Thursday 10th July saw over one million workers out on strike against the Tory-led government’s attacks on pay and pensions. Further to last week’s reports from around the country, we publish here two further pieces: an interview with John Orchard, a striking NUT rep in Coventry, and a report of the transport workers strike in London by TSSA member Tim White.
Thursday 10th July saw over one million workers out on strike against the Tory-led government’s attacks on pay and pensions. Further to last week’s reports from around the country, we publish here two further pieces: an interview with John Orchard, a striking NUT rep in Coventry, and a report of the transport workers strike in London by TSSA member Tim White.
Interview with John Orchard, NUT rep in Coventry
Interviewed by Darrall Cozens, President of Coventry TUC
J.O.: NUT members voted unanimously to support the strike. Unison are out as well and members of other unions are supporting us by not crossing the picket line. The school itself is open for 6th Form only. The Head has said that if staff are in who normally teach the 6th From, lessons will go ahead. If not, there will be study support lessons. No-one is covering the lessons of teachers who are out.
There are three reasons for being out: pay, pensions and workload. Pensions are important as staff will have to work to 68 to get the full pension, which is bad. Also, because a number of young teachers are leaving the profession. They only stay in it for one or two years and then leave it because the workload is too much, the pay is not enough and pensions are being cut.
D.C.: The feeling is strong, the ballot was unanimous. What will it take to stop the cuts taking place?
J.O.: The strikes we have had in the past have had an effect in that for older teachers like me that has been some improvement, but not for younger teachers. The action needs to continue and it needs to be widespread, more like today where there are more unions involved to get the message across. It’s not just teachers or staff in schools, it’s public employees across the country who are being blamed for something that is nothing to do with them.
The economy is like it is not because of us but because of others who are not suffering and we are. We need to get the message across that it’s not fair.
D.C.: One of the demands that I will be putting forward today at the rally as President of Coventry TUC is that today should be a stepping stone to a one-day General Strike, because workers across all sectors, as service providers and users, are suffering from these cuts. What do you think of that?
J.O.: Yes. I think that the more that people can get involved as a full body, the more impact it will have so that it’s not piecemeal; so that we can’t be picked off. It’s more across the board. We can’t get away from the impact that it is having. And the fact that people are reaching the end of their tether.
D.C.: You made an interesting point. You said that there is an economic crisis and that people are suffering who did not cause it while those at the top are getting away with murder. For example, Anthony Jenkins, the head of Barclays Bank is getting £18,000 per week in “allowances” in order to evade the EU cap on salaries and bonuses. What are your comments?
J.O.: Yes, that to me is the worst thing, the unfairness of it. There was uproar at one time about the bonuses that were given to people like these and people thought that it would all be sorted out, but it’s not. It’s going on exactly the same and they seem to think that they can carry on getting away with it. It’s time for people to say it’s got to stop so that everyone benefits when we are doing well and everyone suffers when we are not doing well. If one group is causing the suffering, others should not have to suffer.
Transport workers strike in London
By Tim White, TSSA London
On Thursday 10th July, TfL staff joined their fellow trade unionists across the country to strike in protest at the coalition government attacks on Workers. Our dispute fed into the wider battle against the Coalition’s attacks.
TfL are looking to get rid of consolidated union negotiated pay and replace it with pay based on performance as well as introducing a new performance monitoring scheme based on “behaviours”, which if introduced will enable managers to target people over alleged behaviour even if they have done well elsewhere.
Strike action against TfL is being jointly organised between Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA), Unite, and RMT. We have had two one-day strikes in TfL over the past two months with last month’s strike seeing more people joining the action. This in a workplace that has not seen industrial action previously and in an organisation that has quite a cloistered office mentality. On this day of action at TfL we were joined by PCS staff that have joined the battle for the first time.
Staff picketed eight TfL sites, including the LT museum in Convent Gardens and Palestra and successfully turned back post deliveries and even staff from other organisations.
After picketing TfL we joined fellow trade unionists on strike, including Westminster Council staff teacher and the FBU, for the lively march in Central London.
