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Escalating strikes
can beat the Tories
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PCS250714
T
he STRIKe ON 10 JULY united 1.4
million teachers, school support
staff, council workers, frefghters,
and civil service workers and put the
possibility of serious resistance to Tory
austerity back on the agenda.
600,000 local government workers in
Unison will now strike again on Tuesday
30 September, just over two weeks before
what can be a huge Britain Needs a Pay
Rise demonstration, called by the TUC, on
Saturday 18 October.
Hundreds of thousands of health workers
will now also be balloted for strikes in
October. Firefghters in the FBU will this
week discuss their next steps following their
latest action which saw eight days of short
duration strikes. Teachers in the NUT will
be consulted over further action after the
school holidays.
Its good that we are seeing more action
by the PCS now too. A series of group
disputes over job cuts, privatisation and
pay are seeing an escalation of strikes. The
Passport service, the MoJ and HMRC are
all seeing strikes this week.
The crisis that exists in the passport
service is plain for all to see. The chickens
have come home to roost following
continual job cuts.
Passport
The reality is that 700 job losses have led to
a backlog of 500,000 passport applications
The organisation is attempting to deal
with this crisis through overtime and the
increasing use of the private sector to deal
with the problems that they have created.
HMPO workers are some of the lowest
paid in the Civil Service, their pay in some
cases lags behind other Home Offce
workers to the tune of 3,000 a year.
Some passport offce workers would
need to work an extra 48 days per year to
earn the same amount as other workers in
the rest of the Home Offce.
Passport Offce workers are demanding a
passport to a fair deal:
A pay increase bringing HMPO workers
pay into line with the rest of the Home
Offce and Civil Service.
An end to privatisation.
More jobs to ensure that they can deliver
their service.
MoJ staff in Bootle are striking for 6 days
from 24 July with Newport staff (currently
working to rule with an overtime ban), due
to join them on 31 July over the sell off of
their jobs to a private company who have
indicated they wish to offshore the work.
Mass pickets are expected at the Newport
offce as the MoJ plan to ship payroll work
from Bootle to Newport.
Victories
Union members from across the MoJ are
expected to join the Newport picket line
to both prevent the mail from getting in as
well as to enforce the overtime ban.
In HMRC, PCS members are set to take
further strike action around 31 July and
throughout the summer in a dispute around
the massive job losses, offce closures,
changes to T&Cs and privatisation.
On 30 June HMRC closed the doors on
all 281 public enquiry centres meaning that
members of the public are no longer able to
get face to face advice.
Victories are possiblewe can make the
employers back down. In the Land Registry
a public campaign and a strike in May
halted plans to privatise the service.
And in HMRC the latest action comes
after a series of rolling regional strikes at
the end of June. The strikes resulted in the
HMRC fnding funding to make 2,100 fxed
term staff who were facing redundancy,
permanent.
The staff, who still face massive threats
not just to their jobs but also to the services
they provide, hope that this further round
of strikes will force management to think
again.
We should take heart from Michael
Goves departure from the Department for
Education. The Tories cant just have things
their own way. Teachers strikes were at the
centre of booting him out the door!
Where possible group action needs to
be coordinated to have the biggest possible
impact and the PCS needs to ensure that
it is at the centre of national coordinated
strikes in the autumn.
Escalating strikes can turn the tide in the
fght against the Tories.
Land Registry shows strikes can win...
Striking back wins