PRESS RELEASE -NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL - GMB VOTE 6 TO 1 IN FAVOUR OF STRIKE ACTION
PRESS RELEASE
GMB VOTE 6 TO 1 IN FAVOUR OF STRIKE ACTION
Chris Needham, Organiser from the GMB Trade Union announced that the result of the indicative ballot for industrial action was in favour of some form of action being taken. As a consequence of this the GMB will consult with its fellow trade unions to look at the way forward.
Chris Needham is calling upon the Council to have meaningful discussions to find a solution to this problem as there has been very little movement from them thus far. As a consequence of this some 2000 employees who are GMB members have been balloted and as a result the GMB will wait for its sister trade unions to announce their results before making any indication of the next move. Under legislation there would have to be a full postal ballot independent of the trade unions itself. This is an indication of the frustration, upset and anger that GMB and union members as a whole feel towards their employer, and the draconian attitude of imposing a parking levy one year in advance of the rest of the City has caused even further upset.
Nottingham City Council, like all other Council’s imposed a two year pay freeze for all employees, even though Cameron announced to the world that everybody under £21.000 per annum would receive a £250 increase in 2010 and the same again in 2011. This was without consulting any Local Authorities who promptly had to renege on the promise due to the cuts from Central Government.
As a result of single status, GMB members and others will actually have a 3 to 3.5 year pay freeze due to the incremental pay freezes that came into effect on the 1st of April 2011. These incremental pay freezes mean that every single worker within the Authority will stay on their same rate of pay for the next 2 years. Bearing in mind that they have currently been on a pay freeze for approximately 15 months, in addition to this, there is an increase in the pension contribution of 3% to employees effectively over a 3 year period this is a reduction in real terms of approximately 12% in earnings. As these employees are not the best paid in the world and as they earn consistently below the national average wage our members feel betrayed by the Council itself.
This has to be taken into context and a lot of the cuts are reluctant ones, but the Central Government has imposed some of the largest cuts on Nottingham City in the UK and quite clearly this is disproportionate. To this end we will consider all options before moving forward.
Chris Needham, GMB Organiser