UNISON and Unite have today (Monday) notified Southampton city council that
the six week-long strike will spread to embrace more of the essential public
employees who keep the city functioning.
The unions are giving notice today that from Monday, July 11th, Port health
officers, who provide health protection within Southampton port and Oil
refinery, through inspection and certification of Cruise Liners, Containers and
Oil Tankers, will join the strike.
Strike action by the health officers will have the potential to bring
Southampton’s port – one of the busiest in the UK with container ships and
cruise liners docking daily, bringing around £300m on cruise liners alone to
the city coffers annually – to a halt.
The 13 port health officers will take five days of action from 00.1 hours on
Monday July 11th. During this time there will be major disruption to ships
entering and leaving the port and to the distribution of cargo containers, with
the city losing an estimated £1 million pounds for every day the port sits idle.
The unions are dubbing July 11th the council leadership’s Armageddon Day –
the day that it will sack workers who refuse to accept inferior jobs and pay
cuts.
The unions say the deepening strike is a sign of the mounting frustration
among the council workforce that their employer has mishandled recent talks
convened through the official concilliators, ACAS. After 20 hours of
negotiations, the council was still unwilling to lift its deadline of July 11th
when employees who have refused to sign inferior contracts will be sacked.
The unions have repeatedly stated that if the council lifts this deadline they
will immediately suspend all strike action allowing talks to continue without a
looming deadline.
Ian Woodland, Unite regional officer, said: “Royston Smith and Jeremy Moulton
must wake up now to how serious this city’s council employees are about
getting justice. There is absolutely no need for this city to force people onto
lower wages – to do so is a malicious attempt to bully worried working people
into accepting any terms in order to hang onto their jobs.
“Our great port will now suffer badly thanks to the stubborness of the council
leadership. They know full well there is a better way forward and it ought to
have dawned on them that the people of this city do not believe their dire
propaganda about Southampton’s finances.
“This council is marching this city towards an Armageddon deadline of July
11th but when cabinet ministers like Eric Pickles tell you to start talking then
you are irresponsible if you do not listen. Lift the deadline, we will
immediately suspend action and talks can re-open without precondition.”
Andy Straker of UNISON added: “Southampton workers from the kerbside to
the dockside are now striking against Royston Smith’s cuts. This is
phenomenal statement about this employers’ extremely poor handling of this
dispute.
“Royston Smith and Jeremy Moulton know full well that since autumn last year
the unions have been urging them to work with us on an alternative to the
drastic Tory cuts. This city has the financial resources to weather this
economic storm if the political will was there to use them intelligently.
“The council leadership’s failure to do so tells the people of this city that they
are not interested in a shared settlement – they want to hammer the
workforce and their unions. Well, the workers of this city will not stand by
and let them attack jobs and services so our message is wise up and talk
because negotiation is the only way forward.”
City-wide action starting on Monday July 11th will involve:
120 workers in waste and recycling
60 workers in street cleansing
150 library workers
20 Itchen toll bridge collectors
40 parking enforcement officers
20 Contact Supervisors (social care)
who will all take seven days action from that date.
13 port health officers who will take five days of action from Monday July
11th.