Class Struggle Roundup - 26 February 2023
Public sector in the North, ETB workers in the South, Debenhams film, and more.
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Northern Ireland
Omagh Trade Union Council calls for working class to fight against sectarian violence in the North in the wake of attempted murder of PSNI officer at football practice. On the International Socialist Alternative website, they describe how:
In recent weeks, working-class people have united on picket and joined protests in towns and cities across the North, calling for fair pay and standing in defence of public services. We have stood against transphobia, homophobia and misogyny in our thousands at protests and vigils in Lurgan, Belfast and Derry — most recently following the brutal murders of Natalie McNally and Brianna Ghey. Young people from both communities are to the fore of these struggles. Now we must unite against sectarianism and say: “No going back!” Omagh Trade Union Council has called a protest for Saturday 25 February, 11:30am, at Omagh Courthouse. This is an opportunity to take all of the anger and outrage we feel at oppression, exploitation and sectarianism, which are all part and parcel of the capitalist system, and build a movement to push back against those who seek to drag us back.
Unions showing strength through joint actions across public sector. Counterfire reports that Tuesday “saw a high point of public sector striking with all four teaching unions… joining ranks with Unite, Unison, GMB and Nipsa.”
Here’s Into’s Gerry Murhpy’s statement before the half-day strike emphasising the significance of the coordinated action:
Higher education works organised with UCU, UNISON, Unite, EIS and GMB, confirmed that talks via the conciliation service Acas will continue into next week. The joint statement released reads:
Following constructive talks between UCEA and the Joint HE Trade Unions on Thursday 23 February, facilitated by Acas, some progress has been made towards establishing agreed terms of reference for negotiations on the review of the national HE pay spine. Talks, through Acas, will continue next week on the terms of reference for negotiations on the pay spine and on workload, contract types and pay gaps.
There is no deal, however, and the unions expressed disappointment that the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) “has moved to instruct its members to impose the first element of the 2023/24 pay proposal. This is despite nothing yet having been agreed on pay.”
One of the rail unions that have been engaged in a long dispute, have accepted a pay offer after balloting members. “The union will formally accept the offers and tell the train companies that its strike ballots have been withdrawn,” The Guardian Reports. Accepting this pay deal may put pressure on the RMT and other workers still without an agreement.
Fire fighters in Britain condemn minimum service bill and demand protections for the right to strike against this “authoritarian” legislation. This comes after the FBU suspended plans for industrial action and recommended members accept a modestly revised pay offer this month.
The offices of the Causeway council were bugged according to reporting in The Irish News. These stories are behind a paywall so I’m not sure of all the details (as a rule I try not to link to much of anything behind a paywall), but these covert listening devices apparently recorded disparaging remarks about a trade union official. The council was heard “criticising a female trade union official were made after concerns were raised about the safety of other women members.” I suppose it comes as no surpise that some politicians find unions raising questions to be worthy of criticism.
Union concessions weakening workers claims letter to editor. In a letter from Harry Mid Ulster Trade Union Council’s Harry Hutchinson published by The News Letter, he claims unions are giving away too much ground in negotiations and not taking advantage of the increase of industrial action:
Now what looks a likely deal with the government on a pay settlement and without involving other unions in talks, the government will be eager to reached [sic] agreement. A deal that will split any potential for co ordinated action in health. RCN members should establish strike committees and force their leadership to put back on the agenda a 19% pay increase; co-ordinated action with other health unions for inflation plus pay increase. Action to take the NHS out of government hands and into health workers’ control.
At the strike rally in Belfast the loudest applause came for a co-ordinated general strike to take the government / corporations head on.
Éire
Construction workers affiliated with Unite to ballot on strike action at key sites. According to the Business Post, “Mechanical staff working on construction projects worth billions of euros – including Intel’s Leixlip site and the national children’s hospital – are considering strike action in a bid to push contractors to pay them travel allowances.”
Nurses affiliated with INMO to ballot for industrial action. Citing issues across the health sector, nurses will consider action to put pressure on government to adress staffing and under-resourcing, The Irish Examiner reports. INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said:
It has been made very clear to us from at each meeting we attended in the last month that there is a severe staffing crisis in our hospitals.
Nurses in each hospital have stated that unsafe staffing is the norm. This is unacceptable in regards of patient safety and nurses’ safety at work.
ETB workers held a protest outside the Dáil seeking major improvements to pay and conditions. Adult education tutors highlighted issues related to the precarity of their work and conditions, and are seeking a more stable contract and improved pay. “The tutors say they are paid hourly, forced to claim social welfare during school holidays, and have received no pay rise despite years of service. They say that they are public servants, paid from the public purse but without public service contracts,” reports RTE News.
Lorcan McNamee who works for the Sligo Mayo Education and Training Board said the group wanted better pay and conditions.
"We're here to protest for a national contract and decent pension provisions, incremental salary scale, which is what every other teacher has in the country. We are committed professional people and we are permanent part-time. We are laid off five times a year. We're laid off at the moment. We're not on midterm break with like other teachers. We are laid off we are on the dole. And it six more weeks, we'd be laid off for two weeks for Easter. And 10 weeks after that we'd be laid off in the summer."
In response, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said “An offer on pay and terms of employment for adult education tutors will be made at the earliest opportunity,” but that would have been a long time ago if it were true.
Film about the Debehams workers strike to premier at Dublin International Film Festival. 406 Days - The Debenhams Picket Line, from filmaker Joe Lee and producer Fergus Dowd, who also wrote a book about the strike, is a film about the longest industrial action in the republic of Ireland will premier at the Dublin International Film Festival on 4 March. Aoife Berry has the story in The Journal.
Other links
Google to cut 240 jobs from Irish workforce, via RTE.
What next for Ireland's laid-off tech workers, via The Irish Examiner.
Siptu staff in row over ‘inferior’ work-from-home policy, via The Independent.
Trade union says minimum wage no longer fit for purpose, via Breaking News.
Irish trade union official expelled from Tunisia, via RTE.
ESB pleads with former workers: rent your spare rooms to our new hires, via The Independent.
Duleek to honour local woman who was first person in the world to achieve equal pay for equal work, via lmfm.ie.
Majority of Irish retail workers earn less than €451 per week, new research shows, via The Journal.
International
Spain becomes first European country to legislate paid time off for women with painful periods, via The Journal.
Jo Grady: a disastrous way to run a strike, via Counterfire.
The latest move by UCU General Secretary Jo Grady to call off 7 days of strikes to allow a period of ‘calm’ for negotiations to continue reveals a combination of ineptitude, disregard for members and a disdain for union democracy that really takes some beating. Grady has increasingly taken to direct communication through video message which bypasses the union’s elected structures, and which promotes her views as those of the union. Her email at 6pm on Friday evening came as a complete shock to UCU members in universities across the UK. The next two weeks were to have seen a further seven days of strike action and having just taken three days strike action this week, many members are feeling betrayed and ignored in what is becoming widely viewed as a sell-out.
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa, via WSWS.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand, via WSWS.
Workers Struggles: The Americas, via WSWS.
Jonah Furman is tracking US labour union news over at Who Gets the Bird?