235 members of UNISON and Unite at TfGM joined the meeting this morning (Monday 2 December).
The employers have been trying to put pressure on your reps to ballot members on their most recent offer, which your reps don’t believe would be acceptable to members. Reps are concerned that balloting would delay talks for about a week, and if, as seems inevitable, it led to a rejection then this would only make industrial action more likely.
219 members took part in an anonymous poll in the meeting, and these are the results:
How should TfGM unions respond to the offer? | |
Ballot members on this offer | 14% |
Reject it and continue negotiating for a better one | 86% |
If members are balloted, what recommendation should your reps make? | |
Accept | 10% |
Reject | 79% |
No recommendation | 11% |
Are you happy with how your local reps at TfGM are using their judgement and happy for them to continue doing so during ongoing negotiations? | |
Yes | 87% |
No | 2% |
Maybe | 11% |
The high level of participation is really helpful in giving reps a clear indication of members’ feelings and how to proceed.
UNISON and Unite reps from TfGM, along with UNISON reps from West Midlands and West Yorkshire Combined Authorities, meet with the employers tomorrow.
Your reps continue to work hard to seek a resolution to the dispute as quickly as possible. There is also lots to organise for if industrial action does go ahead from 12th December, so please look out for updates and requests for your input.
A spreadsheet showing the difference between the picture presented in Steve Warrener’s latest email and what the employers’ offer would mean to you is at https://stopthedrop.uk/offer. The latest offer only improves non-consolidated one-off lump sums, so it falls short in three ways:
- The £500 additional pay rise for lower bands is less than members have indicated they want
- There is no additional pay rise for members on bands 7 and above
- There is nothing meaningful offered on the other elements of the claim
The industrial action called by the two unions is at https://stopthedrop.uk/action
FAQs about the industrial action are at https://stopthedrop.uk/faq
We know that the employers are trying to divide us. If we all stick together that gives us the best prospects of a good outcome to the dispute for all members. It’s great to see lots of colleagues joining both unions. Please talk to colleagues and encourage anyone who isn’t already a member to join.