Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Local government pay - reject 1%

http://www.unison.org.uk/news/unison-to-consult-members-over-meagre-pay-offer

The 1% pay offer to local government workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was entirely predictable (as were the modest additional increases on the lowest pay spine points to keep ahead of the minimum wage).

UNISON has to give a clear lead to members to reject this further real terms pay cut if we are to stand a chance of securing the support of our members ‎for the action which is necessary to force a decent pay rise out of the employers. 
The run up to the 2011 pensions strike demonstrated the capacity of our Union, acting together, to mobilise members for action. ‎We need similar well-resourced determination if we are serious about ending the pay freeze that has been holding down the living standards of our members for years now.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.

2 comments:

steve jinx said...

Reject the 1% by all means but first reject the continued application of percentage increases on an already differentiated pay grading system. Every time there is a pay rise,hopeless as it may be, we at the bottom become poorer since poverty is relative as well as absolute. If we were both to get a 1% rise for each of the next five years my line manager would be £800 further ahead of me than she is now.

steve jinx said...

Unison wants me to reject the 1% offer and to state my preparedness to undertake strike action to support the fight for a better one. There's nothing I'd like more than to stick it to the government and have them give me the pay packet I deserve but as a low paid worker no result is going to work in my favour. At my recent appraisal I spoke about how I was pitifully struggling along on less than £16k only to have my boss (on £30k) say that she too was feeling the pinch. Everyone wants more, but the union movement was formed, as I understand it, to prevent the over exploitation of front line workers not to further enrich the already well off. UNISON's priority should be directed towards recalibrating the pay scales and wage claims in favour of those workers who have been left so far behind.