Labour Hub Editors

For united trade union action against pay cuts and the anti-union bill

By Jeff Slee

2023 has started out as 2022 ended, with the biggest strike wave for a generation. The total number of strike days for December (the number of workers on strike multiplied by the number of days they are on strike) was over a million, the highest for any month since July 1989.

Those who took strike action in November and December 2022 included:

  • Nurses, members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN);
  • ambulance workers in the GMB, Unison and Unite unions;
  • teachers in Scotland, members of the Scottish teachers’ union EIS;
  • teaching staff at 150 universities across the UK in UCU – the biggest strike in the history of UK higher education;
  • members of PCS, the main civil service union, working as Border Force, passport and visa staff at airports after 100,000 PCS members working in 214 government departments and other bodies voted for strike action over pay, pensions and jobs;
  • postal workers;
  • rail workers in RMT and ASLEF unions;
  • and bus drivers for Abellio in London.

Strike days have been announced for most of these groups in January. The exceptions are the CWU, which has not announced any further strike days in Royal Mail. The CWU appears to be focused on getting a good Yes vote, to continue the action, in the six month re-ballot they must hold early this year under the anti-union laws. And UCU, where the Higher Education National Committee (HEC) decided on indefinite strike action from February but the General Secretary, Jo Grady, is arguing for ten days of staggered action across February and March.

Among those now voting in strike ballots, with results due out in January, are the NEU and the NASUWT which between them represent the vast majority of teachers in England and Wales, plus the NAHT which is the bigger of the two unions for Head Teachers; junior doctors who are being balloted by the BMA; and fire and rescue workers who are being balloted by the FBU.

Pay and the rising cost of living is the biggest factor – though not the only issue -in the disputes going on.  Average real pay (wages once you take inflation into account) is lower now than it was in 2008. 2023 could see the biggest fall in real wages since the Second World War, unless workers and unions can get pay rises to at least keep up with rising prices. And this comes after over a decade when living standards for most of us have not risen.

Most of the strikes taking place are in the public sector where the Tory government is trying to drive down real wages. In the private sector – where unions are organised, which is a minority of private sector workplaces – they are getting pay rises to match or beat inflation. Private sector companies where unions have recently won double-digit rises include Rolls Royce cars, JCB, Three, and Greencore food processing in Sheffield. Private sector companies seem keen to settle as they face labour shortages after Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

In public transport which does not come directly under the Treasury, wage rises are also being won. Unite has won a 20% rise for West Midlands tram drivers, and rises of between 10% and 20% for Arriva and Stagecoach bus drivers across the country. RMT and ASLEF have gained significant pay rises in Scotrail, Transport for Wales, and some other rail companies.

In local government, the unions accepted a £1,925 pay rise for 2022-23, which is a 10.5% rise for the lowest paid staff and 4% for the highest paid.

For co-ordination of disputes and campaigns

The best way to win pay rises and push back the attack on jobs and conditions across all sectors is for trade unions to co-ordinate our actions. You don’t have to follow the calls from some for a ‘general strike’ to realise that if all unions with disputes over pay and other issues were to stage a strike together, with rallies in towns and cities across the country, we would land a heavy blow on the government and reluctant employers. In unity, as we all know, is strength.

Last October’s TUC conference carried at least four resolutions – moved by Unison, Unite, NEU and EIS – calling for co-ordination of disputes and campaigns for pay rises. But since then, there have been no clear signs of co-ordination even between different unions in the same sector, let alone across industrial sectors.

For example, in the NHS ambulance workers are represented by Unite, Unison, and GMB. The three unions then held a strike jointly in those trusts where they had a legal mandate to do so on 21st December (in many Trusts no union got over the legal threshold laid down under the anti-union laws). Now Unison and GMB ambulance members, but not Unite, will be on strike on 11th January. And Unison and Unite ambulance members, but not GMB, will be on strike on 23rd January.  Members of all three unions should be pressing their union leaders to act together. And the strikes of ambulance workers are taking place separately from those called by the RCN.

In the rail industry, RMT and ASLEF are pursuing separate disputes. RMT is in dispute over pay and threats to jobs and conditions with Network Rail and the 14 Train Operating Companies that come under the Department for Transport. ASLEF do not have members in Network Rail but are in dispute over pay alone with the same 14 TOCs. The two unions do not appear to be co-ordinating their campaigns. And the government has played up the decisions by the smaller rail unions TSSA (which has mainly managerial and higher grade railworkers) and Unite (which has a small number of members in rail engineering) to settle their disputes.

There is much better co-ordination between education unions. The NEU, NASUWT, and NAHT unions are co-ordinating their pay campaigns, have issued joint publicity to their members, and their ballots close within a few days of each other this month. But teaching assistants and other school support staff are divided between Unison, GMB, Unite, and NEU, and the unions accepted a one-year pay deal for 2022 of between 10% for the lowest paid and 4% for the higher paid of these workers.

Trade unionists in all unions in dispute, or with ballots going on, should be pushing their union leaderships to co-ordinate and coincide their actions and to put into practice the good resolutions calling for co-ordination that were carried at the TUC. In the public sector especially the Tories want to cut real wages: we need a united response.

A united response from the trade union movement is also needed to oppose the Tories’ latest proposal to further extend the anti-union laws. The new TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, has said the TUC will oppose this through parliamentary means and through the courts. Which they should, but we also need preparation for mobilising popular protest and union action to prevent this law coming in.

Jeff Slee is an RMT member.

Image: NHS demonstration in London, December 2022, c/o Mike Phipps