wot are peoples' feelings about the forthcoming stike action this week?

Hi Chez,

My feelings on the strike???

I personally would not go on strike due to my responsibility to the residents in the home which I manage. I have respect for those individuals who are choosing to go out on strike and would like to think that they respect my choice not to come out.

In my area residential care is not exempt from strike action, not sure if this is the national situation. I do find this none exemption of residential care to be appalling given that we are talking about vulnerable people who require 24 hour care. I believe I may have a picket line outside the home when I turn up for work tomorrow which again I find unacceptable as we are talking about picketing someones home.

I fully understand why people want to strike but do feel that the non exemption of residential care will back fire on the union as it makes them look as if they dont care about vulnerable people who clearly need support.

My conscience and the duty of care which I have will come first during the strike period.

DonnyMan

The argument for meekly accepting anything that erodes pay and professional standards on the basis of "I came in [to social work] to protect children and I can't do this if I am on the picket line." is that we should go back to the era of Almoners and the bored rich doing good works. It always amazes me that a "profession" that prides itself on attracting a diverse group of workers and fetishises the "celebration of difference" falls back on the tired middle class mantra of "we are only here for the clients" If you want a social workforce made up of the otherwise unemployed offspring of the rich, have your condescending stereotypes of who should do social work. Those of us who have no other means than our wages to support ourselves and tackle the inequalities of our country through our work have other ideas. I came into social work because of the vilification and violence I suffered as a bin man in the so called winter of discontent. I need no lectures from the likes of the LGE on the merits of responsibility when I see the pay and perks of senior social care managers. Those of us who do not support New Labour can easily settle for the Tories. They at least remain consistent in their wish to represent their own class interests. Ooops, a naughty bit of politics there, sorry for being so unreconstructed. Where is your employers conscience when they can choose to close residential provisions, close libraries and swimming pools to set a council tax that they think will get them elected.

Why should residential care be exempt? I hope the staffing level in there is that which pertains on Christmas Day. As regards the comment about picketing people's homes, I suspect Donnyman is upset at being confronted by workers fighting for a proper wage. We're used to the capitalist media telling us we don't care - it's insulting hearing it from one of our own but then I suppose the media wouldn't peddle that crap unless they knew they could influence certain individuals.

Did anyone go out on strike this week? What was the atmosphere like?

Residential care should be exempt because I think it is totaly unacceptable to leave vulnerable people in the care of "staff" who dont know them and would not be able to provide safe continuity of care. The home which I manage currently has a number of seriously ill service users and as the Registered Manager I have a duty to ensure that they recieve the care which they require.

It has nothing to do with me being upset at being confronted by workers fighting for a proper wage. Neither does it have anything to do with the "capitalist* media. It is about me having a concsience and a loyalty to the people who need the care which my home provides.I am sorry that you find it insulting hearing it from one of "our" own but quite frankly could not care less.

I have respect for those who chose to go out on strike and hold no ill feeling to any of them.But I would expect the same level of respect in return. If by doing my job and managing the establishment to meet the needs of the vulnerable service users this makes me in to "one of those certain individuals" then so be it.

DonnyMan

Just to let you know it looks like that there won't be any strikes for the forseeable future as Unison and Unite have reopened negotiations with employers. The unions will be reviewing the issue in September.

Do people feel disappointed? Losing several days of pay with inflation as it is etc is a tough ask for members but with employers stating all too many times that this is their final offer, is their a realistic chance that further negotiations will gain anything?

I don't feel disappointed no, as the the whole thing was a farce from the beginning, just as the previous strike was. The reality is that many of us have lost 2 days pay for no good reason, with the added insult that most people in the country didn't even notice. Moreover the work that we didn't do last week will be done anyway, probably outside of the hours that we are actually paid for. It has been an exercise in futility. Never mind though, Prentice and Wakefield managed to get a bit of publicity for themselves.

We social workers really should get ourselves a decent union, one which knows, understands and empathises with our concerns, because Unison is pathetic.

From where I was the strike was anything but a farce, but then I was on a picket line with binmen and minibus drivers who will lose much more money than us "professionals". I would run a mile from an exclusively social work union. All that hand wringing and  faux concern about "vulnerable people" would be too much like the endless strategy meetings so beloved by us one and all. If you did not have your rubbish collected, your child off school, your flight cancelled and so on, you most certainly would have noticed that half a million people were striking. I welcome negotiations because talking is a possible route to a resolution, but am more than prepared to strike if these fail. I have no pessimism or cynicism about the value of a union that can straddle all workers and has solidarity with us.

Right on comrade. Man the barricades. I do have a concern about vulnerable people and there is nothing "faux" about it.  Moreover, I do not go in for handwringing, not about vulnerable clients, non the poor bloody bin men or the bus drivers. I do not not have much time for empty posturing and gesture politics, and neither it would seem, do all the bin men and and groundsmen that I saw out in force, doing their jobs around here last week. While I was losing two days pay.

Of course, they may have been privatised, they may not, I don't know, either way they weren't showing much solidarity.  Incidentally, when all the privatisations were happening and the whole of public services were being hammered into the ground by the Tories with their penchant for taking unions to court, where was Unison then? Sitting meekl on its proud collective hands, letting it happen, that's where.

There is no mass support for this strike, that is why unison has gone back to the table. They will come away with a poxy deal over 3 years which averages out at about 0.5% better than is on the table and will proclaim it a great victory. Just like last time.

You won't need to run away from a social work union, because there won't be one, because too many people are content to be represented by a bunch of faceless bureaucrats who care more for their own careers and empty rhetoric than they do our "profession" or the people within it.

 I too, would welcome a social worker's union. I'm a long-standing member of Unison and can't comment much on a national level but on a local level have very little faith in them. I remain a member because I beleive unionisation is important. There just aren't as many options as I'd like there to be. I don't think amalgations have been necessarily helpful. 

I think these negotiations had to reopen because what else can you do if you aren't going to talk? 

You seem to forget that if you are a union member, you are the union so if they do not represent you than become active and change it to suit you. Clearly not your comrade so don't waste the sarcasm on me. Trouble is I do not feel I am so precious  an professional that I am above bin men, used to be one before I became a social worker in fact and to disgust you even further did man the braziers in the so called winter of discontent. I know which one is less health threatening and better paid too as a result.

Pete:

Right on comrade. Man the barricades. I do have a concern about vulnerable people and there is nothing "faux" about it.  Moreover, I do not go in for handwringing, not about vulnerable clients, non the poor bloody bin men or the bus drivers. I do not not have much time for empty posturing and gesture politics, and neither it would seem, do all the bin men and and groundsmen that I saw out in force, doing their jobs around here last week. While I was losing two days pay.

Of course, they may have been privatised, they may not, I don't know, either way they weren't showing much solidarity.  Incidentally, when all the privatisations were happening and the whole of public services were being hammered into the ground by the Tories with their penchant for taking unions to court, where was Unison then? Sitting meekl on its proud collective hands, letting it happen, that's where.

There is no mass support for this strike, that is why unison has gone back to the table. They will come away with a poxy deal over 3 years which averages out at about 0.5% better than is on the table and will proclaim it a great victory. Just like last time.

You won't need to run away from a social work union, because there won't be one, because too many people are content to be represented by a bunch of faceless bureaucrats who care more for their own careers and empty rhetoric than they do our "profession" or the people within it.

UNISON didn't exist. It wasn't formed until the 90s and it can't be held responsible for the perceived failings of NALGO, NUPE, COHSE or any other union. You don't know who the bin men and bus drivers work for, you don't know which union they belong to (probably the T&GWU, most of them do) but you're happy to have a go at them.

The people I hear complaining most vocally about UNISON  are usually the people who never go to a meeting, wouldn't dream of being a steward, don't bother to vote in ballots and have no concept of collective action and responsibility - they're the people who want "the union" to do all the hard work and moan when it doesn't go the way they wanted. That's not how it work. If you want things to change, you have to get involved.  

The latest news on the dispute appears to be that the employers are willing to talk about things like maternity and annual leave and flexible hours but not the basic 2.45% offer. Are people going to be happy settling on the basis of these issues? I guess things like extra leave are much valued and have a monetary value but do they replace cash in your pocket?