Solidarity needed - housing, BA, NHS and finance

Four groups of Unite members are currently engaged in pretty serious industrial action at the moment. They deserve our support.

I'd previously posted about the outsourced Manchester housing maintenance workers. They are now escalating their action with four weeks of continuous strike action from Saturday 8 July to Friday 4 August. A letter appealing for support has been issued by Unite's north-west region. You can support the strikers by:

1. Visiting pickets, typically 7:30-10am on strike days, at Hendham Vale, by the junction of Hazelbottom Road and Vale Park Way (map) 
2.  Donating to the strike fund by cheque payable to UCATT UD.393 Manchester 1st Branch, sent to Andy Fisher, Unite, 2 Churchill Way, Liverpool, L3 8EF, or online to account 46034412 sort code 60-83-01.
3. Sending a message of support to Colin Pitt via colinpitt65@hotmail.co.uk

Meanwhile cabin crew at BA Mixed Fleet have announced another 14 days of strike action. Like the Mixed Fleet Unite Facebook page for more information, or their web site gives details of how to support them.

In the NHS in London, cleaners, porters and security staff employed by Serco at Barts Health NHS Trust have been striking this week and plan a further seven day strike from Tuesday 11 July followed by a 14 day strike from 25 July. The action covers Whipps Cross University Hospital, Royal London Hospital, St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Mile End Hospital. Messages of support can be sent via Unite branch secretary Len Hockey (leonardhockey789@hotmail.co.uk). Photos and videos on the strikers' Facebook group show an impressive level of participation - and that migrant workers are at the heart of fighting low pay rather than being the cause of it. Cheques payable to “Barts NHS Health Branch” can be sent to Willie Howard, Unite the Union, 33-37 Moreland St, EC1V 8BB or you can donate online to account 20344885 Sort code 60-83-01.

At the Bank of England maintenance, parlours and security workers will be taking a four day strike from 31 July.

Two things stand out from this cluster of strikes. Firstly, all are about pay - reflecting workers losing patience after years when wages were held down and prices are rising. Why should we wait to make Labour's manifesto pledge of a £10 an hour minimum wage a reality? Secondly, all are sustained action to try to win, not token or "protest" action for odd days. Nearly two years ago I pointed out that the Trade Union Act "strengthens the case for intensive action rather than relying on the disruption of odd hours or days of action". In an article yesterday Gregor Gall argues that the "predominant strategy of one-day strikes, (or a series of one-day strikes) is coming to an end". If this is the case it is not before time - token strikes have acted more as a way of letting of steam than a serious attempt to win.

cleaners, porters and security staff

cleaners, porters and security staff

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Indesit national strike

This morning drivers and warehouse workers at Indesit depots around the country started their second strike over pay - this time escalating to 48 hours.

The strikers are based at Andover; Barnsley; Chepstow; Gateshead; Grangemouth; Hayes (west London); Mallusk (Newtonabbey, Northern Ireland); Trafford Park (Manchester); Raunds (Northamptonshire); Sharpness (Berkeley, Gloucestershire); Wednesbury (West Midlands); and West Thurrock (Essex). They are responsible for delivering white goods to homes and retailers.

This morning I visited the pickets at Trafford Park, who were already in good numbers and spirits when I arrived at 6am.


They've been offered just 1.5% while directors got rises of up to 30% - of a much higher salary in the first place. The gap between big increases for the fat cats and the crumbs for the rest was a big factor in provoking the strike.

The workers say their pay has been eroded by below inflation "rises" and unreliable or unattainable bonuses for years, while changes such as monthly pay, paperless pay, and weekend working have benefitted bosses but not them.

The workers rely on very long hours and overtime to earn a living. As well as striking they are working to rule which they believe can have a big impact. The long hours are also driven by huge loads, drivers often delivering alone, and imposed changes to warehouse processes which reduce efficiency.

Pickets were discussing the threat of the new Trade Union Bill which would allow bosses to hire agency temps to try to break strikes. As one of the pickets commented, it's not as if strikes are common. This workforce hasn't had a strike in decades, during which their pay and conditions have declined. Now they have had enough.

The current strike continues until 6am on Saturday morning. If there is no deal a further 24 hours of strike action is planned from 6am on Tuesday 1st September.

If you want to give support, the picket is at: Premier Park, Trafford Park Road / Acheson Way, Trafford Park, M17 1GA

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Atos - hounding disabled people and giving low pay

Since the "healthcare" branch of IT Services company Atos got involved in assessing benefits for disabled people, it has had nothing but bad publicity, with disabled people protesting about being denied benefits for being "fit to work" despite serious disability and illnes, even conditions that proved terminal shortly after the assessment.

Atos management had the "inspired" idea of sponsoring the paralympics, making life very difficult for satirists who cannot keep ahead of the absurdity of real life. Atos have made the paralympics a target for disability right campaigners such as Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) who plan a "a week of Paralympic fun and games against Atos".

Just to ensure brand destruction, Atos management have also offered staff a below inflation pay offer and refused to commit to the Living Wage, leading to a 76% vote for strike action amongst staff who are PCS members in both Atos Healthcare and Atos IT Services.

Solidarity to everyone protesting against Atos management over the next few weeks!

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21 days till the money runs out

UNITE's new film about pay day lenders and promoting the 20th October demo.

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Jubilee ballot at BBC in reaction to 1% pay offer

According to the Guardian, the unions at the BBC (UNITE, Bectu and NUJ) have announced a strike ballot timed to allow action coinciding with the jubilee in response to the BBC going over the unions' heads with the announcement of a 1% pay offer - far below inflation.

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Real wages falling fast

Just to maintain the same share of the value we produce at work, workers need a pay rise equal to inflation (to take account of the falling value of money) and their increase in productivity (to take account of the increasing value they produce).

A lot of attention is (rightly) focussing on how governments are pushing the costs of the economic crisis onto working people by nationalising bank debts and then repaying them by cutting our services and increasing our taxes. These actions reduce what is known as the "social wage".

Less attention is being given to how employers in public and private sector are using the recession to try to permanently shift wealth from workers to employers. I've produced the graph below from the latest inflation and wage figures:
It shows that since the start of 2009, when inflation took off, the value of average regular wages has already fallen by about 7%. The Average Weekly Earnings figures from the Office of National Statistics on which this is based, exclude "irregular" earnings such as overtime and bonuses which fluctuate significantly.

Many workers have seen their work intensified over the same period, and productivity driven up, so the share of what we produce that workers receive as wages will have fallen even faster than our real incomes.

We need stronger unions if we're going to beat off the attacks on our wages and our social wage. That means building them everywhere. It also makes the coordinated strikes planned for 30th November vitally important. The fight by millions of public sector workers to defend their pensions can show millions of unorganised workers the potential power of union organisation. UNITE has produced a great little leaflet to explain the issues to members in the private sector - please get it out and about.

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Inflation up to 5.5%

The latest inflation figures confirm what most of us know - our living standards are being severely squeezed. RPI inflation is up to 5.5% and even CPI inflation (which isn't a fair reflection of the cost of living) is up to 4.4%.



Holding wages down while prices rise effectively reduces the share workers receive from the wealth they produce.

Whether in the public sector, private sector or the not for profit sector, workers need to unite to oppose the attempt by employers and government to make us pay for a crisis we didn't create. Join the demonstration on Saturday - it is clearly going to be huge.

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Inflation rises (again)

The latest inflation figures are out today, showing the cost of living (RPI) up 4.8% in the year to December, and even the artificially lower CPI that the government and media quote so much up by 3.7%.

Pay rises have continued to lag behind the increase in the cost of living for a number of months, meaning standards of living for most workers falling rapidly. As I've previously highlighted, this is one of the key planks of the effort to make working people pay to boost profits following the financial crisis.

These figures don't even include this month's VAT rise.

There can't be many workplaces where "productivity" hasn't been driven up over the last year or so, with fewer workers working longer and harder (for less). This means workers getting an ever smaller share of the wealth we produce.

Anyone want to join the union and campaign to protect our standard of living? You'd have to be hopelessly naive to think you could stop this on your own...

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Post, Privatisation, Wages, Beans and the Welfare State

There's a national "Keep Our Post Public" rally today against the government's plans to privatise Royal Mail, with Len McCluskey as one of the speakers.

Privatisation is a key plank of the government's strategy to increase profits at our expense, by opening up our public services as new markets for comercial activity.

Plank 2 is cutting real wages (in the public and private sector) by using mass unemployment to depress wages while letting inflation drift up. The latest inflation figures this week show CPI inflation up to 3.3%, while RPI inflation, which is a more realistic estimate of the rate of increase in the cost of living, is up to 4.7%. No wonder some members are being driven to take strike action to defend their standard of living - UNITE members at Heinz in Wigan start their strike over pay tonight.

Plank 3 is the assault on public services and the welfare state, by a combination of pushing costs onto individuals (as with education) and direct cuts in provision.

If we want to successfully defend our own jobs, standard of living and services, we need to support all those resisting any element of this strategy to make us pay for an economic crisis we did not create. Amongst other things, that means backing campaigns against privatisation such as at Royal Mail, campaigns to defend pay and pensions such as those at Heinz or the BBC, and campaigns against cuts in public service and the welfare state, such as the magnificent and inspiring campaign being waged by school, FE and University students.

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Pensions onslaught continues - but so does resistance

The onslaught on pensions in the IT & Comms sector continues, with the announcement that the BBC wants to slash pension provision. Their particular wheeze is to break the link to final salary by capping the increase in pay which can be pensionable - this is particularly nasty for younger members and in periods of high inflation.

It's good to see a strong union response, with the five BBC unions (UNITE, NUJ, BECTU, Equity and the Musicians Union) planning to coordinate strike ballots unless the proposals are withdrawn. The recent UNITE IT & Communications National Sector Committee meeting discussed the situation and agreed to send our members at the BBC a message of support.

The government is busy attacking pensions in both public and private sector. The Minister of State for Pensions, Steve Webb MP, announced the intention to change from using the Retail Price Index (RPI) to using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the measure of inflation for regulating occupational pensions.

This nasty announcement would affect millions of people - current pensioners, people who were previously in final salary pension schemes and those still contributing. Professional Pensions reports one consultancy estimating that 12 million people would have their pensions reduced.

A Pensions Age report quotes TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber:

"Over someone's whole retirement this will add up to a significant loss. CPI is less than RPI in most years because it excludes housing and council tax costs. But even if all other things are equal CPI is on average half a per cent less than RPI because it is calculated in a different way. If pensions in payment today had been linked to CPI instead of RPI for the last twenty years they would now be 14 per cent lower."

For those whose DB schemes close, and who prematurely become "deferred" pensioners, the impact could be a lot worse.

Everyone should be bombarding their MPs with complaints about this raid on our pensions. We should all be supporting any members in the public or private sector who fight to defend a final salary pension scheme. We should all be joining the Right To Work demonstration against the cuts at the Tory Party conference on 3rd October.

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Inflation - what is it really?

Those of us who have to negotiate pay with our employers get very annoyed by the way the government and media confuse discussions about inflation and pay. They try to suggest that measures other than the Retail Price Index (RPI) are relevant for pay negotiations. Particular favourite for the government has been the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which excludes many items which form a substantial part of the cost of living for most human beings.

Ironically, the September figures which recently came out showed CPI actually higher than RPI, but I think it would be a mistake for union activists to chop and change rather than sticking to the idea that it's the real cost of living that matters.

One of the other problems in talking about inflation is that the figures are averages and the experience of inflation by different people varies widely. Current inflation is being driven by high fuel and food costs, which make up a large proportion of spending for those on low incomes, so the inflation experienced by the low paid is much higher than the average. Similarly, if you spend a lot on clothes, luxuries and electronic goods (a pattern of spending more associated with the rich) many of these prices have actually fallen.

Some time ago the Office for National Statistics (ONS) produced a personal inflation calculator, which seemed like a really good idea. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, it was not very accessible - particularly from workplaces where the user may not have total control over how their computer is set up.

I'm pleased to see that the BBC has made available a version of the personal inflation calculator which is much more accessible - though it does still seem to require JavaScript to be enabled in your browser which not everyone will have. Why not get people in your workplace to use it and circulate the results as part of a pay campaign?

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Bus workers step up pay fight

With "our" government egging on employers to hold wages down below inflation (making working people pay for an economic crisis we didn't cause), UNITE members working on the buses in London are picking up the challenge.

Thanks to privatisation, not only are services fragmented, but so are terms and conditions. UNITE is coordinating action between the various bus companies, stepping up a fight for a London-wide pay rate.

A hefty 88% majority of UNITE members at Metroline (and there are 2500 of them) voted to join with the 2500 members at other companies already taking action. More companies are being balloted in time to join action planned for 22nd October.

Just as with Shell, a good win here can send ripples across the working class, raising confidence that there is an alternative to accepting real-terms pay-cuts.

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Argos out again

UNITE members working in Argos distribution centres have rejected the improved pay offer made after their previous strikes, and are out on strike again.

The strikes are being staggered across various distribution depots from 30 July to 5 August.

Let's make sure they get full support and we get another much needed win to protect living standards from rampant inflation.

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Pay fights hotting up

With inflation high thanks to food & fuel prices, the fight to protect our living standards is vital for working people.

This week will see several important struggles which all trade unionists should get behind. A few more victories like Shell would do us the world of good!

Local Authorities
UNITE members in local authorities will be striking over pay on Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th July, alongside colleagues from UNISON.

Manchester Airport
UNITE members working for Initial Cleaners at Manchester airport will be striking over pay for three days from 6am Thursday 17th July to 6am Sunday 20th July.

This is a very low paid group of workers, so financial support will be particularly important. Cheques payable to "UNITE 6/577a Branch" can be sent to Marie Jockins, 12 Horrocks Close, Huyton, L31 7UJ.

Argos Distribution
UNITE members working at Argos distribution centres are striking over pay. There will be 24 hour strikes on 17th and 24th July, followed by staggered 4-day strikes in early August.

NHS Pay
It's not a strike - yet - but UNITE is organising protests about NHS pay on Friday 18th July.

Manchester Pay Rally
Plans are taking shape for a pay rally in central Manchester at 12 noon on Thursday 17th July, hopefully bringing together several of the strikes.

Bolton Schools Strike
NUT and UNISON members at Withins school in Bolton will be striking on Tuesday 15th July against it being turned into an "Academy". I believe the Hayward school will also be out. Nice timing if the local authority strike closes it for the following two days as well!

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National Shop Stewards Network conference

I took part in the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference yesterday, which I felt was another useful step in getting union activists together to exchange news and ideas, build links and promote solidarity. I helped run a workshop on organising in the workplace, which had a particular emphasis on young workers.

The anger and gradually increasing confidence over inflation and pay was very apparent, as was the enthusiasm for united action across different unions.

It was also clear that employers in public and private sector alike are trying to victimise good union reps - shooting the messenger rather than dealing with the issues. It is vital that there is a robust response to victimisation because that is the only way to stop it. Though the law bans victimisation for union activity, employers are not obliged to implement tribunal orders for reinstatement, and can merely pay compensation instead. It is a disgrace that this legal position continues after so many years of a supposedly Labour government. There's also a second reason why a robust response is important. Whether or not we are successful in stopping the victimisation, we can prevent it leaving union organisation in tatters. The purpose of victimisation is to smash the union - strong resistance (as in the case of Karen Reissmann) can leave the union strong even though she still isn't reinstated yet.

The frustration with New Labour and lack of an effective political voice for working people was also a recurring theme.

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Pay, Inflation, Credit Crunch and Shell

This morning I went over to the Stanlow fuel depot in Ellesmere Port, to show support for members there striking for better pay.

The pickets were understandably angry at the press reports claiming ridiculous earnings - many of which are either fictitious or based on massive amounts of overtime and unsocial hours.

The strikers work for two haulage companies doing fuel deliveries for Shell, whose profits are astronomical. Why shouldn't the drivers get a fair share?

The strike has been given a huge boost by solidarity from drivers for other oil companies, who had all refused to cross the picket lines. The drivers from this one depot normally deliver around 20 million litres of fuel a day, so the strike is certain to have a real impact.

After chatting to the pickets, I came back to Manchester and took part in a workshop on the Economics of the Pay Freeze hosted by Graham Turner, an economist whose book "Credit Crunch: Housing Bubbles, Globalisation And The Worldwide" was recently published by Pluto Press.

When most politicians and the media are either trying to blame working people for inflation or arguing that even if it isn't our fault, we are going to have to accept reduced living standards, this discussion couldn't have come at a better time.

Turner argues that the roots of the credit crunch lie in the way companies have taken advantage of defeats for organised workers to hold down real wages over the last few decades. At the same time, they have increased profits by moving work around the world in pursuit of lower wages. If wages are held down and well-paid jobs replaced by poor ones, this would normally cut consumer demand. As we haven't succeeded in winning good enough wages through collective struggle, working people have got by on credit (debt), which has expanded enormously. This expansion has happened in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, not just in the US, EU and Japan.

I've heard the growth of personal debt described elsewhere as "privatised Keynesianism" - whereas in the post-war decades governments would inject money into the economy to ward off recession, in recent years it is working people who have done so by building up debt.

Turner was extremely critical of governments and central banks who seem obsessed with warding off inflation following the credit crunch, whereas he sees the main risk being a 1930s style slump. He sees strong parallels with the experience in Japan over the last couple of decades.

It's clear that the causes of inflation are rising energy and food prices. Turner is amongst those who believe the world has reached "peak oil" production and that therefore oil prices are likely to continue rising as supply declines. He argues that the main causes of the rise in food prices are the massive increase in use of wheat for bio-fuels in the USA, combined with poor rice crops which may be linked to climate change. In previous famines those of us on the left could point to there being ample food in the world (the issue being poverty). If the oil price keeps rising, using wheat for fuel instead of food will become even more profitable and famine is likely to become and even bigger threat.

Not only aren't wages the cause of rising prices, many workers are seeing their living standards eroded further by inflation - we are failing to keep up. This is often masked by "average earnings" figures including a (very) lucky few.

So what solutions were discussed? Here were a few ideas:

• Push for wage rises above inflation, protecting workers from rising prices and helping bring housing costs under control without the need for a slump
• Introduce controls on credit to avoid a bubble building up again and prevent debt becoming a substitute for adequate wages
  
• Instead of allowing banks to repossess homes and sell them cheap - further fueling the slump, why not bring them into public ownership, helping tackle the shortage of council housing while protecting people's homes?
  
• Why not nationalise the oil company profits and spend them on a mixture of developing alternative energy provision/conservation and fuel subsidies for the poor?
• Cut interest rates to prevent a slump, rather than pushing them up to ward off inflation which isn't coming from too much consumption

If we are entering a period of recession and rising fuel and food prices, it is inevitable that groups of workers will resist, regardless of which industry they work in, or whether they happen to be in the public or private sector. I think the danger is the idea that fighting to preserve your standard of living is a selfish act which will undermine the economy and leave other workers worse off. This idea is a cancer which could eat away at workers' confidence and unity. It's not enough just to fight for better pay - we have to put those fights in a wider context if we're not going to be on the back foot all the time. I thought the workshop was a useful attempt to grapple with these problems.

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Why we all deserve higher wages

I posted recently about the trends in prices & wages. Since then, I've seen on Gill George's blog a couple of interesting articles in response to the government offer of a 3-year pay cut for NHS staff.

Gill's latest article picks up material from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and what they say about inflation, which prompted me to go and have a look at the MPC's own web site, which has a wealth of useful information for trade unionists.

In the "costs and prices" data, this chart particularly caught my eye:
What does it mean? That real take-home pay has been dropping for several years, while profitability has stayed about the same. Or to put it another way - working people are paying the price for every bump and dip in the economy.

It's enough to make you think we need a union!

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Prices and Wages

Pay is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for working people, with prices rising at over 4% and many months showing average earnings lagging behind, eating into our standard of living.

But "average" earnings can be pretty misleading as an indication of what working people are getting - they include the city bonuses and fat-cat salaries.

The government is also trying to muddy the waters by promoting the "Consumer Price Index" (CPI), which excludes housing costs. This may be useful for some purposes, but is utterly irrelevant to the cost of living for most of us!

There are some excellent resources available online to give you the data you need for campaigning:

1) Data about the Retail Price Index (RPI) can be found at www.statistics.gov.uk/rpi.

2) There's a wealth of information about earnings at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nscl.asp?id=8242, including data about the Average Earnings Index (AEI).

3) You can find out information about most employers from the TUC's excellent "WorkSmart" web site: http://www.worksmart.org.uk/company/. This includes a lot of information extracted from the company accounts, including turnover, profits, directors pay, numbers of employees, holding companies, subsidiaries etc.

Most people find statistics a bid daunting, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I bet there's someone in nearly every workplace who can use Excel or some other spreadsheet to do you a pretty graph of the relevant data which would look great on a leaflet. Here's one someone did for us to use at Fujitsu:
















Has your pay gone up 17% in the last 4 years?

The recent narrowing gap between prices and earnings shows how inflation has started eating into our standard of living. We need stronger unions!

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Inflation and Pay

There's something deeply sickening about hearing MPs on good salaries talking about holding down pay for working people to avoid inflation.

The current surge in inflation has not been caused by workers' pay going up. It has been caused primarily by rising fuel and food prices. Don't take my word for it - that's the message Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England gave to explain inflation as it passed the 3% (even by the government's CPI measure) in early 2007.

The other reason King gives is "businesses have become more confident that they could raise prices to rebuild profit margins". In other words, businesses felt they could charge us more to boost their profits.

In this context, the government's mantra, inevitably echoed by private sector employers, that workers' pay must be held down to avoid fueling inflation, really means that workers should have their living standards cut to pay for the increased profits. In an economy where many working people rely on credit even more than in the past, this is a dangerous road to go down for both individuals and the economy.

So UNITE is absolutely right to attack the government's latest wheeze - trying to impose multi-year pay deals - presumably below inflation - on public sector workers. The government is making a big gamble with such an explicit pay policy. They appear to have largely got away with it in 2007, but how much longer can union leaders loyal to Brown hold the lid on resistance if real wages continue to decline?

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