Care Workers Strike in Southampton over the weekend

Went to visit the picket line Saturday. Good response from Unison and TGWU members. The Council (Lib/Lab/Con 15 seats each) are falling over themselves to save money with the Tories as usual excelling themselves to privatise everything and anything that moves. Labour councillors are shruging their shoulders exclaiming that they have to set a budget by law so therefore difficult choices have to be made.
You will note that as usual the weakest section of the workforce are being picked on.
Please note that rumour has it the local Unison leadership had to be kicked into organising some sort of action.
The TGWU have been heavily recruiting amongst this section of vulnerable workers.

City care workers' 72-hour strike

The council said care would only be minimally affected during the strikeCare workers in Southampton have begun a strike over "savage" pay cuts.
The three-day action, due to start at midnight, comes in response to plans to replace extra pay for working unsocial hours with a general pay rise.
Unison said Southampton City Council had threatened to sack workers who refused the cuts of up to £7,000 a year which come into effect on 18 February.
The council said the care service would be lost to private contractors unless cuts were made.
It said the current enhanced payments for unsocial hours were above industry standard - something it must address in order to remain cost-efficient.
They will not be blackmailed into accepting pay cuts of up to £7,000 a year
Mike Tucker, Unison
Unison said workers voted eight-to-one in favour of the strike action against the "savage wage cuts".
Jane Brentor, head of health and community care at the council, told BBC News: "I understand why they're angry because some of them are losing significant sums.
"That's because we've been paying them very high rates - much, much, higher than is paid to the independent sector.
"The offer is in fact still higher than if they went elsewhere, it's in some cases much higher per hour, but we won't be paying enhanced rates at weekends."
She said care would be only minimally affected as temporary staff would work during the strike.
Mike Tucker, Unison branch secretary, said: "The city council's action in cutting the wages of dedicated care staff has resulted in this strike taking place.
"Care workers are determined to show the city council that they will not be blackmailed into accepting pay cuts of up to £7,000 a year."

Mark Steele and his view on the 'New Tories'.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/mark_steel/article1799439.ece

I thought this article about the 'Hi Im Dave' Party is brilliant. Come the next election , lest we forget!

Tony Woodley Speech

http://www.tgwu.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=93124

Speech on the 31st Jan 07 at the employment Rights meeting.
Support the Trade Union Freedom Bill!!

CPGB Warwick article

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/658/pcsu.htm

Usual stuff from Weekly Worker with a 'complementary' paragraph about the TGWU organising agenda.
I am hoping to see more analysis in the hard left papers about the work the TGWU organising department is achieving . It is indeed unique and will hopefully be a model to how all TUC affiliated unions organise.

Shit stirring from amicus cc

Where does Beaumont get his info from? While the site does contain some interesting info , it does like to enjoy printing malicious unsubstantiated rumour. An obvious reaction to this is demonstrated in the paste below.

'Tony Woodley We have removed a story "Woodley to accept Axe" which concerned Mr. T. Woodley the General Secretary of the TGWU. We stated that Mr. Woodley had attempted to negotiate a means of leaving the union in the near future in return for a substantial pay off. We now accept that this is not true and that Mr. Woodley is working hard to ensure that the new amalgamated union is a great success. We also accept that Mr. Woodley has no intention of retiring in the near future and any statement to the contrary is wrong. We apologise to Mr. Woodley for any upset caused to him as a result of our earlier statement. Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 31st January 2007 '

I advise the amicus cc is checked regularly but warn that any postings should be verified by more reliable sources first.