Workers in Croydon resist attack

I was pleased - whilst secluded in the slightly unreal world of the TUC - to receive the following press release from Croydon UNISON;

"Members of Croydon UNISON representing the majority of union members employed by Croydon Council held a Branch meeting on Wednesday 8th September 2010 and unanimously backed a motion opposing proposed changes to their terms and conditions of employment.

The motion called upon the Branch to use all available means to oppose their implementation, including possible industrial action.

Branch Secretary Laurie Pocock in presenting the motion accused senior Council management of bringing forward a bizarre proposal which would do nothing to alleviate the projected crisis in funding and cause massive damage to the Council's long term recruitment requirements.

The meeting was also attended by Linda Perks (Greater London Regional Secretary) who brought greetings to the members from UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis and a strong message of support from the national union. She told the meeting that at a national level UNISON would oppose any move to remove nationally agreed terms and conditions; In particular, reducing sick pay entitlement represented a threat in real term to the quality of service deliverability to the residents of Croydon.

Sue Plain, as Chair of the Regional Local Government Committee brought greetings to the meeting from other London Branches and expressed solidarity with the staff at Croydon who will feel "betrayed" by their employer.

The proposals include, reductions in annual leave and sick pay entitlement, as well as loss of other benefits including overtime pay, weekend working enhancements and compensation for redundancy.

Following the meeting Laurie Pocock commented "our consultation on this has been wide ranging and we've found no one who supports this package of proposals." We are of course aware that due to the banking crisis the government will be proposing further financial restrictions on local authorities, but we don't know yet exactly what this may mean. Croydon seems to be going it alone in the interests of making a name for itself with the government rather than having regard to the staff it employs, as well as the residents of the borough."

This shows that our members, under attack, will fight back. The call for action is here.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange