Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Brighton Green Party compares staff strike proposals to winter of discontent

GMB | 29.04.2013 21:21 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | London | South Coast

Having voted for Council officers to implement cuts to staff take home pay of up to £95 per week a leading Brighton Green Party Councillor has said compared staff strike proposals to the winter of discontent

The Green Party in Brighton & Hove have sought to justify plans to cut the take home pay of Council employees by stating that the ‘council faces a difficult situation and officers are trying to reach the fairest solution possible in the circumstances’.

They then go on to say that ‘Industrial action will help no-one except the enemies of the unions, as in the winter of 78/79.’ The comments were made in an e-mail from Green Party lead Councillor Rob Jarrett to the GMB Branch in Brighton & Hove.* (See 1. Email Rob Jarrett to Mark Turner below)

The e-mail followed the collapse of negotiations on Green / Conservative cuts of up to £95 a week from the wages of some of the lowest paid Council employees. In 2009 the Green group voted against Conservative plans to cut the pay of Council workers but since coming to power with a slogan of ‘Fair is Worth Fighting For’ in 2011, they have introduced plans to cut the take home pay of some of the lowest paid Council staff by up to £95 a week.

Gary Palmer, GMB Organiser said:

‘The Green Party have said that ’no other major party in England & Wales offers policies as attractive to unions and union members as the Green Party’*(2. Green party policy)

We have now seen the hypocritical true Blue colours of the Greens since they came to power in Brighton, with plans to cut the wages of some of the lowest paid Council workers by up to £95 a week.

GMB will not stand by and watch Brighton Green Party deliver these cuts, and will take all necessary measures to protect our members’

If you support low paid Council staff who face cuts to their take home pay please sign the at www.gmb-southern.org.uk/bhcc , which will be sent to the Green Administration.


1. E-mail Rob Jarrett to Mark Turner 29/04/2013

From: Rob Jarrett [ Rob.Jarrett@brighton-hove.gov.uk]
Sent: 29/04/2013 19:15 CET
To: Mark Turner ; Penelope Thompson
Cc: “Denise D’souza” ; Adam Bates ; Sue Moorman ; Katie Ogden ; Paul Maloney; Rob Macey; Charles Harrity; Gary Palmer; Rab Mckenna ; Jason Kitcat ; Gill Mitchell ; Geoffrey Theobald ; Alex Phillips ; Amy Kennedy ; Ania Kitcat ; Ben Duncan ; Bill Randall ; Christopher Hawtree ; Geoffrey Bowden ; Ian Davey ; Leo Littman ; Lianne De Mello ; Liz Wakefield ; Lizzie Deane ; Matt Follett ; Mike Jones ; Ollie Sykes ; Pete West ; Phelim MacCafferty ; Ruth Buckley
Subject: Re: Pay and allowances negotiations
Dear Mark
Thank you for your email. I have supported unions all my life and continue to do so. The council faces a difficult situation and officers are trying to reach the fairest solution possible in the circumstances.
Industrial action will help no-one except the enemies of the unions, as in the winter of 78/79.
Yours
Rob Jarrett
NUT member
Former Unison member
Former national H&S rep for ALSA.

Cllr Rob Jarrett
Chair, Adult Care and Health
Chair, Health and Wellbeing Board

From: Mark Turner
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 12:40 PM GMT Standard Time
To: Penelope Thompson
Cc: Denise D’souza; Adam Bates; Sue Moorman; Katie Ogden; ‘ paul.maloney@gmb.org.uk‘ ; ‘ rob.macey@gmb.org.uk‘ ; ‘ charles.harrity@gmb.org.uk‘ ; ‘ gary.palmer@gmb.org.uk‘ ; Rab Mckenna; Jason Kitcat; Gill Mitchell; Geoffrey Theobald; Alex Phillips; Amy Kennedy; Ania Kitcat; Ben Duncan; Bill Randall; Christopher Hawtree; Geoffrey Bowden; Ian Davey; Jason Kitcat; Leo Littman; Lianne De Mello; Liz Wakefield; Lizzie Deane; Matt Follett; Mike Jones; Ollie Sykes; Pete West; Phelim MacCafferty; Rob Jarrett; Ruth Buckley; Stephanie Powell; Sue Shanks; Sven Rufus; Alan Robins; Anne Pissaridou; Bob Carden; Brian Fitch; Chaun Wilson; Gill Mitchell; Jeane Lepper; Joshua Eades; Leigh Farrow; Leslie Hamilton; Mo Marsh; Penny Gilbey; Warren Morgan; Andrew Wealls; Ann Norman; Brian Pidgeon; Carol Theobald; David Smith; Dawn Barnett; Dee Simson; Denise Cobb; Garry Peltzer-Dunn; Geoffrey Theobald; Geoffrey Wells; Graham Cox; Jayne Bennett; Jonathan Bryant; Ken Norman; Lynda Hyde; Mary Mears; Tony Janio; Vanessa Brown
Subject: Pay and allowances negotiations
Dear Penny,



Further to the above, as you are aware negotiations or consultations have restarted today.

We have been informed by your negotiators today that the offer that is made is your best and final offer which has been verbally communicated with us toady but not in writing.

Based on the information we have been given verbally today, it still shows that members of ours will still lose between £5 and £95/ week, which is the same condition that the Council presented to the Unions at the beginning of these negotiations. In particular, the area that gets hit the most is 260 plus employees working in CityClean, which is the entire workforce. Today your negotiators confirmed that the make up agreement we currently have is being withdrawn, this alone is a loss of £1840 per person in the Refuse service and recycling. Also, the City Clean agreement, which was signed 2009 after the last dispute, your negotiators will not confirm if this is remaining or not. We can only take from their silence on this matter that they will do, which will see a further £2000 cut per annum out of our members pay. Finally, shift allowance, in the case of street sweepers, one of the lowest paid in the Council, will have their annual salary cut by 25%. Plus all the other information received by your negotiators today, in regards to the way overtime is paid outside normal contractual arrangement and also a refusal to extend special schools allowance to mainstream schools where TA s are supporting those with special needs, it is with regret I have to inform you that GMB is now in an official dispute with the Council.

I have already sought agreement from my Regional Secretary to commence an Industrial Action ballot if things have not changed significantly, and to date, things have not changed significantly.

We will inform you of our intentions to ballot our members shortly, when you place your offer in writing. If you or your negotiators decide to communicate with staff before you’ve outlined your offer to us in written form, then we will commence that process earlier.

Finally, we are requesting that you confirm that if our members do not agree to these changes, that it is your intention to impose new contracts of employment because in the presentation today, negotiators have said their offer is based on the report that went to P and R committee.

If you would like to meet and discuss out position face to face, I am more than happy to do that. I would urge that you take up this offer to prevent major Industrial unrest within the Council. If I do not hear from you by close of business today, I take it that my offer of meeting ahs been refused.

Regards

Mark Turner

2. Green Party Policy  http://greenparty.org.uk/emergencymotions/20.html

Green Party relationship with trade unions

Conference notes:

1. That this week’s TUC conference displayed renewed dissatisfaction with New Labour’s attitude to the unions and with its policies affecting workers’ rights.

2. That Tony Blair continues to have a more constructive relationship with the Confederation of British Industry, which represents only corporate interests, than with unions representing many millions of British citizens.

3. That no other major party in England & Wales offers policies as attractive to unions and union members as the Green Party.

Conference therefore welcomes the party executive’s ongoing process of developing closer cooperation with the unions on matters of shared interest, and instructs the new executive to continue to develop this process.

GMB
- e-mail: gary.palmer@gmb.org.uk
- Homepage: www.gmb-southern.org.uk

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech