thousands of PCS members are walking out for one hour today, at 11.00am, coinciding with the Queen’s Speech, which will be outlining the savage cuts that the Tory-led coalition will be carrying out in the coming year.
The action will continue on Thursday and Friday and forms part of a three-month campaign of strikes and protests by the union’s 250,000 public sector members over imposed cuts to pay, pensions and conditions.
PCS members striking today will include workers at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
They will also include staff at regulatory bodies, such as Ofwat and Ofgem, who work on behalf of consumers to ensure they are treated fairly by utility and energy companies, and the Food Standards Agency that uncovered the horsemeat scandal.
The one-hour walkouts will include around 12,000 PCS members in more than 30 different organisations.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said yesterday: ‘The government’s U-turn on the equality duty, the horsemeat scandal and the cold winter leading to massive utility bills, all highlight the importance of these bodies to our lives.
‘These essential public services, often unnoticed and under-praised, should be well resourced and left to do their work, instead of facing cuts and denigration by ministers who shamefully claim they are cutting “red tape”.’
On Thursday, the second day of the PCS action, representatives of the US Teamsters union will be joined by Unite members in lobbying the National Express AGM in York Way central London from 2.00pm.
‘Further evidence has emerged that National Express group is pushing human rights in its North American operations to the limit’, said Unite.
Over the last decade serious concerns have been raised by anti-union actions and the appalling labour relations record of National Express Group’s US private school bus transportation subsidiary Durham School Services.
British firms in the US have a record of anti-union actions that would not be tolerated in the UK.
In 2011, Durham was made to pay US$7 million after a class action lawsuit over its failure to pay employees in California from 2005-2011.
The National Labour Relations Board has issued 57 formal complaints against Durham since 2001, resulting in settlements.
The complaints concerned allegations by workers that the company targeted those engaged in union organising with unfair treatment, surveillance and threats of reduced benefits and working conditions and even dismissal.
New research by the Teamsters of 165 drivers and monitors employed by Durham School Services in South Carolina last summer showed that buses had frequent breakdowns when students were on board, many buses were overcrowded and a catalogue of mechanical malfunctions were reported, such as broken heaters and speedometers.
Research in Santa Rosa County in Florida also revealed similar problems.
Teamsters’ general president Jim Hoffa said: ‘It is clear that the evidence continues to mount that human rights are being pushed to the limit by Durham School Services.
‘National Express needs to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the activities being perpetrated in its name in America.’
Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: ‘Our fear is that, if Durham School Services is allowed to get away with these abuses, such behaviour could creep into National Express’ UK operations which Unite would fight tooth-and-nail for transport workers and for passengers.’
