National Pay Strike Ballot: What is UNISON doing?

Anti - Racism, Austerity, National, News, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

Barnet UNISON members will join 360,000 UNISON members across England and Wales, in a National Pay Strike ballot which opens on 4 September and closes on 16 October.

UNISON advice to all 360,000 members is to VOTE YES for strike action

When can I vote?

Ballot papers will be sent directly to UNISON members’ home addresses. It is important that ALL Barnet UNISON members put a cross in the box and post the ballot back in the envelope provided.

For a successful strike ballot, a trade union must ensure that at least 50% of members have voted.

We know from other trade unions that it is important to contact all our members personally to try and get over the 50% target.

To this end Barnet UNISON will begin work to speak to every one of our members who are being balloted.

  • We will be organising meetings in workplaces, schools, children centres, depots, Colindale both in-person and online.
  • On Monday 2 September 6.30 pm we are holding an online National Pay meeting to explain about the strike ballot and to take questions.
  • We are organising a telephone banking team to try and speak to every member. If you have a message left on your voicemail from Barnet UNISON, please respond back in order we can check you off as having voted. If you receive a text message from UNISON, please respond so we can register you as having voted.
  • We will also be sending emails to members asking if they have voted. If you have voted please reply to confirm, if you have not voted or you do not have a ballot paper, please let us know as we can help to have another ballot paper sent out to you.

How much are they offering?

To understand why UNISON is recommending all 360,000 members to VOTE YES for strike action UNISON has produced a helpful online tool which provides each member with clear information that this is another PAY CUT during the worst cost of living crisis in 77 years.

Before you use the online calculator, you will need to know your annual salary. If you don’t know what you earn, please speak to your line manager.

You can access the link using the QR Code ( create QR code for this link  but keep link in flyer https://unisonpaycalculator.co.uk/ )

The online calculator provides four bits of financial information.

To help explain how it works we are using an example of a Barnet Council Grade D worker (working full time) and on the bottom of the grade.

  1. This worker currently earns £28,272.
  2. Using the UNISON National Pay Calculator this worker will with the current offer will move up to £29,763
  3. UNISON’s claim was for £3,000 or 10%, whichever was greater.
  4. The online calculator shows UNISON’s Pay claim would mean another £1,710 for this Grade D worker taking their pay to £31,474.
  5. Had this Grade D worker’s salary kept up with inflation since 2010, they’d be receiving £35,340.
  6. UNISON view is being £1,710 worse off is not a pay rise which is why all UNISON members are being advised to VOTE YES for strike action.

Is there enough money?

  • The answer is YES.
  • The UK is the sixth largest economy in the world.
  • We are in the worst cost of living crisis in 77 years
  • The number of UK billionaires has gone up by 20% since pandemic.
  • MPs will get a pay rise from £86, 584 to £91,346 alongside expenses and subsidised meals.
  • 177 billionaires in the UK increased their wealth by £150 billion between 2020-22 (directly benefiting from the pandemic!). Billionaire Britain – Equality Trust.
  • Oxfam’s analysis found that the richest 1% of Britons hold more wealth than 70 per cent of Britons, while the four richest Britons have more wealth than 20 million Britons.
  • Shell continues to reap the rewards of soaring energy prices, reporting astounding profits of £5.8 billion in Q4 2023 bringing the year’s grand total to £22 billion
  • New figures released by the Trussell Trust have also revealed that more than 3.1 million emergency food parcels were provided to people facing hardship between April 2023 and March 2024.
  • England’s water firms made £1.7bn in pre-tax profits. This is up 82% since 2018-19, when the same companies made £955m
  • Food shopping prices are still rising.  
  • Rent and/or mortgage payments are still rising.

The Government chooses who they give the money to … and it’s not to public sector workers. The value of public sector pay has fallen by almost 27% which is why we are in this serious cost of living crisis.

End.