Action by Terminal 5 security guards to take place on 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 25, 26 and 27 May in dispute over pay
Security staff at Heathrow airport are to strike on eight days next month in a dispute over pay.
The action by members of the Unite union will take place on 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 25, 26 and 27 May, and follow strikes over Easter.
Continue reading...High-risk tactic increases likelihood of combined stoppages by nurses and junior doctors in England
Rishi Sunak appears set on trying to face down unions in a high-risk strategy to tough out a renewed wave of NHS strikes in England that health service leaders warned were unsustainable and could put patient safety at risk.
With the prime minister and his health secretary, Steve Barclay, seemingly offering no fresh concessions for nurses or junior doctors, they risk the possibility of combined strike action, a scenario one NHS leader said would put the health service “into uncharted territory”.
Continue reading...Workers gather at picket line on Sunday in ongoing demand for pay increase from £11 to £15 an hour
Workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have begun a fresh round of strike action in a dispute about pay during the cost of living crisis.
GMB union members are planning three days of strikes at the huge Coventry centre, known as BHX4, from Sunday 16 to Tuesday 18 April, to be followed by three further days, from 21 to 23 April.
Continue reading...Campaigners, unions and MPs raise concerns about surveillance and use of ‘management by algorithm’
Campaigners, trade unions and MPs are calling for stricter oversight of the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, amid growing concerns about its effect on staff rights.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is holding a half-day conference on Tuesday to highlight the challenges of ensuring workers are treated fairly, as what it calls “management by algorithm” becomes increasingly prevalent.
Continue reading...Agreement in principle follows strikes and 11 months of negotiations over pay, jobs and conditions
Royal Mail and union leaders have reached an agreement in principle after 11 months of negotiations in a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Royal Mail said it had reached a negotiators’ agreement with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the details of which will be made public once it has been ratified by the union’s executive committee, which is expected to take place next week.
Continue reading...Doctors could join coordinated strike as Royal College of Nurses announce national ballot on mass action
England’s biggest nursing union is to ballot its members on whether to join a “make or break” mega-strike that would lead to mass action by nurses in every hospital trust in the country, the Observer can reveal.
The move by the Royal College of Nursing to “up the ante” by holding a single national vote – rather than conducting ballots in each individual trust as it did last October – would, if passed, mean twice as many trusts being hit by industrial action by nurses as have been so far.
Continue reading...NHS leader says threat of joint strike with junior doctors could pose hardest challenge yet
A 48-hour nurses’ strike in England in May will present “severe challenges”, and the threat of coordinated industrial action with junior doctors could pose the “most difficult challenge” to date, an NHS boss has said.
Speaking after a four-day junior doctors’ strike ended at 7am on Saturday, Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said fresh strike action announced by the Royal College of Nursing from 30 April until 2 May, and the possibility of stoppages continuing into next winter, was “extremely worrying and concerning”.
Continue reading...RCN members refuse offer recommended by union leaders by 54% to 46% in ballot
Nurses are to launch fresh strike action across England later this month after rejecting the government’s pay offer, sparking fears stoppages could go on until Christmas.
In a major blow to ministers, union leaders and health service bosses, members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) voted narrowly, by 54% to 46%, on a turnout of 61%, to reject the government’s offer of a 5% pay rise this year and a cash payment for last year.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story here
Nurses in England are preparing to go on strike until Christmas after members of the country’s biggest nursing union voted against the government’s pay deal, the Guardian has learned.
The Royal College of Nursing will announce that members have rejected the government’s offer and will at the same time announce a new ballot for more aggressive strikes likely to last for the next six months.
The vote has closed and the figures are being verified. There is no result until that point. We will make an announcement later today and tell our members first.
Members of the GMB union at the company’s Coventry fulfilment centre will walk out on Sunday for three days.
Further strikes are planned from April 21 to 23.
Continue reading...Government’s limiting of average pay rise to between 4.5% and 5% prompts fresh strike dates and possible FDA ballot
The UK’s most senior civil servants could take their first strike action in more than a decade after ministers imposed an average pay rise of between 4.5% and 5%, in a move described as “unconscionable” by union leaders.
The Cabinet Office published pay remit guidance limiting awards to an average of 4.5%, plus an additional 0.5% for the lowest pay bands.
Continue reading...Rejection of pay deal underlines nurses’ fury at state of health service as RCN’s handling of dispute is questioned
Friday’s announcement by the Royal College of Nursing that its members had rejected the pay offer on the table for NHS workers dashed any remaining hopes in Downing Street of drawing a neat line under months of debilitating strike action across the public sector.
As nurses kicked off the first strike action in the RCN’s history before Christmas, the union was demanding a pay rise of 19%. In January, its general secretary, Pat Cullen, urged the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to “meet me halfway here”, and conceded that 10% might be acceptable.
Continue reading...Move of London’s live broadcast centre to Doha could involve dozens of job losses
Al Jazeera English plans to close its live broadcast centre that operates from London’s Shard skyscraper and move programming to Qatar, with the possible loss of dozens of UK-based jobs.
In an email to staff, the network’s managing director, Giles Trendle, said Al Jazeera was “looking to undertake a restructure involving the move of AJE live programming to Doha. The move would include the news bulletins between 1900GMT and 2300GMT produced from London, and The Stream programme produced from Washington DC.”
Continue reading...Conciliation service urged to look for ways to end logjam with government over demand for 35% pay rise
The junior doctors’ union has asked the conciliation service Acas to look into ways of breaking the deadlock in their dispute with the government over their claim for a 35% pay rise.
Tens of thousands of junior doctors in England are on the second day of a four-day strike in pursuit of their campaign to achieve “full pay restoration” after a significant loss of earnings since 2008-09. It is expected that up to 350,000 appointments and operations could be cancelled as a result.
Continue reading...With real pay down 26% since 2008 and demoralised workplaces, medics are striking not out of militancy but from deep-rooted frustration
A four-day strike this week by junior doctors in England will pit angry medics keen to secure a 35% pay rise against government ministers who scorn their demands.
The walkout from Tuesday morning to Saturday morning will be the most disruptive in the 75-year history of the NHS.
Continue reading...Dr Patrick Roach of NASUWT calls on education secretary Gillian Keegan to reopen pay talks
Ministers could avoid teachers’ strikes in England this summer if they make an improved pay offer as good as that made to NHS nurses, the leader of one teaching union has proposed.
Dr Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT union, called on the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, to reopen talks to allow pay negotiations to continue, saying strikes were “not inevitable” if a better deal could be reached.
Continue reading...NASUWT general secretary said ministers ‘not serious about compromising’ in last month’s talks
Ministers are treating teachers in England with contempt if they refuse to renegotiate their “miserable” pay offer, according to a teaching union leader who fears the government wants to “walk away” after only six days of talks.
Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said the government insisted on using forecasts of very low inflation next year to justify its pay offer and was “not serious about compromising” during negotiations last month.
Continue reading...NEU survey also finds one in five teachers aged 29 or under have taken on a second job as pay fails to keep up with cost of living
One in three young teachers in England are skipping meals and spending less on food because their pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living, while others are taking second jobs, a survey has found.
More than 8,000 state school teachers in England contacted by the National Education Union revealed that 34% of teachers aged 29 or younger said they have been forced to skip meals to make ends meet, with one in five saying they have taken on a second job in addition to teaching full-time.
Continue reading...Exclusive: leading heart surgeons urge BMA to exempt staff working on critical care units in England
Critically ill patients “will inevitably die” because hospitals are having to cancel surgery as a direct result of next week’s junior doctors’ strike in England, leading heart surgeons have warned.
There were bound to be fatalities among people with serious heart problems whose precarious health meant they were “a ticking timebomb” and needed surgery as soon as possible, they said.
Continue reading...NUJ members’ 24-hour stoppage on 5 May will coincide with the reporting of poll results
BBC journalists in England have announced a second 24-hour strike, to run from midnight on 5 May to coincide with the reporting of local election results, in a dispute over cuts to local radio.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the broadcaster’s management want local radio stations to share programmes across the network from 2pm on weekdays and at weekends, going from more than 100 hours of local programming on every station each week down to 40.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Diane Abbott says Miliband and Keir Starmer have given different reasons for Corbyn’s ban
Nadia Whittome, the leftwing Labour MP, has said this morning that she hopes the party’s national executive committee throws out the motion that would ban Jeremy Corbyn from being a candidate for the party.
Labour has now sent out the full text of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Green Alliance this morning. We have already covered the main points (here and at 10.55am), but it was a substantial, serious speech, and here are some futher things he said.
Miliband confirmed that Labour would issue no more licence for oil and gas fields in the North Sea. This is from my colleague Fiona Harvey.
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