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In total, 96% of the 35,000 teachers balloted in Scotland rejected a 5% pay offer negotiated by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Scottish government.
Proposed strike action on the railways was suspended last week as the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) trade union puts a new pay offer to its members to vote on. The RMT has secured proposed pay increases of up to 8.5%.
Meanwhile, some nurses have voted to go on strike. Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) trade union rejected the Scottish government’s flat rate pay offer of £2,205 backdated to April. This was the first time the RCN had balloted its 300,000 UK members in over a century. Unison Scotland is consulting its health worker members on the current pay deal.
Other workers who’ve voted to strike include university staff, postal workers at the Royal Mail, oil workers and funeral care staff.
In the case of universities, Unison members at the University of Glasgow ended their industrial action last week after securing pay deals between 6 and 12.9%, while other university disputes ensue.
Our winter of industrial discontent makes you appreciate the importance and value of trade unions.
With inflation at just over 10%, the pound in your pay packet is now worth 90p. With that 90p you have to pay for household essentials that have all risen exponentially in price – food,
rent, mortgage, heating and travel costs.
People are going on strike because they are between a rock and a hard place financially. Many Members of Parliament at Westminster don’t get this because their salaries have risen by 28% since 2010.
Compare that to average civil service workers who’ve received cumulative pay awards of 12% in the same period. Most civil servants aren’t permitted to take on second jobs, which is common place for many MPs with paid consultancies, directorships and assorted financial perks.
Spare a thought for other workers in the voluntary and private sectors who haven’t seen a pay rise in years.
What sticks in the craw are the constant attacks on trade unions by financially cushioned Tory MPs, and if I’m candid, the deathly silence of the leader of the opposition when it comes to defending striking workers.
UK government attacks on trade unions have been squalid and shameful.
In July, MPs voted through The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022.
This change in the law allows employers to use agency workers to fill staffing gaps caused by industrial strike action.
Consider the pejorative and nonsensical justification for this change by failed Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, the man who almost imploded the UK’s economy along with the hapless PM, Liz Truss.
When Mr Kwarteng was Business Secretary in July he said: “In light of militant trade union action threatening to bring vital public services to a standstill, we have moved at speed to repeal these burdensome, 1970s-style restrictions”.
Then Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps MP said at the time: “While next week’s rail strikes will come too soon to benefit from this legislation, it’s an important milestone reflecting the government’s determination to minimise the power of union bosses”.
“For too long unions have been able to hold the country to ransom with the threat of industrial action but this vital reform means any future strikes will cause less disruption and allow hardworking people to continue with their day to day lives.”
This is dishonest guff. Industrial action has never been more regulated in the UK. No strike can take place without a ballot of workers in accordance with strict legal requirements. Any action has to be democratic.
Only where a ballot produces a majority in favour of industrial action and at least 50% of those eligible to vote have voted will strike action be lawful.
For important public services, at least 40% of those eligible to vote must have voted to support the action.
The right to withdraw labour is all that a worker has at the end of the day. It’s a fundamental human right that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has repeatedly upheld.
In Ognevenko v. Russia (2019) 69 EHRR 9 the ECHR held that the dismissal of a train driver for taking part in a strike had given rise to a breach of his right to freedom of association under article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The pernicious rhetoric against trade unions and workers taking strike action has to stop. It ill becomes any politician to engage in such bilge. If anything, the lesson must be if you’re not in a trade union join one today.
