3 STRIKES

A very busy week last week due to work and other commitments, however, i thought i would use today's blog to highlight 3 main Industrial Disputes that are happening/due to happen shortly.......

STRIKE 1

The Communication Workers Union are today pondering further Industrial Action after having undertaken 2 days of strike action already.
The source of this Dispute as my friend Neil McDonagh quite rightly says is with the Westminster Government and the Post Office management.
The beginning of the Post Offices problems was the decision by New Labour to Implement the EU Directive 2 years Early, allowing European competitors to undercut prices, thus allowing the attack of the universal Postal system.
Another reason was the Westminster Governments stupid decision to take Government Business away from Crown and Sub-Post Offices i.e. State Pensions, T.V.Licensing etc.
This affects the most vulnerable in society who rely on Post Offices. The fact that the Westminster Government is the biggest shareholder makes these decisions defy belief, and the Government should give up profits from the Post Office coffers.

The other issue is the blatant asset stripping Management style led by Alan Crozier and Alan Leighton, only a few years ago the Post Office had 230,000 workers, now down to 130,000 with a proposal to reduce this further to 90,000. In addition cuts to allowances and other conditions have caused the current dispute.
This of course makes the Post Office ripe for privatisation and the Government must now come clean as whether the Post Office remains a Public Service or not. This issue affects all our communities, and deserves to be a major election issue for the next Westminster election.

STRIKE 2.....

As per my previous post on saving the Herald, sister organ the Evening Times has announced "unnecessary compulsory redundancy notices" according to our Friends in the NUJ. NUJ members in the Newsquest chapel have voted overwhelmingly to undertake Industrial Action.

The unnecessary actions of the Evening Times editor are highlighted with an extraordinary decision to block Evening times staff to transfer to other titles, with a view to keeping them employed by the company.

Newsquest are currently seeking budget cuts of £3 million.

SNP MP Pete Wishart revealed only last week that only a technicality is preventing the Competition Commission from re-opening its inquiry into the Newsquest takeover, as the inquiry is now over 3 years old, as it is clear that Newsquests commitments to the Commission have not been kept too. Undoubtedly, this technicality is the ultimate get out of jail free card.

More info on the dispute and the campaign to re-open the commission can be found at http://www.nujglasgow.org.uk/


STRIKE 3...............

600 Social Care Workers in Glasgow will undertake indefinite strike action, due to the Council's approach to its Single Status appeals mechanism. These workers some of whom are facing a potential cut of £5000 a year will begin action next Monday 23/7/07, after over 84% voted yes to undertake the action. In addition to this many Unison activists within Social work are concerned at the increasing number of agency staff being recruited to cover work, with the suggestion that this is being done to bust the strike, a measure that could be legally challengable. This could get ugly very quickly....

This news comes only days after the discovery that the last Executive did not spend £1.5 Billion of its allocated money from the Treasury. Unquestionably some of this money could have been used to fund equal pay within Local Government, the only part of the Public Sector not too receive Government assistance.


All these events demonstrate in my view why we need new, and fairer laws to protect workers. The UK currently has the least protection than any other worker in Western Europe.

Finally am I alone in thinking that New Labours obsession with letting the market decide events is what is leading to its ultimate downfall?