strikes

Staff strikes loom at University of Dundee

November 1, 2010 By sspeirs Leave a Comment

With the University of Dundee planning to cut up almost two hundred jobs, staff are now planning to move forward with strike action.

The Dundee University and College union (DUCU) voted last week in favour of a strike ballot which, if succesful, would lead to lecturers and professors striking. This would mean that some classes and lectures would have to be canceled.

An official statement from the University of Dundee was not given, and the DUCU could not be reached for comment.

David Cubbitt, a student at the University of Dundee who has raised concerns over the potential strikes, said: “I am a hard working student, and this strike may lead to some of my classes being canceled, which I don’t think is fair.” However, he also added that he sympathized with the frustrations of the union: “I am disappointed the university is planning to cut jobs, as I feel many of the board members at the university earn too much money already, and their wages would be a better place to start cuts with!”

Filed Under: All Politics Tagged With: strikes, Student, student Issues, unions, university, University of Dundee

BBC Journalists to Strike

October 29, 2010 By debzsmith Leave a Comment

BBC journalists are to stage two 48-hour strikes in the coming weeks as the long running row over pensions rages on.

The National Union of Journalists said its members will walk out on November 5 and 6 and again on November 15 and 16, with further strike dates to be announced in the coming days, including the threat of a Christmas stoppage.

The move follows a 70% majority rejection by NUJ members of the BBC’s “final” offer on pensions. The union described the proposed changes as making journalists “pay more, work longer and receive lower pensions”.

The union makes up 17% of BBC staff, UK-wide, with 300 members in Scotland. They said its 4,000 members at the BBC will also refuse to take on additional duties or volunteer for acting-up duties as part of an indefinite work to rule.

The dispute flared after the BBC announced plans to cap pensionable pay from next April and revalue pensions at a lower level, which unions said effectively devalued pensions already earned. BBC management said the changes were needed to try to tackle a huge pension deficit of more than £1.5 billion.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August Mark Thompson told delegates: “We’re going through one of the most painful changes of all – confronting the fact that the current pension arrangements for people inside the organisation are simply no longer affordable.”

In what many commentators are predicting will be a winter of discontent, the strikes by BBC journalists could be the first in a long line of industry disputes. Firefighters are also threatening industrial action but it is yet to be seen if either of these groups will gain the level of public support being demonstrated on the streets of Paris, as Nicholas Sarkozy raises the age for the state pension.

Filed Under: Journalism and Literature Tagged With: BBC, industrial action, NUJ, strikes, unions

Union boss says strikes ‘still relevant’

October 30, 2009 By mattmoorek Leave a Comment

Scotland’s top union group has defended striking as “very democratic” and “effective” as the next wave of industrial actions are expected.

As the Royal Mail disputes continue, the Unite union has proposed a legal challenge to British Airways today concerning cabin contracts.

The employment rights union want an injunction against the airline’s plan to administer new contract conditions without union consent.

The same union’s members in Scotland, today, voted to strike in response to closures at the Diageo plants in Kilmarnock and Port Dundas.

Ian Tasker, assistant secretary of policy and campaigns at the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) said: “Obviously, there is a number of issues relating to the effectiveness of strikes.

“The industry is changing in Scotland, take that together with attacks on the trade union legislation. However, we still think it is a justified and effective route to change. It’s a last resort, nobody takes it lightly.”

The STUC represents 640,000 members within 37 affiliated trade unions.

“You can easily get the impression from the media that the Royal Mail strikes are down to recent industrial problems, that’s wrong.

“The problems have been festering for years,” said Mr Tasker.

He said that although striking was becoming less common it was still the most valid form of protest.

“It’s a very democratic process. It’s the workers, through balloting, who decide when strike action is needed. Striking is the mechanism of change for the individuals.”

Royal Mail workers went on their first nation-wide strike last week after months of regional strikes.

Tensions between the unions and company bosses have risen following accusations that the Royal Mail has been employing temporary staff to deal with backlogs – the law on this practice is grey.

Mr Tasker said that it was “disappointing to see Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson seemingly condoning it”.

“What really concerns us is that an employer like Royal Mail would go against what is principle and law, by employing temporary workers.”

The postal company defend their recruitment strategy calling it Christmas recruitment, however this is challenged by the unions who say that the number of temporary staff has doubled and been brought forward several weeks.

“We would argue that it’s wrong and unlawful,” added Mr Tasker.

Dr Simon J Clark, head of the school of economics at the University of Edinburgh, said striking had waned in recent years: “Strikes are much less common, certainly, than they used to be, partly due to changes in legislation – unions have to go through more loop holes.

“Labour markets have changed drastically, private sectors firms are less unionised than public sector ones,” he said.

Dr Clark said that international market changes had altered the value of striking as businesses modernised and outsourced, the competition for work grew.

“Going on strike doesn’t have the same adverse effects that it used to.

“In the current climate within the recession, workers aren’t in a strong position to go on strike. The growth of unskilled labour markets across the world are weakening the power of strikes.

“In the private sectors lots of people are taking wage cuts or negligible pay rises, whilst strikers are demanding more. So whether solidarity is stronger or weaker during a recession, is difficult to say.”

Filed Under: All Politics, Life and Society, Travel and Communities Tagged With: British Airways, Diageo, royal mail, strikes, STUC

Strike action at Trinity Mirror set to go ahead

March 30, 2009 By Jodi Mullen Leave a Comment

By Jodi Mullen

Industrial action at the Sunday Mail and Daily Record is set to go ahead later this week after staff voted overwhelmingly to strike in protest at plans to cut 70 jobs.

Journalists at the Trinity Mirror group voted 95% in favour of industrial action short of a strike, including work-to-rule, in an National Union of Journalists chapel poll on Friday. Of these ballots, 85% also supported action including strikes.

The proposed industrial action comes after Trinity Mirror announced a “single integrated editorial production operation”, which would see production resources for both of the Glasgow-based newspapers merged.

The publisher hopes to reduce costs amidst falling advertising revenue and a more competitive newspaper market.

Weekly freesheet titles The Glaswegian and Business7 will also be produced by the same team.

Staff are threatening a 24-hour walkout from midnight on Friday which will disrupt the production on this week’s Sunday Mail and may also affect football coverage in next Monday’s Daily Record.

The strike will be preceded by several days of work-to-rule.

However, Trinity Media remains committed to the proposed reorganisation of the company. Mark Hollinshead, Managing Director of the Sunday Mail and Daily Record, told Edinburgh Napier News that there has been “absolutely no change in our position”.

Angela Austin, Assistant Organiser of the NUJ’s Scottish Office, explained the NUJ’s involvement in the dispute.

“Staff at the Sunday Mail and Daily Record voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in a chapel ballot on Friday. The NUJ informed Trinity Mirror of the results immediately. We have made sure the publisher is fully aware of the implications of the vote.”

The ballot at the Trinity Mirror titles follows a similar vote in NUJ chapels at Manchester Evening News and Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers over plans to cut 78 jobs and close weekly newspaper offices in Northern England.

Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary, has spoken out strongly against the threatened job losses and has expressed solidarity with the union’s members.

“Media owners have made hundreds of millions of pounds for after year. Now they are ripping the heart out of papers that are much appreciated by their communities. It’s all about maintaining unrealistically high profit margins.

“From Stockport to Stirling NUJ members, readers and community leaders are banding together to stand up for journalism.

“The NUJ is totally behind these campaigns and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our members in Greater Manchester and Scotland as they fight for their jobs and the souls of their newspapers.”

The NUJ’s position is at odds with the views of media finance expert Richard Wachman. Mr Wachman claimed in his column in this Sunday’s Observer that merging was perhaps to only way to ensure the survival of regional newspapers.

Competition law has traditionally prevented large scale mergers and acquisitions in the newspaper industry. However, experts claim that multiple titles using the same editorial and production resources would allow publishers to reduce overheads and produce more cost-effective and profitable newspapers.

Trinity Mirror has been one of the hardest hit companies in the recent slump in the newspaper market. The publisher has laid off more than 1,400 employees since the beginning of 2008 and has seen ad revenue plunge by over 30% in less than two months.

This week the group also announced that four regional weekly freesheets would cease publication. No job losses are expected, with staff being redeployed to other areas within the organisation.

Filed Under: Economy and Business, Life and Society Tagged With: business7, daily record, glaswegian, industrial action, Journalism, NUJ, strikes, sunday mail, trinity mirror

Strikes Continuing

February 4, 2009 By stewartprimrose Leave a Comment

By Stewart Primrose

A deal to end the wildcat strikes has been rejected by workers at the oil refinery in Lincolnshire.

The offer from employers Total was to recruit around 28% of its workforce from the UK, however, this offer has been dismissed by Union leaders. Talks are set to continue throughout today and both sides hope for a solution.

BBC’s Danny Savage, who is at the site said: “As things stand this protest continues, this dispute is not over.”

Workers are concerned that the sub-contractor, IREM, is looking to save money

by only using foreign workers. The protests are expected to continue across the UK . The workers have stated that

they want proof the migrant workers are on the same pay and conditions as themselves. French contractor, Total, have maintained this is this case.

Derek Simpson, Joint General Secretary of Unite feels that even if the dispute is solved there may be future problems with this situation. “Even if this dispute is settled [there is] still a major problem about how these foreign companies, who win contracts and come complete with a workforce, are going to create other difficulties.

“It will occur again, and I’m sure it will occur in other countries as well unless there’s a realisation that you can’t just

Protesters

use the freedom of labour to the exclusion of indigenous labour.”

The conflict originally began a week ago in North Killingholme, in North Lincolnshire. A contract for work to expand

the refinery was given to IREM, who wish to use foreign workers. Total claim it is not discriminating and the decision to award the contract was a fair one.

Protests have spread to many sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.