Over 300 Brighton and Hove bin workers began an initial week of strike action today as the battle over threatened pay cuts brings refuse collection and street cleaning across the city to a standstill.
The council’s in-house CityClean staff voted 94 per cent in favour of flexing their industrial muscles with a series of walk outs as the Tory-run council attempts to slash workers’ wages by up to £8,000 each.
Echoing the equal pay dispute taking place in Leeds, now in its 10th week of strike action, workers are being told they could lose up to 20 per cent of their annual salary as a solution to the Single Status Agreement that was designed to solve pay inequality.
With thousands of mainly female council workers having been underpaid for years, by councils across the country, the deal was seen as a means of solving the problem. But instead of bringing everyone up to the top rate, Brighton and Hove City Council aim to axe the wages of those on higher pay to get out of owing the lowest paid a better deal.
Dave Russell, a GMB steward at the depot, said on a lively and well supported picket: “The council have known that they were going to have to do something about this for more than 12 years, since 1997. It’s the employer’s fault that they’ve underpaid council workers for years, not CityClean workers. So why should we have to pay for the council’s mistakes?”
Runa Pradey, one of many refuse workers on less than the average annual salary of just £16,000, said: “My pay is going to get cut by about £3,000 a year, in one go.
“There are workers here who aren’t going to be able to keep up with their mortgages and could lose their homes if these cuts happen. It’s disgusting!” she added.
“If the council want to cut wages, they can start with the new chief executive of the council who gets £170,000. I’m sure he could cope with losing £8,000 a year, but we can’t.”
Talks with the council are ongoing and GMB Brighton branch secretary Mark Turner is hopeful of a victory. “We’re meeting with the council and we’ll see what they have to say. We’ve got dates for action sorted for next week and the week after if talks don’t progress. But with the rubbish piling up across the city, so too will the pressure on the council.”
GMB Organiser Charles Harrity added: “GMB members know that the public is on their side in this bitter dispute and we will be establishing a strike fund for any member of the public who wishes to make a donation to the workers.”
Unison branch secretary Alex Knutson also joined the picket lines to offer his members’s support and solidarity. Council workers in Unison are also facing similar cuts to their pay because of the same plans regarding the Single Status plans with a ballot for industrial action imminent.
Alex Knutson said: “The council has prevaricated and delayed for 12 years. A situation which should have been resolved through negotiation over that time has now reached a point where confrontation appears to be inevitable. This is very regrettable but even at this time could be recovered.
“However, if the council leadership continue along this very dangerous path, Unison members will vote for strike action to defend their colleagues in their branch. Members are not militants but committed public sector workers forced to respond to an inept, disorganised and threatening management.”
General Secretary of Brighton, Hove and District Trades Council Bill North came down to the picket taking place outside the Hollingdean depot to offer support on behalf of the trades council and emphasised the role the local TUC body can play in helping workers.
He said: “Last week was the largest trades’ council meeting for several years with representatives from the GMB bin workers present to talk about the dispute. The trades council agreed unanimously to give them all the practical help and support we can."
“As far as we’re concerned, the role of trades councils and the TUC is to organise support for workers in struggle, not to play the part of trying to arbitrate between workers and management,” he added.
The mood is determined and confident on Brighton pickets with still a week of official action left in this round of industrial dispute. The workers are ready to stand firm and resist any attempt by the council to attack their pay and if they do so they will win as they have done in the past. This reflects the change in the mood workers over the last 12 months, from Visteon to Lyndsey, from ununionised workers in Vestas to national action by the CWU, from Leeds to Brighton, the fightback is beginning. Ordinary people are taking up the slogan, "We won't pay for the bosses crisis!"
Socialist Party members attending the pickets to give solidarity to the strikers were well received. They distributed leaflets on building political representation for the working class and took the local GMB's own leaflets to hand out to members of the public and gather support for the strike.
Peter Knight, Brighton Thursday branch
To read more about the Leeds bin workers strikes click here:
Monday, 9 November 2009
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
PUBLIC MEETING: Troops out of Afghanistan!
8.15 pm Thursday 29 October at the Phoenix Community Centre, Phoenix Place, Brighton
October 2009 marks the eighth anniversary of troops being sent to Afghanistan. It is clearer than ever that the invasion has resulted in a nightmare for the people of Afghanistan and the region and those sent to fight.
Come and hear a socialist perspective on the conflict and discuss ideas.
For more background on the Socialist Party's viewpoints on the war in Afghanistan click here.
October 2009 marks the eighth anniversary of troops being sent to Afghanistan. It is clearer than ever that the invasion has resulted in a nightmare for the people of Afghanistan and the region and those sent to fight.
Come and hear a socialist perspective on the conflict and discuss ideas.
For more background on the Socialist Party's viewpoints on the war in Afghanistan click here.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Postal workers must win! Fight to defend your postal services!
As the national strike to defend the postal service and its workforce begins on 22 October, two Communication Workers Union (CWU) members spoke to The Socialist about the importance of the dispute for all workers.
I have worked for Royal Mail for almost 30 years, I have been a rep for 20 years and have seen many industrial conflicts in my role as a local distribution rep.
I have seen management regimes come and go. Some try to marginalise the union, some try to reach a negotiated settlement with us. But this is the worst management regime I have ever encountered.
In our last dispute in 2007, the recommendation to cease industrial action was a big mistake.
My CWU branch, North West Central Amal, recommended rejection to the nationally recommended deal. Our view was that we could have the best agreement in the world but these managers can't be trusted to honour it. Our branch view has been vindicated.
Now a 76% 'yes' vote for industrial action has stunned Royal Mail and the media. The Labour government has been exposed as egging on Royal Mail to crush the CWU. The revelation on BBC Newsnight about the leaked secret strategy document has sent shock waves throughout the workplace. The membership are up for this battle." Click here to read on...
I have worked for Royal Mail for almost 30 years, I have been a rep for 20 years and have seen many industrial conflicts in my role as a local distribution rep.
I have seen management regimes come and go. Some try to marginalise the union, some try to reach a negotiated settlement with us. But this is the worst management regime I have ever encountered.
In our last dispute in 2007, the recommendation to cease industrial action was a big mistake.
My CWU branch, North West Central Amal, recommended rejection to the nationally recommended deal. Our view was that we could have the best agreement in the world but these managers can't be trusted to honour it. Our branch view has been vindicated.
Now a 76% 'yes' vote for industrial action has stunned Royal Mail and the media. The Labour government has been exposed as egging on Royal Mail to crush the CWU. The revelation on BBC Newsnight about the leaked secret strategy document has sent shock waves throughout the workplace. The membership are up for this battle." Click here to read on...
Monday, 12 October 2009
Brighton Housing Trust Workers Stage Protest
by Sean Figg
More than a dozen workers at Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) staged a 12 hour ‘sleep over’ outside their offices last Thursday. In light of the continuing refusal of management to even negotiate, workers felt they needed to send a clear message that they would not be ignored.
BHT is a charity employed by Brighton & Hove Council to advise and represent people with housing, welfare, debt and other legal problems. There are glowing reports all over the internet of the good work that BHT workers do for their clients. As reported previously, 100 workers at BHT are facing cuts in pay of up to 25%, forced increases in working hours and a 50% cut in their pensions – a brutal attack. Any workers not accepting this will be dismissed! However, as so often, management underestimated the determination of working people to organise and fightback.
Amongst those sleeping out, morale was high, even into the eleventh hour. One worker speaking to the socialist said, “it’s important for management to listen to their staff. We are making the point that we are passionate about the services we provide and we know this attack on us will hurt our clients too. This about defending services as much as our own pay and conditions.”
Unison branch secretary Alex Knutsen explained how a day of strike action had been called off as a gesture of good will to open negotiations and that Unison had put forward an offer to management. This offer was thrown back in their faces by chief executive Andy Winters at the council, on the spurious grounds that he would not negotiate ‘with preconditions’. This is obvious nonsense and a further indication of the out of touch management.
The local Unison branch has endorsed the idea of all out strike action. This is being taken to Unison’s National Industrial Action Committee for approval. We will report on the outcome of these discussions in future issues. Solidarity with the BHT workers!
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
London postal workers: Big majority to stop funding Labour
[By Naomi Byron]
An overwhelming 98 per cent of postal workers in London have voted to withdraw their union's (CWU) funding from the Labour Party. While this was only a consultative ballot it reflects the alienation and anger most postal workers feel towards the Labour Party.
Postal workers in London have been on one-day strikes regularly since mid-June against management attempts to slash jobs and casualise the workforce.
After the first day of strike action, the CWU London divisional committee declared that: "We in London will give them till the end of this month to force Royal Mail to agree a national agreement or we will start to ballot London members on whether they fund the Labour Party... We are not going to stand by and fund the Labour Party whilst they allow Royal Mail to attack the workforce in the most hostile manner we have ever seen."
New Labour and their goal of privatising Royal Mail are behind all the attacks Royal Mail management have launched on the workforce. They want to destroy it as a public service and sell it off to be asset stripped by the same kind of 'investors' that destroyed Rover, making a £40 million profit for themselves into the bargain.
But with Royal Mail the profits from asset stripping the entire national infrastructure needed for deliveries (including massive depots in city centres) would dwarf those made by the Phoenix Four. Click here to read on...
An overwhelming 98 per cent of postal workers in London have voted to withdraw their union's (CWU) funding from the Labour Party. While this was only a consultative ballot it reflects the alienation and anger most postal workers feel towards the Labour Party.
Postal workers in London have been on one-day strikes regularly since mid-June against management attempts to slash jobs and casualise the workforce.
After the first day of strike action, the CWU London divisional committee declared that: "We in London will give them till the end of this month to force Royal Mail to agree a national agreement or we will start to ballot London members on whether they fund the Labour Party... We are not going to stand by and fund the Labour Party whilst they allow Royal Mail to attack the workforce in the most hostile manner we have ever seen."
New Labour and their goal of privatising Royal Mail are behind all the attacks Royal Mail management have launched on the workforce. They want to destroy it as a public service and sell it off to be asset stripped by the same kind of 'investors' that destroyed Rover, making a £40 million profit for themselves into the bargain.
But with Royal Mail the profits from asset stripping the entire national infrastructure needed for deliveries (including massive depots in city centres) would dwarf those made by the Phoenix Four. Click here to read on...
Monday, 28 September 2009
Socialist Party and Youth Fight For Jobs campaigners on the march!
[Words: Lee Vernon, Photographs: Peter Knight]
As the Labour Party conference opened in Brighton on 27 September over 1,500 students, workers and young people demonstrated outside in protest at the party's cuts, unemployment, wars and tuition fees.
Called by UCU (University and College Union) and backed by other unions including the NUJ, NUT, PCS, CWU and the RMT, the demo demanded "Peace, Education and Jobs".
On the demo was a strong Youth Fight For Jobs contingent, calling for the Labour Party to invest in green, socially useful jobs for young people alongside demands for an end to slave labour internships and for free education. This attracted a lot of support from passers-by.
The latest opinion polls put Labour's vote at 23 per cent and they face a growing public backlash. Even Labour chancellor Alistair Darling sees the party in dire straights, saying that it had simply "lost the will to live". Like rats escaping a sinking ship, senior figures like Peter Mandelson say they are willing to work with the Tories. This shows how little difference there really is between the two parties.
However, although most on the demo agreed that the Labour Party no longer represents them, the organisers put forward no programme on how to build an electoral alternative. Without any plan of what to do next, such a demonstration can only act as an outlet for people's anger and, come the next election, will leave people face with a choice between three anti-worker, pro-capitalist parties.
Without the building of a genuine left alternative to appeal to the working class, we could see and increase in disenfranchisement of workers, a lower turnout and more people turning to groups like the BNP in a desparate search for answers.
Only one speaker at the final rally, PCS union general secretary Mark Serwotka, raised the need to build an alternative left wing party based on the trade union movement. PCS members are currently discussing giving support to candidates who will stand in workers' interests against public sector cuts, etc.
The trade unions need to disaffilliate from a Labour Party that consistantly fails to represent them. 35 people attended a successful meeting of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party (CNWP) after the main protest had finished and the local group is continuing to discuss the potential of standing in the next general election. If you'd like more information and/or want to get involved send us an email at info.bhsp@gmail.com
As the Labour Party conference opened in Brighton on 27 September over 1,500 students, workers and young people demonstrated outside in protest at the party's cuts, unemployment, wars and tuition fees.
Called by UCU (University and College Union) and backed by other unions including the NUJ, NUT, PCS, CWU and the RMT, the demo demanded "Peace, Education and Jobs".
On the demo was a strong Youth Fight For Jobs contingent, calling for the Labour Party to invest in green, socially useful jobs for young people alongside demands for an end to slave labour internships and for free education. This attracted a lot of support from passers-by.
The latest opinion polls put Labour's vote at 23 per cent and they face a growing public backlash. Even Labour chancellor Alistair Darling sees the party in dire straights, saying that it had simply "lost the will to live". Like rats escaping a sinking ship, senior figures like Peter Mandelson say they are willing to work with the Tories. This shows how little difference there really is between the two parties.
However, although most on the demo agreed that the Labour Party no longer represents them, the organisers put forward no programme on how to build an electoral alternative. Without any plan of what to do next, such a demonstration can only act as an outlet for people's anger and, come the next election, will leave people face with a choice between three anti-worker, pro-capitalist parties.
Without the building of a genuine left alternative to appeal to the working class, we could see and increase in disenfranchisement of workers, a lower turnout and more people turning to groups like the BNP in a desparate search for answers.
Only one speaker at the final rally, PCS union general secretary Mark Serwotka, raised the need to build an alternative left wing party based on the trade union movement. PCS members are currently discussing giving support to candidates who will stand in workers' interests against public sector cuts, etc.
The trade unions need to disaffilliate from a Labour Party that consistantly fails to represent them. 35 people attended a successful meeting of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party (CNWP) after the main protest had finished and the local group is continuing to discuss the potential of standing in the next general election. If you'd like more information and/or want to get involved send us an email at info.bhsp@gmail.com
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
TIME FOR A NEW WORKERS' PARTY! PUBLIC MEETING: THIS SUNDAY
Are you fed up with the vile way New Labour has sold its soul to capitalism to join the Conservatives and Lib Dems in attacking working people with cuts, job losses and privatisations? Are you sick of being fed false promises by big business-backed MPs from the capitalist parties who have their greedy fingers in the trough of public money? Are you angry at the lack of any politic alternative to this mess caused by capitalism that heaps all the suffering on working people?
Join trade unionists, socialists, youth campaigners and activists who are also fed up with this situation and who are organising to do something about it.
This public meeting follows on from the end of the protest against New Labour and will feature speakers from the trade union movement on what can be done to offer working people the real democratic and accountable political voice that has been missing for so long.
Public meeting: 3pm Sunday 27 September
at the Iron Duke, Waterloo Street, Brighton (50 metres from rally end)
Join trade unionists, socialists, youth campaigners and activists who are also fed up with this situation and who are organising to do something about it.
This public meeting follows on from the end of the protest against New Labour and will feature speakers from the trade union movement on what can be done to offer working people the real democratic and accountable political voice that has been missing for so long.
Public meeting: 3pm Sunday 27 September
at the Iron Duke, Waterloo Street, Brighton (50 metres from rally end)
PROTEST AGAINST NEW LABOUR!
Join the trade union-led demostration this Sunday 27 September against the New Labour Party as it gathers for its conference in Brighton.
The Socialist Party and the Youth Fight For Jobs campaign will join the rally and march with a lively and vocal contingent to display the massive anger at New Labour's failure in supporting capitalism and big business instead of the millions of unemployed youth and working people who've been left at the mercy of the recession.
As the level of joblosses grow and the impact of this crisis of capitalism is heaped further and further on young people the working class with cuts, cuts and more cuts, it becomes more and more urgent that an organised fighting campaign is built to demand an end to being thrown on the scrap pile and for decent jobs and a decent future for all. Get organised and come tell New Labour what we want!
Assemble 12.30pm Madeira Drive, Brighton
The Socialist Party and the Youth Fight For Jobs campaign will join the rally and march with a lively and vocal contingent to display the massive anger at New Labour's failure in supporting capitalism and big business instead of the millions of unemployed youth and working people who've been left at the mercy of the recession.
As the level of joblosses grow and the impact of this crisis of capitalism is heaped further and further on young people the working class with cuts, cuts and more cuts, it becomes more and more urgent that an organised fighting campaign is built to demand an end to being thrown on the scrap pile and for decent jobs and a decent future for all. Get organised and come tell New Labour what we want!
Assemble 12.30pm Madeira Drive, Brighton
SUPPORT THE VESTAS WORKERS! PUBLIC MEETING: THIS THURSDAY
Come and find out about the inspiring battles that workers are undertaking against
the unjustified attacks on jobs, pay and conditions. With a speaker from the Vestas
workers' committee plus contributions from the Visteon car parts plant occupation,
Brighton bin workers/street cleaners’ in dispute with the council and Brighton
Housing Trust workers fighting to defend their pay and their jobs.
Meet 7.30pm Thursday 24 September
Friend's Meeting House, Brighton
For more information on the Vestas workers' battle click here...
the unjustified attacks on jobs, pay and conditions. With a speaker from the Vestas
workers' committee plus contributions from the Visteon car parts plant occupation,
Brighton bin workers/street cleaners’ in dispute with the council and Brighton
Housing Trust workers fighting to defend their pay and their jobs.
Meet 7.30pm Thursday 24 September
Friend's Meeting House, Brighton
For more information on the Vestas workers' battle click here...
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