GMB

The GMB union said its members would be "working to rule" from 27 December, with Unison members doing the same from 29 December.

Dozens of staff were sent home yesterday after a two-hour sit-in at Brighton and Hove City Council’s Hollingdean depot. Amid mounting tension, GMB union officials said it would be balloting its members on industrial action for the new year.

Members of UNISON, Unite and the GMB are being consulted on the new offer which was made after their previous "final" offer of 2.5% following the well observed industrial action.

UNISON, the largest union is recommending members reject the offer.

Following one of the UK's biggest strikes in years, when half a million council workers walked out for two days against a sub inflationary 2.45% pay offer, unions have blocked further action.

Union members had hoped local council body Cosla would offer a new one year deal taking inflation into account. However, Cosla said increasing the pay offer in the current economic climate would result in service and job cuts. Meanwhile, hundreds of other civil and public servants voted for strike action which could cause serious disruption to the justice system.

At Gatwick, 318 Swissport workers will walk out for 24 hours, halting services at some airlines and a second strike is planned for Friday 29 August.

They overwhelmingly agreed on Thursday to take strike action on 20th August after the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) refused to improve a pay offer of 2.5 per cent a year for the next three years.

The lorries were turning up at the site at Lamby Way only to find the weigh bridge blocked by workers. The workers took the action in support of two members of staff who had been disciplined. One of the men has now been moved to another job by management, amounting to a demotion, and it is this move which sparked the walk out.

If their decision is confirmed by the 450,000 NHS workers in Unison next week, the government may be forced to abandon its attempt to reach a long-term settlement.

The action disrupted both refuse and recycling collections throughout the city affecting 15,000 households. Workers at the Queenslie and Eastern depots took the un-official action, claiming the council had failed to meet overtime payments of up to £4000.

Employer attacks on workers' pay is the main issue at stake.

Teachers in the NUT are walking out over their pay deal which was supposed to be revised when inflation rose, but the government refused: effectively cutting their wages.

Council workers will be protesting against the new pay and grading system imposed by Birmingham council last week, affecting 40,000 staff.

UNISON has branded the structure discriminatory. Though it was designed to end wage inequalities, some workers will lose up to half their pay.

Last week Nottingham Indymedia spoke with Barbara, who has worked in Nottingham's libraries for many years. In this interview she voices her anger over the decision by the City Council to introduce uniforms for library staff. More so, she talks about the ever degrading library service and the bully tactics deployed by City Council managers to keep its staff in line..

The striking bin staff had been complaining about management bullying after staff refused to double their workload due to lack of vehicles and under-staffing. As part of what workers called management's "bully tactics", four refuse workers had been moved onto different crews sparking anger amongst the depot and leading to the wildcat action.

Staff at the Hollingdean Depot downed tools on Wednesday morning in retaliation to having tightly-knit crews broken up by managers. Four men have reportedly been moved from one lorry to another as management try to address the problem. Another worker said his cousin, who also works at the depot, had been "punished" for having time off sick by being put onto another shift.

If they go ahead with the walk-out it will shut down the airport. More than 80% of staff, including firefighters, engineers, airside safety and air traffic control staff, have backed a ballot calling for industrial action.

Both unions will hold a consultative ballot of members on whether they will accept the 2.475% offer, announced last month after six months of negotiation, an increase on employers’ initial bid of 2%.

They would only ballot for industrial action if GMB’s 250,000 local government members and Unite’s almost 100,000 council staff reject the offer.

The Watton and Swaffham Times reported that rubbish is mounting up outside homes in Breckland because binmen are locked in an industrial dispute.

Waste went uncollected at a number of properties on Monday and there are fears the bin backlog could spread to other homes in the district after its rubbish collection teams began a “work to rule”.

During the most recent major conflict between Asda and an outside body, a dispute between the company and the GMB led to bug detectors being deployed by unionists during negotiations to avoid surveillance by managers.

JJB boss Whelan is notoriously anti-union and pro-poverty. His own personal fortune of £200 million is creamed from the low wages of his own staff. In 1997 workers forced JJB to increase wages. In 2006 the workers at the Wigan distribution depot took five days of strike action to secure improved and fair pay for all employees.