Leicester Archives: The care workers dispute 2000
WORKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD SUPPORT THE CARE WORKERS STRIKE
Rally success. Update 20/2/00
Around 400 Careworkers from Leicestershire and supporters who are striking against loss of weekend pay enhancements marched from County Hall on Sunday, the first day of a three-day strike.
The mood was summed up by placards referring to the chair of Social services and other councillors as "Harry Barber and his 40 thieves"!
At the rally at the end, Joy Alleston the strike co-ordinator read out letters of support from Australia, Canada, Belgium, New York, Israel and the Philippines, along with greetings from around the country including Nottingham, Lambeth, Brighton and Derbyshire.
At the rally Jean Thorpe, from Unison's National Executive Committee and National Chair of the CFDU, spoke in support of the strikers. She told the meeting it was right that the stewards themselves were leading the strike. Other members around the country who could be facing the same attacks as them were watching their strike. But these groups of workers need to be linked up regionally and nationally to fight the employers attacks.
One of the County Councillors, speaking in a personal capacity told the rally that the money is there: Social Services have a massive budget underspend this year. Care workers could lose up to £1800 a year out of their already low wages, yet councillors have increased their expenses by £300,000 a year.
There were many other speakers, all of who pointed out how wrong the employers were to think that as a group of low paid women they would be an easy target. Three weeks into the dispute the workers are solid and there are proposals now for a 7-day strike. Tracey, who works at Hadrian House, told the Socialist: "I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be on a picket line. Some of the staff have been there 20 years. We don't want to work unsociable hours, we have to leave our families to work at weekends. For a while now we've been short staffed, 2 staff looking after 41 residents and this is how they treat us. This is the year 2000 we should be moving forward not backward, we will fight all the way, whatever is necessary".
This is the third round of strikes. The proposed 7-day strike should go ahead along with lobbying local councillors as well as BUPA and Agencies who are sending workers to scab. What's needed now is a co-ordinated national strategy to defend the wages and conditions of care workers facing similar attacks around the country.
Messages of support and donations to the hardship fund to: - Leicestershire County UNISON Branch, County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester.
Or email
leicestershire@unisonfree.net
Update: 11/2/00 Care strike strengthens:
Support the March and Rally 20 February.
"It's a joke" - "insult" were some of the comments made at a mass rally of 300 Leicestershire Careworkers to the 'buy out' (compensation) offers they'd received from management. Care workers are striking against the loss of their weekend pay enhancements, which for some could mean losing up to £1800 a year. "They've offered me just £49.10. 18 years working in the home care service is worth nothing to them, we're not striking for extra, just to keep what we have" said one worker. Some workers got up in the rally to show what they thought of their 'buy outs' by ripping them up.
Their strike co-ordinator Joy Alleston told them that despite bad weather, management bullying and at one home trying to run the women over, that the 22 picket lines had been brilliantly successful.
Management tactics, such as threats of privatisation and the 'buy out' letters have backfired on them and the mass meeting voted overwhelmingly for further strike action.
The strike has been boosted by over a 100 workers have joined the union since the ballot and will joining the others on the picket lines next three days strike starting 6:30 am Sunday 20th February.
This has been despite the role of regional officials. At the mass meeting the regional officer was introduced as being their to explain their 'cock-up's. He had, wrongly, been arguing that those joining the union since the ballot could not strike. This follows the regional office's attempt to suspend the strike in favour of binding arbitration without consulting the strikers themselves. The workers now intend to take control of their strike and are setting up a strike committee with representatives from all the homes and the home care workers.
They know workers around the country are watching them as many are threatened with the similar attacks. A rally has been organised for Sunday 20th February they are calling on trade unionist from around the country to support it - be there! Details to be announced on our events page
3/2/00: Strike to go ahead despite attempts to call it off by regional office
Residential & Home Care workers were furious at a meeting held last week after Regional officials suspended their strike. This was to be the first day of a 48 hour strike following a successful one day strike last week against the loss of weekend enhanced pay resulting from single status. 300 workers told a regional official exactly what they thought of the suspension of their strike and the proposal to take the dispute to binding arbitration at ACAS. Without any consultation they were told the day before it had been suspended. The branch office received a copy of the regions letter to the Director of Social Services giving commitment to arbitration and explaining their intention to recommend the suspension of the strike at the same time the managers did. Not even the stewards or convenor had been told.
In response to the officer's attempt to tell them that although they had a good days strike last time they would soon weaken and it was only to get management to the table, one worker told him, "your the weak one, we're solid". An indication of the affects of the strike was the fact that managers were bringing in BUPA nurses on £14 an hour to cover shifts, "how long could they keep this up" remarked one worker. There were some reports of managers attempting to intimidate workers by threatening privatisation of their jobs. Another asked if the 'suits' at ACAS would understand that her kids are at home at the weekend and a Saturday and Sunday is not a normal working day". It was quite clear from the number of contributions, that they were not going to trust a few officials to negotiate for them, "it's a member led union and we're the members". The actions of the regional office only goes to show how right Roger Bannister, standing for the General Secretary of UNISON, is in his call for the election of all union officials on a workers wage.
After a heated debate the meeting overwhelmingly rejected arbitration and agreed to go ahead with next weeks 3 day strike on 10th, 11th & 12th February.
Donations and letters of support to: Leicestershire County UNISON Branch
Branch Office, County Hall, Glenfield,
Leicester. LE3 8RN.
Tel: 0116 2656153 Fax: 0116 2656151
"WE'RE GOING to be losing a
lot of money- about £1,200 a year lower wages. Everybody
across the board will be losing.
We were at the Limes this morning,
a residential home in Hinckley and asked the people to
beep their car horns if they supported us. Eventually,
people across the road were complaining of the noise
because everyone was beeping their horns as they went by.
Even a police car he put his siren in support of us.
They're actually bringing in the
private sector to cover us, at £13 an hour. So if they
can afford to pay agency workers, they can afford to pay
local government workers.
I've been on home care now for 15
years and I have never, never known us to go on strike.
This is a last resort. This is how strongly we feel about
it. It's not going to stop here. It's going to go all the
way along the line."
MARGARET, Leicester care worker
LEICESTERSHIRE HOME
Care & Residential workers are determined not to
accept a single status agreement which could mean a loss
of up to £1,800 a year. Last Saturday they covered 25
picket lines and held two rallies to prove their point.
Their one-day strike was
well supported by the public and other council workers
who brought along bacon butties, tea and coffee. A mother
and son passing by read the workers' leaflet and returned
ten minutes later with a pack of biscuits.
Some managers tried
telling the workers that the strike would have no impact
and they would manage fine without them. Yet, reports of
agency workers refusing to cross the picket line and even
managers bringing in their teenage children to help run
the homes tells another story.
Each rally was attended
by around 200 workers and supporters. As one steward said:
"This action is a last resort, we don't want to
strike, some of my women were crying yesterday when they
left work, they care about the residents, and because we're
a public service were the best carers" . This shows
it's not just about protecting their pay and conditions
but saving public services like this from the private
sector.
Convenor Joy Alleston
told the rally that this could just be the beginning and
added that they would not be sold out, it was care
workers who would be negotiating with management on
Monday. If the bosses were not prepared to give back
weekend pay enhancements they would issue notice for
another day's strike for next Monday (31 January).
+ Letters of support
and donations: Leicestershire County Branch of UNISON,
Room 419, County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8RN.
20/1/2000:
Care workers' strike against pay cuts.
County Council care
workers are on strike In Leicestershire on Saturday 22
January after an 86.7% vote to take action. UNISON
Steward, Linda Broadley, spoke at a meeting
in Leicester organised to Support Roger Bannister's
campaign for General Secretary:
"When the Single
Status agreement went through, we were promised it would
not affect pay. But we are now being told that to pay for
a reduction in hours, we have to lose our enhanced
weekend pay. This is a big cut. I personally could lose
£1800 a year. When we rejected this, they offered us one
year's loss of earnings in compensation. But what happens
after a year? Anyway, when we looked at what they were
offering it was well below a year's losses, mine would
have been about £300.
The management tried to
impose the deal on us and issued everyone with new
contracts. But the members' response was an 87% vote for
strike action. We will not accept anything less than our
enhanced payments back. There has been a large number of
people joining UNISON over the last couple of months. We
are setting up 25 pickets and Saturday and holding a mass
rally. We have support from families, it is in the
interests of the people we care for to have properly
trained and paid care workers."
Socialist Party member Roger
Bannister is
standing in an election for the General secretary of
UNISON, Britain's biggest union. He is the candidate
backed by the Campaign for a fighting Democratic UNISON,
a broad left group fighting to change the union.
Balloting is currently taking place. He is standing on a
programme of national action to defend jobs and services:
Roger Bannister says:
* I will not take
the £74,000 General Secretary's salary
but will live on a workers wage.* National
action to defend jobs & services - an
end to PFI/Best Value
* End low pay, for
a minimum wage of at least £5 per hour
with no exemptions
* Bring back
into public ownership the privatised
utilities and services
* Repeal the anti-union
laws, defy them when necessary in defence
of members' interests
* Opening up the
political fund so that the union can
support candidates whose policies
genuinely defend our interests
* Not a penny of
UNISON money to New Labour councillors
and MP's who attack our jobs and
conditions
* Fight
discrimination - Defend self organisation
* End the attacks
on union activists - lift the branch
suspensions
* Election of
all UNISON officials on a workers wage
Roger Bannister has been
nominated for General Secretary by 67 branches - 9 in the
East Midlands. Balloting for members starts on 22nd
January until 18th February - if you want a General
Secretary to represent you, vote for Roger Bannister.
If you'd
like to help with the campaign
contact
Josie Nicholls on 0116 223 0534
Postscript: The dispute was ended when the care workers eventually agreed to go to binding arbitration, as had been pushed for by the UNISON regional office from the start. Although the arbitrators ordered that the pay cuts are withdrawn during the current financial year, our understanding is that it could all start again when the financial year is over......
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