NJC pay dispute

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Friday September 12, 2008 10:17 by solidarity seeker

Is there anyone else out there feeling the same trepidation that I am feeling over the direction that the current NJC pay dispute has taken?

Those on NJC pay and terms and conditions were offered a paltry 2% pay increase this year. In the light of food and fuel prices going up by 30+%, understandably the workers involved felt that this was wholly unaccepable and voted to take industrial action. This culminated with a two days strike in July. This is when things take a strange turn. In return for suspending further action a "Review" is set up. A review of what ? you might ask. Well it's a review of everyones NJC terms and conditions of employment. The remit talks about amongst other things, looking for "efficiency savings". Now call me a bit of an old cynic but this looks very like, "Well if we can shed enough jobs here and there we might be able to add a few pence on to the pay offer". Is that the position we are going to be in come December, an extra .2% or so for your brothers and sisters being shafted out of their jobs?
The whole thing is a potential mine field. In a desperate attempt to get out of the industrial action the Union leaderships have agreed to put all our terms and conditions up for grabs. Can anyone see management missing such an opportunity to screw us over? We voted for industrial action to secure a better pay offer, not for this review. We all have to now get on to our Unions and demand,No sell out of our terms and conditions!!