Only one ingredient is missing in the great public sector pay disputes – the members...
Fighting by numbers
WORKERS, JULY 2008 ISSUE
The First World War was described as war by railway timetable in that once the order to mobilise had gone out and the troop trains had started to roll, then the war was supposedly unstoppable. The looming dispute over pay in local government has all the hallmarks of slow motion painting by numbers.
The difference between the First World War catastrophe and the present painting by numbers dispute is that the latter has one ingredient missing: where are the troops?
Unison has achieved a majority position for a dispute on a 27 per cent turnout, leave aside the question of the 73 per cent of those unwilling, unable, unconcerned enough not to bother returning their ballot paper. So local government will see a two-day stoppage on 16 and 17 July. Will Unite join in? Its original consultative ballot was as poor as Unison's and hostile to taking action but there is the possibility to join with Unison in July. The GMB has indicated it will accept the offer.
Given all the factors for why there should be a pay fight – rising inflation, dropping living standards, costs of daily essentials soaring and so forth – why has there been such a failure to capture the hearts and minds, the enthusiasm, the willingness to fight from amongst the members? While tubs are thumped and sabres are rattled across numerous trade union head offices and bunkers of so-called activists, no one seems to be paying them a great deal of attention and nobody seems to be paying any attention to the membership.
Needed: guerrilla campaigns
No one is addressing questions of tactics other than tokenistic strike action – and if London is the model for the rest of England and Wales then picketing only occurs between 8 and 10 in the morning. So genteel. There is no thought of a protracted campaign of guerrilla action, utilising the strengths and tactical ingenuity of the members, no attempt to engage the members as participants and owners of the dispute: just painting by numbers and a "we've always done it this way" mentality.
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Coventry, 2005: the issue of pay won't go away.
Photo: Workers |
Unison needs to have the strike before the end of the school term because the almost sole remaining industrial muscle or rather public perception that there is a dispute is to close the schools. There are those whose perception of a strategy across the public sector unions is to try and co-ordinate unified days of action – teachers, civil servants, rail workers, further and higher education, local government workers et al.
The bringing down of Gordon Brown's public sector income strategy is seen as sure to follow, with lots of backslapping and memories of the 1970s. The sham and charade of such wistful thinking is that it is playing games. It's not about seizing the bakery or even insisting on an additional slice of the loaf. And how many would-be Thatchers are waiting in Brown's shadows?
What after the 16 and 17 July? The summer break will intervene, at least giving 6 weeks or so to think hard. Or go to sleep like the NUT after its one-day strike in April. Could it be that one of the lowest public sector pay offers made to local government workers is based upon how they are held in almost total contempt by the government and local government employers' organisations?
Health
Despite Unite promising to go it alone while ignoring their own previous indication that they had already accepted the government's 2.75 per cent offer before Unison went out to ballot, the three-year deal for over a million health workers, including its inflation re-opener clause, is now a fact of life.
The role Unite is playing in health is deeply cynical – posturing to be seen as the 'Left' trade union in order to poach members from all other health trade unions – and truly pariah.
Both courses of action will expose the largest trade union merger strategy in recent years as sectarian, flawed and divisive. Perhaps the Unite tanker drivers could advise their health colleagues on unity and principle?
Further education
Negotiations in further education for support staff continue. The unions involved rejected a 2.5 per cent offer: an improved offer worth between 3.2 to 4.2 per cent is now being consulted upon.