|
UNISON
is Britain's most effective trade union, representing 1.3 million
people working in the UK's public services. We
negotiate better pay and conditions, help individuals in trouble
and campaign for a safer, fairer society.
The
Manchester Branch of UNISON supports well over 11,000 employees
in Manchester City Council; from housing officers to teaching assistants,
caretakers to library staff, environmental health officers to social
and support workers. The Branch also represents members in the voluntary
and private sector in Manchester who provide services to the public.
Latest News:
Pay
claim 2008

UNISON has agreed
a pay claim for this year that would give more than one million
local government workers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales
a payrise of 6% or 50p an hour - whichever is the greater.
Nationally,
UNISON said it was intended to be a 'catch up and match up' claim,
to recoup losses from below-inflation pay awards since 2004 and
to keep up with inflation over the coming year.
Heather Wakefield,
UNISON's national secretary for local government, said: "Despite
the headline figure, this is a modest claim. No-one
could argue that an increase of 50p an hour fuels inflation. Over
the past three years local government workers' pay has increased
by less than the rate of inflation, so we are starting from a low
base. We need to make sure that they catch up with the rest of the
public sector and that they are cushioned against inflation over
the coming year.
She added: "The
government's 2% limit is just not on. It is half the rate of inflation
and represents a real pay cut for loyal, hard-working public-sector
workers, two-thirds of whom are women. They are struggling to make
ends meet with the ever-increasing spiral of housing and fuel price
rises."
UNISON is also
working with other public-sector unions, through the TUC, to campaign
for a fair deal for all public sector workers.
The local government
employers for England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now consulting
councils over their response to their pay claim, while in Scotland,
an offer from the employers has been rejected by UNISON and the
other local government trade unions.
The 2008 claim
covers all grades of workers in local government, including refuse
collection, school meals, social workers, administrators, cleaners,
teaching assistants, parks and leisure workers and librarians. It
would take the wages of the lowest paid workers up to £6.50
an hour - a step towards the £6.75 that poverty experts say
is the minimum needed to live on.
For more information
on UNISON's Catch Up and Match Up pay campaign, click on the logo
below.

If
you have problems using any part of this site, please tell us by
e-mailing from this link.
Last updated:
5 March 2008
|