Liverpool social workers punished by council for striking

The return to work of 100 striking Liverpool social workers has been marred by even cruder attacks on union members by Liverpool City Council.

A last-ditch plea to get the NEC Industrial Action Committee to keep our strike official - at least until we got assurances that we wouldn't be victimised - was rejected. We returned to work on 11 January 2005.

Attendance at staff meetings has been compulsory, which means that we have had to endure the Duxbury Assistant Executive Officer praising scabs for keeping the service going during our strike action. Scabs were even praised for improving things during the strike. During all this, other managers (some of whom are ex-union stewards) stood behind us like the Gestapo.

Some of us who had gone on strike rather than go off work because of the stress of impossible caseloads came back to find the same caseloads and three or more cases on top.

Three people put in their notice immediately, and were told to go home - not to work their notice out. Others are looking urgently for jobs elsewhere.

It's clear that the council wants us all to leave, and to employ a fresh and compliant workforce made up of scabs and people from overseas.

We thought that management would hold off victimising us. We were wrong. On our second day back, in the evening, three strikers - two of whom are senior union stewards and two other senior stewards who supported the strike but weren't from the childcare sector - received letters delivered by couriers which ordered them to get to council headquarters. Once there, they were all suspended on gross misconduct charges.

We warned our officials that this would happen, just as we warned them that this employer intends to utterly smash UNISON in Liverpool.

A campaign to defend the suspended members and defend the union from these attacks has been launched. Petitions have been issued which we urge everyone to fill in and fax to David Henshaw and Mike Storey, the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council respectively. We also urge people to fax and email letters of protest about their attacks on the union.

We also need as many people as possible to come to a lobby of the next Council meeting at 4pm on 26 January at the Liverpool Town Hall in Dale Street.