Displaying items by tag: unions

Waste and recycling staff in half of Scotland's councils have voted to strike over a pay dispute. Unite members in 16 local authorities rejected a pay offer from Cosla, the local government body. Cosla defended its offer and urged unions to reconsider. GMB members in 13 council areas have also voted to strike. The two unions criticised the offer as inadequate, with Unite's industrial officer calling it ‘pitiful’. Unite's general secretary has talked of years of underfunding and understaffing. A GMB senior organiser highlighted the drawn-out nature of talks and the refusal of council leaders to have meaningful discussions. Strike dates will be announced soon, potentially impacting the Edinburgh Festival. Cosla expressed disappointment, stressing the importance of rewarding the workforce within budget constraints.

Whether you're waiting for a hip operation, a new passport, wondering what you're going to do with your children when their teachers are on the picket line, or are a university lecturer worried about losing pay when you protest, walkouts aren't anywhere close to coming to an end. The nurses’ union leader told her members a 5% pay rise and a one-off payment of at least £1,655 was worth accepting. But they disagreed. So strikes continue, with staff being withdrawn from emergency departments for the first time. Junior doctors are set for further industrial action and could end up on strike at the same time as nurses in England. Civil servants are likely to walk out too, having missed out on a one-off payment for 2022/3, which other workers had been granted. Dave Penman, leader of the FDA civil service union, warns the consequence will be a ‘prolonged and damaging dispute’.

Train drivers, teachers, lecturers and civil servants will walk out on the same day and a senior minister urged them to reconsider the industrial action and think about the impact it will have on working people across the country and on the economy saying. We know times are difficult. What we don’t want to see is the economy damaged by self-harm strike action that makes it harder to get to work, cross the border and of course to get access to crucial public services.’ The walkouts take place amid union bosses' anger over anti-strike laws making their way through Parliament that would curb the impact of walkouts by requiring minimum service levels. The RCN said, ‘We have extended an olive branch, actually the whole tree, to government to meet us halfway, so now come on.’ The education secretary will talk to teachers about money but stopped short of promising to review pay. see also

Health secretary Steve Barclay will hold another round of talks with union leaders ahead of planned strikes by nurses. Whitehall said ministers were working on options for resolving the strikes, which could include a one-off payment to reflect cost of living pressures. They recognised that union leaders ‘have to get something for this year’ before they will consider calling off the current wave of industrial action. What level of payment might be offered, and how it could be funded, is not yet clear. There are also concerns that any payment to resolve the health dispute would set a precedent for other sectors facing industrial strife, including education and transport, potentially landing the taxpayer with a bill running into billions of pounds. The moves came as 25,000 ambulance workers staged a second day of walkouts and unions warned they could boycott talks on the next pay round in April.

France’s unions have started three months of industrial action. On two days in five trains will not run, and workers will down tools for a total of 36 days. 77% of train drivers are striking over government proposals to reduce the ‘jobs for life and early retirement’ status. Macron insists reforms are essential to stem rising debt and prepare the way for competition starting next year. He is facing his toughest test to date. It is unclear how this ‘war of attrition’ will pan out, as Air France, dustmen, and energy workers intend to join the battle.. If rail reform passes, it paves the way for subsequent overhauls of the education system and pensions. University students have already joined the protests against Macron's proposals. Attempted reforms have been the undoing of past French presidents.

French unions are famously radical and resistant to reforms. On 12 September rail workers, students and civil servants protested in cities from Paris to Toulouse against loosening labour regulations, seen as a key public test of the president’s reformist resolve. Police said there were 24,000 protesters in Paris; stone-throwing activists clashed with police, who responded with tear gas. Four thousand strikes were called around France by the country's biggest public sector trade union, the CGT. The numbers were, however, well below protests against another labour reform last year.

France has an unemployment rate of 9.5%, double that of the other big European economies, and President Macron has vowed to cut it to 7% by 2022. The country's unwieldy labour code, 3,000 pages long, is a straitjacket for business. Macron's popularity has plummeted recently as he begins his drive to overhaul the rigid labour laws, giving the details first to the unions and bosses' organisations and later to the public. He promised a ‘revolution’ to free up the energy of the workforce, making it easier for bosses to hire and fire. Protests against the plan, spearheaded by the far left, are expected on 12 September, but two of the biggest unions will not take part.