Council Workers Unions Accuse Employers after Collapse of Pay Talks

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

Council Workers Unions Accuse Employers after Collapse of Pay Talks

Newcastle Journalists Strike to Safeguard Wages

Statements Condemning the Murderous Attack by Israel in Gaza City

FARC-EP: EU Decision Is Tragic

Talks aimed at averting further strikes by council workers ended without agreement on Friday night, with unions accusing the local authority employers of behaving disgracefully.

Union officials condemned the employers for failing to make a new offer on pay despite saying beforehand that a new minimum wage for the poorest paid workers of £5 an hour would be tabled. Under the employers' original 3% offer, the lowest-paid council workers' wages would have reached £4.90 an hour. About 277,000 council employees currently earn less than £5 an hour.

The employers maintained that they had offered a new minimum wage of £5 an hour, but in fact the offer was not unconditional. The employers said it had to be part of a comprehensive solution to the dispute, by which they meant that the offer was conditional on the acceptance of a two-year pay deal package.

"We want to continue talking," said a local authority spokesman. "We never expected this to be resolved at one meeting." Further talks between the two sides will be held at the conciliation service ACAS next Friday.

The unions expressed bitter disappointment and called on the government to intervene. "It is now imperative that the government intervenes to sort out this mess as it is clear that the employers are in complete disarray," said Heather Wakefield of UNISON, Jack Dromey of the TGWU and Mick Graham of the GMB.

The 1.2 million council workers are pledged to stage a second one-day strike on August 14 and may follow this up with a further stoppage in September. The dispute covers workers ranging from refuse collectors to teaching support staff to architects. They are determined to persist in their struggle until their just demands are met. They are not going to accept any repackaging of the original deal without a militant fight, regarding what is on offer as an insult to their dignity. Particularly determined have been the low-paid women workers who are taking a stand against being used by local authorities as a source of cheap and flexible labour whose rights are not recognised.

The employers’ chairman Brian Baldwin has clearly not got the point. He said that there was no "blank cheque" on offer, adding: "We are serious about finding a solution to this dispute within the limits of what we can afford. We can explore a longer term deal which guarantees pay rises in 2003 and 2004 as well as this year."

It is precisely against the employers’ argument of seeking a solution within these limits, which is being backed by the government by default, since they are washing their hands of the dispute, that the council workers are up in arms. This same argument of being constrained by limited resources is used habitually by government, while resources are no problem if the state wants to bomb Afghanistan, pay exorbitant amounts to private capital by means of the PFI, or honour interest payments to the financiers. The workers are not prepared to heed this argument, realising that both central and local government are setting priorities which are not in their favour.

Heather Wakefield, national officer of UNISON, said in this context, "The employers will have to put more money on the table at the ACAS talks if they are serious about settling this dispute."

On the eve of the reconvened ACAS talks between local government unions and employers, the TUC also called for a swift and urgent settlement and expressed its full support for the local government workers.

John Monks, TUC General Secretary, said: "Public service improvement simply cannot be delivered in an environment of low pay, employment insecurity and an absence of employee and trade union involvement in managing the process of change."

The General Council of the TUC issued a statement, saying:

"The General Council expresses its strong support for the three unions involved in the dispute with the local government employers. On 17 July hundreds of thousands of employees took part in the first national strike involving both manual and non-manual workers, which is a sure sign of the anger and frustration that exists across local government.

"The unions’ cause in this case is self-evidently just. Twenty per cent of local government workers earn less than £5.00 an hour, two thirds earn less than £13,000 per year and the pay gap between men and women working in local government is widening. All these factors are making it more difficult for local authorities to recruit and retain quality staff and growing numbers of local government workers are leaving their jobs to earn more elsewhere."

The TUC General Council also stated that it stands ready to offer whatever support is necessary to the three unions if the dispute progresses and will continue to press the government to accept that it too has a responsibility to bring the dispute to a successful conclusion.

WDIE will continue to give the local government workers’ struggle full backing, and contribute in whatever way it can to the success of the workers’ fight in defence of their interests, their dignity and their rights.

More than 100 National Union of Journalists members took strike action on Thursday, July 25, at the Trinity Mirror-owned Newcastle Chronicle and Journal series as part of their fight for a fair wage. They will walk out again next Thursday, August 1.

Under the latest proposals graduate trainees in Newcastle will start on £12,250 per year – compared to an average graduate starting salary (as reported in the Daily Mirror) of £19,000.

The minimum rate for journalists with all their professional qualifications, working on some of Britain’s most prestigious regional titles, is £17,500 – less than £10 a week more than a McDonalds trainee manager on their first day. The basic pay proposals leave most NUJ members receiving just 2 per cent.

Chronicle and Journal boss Steve Brown told a union meeting that Trinity Mirror's profit margin – 25 percent of turnover – is not high enough. Mr Brown has 116,738 Trinity Mirror share options. After his speech only four NUJ members voted against strike action.

For the last year when accounts are available the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal made an operating profit of £13.2 million on a turnover of £52 million.

Supporters are asked to visit the picket line on August 1 between 6am and 7pm at the Groat Market, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Bring your banners.

The strikers will need money. Miles Barter, NUJ northern regional organiser, is urging union branches to hold meetings and send donations. Please make donations payable to Newcastle NUJ Branch and send them to 11, Trinity Courtyard, Newcastle, NE6 1TS. Individual donations are also welcome.

Messages of support can be emailed to the chapel on mailto:geomacstg@onyxnet.co.uk Read the messages that have been sent so far on http://media.gn.apc.org/disputes/0207tmg2.html

TUC General Council Statement on the Middle East

The General Council on July 25 again considered the spiralling violence in the Middle East.

The participants expressed their shock at the latest atrocity in Gaza and equally at the total absence of any remorse for the killing of children in the statement by the Israeli Prime Minister. The action of the Israeli Defence Force was totally unjustified and disproportionate, the General Council stated.

It was announced that General Secretaries of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and of Histadrut have accepted invitations to attend the TUC Congress in Blackpool in September, and the General Council will be discussing with them how to further advance the cause of peace. They will also after Congress consider all avenues open to bring pressure to bear to assist in that process, the Statement said.

WFTU Condemns Israeli Attacks

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) has condemned the Israeli air raid and missile attack on densely populated civilian areas in Gaza and the brutal murder of innocent people including women and children and called for urgent international action to stop the genocide. The WFTU statement continues:

Yet another brutal massacre of civilian lives was carried out by the Israeli air force on 22 July by launching a missile attack on densely populated al-Daraj area of Gaza city, destroying homes and killing 15 Palestinian civilians, including 9 children in their sleep, the youngest of whom was only two months old. The WFTU strongly condemns these continuing acts of genocide which are perpetrated in the occupied Palestine territories by the Sharon regime, in gross defiance of world public opinion and the decisions of the UN Security Council demanding that Israel ends its illegal occupation, stop all military attacks and withdraw from these territories.

Those who are responsible for these "war crimes" should be brought before the International Criminal Court. The international community should act to put an end to Israeli militarism and brutal repression unleashed on the civilian population in the occupied territories, in gross violation of international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is also essential that the United States Administration abandons its military and political support to the Sharon regime which is using the high tech weapons provided by the US to commit war crimes, kill civilians and destroy civilian property in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

The WFTU calls for urgent action by trade unions and all democratic forces in all continents to forcefully demand that the United Nations and Member States take immediate, effective measures to bring about:

· An immediate end to the illegal Israeli occupation and military attacks on the Palestinian people in the occupied territories and the deployment of an international protection force to protect the lives of the Palestinian people living in these territories;

· Urgent steps to provide international financial and technical assistance to the Palestine people and Palestine Authority to help resolve the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli aggression.

· Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories in Palestine, Syrian Golan and remaining part of South Lebanon, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and immediate action to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate right to return and to self-determination and to establish their national and independent state with Jerusalem as capital.

Attack by Israel on Gaza City condemned in Security Council debate

One day after Israel launched a deadly air raid on an apartment building in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations Security Council met on July 24 for an open debate on the repercussions of the bombing amid wide condemnation of the attack and appeals to end the violence.

During the three-hour debate, which concluded close to midnight, many speakers underscored that Israel had obligations under international humanitarian law to refrain from violence against civilians. Israel's recent actions were called unjustifiable and counterproductive because they undermined trust between the parties and bred new violence. Speakers called on both sides to refrain from violence and to return to the negotiating table.

The Observer for Palestine, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said Israel had taken the "repugnant" practice of extra-judiciary executions to a new, extreme level by knowingly and deliberately killing 15 innocent civilians. He added that the Israeli assault on Gaza City represented the first blatant war crime committed by the Israeli occupying forces since the International Criminal Court entered into force this month, and since the attack fell within the Court's jurisdiction, measures should be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Pointing out that the crime had been committed when serious efforts were being undertaken to curb violence and restore some co-operative measures between the two sides, he said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had initially labelled the crime a "great success", was once more trying his utmost to prevent any progress towards restoring a meaningful peace process.

In his contribution, Israel's representative, Aaron Jacob, said the country did not celebrate the deaths of innocents as a military "victory" as its adversaries did. Israel's leaders had voiced their deep regret for the civilian deaths and injuries. Israel's actions were aimed at protecting civilians from Palestinian terrorist threat. The Israeli representative’s statements completely reverse the role of the aggressor and the oppressed. No one who learns anything of the atrocities committed by the US-backed state of Israel can doubt that this "deep regret" is only meant to add insult to injury, and is mocking the memory of the Palestinian martyrs. Aaron Jacob gave the line that the attack partly resulted from the fact that the Palestinian Authority, although fully aware of the location of the "terrorist" Salah Shehada, had never "lifted a finger to arrest him". Even if this were true, it is absolutely no justification whatsoever for the brazen flouting of the norms governing state relations, which Israel does not recognise, and the committing of the most heinous crimes and assassinations by Israel.

That President George W Bush had given Israel the green light was underlined by the Israeli representative’s assertion that the notion that Israeli withdrawal should occur "in a vacuum", independently of any Palestinian action, clearly contravened President Bush's "landmark speech".

A number of participants said the need for an international response in the Middle East heightened the importance of the recent efforts of the Quartet – the UN, European Union, United States and the Russian Federation – to bring peace to the region. Participants stressed that the UN should not give up on the vision of Israeli and Palestinian States existing side by side in peace, within internationally recognised borders.

Meanwhile the impotence of the UN in enforcing resolutions against Israel continues.

The Colombian guerrilla organisation FARC-EP responded to the decision last month by the European Union to include the insurgent forces in the EU list of terrorist organisations. In a recently released communiqué, the organisation says it laments that the EU has "decided to unilaterally exclude themselves from participating in future talks for peace" in Colombia.

The EU's move has previously been strongly criticised by a number of personalities, including Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and former peace broker Carlos Lozano Guillén, member of the Colombian "VIP Commission" that facilitated peace talks between the Bogotá government and the insurgents

The following is an English translation of the latest communiqué:

THE FARC-EP RESPONDS TO THE DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

1. Through the various press reports, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ­ People’s Army, FARC-EP, became informed of the eventual inclusion by the European Union of its guerrilla organisation in the groups of ‘terrorists’. These press reports have been confirmed on the basis of the political decision taken by the COREPER (Commission of Permanent Representatives) of the European Union’s fifteen member countries on June 13, 2002, ratifying the inclusion of the FARC-EP on the list of organisations classified by you as ‘terrorists’.

2. It is tragic that the fifteen countries of the European Union, after having contributed enthusiastically to the process of Dialogues and Negotiations between Pastrana’s government and the FARC-EP, representing the International Community as Countries, Friends and Facilitators of the peace process among Colombians, as well as building friendship and confidence among all of us, now have decided to unilaterally exclude themselves from participating in future talks for peace between the Government and the FARC-EP by aligning themselves in favour of one of the sides, in this case, that of the Government. No doubt they are doing so in obedience to strong pressures from the governments of United States and Colombia. But, nevertheless, the FARC-EP hope that in future, as a result of the favourable political, economic and cultural changes that must take place in the world, you will again be able to take an active part in the process of reconciliation with the endorsement of both parties.

3. We know perfectly well that the governments of the EU via their ambassadors, having participated in the Government-FARC-EP dialogues, are aware of the gravity of Colombia’s internal conflict and the serious difficulties that presented themselves for conciliation of the two political positions at the Table, and are witnesses to the undeniable perseverance of the FARC in contributing initiatives conducive to the pursuit of agreements to consolidate the peace process.

4. The FARC-EP are grateful for each one of the contributions made by the governments and peoples of the European Union, as much for those to the process in pursuit of peace with social justice, as for those to our delegations each time you have had to receive them well in your countries.

5. The FARC-EP shall never renounce their revolutionary convictions and principles and confirm once again that, as a political-military organisation in armed rebellion against the Colombian State, they shall continue forward without allowing anybody or anything block their struggle to win political power to govern Colombia, committed to the poor for the building of a Nation where prevails the protection of the basic rights and freedoms, social justice, independence and sovereignty of the more than 30,000,000 of our compatriots, dispossessed and marginalised by the selfish interests of a handful of families belonging to the present ruling caste.

Secretariat of the Central General Staff of the FARC-EP

Mountains of Colombia, July 18, 2002.