Category Archives: Campaigns

Stop bus cuts in the 2013 Spending Round

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The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) is urging people to write to their MPs to stand up for their bus services.

The Government has announced the details of the next Spending Review for 2015/16 budgets, which will be published on 26th June. There are plans for an additional £3bn of capital spending, funded through cuts to revenue spending. The Government’s large capital spending projects on HS2 and toll roads will not provide the boost that is needed right now in local areas. There is a £10.5bn backlog of potholes which have a significant impact on the local economy. The CBT backs a Road Repair and Renewal Fund.

There have already been impacts on bus funding by local councils, with cuts to subsidies and non-statutory public transport provision. The Local Government Association says there is ‘a gap opening up on the demand for services and funding available to provide them’.

This will have an impact particularly on low income earners and families who are already feeling the squeeze on their disposable income. The CBT are campaigning for green transport investments that promotes economic growth and does not have a negative impact on the neediest in society.

You can get further information on how to stop cuts to bus services at the Campaign for Better Transport website.

 

Consultation on Higher Education pay offer

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Please vote above on whether or not to accept the employer’s pay offer of 1%, after reading the following advice from UNISON, by 30th June 2013. This is a consultation exercise – any formal action will require a national ballot of HE members.

We have now received a ‘full and final’ written pay offer from the national employers’ organisation the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).

This consists of a 1% increase to all pay points. The offer also includes continuing work on the recommendations of the equalities working group

UNISON believes that this offer does not reflect the increased cost of living and that this is the fifth consecutive year of minimal pay offers. Inflation is still consistently above 2% and we know that members are facing further real cuts in their standards of living.

For most HE staff the last four settlements have amounted to approximately a 2.2% increase in pay. When the annualised inflation increases (Retail Price Index – RPI) over this period are combined with the forecast RPI rate up to July 2013, cumulative inflation will have increased by approximately 15.5%. The result in real terms is a cut of over 13% in the value of take home pay for some of the lowest paid in the sector

In its review of higher education finance HEFCE reported last year that, ‘the majority of the key financial indicators are the best on record, with the sector reporting strong surpluses, large cash balances and healthy reserve levels.’ We believe that this demonstrates that a decent award is affordable for most institutions.

The offer makes no significant concession towards UNISON’s claim for a living wage for all higher education staff. The Living Wage is not addressed fully in this offer with over 4,000 staff still having incomes below the Living Wage.  More and more funding is coming from non-government sources and settlements in the private sector are averaging around 2.5%.

UNISON believes that the offer is simply too low and we recommend that members reject the offer.

The Higher Education Service Group Executive now believes that this is the end of the road for serious national discussions and so is now consulting with you the members to decide on the next steps.

UCU and EIS have rejected the offer and UCU has decided to invoke the New JNCHES dispute resolution procedure. Unite and GMB are currently consulting on the offer.

UNISON has made it clear that we believe that the current pay policy in higher education is unsustainable. Many of the gains achieved by the implementation of the framework agreement are being lost. Members face greater job insecurity with more demands on flexibility and roles are being gradually being privatised across the sector.

Consistently high inflation has eroded the value of members’ earnings. This cannot be ignored indefinitely by the employers. UNISON believes that pay matters to our members in higher education.

Whilst UNISON has opposed the implementation of the higher fees regime, it is estimated that it may result in a real increase in funding to the HE sector of around 10%. UNISON will continue to campaign to ensure that all staff in the sector benefit from any increase in income. It is UNISON members that work hard to provide a positive experience for students in higher education and they deserve to be valued and rewarded.

 

Put pressure on GAP and Debenhams to sign accord

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The needless deaths of over 1,100 Bangladeshi workers in the Rana Plaza disaster have thrown the spotlight onto UK clothing companies. They need to ensure people making their clothes are able to do so in safety and dignity.

IndustriALL, the global union for garment workers, and UNI-global, representing retail workers, have developed an Accord on Fire and Building Safety.

Over 30 major retailers have signed the Accord, including H&M, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Next, Primark and Tesco. However, a number of High Street brands who manufacture in Bangladesh still haven’t signed. Prominent amongst these are Debenhams and GAP.

Please take a few moments to send an email via the Going to Work website, urging these companies to sign up.

2013 pay campaign

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The University employers’ organisation UCEA have made a “final offer” of a 1% pay increase to Higher Education employees.  UNISON’s Higher Education Service Group Executive have voted to consult our 40,000 members in HE, recommending rejection of the derisory offer with a view to taking industrial action.

The union called on the employers to make an offer that would reflect the high cost of living and the real terms pay cuts that staff have endured in recent years.

UNISON’s head of higher education, Donna Rowe-Merriman, said:

“This offer falls far below what is required to address the gap between incomes and the cost of living. Higher Education workers have been hard hit by year on year real term pay cuts and large numbers still take home poverty pay.

“It is unacceptable that more than 4,000 HE workers across the UK earn below the living wage – the minimum people need to give their families a decent standard of living. HE institutions can apparently afford high salaries for vice chancellors and senior managers, so they can afford to pay the living wage as a bottom rate.

“All staff are under real pressure from employers to be increasingly flexible and work harder every day. They face job insecurity, outsourcing and the increasing use of precarious zero hours contracts and all they get in return is this miserly increase.”