Labour caves in to Union demands

Its what happens when big pay rises are given, never enough! W F A gone but inflation busting pay increases in the public sector awarded! I knew this would happen too, and how fast it would be! Well done Primrose for your post.

Before the election, we were plagued by strikes from a number of sectors and the government did nothing to try and resolve them except increase hostility. The situation was getting worse and worse under the Conservatives.

Clearly they were going to re-appear and Labour was going to have to try and find a way through.

It did this as soon as possible with the Junior doctors, it's been settled, and teachers, who you dont mention, have accepted offers too.

ASLEF the main train union have nearly resolved the matter for the country as a whole now by negotiations recently conducted by Louise Haigh (Transport).

The remaining issue on trains is within LNER, who are not I repeat not threatening strikes for pay, but for working conditions.

Labour have been effective in resolving a mess left for them and its disingenuous to try to suggest otherwise.

I don't know what the Border Force are demanding or their reasons, and I don't know what they are:

But I would suggest its a case by case situation.

Why have Labour not negotiated a change to working practices along side the pay increases? Now all the unions will be expecting huge rises to be automatic. And who's going to be suffering due to strikes and paying for it all I wonder? The customers and taxpayers of course. The voters have been taken for fools in my opinion. Labour planned to do this all along, but couldn't tell us as they'd never have won the election.

BevSec

Its what happens when big pay rises are given, never enough! W F A gone but inflation busting pay increases in the public sector awarded! I knew this would happen too, and how fast it would be! Well done Primrose for your post.

The Junior doctors settled for a great deal less then they were asking for before the elections and its partly because their concerns related to working conditions and the state of the NHS.
They had fallen behind quite grossly whilst private sector pay rises quietly increased year on year.

Many GN's who have relatives who are doctors have commented on this issue from across the board politically.

Pay rises and inflation have been discussed other thread and its not a clear link as you suggest either.

Correction

"The Junior doctors settled for a great deal less then they were asking for before the elections and its partly because their concerns related to working conditions and the state of the NHS.
Add * they felt these concerns were heard by the government and this made a difference *

So do you think, Primrose that junior doctors, teachers and train drivers were adequately paid and had appropriate working conditions in the first place?

If you read about the Border Force actions, its not pay related but its in regard to changes in working conditions:

www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/border-force-staff-heathrow-take-further-strike-action#:~:text=The%20members%20have%20already%20taken,overtime%20ban%20until%2022%20September.

"The members are in dispute about enforced changes to their rota and have already taken seven days of strike action.

The 650 PCS members who work in passport control at terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Heathrow have been in dispute with their employer after a new roster was imposed in April.

Since then, around 160 staff have left because of the lack of flexibility and changes to the shifts. Read personal testimonies from the members.

Women and those with caring responsibilities have been particularly affected by these changes, and the new roster has seen long-standing and loyal staff forced out of employment in order to manage childcare and family commitments.

New staff have been refused flexible working applications, despite changes to the law allowing employees to make a statutory request for permanent changes to their contract from day one."

twinnytwin

Why have Labour not negotiated a change to working practices along side the pay increases? Now all the unions will be expecting huge rises to be automatic. And who's going to be suffering due to strikes and paying for it all I wonder? The customers and taxpayers of course. The voters have been taken for fools in my opinion. Labour planned to do this all along, but couldn't tell us as they'd never have won the election.

If the Conservatives had been re elected, they would have inherited exactly the same situation and had to find ways ahead.
We suffered under the junior doctors strikes and now people are complaining that matters have been settled?

You'll never guess what the big banner front page headline is in the Daily Mail today?

"Labour Has Lost Control Of The Unions"

And up pops this thread.

Well, what a surprise 😂😂😂

MaizieD

You'll never guess what the big banner front page headline is in the Daily Mail today?

"Labour Has Lost Control Of The Unions"

And up pops this thread.

Well, what a surprise 😂😂😂

Plenty out there to choose from. 😝. I wrote my own.

Maybe you would have preferred it if I didn’t mention this at all. 🤔

Primrose53

I knew this would happen.
junior doctors, train drivers now Border Force threatening strikes. What a mess!

Absolutely, well said.

Think we could safely say that the pay "awards" are actually pay offs ?

I couldn't find it in DM online either - their headline is about Huw Edwards

Ah ha. You could be right Spinnaker.

winterwhite

So do you think, Primrose that junior doctors, teachers and train drivers were adequately paid and had appropriate working conditions in the first place?

Thirty grand for newly qualified teacher going up to 46,000on upper pay scale
Drs foundation Training 32,000 to 37,000 +
Dr's specialist training 43,000 to 63,000
Train drivers 60,000 now up to just under 70. Because it's backdated those who have now quit will still get their pay.
Many people have to survive on much less, but still do public service work, bus drivers for instance, similar responsibility as train drivers, carrying passengers, get abused, one recently murdered, yet only get a quarter of the pay. Their union don't have the clout of aslef.

MaizieD

You'll never guess what the big banner front page headline is in the Daily Mail today?

"Labour Has Lost Control Of The Unions"

And up pops this thread.

Well, what a surprise 😂😂😂

Here’s a few more headlines. MaizieD. No doubt none will suit. 🤣🤣🤣

Telegraph. Britain's middle classes will be forced to foot bill for Unions’ pay rises.

Independent. Unions will keep demanding more as fresh rail strikes planned days after drivers deal.

Express. Labour is a national embarrassment as Union announces strike days after bumper pay rise.

The Times. Has Labour been played by rail unions?

Thanks Wyllow3 for the info/facts

Very disingenuous repeats of the O/P, as I have laid out in detail above in a case by case look at the agreements reached.

Also

Who expected that the strikes would stop or the grievances magically disappear just because a Labour government came in

Its just the oh so predicable smears on the Labour Party.

It's also a mistake to assume that the Labour Party have that kind of relationship with the unions.

Neither the BMA nor the Teachers Unions have any association with them at all, for example.

The Tories wasted years not negotiating and the public were seriously inconvenienced (and probably some ill people's lives worsened), Labour have had to resolve various disputes as a consequence. Just because there are messy side issues and leftovers doesn't mean the government has failed as the Torygraph would like us to believe. It's evidence that action was taken. More to do is always a government task but at least Labour is not sitting on its hands like the Tories did.

What else do we except from hostile newspapers? They don't give the individual facts as I did regarding different disputes, neither do they take account of which unions actually have a relationship to the Labour Party.

They hint its all about pay - but thats simply not the case.

I've a new meme -

"Half Baked Headlines"

Spinnaker

I couldn't find it in DM online either - their headline is about Huw Edwards

It was on the BBC news site. It will be the print version now in the shops.

always the same when labour get into power, who is going to pay for it all?

Grantanow

The Tories wasted years not negotiating and the public were seriously inconvenienced (and probably some ill people's lives worsened), Labour have had to resolve various disputes as a consequence. Just because there are messy side issues and leftovers doesn't mean the government has failed as the Torygraph would like us to believe. It's evidence that action was taken. More to do is always a government task but at least Labour is not sitting on its hands like the Tories did.

Not only have the tories wasted years not negotiating but they have actively suppressed any attempt by the rail companies to come to any agreement with the rail unions as they have refused to allow solutions negotiated between the unions and the train companies (TOCs) to be implemented. The Transport minister had the ultimate say in allowing them to be implemented.

This was widely publicised in the early days of the disputes a couple of years ago.

Public sector pay rises don't cause inflation