amongst support workers in schools to get organised.

In my school, The John Roan School, there has never been any action taken by any of the unions amongst support workers since I joined the school in 2000. During both the London Allowance campaign and the Pensions dispute, none of the support workers took any strike action.

However, after I got talking to some of the Teaching Assistants (TAs) about the planned strike action, one of them decided to call a meeting a few days before the strike and invited Onay Kasab, Greenwich Unison secretary. Over 12 TAs turned up, some of them non unionised or in the GMB. After the meeting many of them joined and one of the new members volunteered to be the rep! While their action didn't shut the school, this represents a real step forward amongst some of the lowest paid workers in our workplace.

I intend to work closely with the new Unison rep, especially over the pay campaign and to make sure that our unity delivers real change for all education workers regardless of grade or status.

The real frustration is with Union leaders in Unison and the NUT who have no stomach for a fight and will do everything to save Brown's back. They are only too willing to sell us down the river for fear that a fight with Labour will usher in a Tory government. The reality however is that the rank and file, while demonstrating it's potential to flex some muscle, may have too little time to build the sort of organisation and political struggle to stop the bureaucrats from doing the dirty on us.

Sun 20, July 2008 @ 00:35

Dave G said…

Last Wednesday the Unison strike at St Paul's Way Community School in Tower Hamlets provided a magnificent display of picket line solidarity. Not only was the strike solid amongst Unison members, but the overwhelming majority of NUT members refused to cross their picket line. At one stage there were 65 people on the picket line!

The picket was loud, lively and inspiring. The Unison members had prepared some wonderful rhyming posters calling for solidarity and warning against scabbing. People approaching the picket line were greeted by catering staff doing a song and dance routine, only if they crossed did cries of “SCAB” ring out. So disarming were their actions that some would-be strike-breakers actually turned back.

This was real unity in action as rank and file NUT members provided practical support to their brothers and sisters in Unison in defiance of official NUT advice (which was to cross Unison's picket lines). The advice was, disgracefully, sent out by the so-called left winger Christine Blower, the union’s acting general secretary. If we are to smash through the government's pay policy, we need to start emulating the union members at St Paul’s Way and start defying our rotten leaderships.

Mon 21, July 2008 @ 14:09

ed w said…

unison NJC today agreed to postpone discussion of further action til September without even an offer or a timetable for talks agreed, but instead to discuss a timetable for talks

for comments and reports see workers liberty website (oops links don't seem to work http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/07/16/local-government-strike-reports#comment-16888

and for further discussions on this a the way forward join the local government activists email list subscribe here (The easiest way to subscribe is to go here:

http://www.unionlists.org.uk/lists/subscribe/locgovactivists

Or send an email to locgovactivists-request@unionlists.org.uk with the subject 'subscribe'.)

Ed

Wed 23, July 2008 @ 21:02