The news you didn’t seek this week…

1.Veolia workers to ballot for strike over pay ‘cut’ at Stanlow

Members of Unite, the UK’s leading union, employed by waste company Veolia and working at the Stanlow refinery in Cheshire are to be balloted for industrial action in a dispute over pay.

Multinational giant Veolia is proposing a 3.5 per cent pay deal to the workforce. With the real inflation rate (RPI) currently standing at nine per cent, Unite says that this is a substantial pay cut.

The workers are responsible for maintaining and operating chemical and vacuum tanks at the refinery.

Ballot papers began to be sent out this week and voting will close on Tuesday 3 May. A vote in favour of industrial action would see strikes begin in May.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Veolia is an exceptionally wealthy company yet, at a time of spiralling living costs, Stanlow workers are expected to swallow a real terms pay cut. This is simply unacceptable.

“Veolia found billions to buy another company and can easily pay these workers fairly.”

2. Budweiser faces industrial action after more than 200 workers voted to down tools over a real terms pay cut

A total of 225 GMB members working at BBG’s Samlesbury site, near Preston, will start an overtime time ban, not engage in training or complete face to face handovers from Wednesday 11 May 2022.

The site brews Budweiser, Stella Artois, Becks, Boddingtons and Export Pale Ale. 

After months of discussion with the world’s biggest brewer they tabled a full and final offer of 3 per cent increase for 2022 and 3 per cent for 2023 with increases in overtime rates.

With the cost-of-living crises and inflation at 9 %, the offer amounts to a massive pay cut in real terms.

Members also support full strike action – which would be the first time.

Stephen Boden, GMB Organiser, said: “This industrial action is a result of Budweiser brewing groups management making a frankly insulting pay offer.

“They are choosing to ignore workers and put profit before people with this derisory pay offer.  

“Workers are rightly angry and if this strike goes the distance Budweiser could face a summer beer drought.

“How can they expect hard working staff to accept a real terms pay cut?”

3. Ambulance uniforms not fit for purpose and may put staff at risk, says UNISON

Some ambulance staff are having to deal with emergencies while wearing uniforms that don’t fit properly and aren’t always visible to other drivers, according to a UNISON survey published today.

The findings are based on responses from more than 1,000 ambulance workers including paramedics and call centre staff working for ambulance services across the UK.

A motion debated at UNISON’s annual health conference in Liverpool highlights how uniforms provided to emergency crews by most NHS ambulance trusts are unfit for purpose and could be putting workers in extra danger.

It also points out that most uniforms are varying shades of green, which tend to blend into the background. This contravenes regulations for workers near roadways that require them to wear hi-vis protective clothing when near moving vehicles.

The union is campaigning for kit to be redesigned so it meets the requirements of all ambulance workers.

4. Scottish Trade Union Congress is latest to warn Labour over unviable position on Indyref

The SNP is challenging Anas Sarwar to stop prioritising his obsession with defending Westminster control ahead of the people of Scotland following an intervention by the country’s top trade unionist.

In a media interview, STUC chief Roz Foyer said Scottish Labour must “take a look at itself” over Anas Sarwar’s unsustainable position rejecting Scotland’s democratic decision to hold a referendum.

Commenting, SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said: “The SNP welcomes Roz Foyer’s comments, which recognise what most of Scotland knows – that Anas Sarwar continuing to reject the country’s democratic decision to hold a referendum is unviable and unsustainable.

“The case against continued Westminster control over Scotland is unanswerable. We have suffered the catastrophe of Brexit, then liar Boris Johnson’s partying during lockdown, followed by Westminster’s negligent inaction to protect hard-pressed families from this Tory cost of living crisis. These are obvious demonstrations of why Scotland needs independence.”

5. UK workers forced to watch as multi-billion-pound contracts for offshore wind are sent overseas, says GMB Union

A massive contract for a floating wind farm being handed to a Middle Eastern contractor means the Government’s energy strategy is falling at the first hurdle, GMB has told MPs and MSPs

Up to £10 billion worth of floating wind turbine projects in the North Sea look set to go to United Arab Emirates-based fabricator Lamprell as a memorandum of understanding has been agreed with developer NOV.

This comes as UK Government Minister, Greg Hands, responding to a question from Grahame Morris MP, has committed to raising the issue with the cross Government and industry North Sea Supply Chain & Exports Taskforce.

Gary Smith, GMB General Secretary, said: “The Energy Security Strategy was a historic chance to outline a credible and secure energy future for the UK. Instead, Ministers have fallen at the first hurdle.

“Without any sort of plan for delivering on jobs at home, there is no just transition and no proper energy strategy.

“It’s a national scandal that UK workers and communities are being forced to watch as multi-billion-pound contracts for offshore wind are sent overseas to companies based in authoritarian regimes.”

6. Four Workers at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Suspended After Peacefully Protesting Pay Discrimination

At least four cleaners who attended a peaceful protest at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have been informed they will be suspended from work pending investigation. Cleaners, security guards and porters protested on Thursday at LSHTM after the University committed to bringing outsourced workers in house, but planned to pay them nearly £500 p.a. below the lowest rung of the University’s pay structure.

If the suspensions are not immediately reversed, The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) will take legal action against LSHTM subcontractor Regent Samsic over trade union detriment, for breach of sec. 146 of TURLCA (1992) and Article 11 of ECHR.

Henry Chango Lopez, General Secretary (IWGB) says, “These cleaners are fighting for dignified pay and an end to discrimination, the bare minimum we would expect from a prestigious institution such as London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It is absolutely unacceptable that the University has responded to a peaceful protest by calling the police, lying about the nature of the demonstration, and then suspending its staff.

“This is a blatant act of aggression and an attempt to intimidate cleaners into backing down. We remain unfazed, and the suspended workers will continue to fight for the pay and treatment they deserve, undeterred by the hostile reaction of the University.”

7. Proposed minimum eligibility requirements for student loans could reduce higher education participation for ethnic minorities and poorer students, IFS

New IFS research finds that a blanket minimum eligibility requirement (MER) for access to student loans would be a highly imperfect way of improving student outcomes. It would increase the already large socio-economic gaps in higher education and would disproportionally affect ethnic minority students.

The government recently announced a consultation on changes to the higher education system, including on the introduction of minimum eligibility requirements where students would need a minimum of a grade 4/C in English and maths GCSE, or two E grades at A level to be able to access student loans. The specified purpose of this policy is to ensure that ‘students undertaking degree study have attained the baseline skills required to engage with and benefit from the course’.

Laura van der Erve, Senior Research Economist at IFS and an author of the research, said: “A blanket minimum eligibility requirement would disproportionately impact students who haven’t had the same opportunities and support to meet the attainment threshold and would result in a widening of socio-economic gaps in access to university.”

8. Campaigners to demonstrate outside HSBC AGM demanding pensions justice

Members of Unite the union will be protesting outside the HSBC annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday (29 April) about the bank’s refusal to give them pensions’ justice.

Former and current employees are demonstrating to expose and stop an unfair practice known as clawback after it emerged that thousands of them are having as much as £2,500 a year snatched from their hard earned company pension pay outs.

The staff argue that clawback is grossly unfair, disproportionately penalising the lowest paid, mainly women, forced to take time off to raise children.

9. Climate change affecting Scotland’s lochs and reservoirs

Climate change has already caused a rapid and extensive warming of Scotland’s lochs and reservoirs with impacts expected to intensify, research has revealed for the first time.

A report published this week by Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW), shows that between 2015 and 2019, 97% of monitored Scottish lochs and reservoirs have increased in temperature. While most warmed by up to 1.0°C per year over this period, 9% increased by more than that – some by up to 1.3°C per year.

Researchers warn that these changes increase the risk of harmful algal blooms developing, which could restrict their use for recreation and water supply, and as a safe habitat for wildlife.

It is expected that waters in the south and east of Scotland are expected to warm the most at first, but this climate-related impact will reach all parts of the country by 2040.

10. Five million forced to choose between heating and eating under Tories

New figures reveal that over five million households have already been forced to choose between heating and eating, and more than half of people in the UK won’t be able to afford to pay their bills in the coming months.

The figures come from an exclusive Deltapoll survey for the Daily Mirror and Daily Record, which also shows that two-thirds put the cost of living crisis as their primary concerns and that soaring bills have impacted the mental health of over half of those surveyed.

New data from the Office of National Statistics has also revealed that nearly a quarter (23%) of adults reported it was difficult to pay their usual household bills – an increase from 17% in November 2021 – and 43% reported it was difficult to afford their energy bills.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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