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Cleaners at La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School in south London were striking on 5th & 7th July alongside teaching staff who are members of the NEU. The cleaners, who work for an outsourcing company, are members of the UVW union and are striking over the sacking and suspensions of their colleagues and the backtracking by the employer on a previous agreement over redundancies. Bosses are planning to change the cleaners working hours which the union says will lead to job losses. Union members at the School are also demanding that their colleague be reinstated after she was fired without due process or right of appeal and that three other members are compensated for being unfairly suspended. 

One of the suspended workers said: 

“The change in hours is disastrous for me because I’m a single mother with two teenagers and I can’t finish work at 7pm to arrive home by 9pm having to get up the following morning at 4am to go to work. All of this has caused me a lot of anxiety and all I want is justice. I am fighting for our rights because we, the cleaners, are human beings, we are people, not the dirt we clean. We are entitled to fight for our rights.”

Bristol Council face Waste strike

Unite the union members working for Bristol Waste are to go on strike from 10th July for 7 days and then escalate the action to 14 days from 24th July if there isn’t a significantly improved pay offer the union has announced. Bristol Waste, which provides waste and recycling services for Bristol Council, made a gross profit of £2.3 million last year yet has only offered their staff a pay award well below inflation. According to the union many of the workers employed by Bristol Waste earn just above the minimum wage, and yet despite millions of pounds of profits bosses have so far only offered a pay award of 7% or £2000, whichever is greater for their salary. This is well below the current rate of inflation (RPI) of 11.3%.

Unite regional officer Ken Fish said:

“The responsibility for this dispute and the disruption it will cause lies entirely at the door of Bristol Waste and the council. The strikes can still be avoided but the company must come back with a pay offer our members can accept.”

Manchester bus drivers: Not falling for that trick

Bus drivers for First Group in Manchester have taken strike action this week against pay deal that has been “cunningly” designed to deny them back-pay. Although the employer claims to have offered 15.2% rise, the increase is split across two instalments, in a pathetic bid to fail to pay up what’s been negotiated. The private bus operator his hugely profitable and getting more so, as more people are taking the bus as a cheaper option for travel.

Continued conflict on rail

Drivers’ union Aslef are using action short of a strike, namely an overtime ban, to make a huge impact on train services throughout Britain in their ongoing battle against inflation wage cuts. The drivers have been offered 4% and the employers, likely at the direct instruction of government, continue to refuse to meaningfully negotiate.

Meanwhile, the other rail unions RMT and TSSA are likely to forced into a huge confrontation as the government has announced that train station ticket offices are effectively being abolished. Claims by employers that this will not result in staff cuts are being dismissed as spin by the unions.

Not marking time: keep the employers on the run

The industrial action by academic staff needs to be maintained and extended to win our demands, say Counterfire UCU members

St Mungo’s workers stand strong

Watch Shabbir Lakha’s interview with Laura, a St Mungo’s worker on indefinite strike

Striking teachers march on Parliament

Orlando Hill reports from the NEU national strike day demonstration