Workplace In Brief



NHS pensions vote

Unison members working in the health service will be voting on whether to accept new pensions proposals, in a ballot running from 11-27 April. It is a consultation exercise, not a strike ballot. Unison head of health Christina McAnea has warned that: “the ballot papers will also recognise that rejecting the offer would require members to take further industrial action.” Hardly a call for action to defend hard-won pension rights.


MMP workers attacked

The long-running dispute at MMP packaging in Bootle has escalated with the sacking of four workers. The four are part of the 149 workers who have been locked out of the factory over a dispute over redundancies. They were sacked by a kangaroo court which did not allow them to call witnesses to the accusations of using foul and abusive language. Their union Unite is investigating an appeal.


Police strike ballot

The Police Federation has announced a ballot on the right to strike “as soon as possible”. They will also be holding a protest march on Westminster, sometime before their annual conference in May. The protest march is over cuts to police budgets and the “unprecedented attack on policing by this government”. The question of annual fitness tests is a particular concern.

In January 2008 more than 20,000 police marched on Westminster against Labour’s refusal to backdate a pay increase. That year, 87% voted to demand full industrial rights for the Police Federation.