Prison officers take illegal action

[ViolentPanda]

Don't put words in my mouth. The POA are scum, I would like to see their organisation smashed as it would lead to the removal of the biggest bar to improving the conditions for prisoners and enabling rehabilitation rather than the whole prison service being run for the conveience of a bunch of racist fat fuckwits.


Steam in police people!

Can't disagree with you about the POA, they've used manipulation of manning levels to pretty much stymie education and training in some establishments over a least the last 30 years, and it's an unfortunate fact that elements of the POA membership have links to the far-right (something that usually gets turned up at disciplinary hearings after the aforementioned cunts have manifested their racism physically).

They're entitled to a union, it's a shame the one they've got is rotten to the core.

 

[ViolentPanda]

My enemy’s enemy is my friend, springs to mind.

Yep.

Irenically speaking; the government is hoping for a peaceful resolution.

Hardly surprising, given that a strike means having to draw in army and police staff, as well as all governor-grade prison staff, to provide cover. You're talking "skeleton" staffing at best, with inexperienced (and probably frightened) people riding herd on a social powder keg. Me, I wouldn't be hoping for a peaceful resolution, I'd be actively seeking it out before a clusterfuck develops.

 

[junius]

Probably the most politically significant strike action for quite some time. The left would be absolutely dumb to just issue strictures about how reactionary prison officers are and leave it at that.

Break the trade union laws! Support the prison officers!

 

[detective-boy]

I loved it when they went on Strike at Wandsworth Prison and the police had to move in and do their jobs. The picket line scenes were funny as fuck with lots of reprobates encouraging the police and screws to attack each other.

They had also wound up the prisoners to expect the police to be beating them up, etc. After about 10 minutes the prisoners realised we were infinitely better than the screws ... (mainly because we ignored many of the apparently petty "rules").

 

[Gromit]

If you are in any government job where its impossible for you to strike then the government fuck you up the arse as they know they can (the one exception is GCHQ and thats because they know where the skelletons are burried).

I support them.

 

[Irenick]

They had also wound up the prisoners to expect the police to be beating them up, etc. After about 10 minutes the prisoners realised we were infinitely better than the screws ... (mainly because we ignored many of the apparently petty "rules").

Funny that, all the plastic gangsters and villains I’ve known in Saaaf London say the opposite. They’d prefer a good screw, over a copper any day, or night I imagine, of the week.

But, who am I to argue with Lilly Law?

 

[poster342002]

a good screw, over a copper any day, or night

God, what an image that conjours up...

 

[TAE]

BBC News front page:

Prison officers defy court order

Thousands of prison officers are defying an injunction and are refusing to end their national strike over pay.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6968794.stm

 

[Hocus Eye.]

What will the authorities do? Perhaps have them arrested and sent to prison?

 

[agricola]

Frankly the Government have brought this all on themselves - despite independent arbitration (and, if rumour is to be believed, their own negotiating team) siding with the POA in the pay dispute, the Home Office (or whichever of its successor parts deals with them now) decided to ignore the settlement and bring in their latest flavour of the month - the phased (ie: delayed) pay settlement - just as they are attempting to do with the nurses (who will probably be the next to strike) and Police (who will be watching how the no-strike agreement is interpreted in law).

This of course does not begin to deal with the wider issue of how the Prison Service is expected to deal with a system that is currently over-capacity, is faced with threats of privatization, as well as having to deal with some of the most antisocial people in the country. This was long overdue, and hopefully it will knock some sense into the Government, otherwise it will take another Strangeways, or worse, to do so.

Of course, if we were in the midst of a recession then it could perhaps be understood, but when (as Private Eye and not many other papers have been pointing out) the Treasury is determined to PFI-everything and accept huge losses to the public purse as a matter of policy, they can hardly claim prudence as a virtue.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

as Private Eye and not many other papers have been pointing out

Probably because Private Eye, for a variety of reasons, doesn't have any interest in what business wants.

 

[TopCat]

OMG! TopCat shares an opinion with Michael Howard shocker!!

 

[MikeMcc]

The POA is now saying that they'll go back to work after getting an offer of 'meaningful talks'.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

The report I heard on the Beeb was to the effect that the strike would end at 7:00 in the morning as originally planned. I haven't heard of any offer.

 

[MikeMcc]

Was on an interview on CH4 news. Though they'd just had a minister on saying that this years pay deal WASN'T up for discussion! The POA guy wasn't too happy about that.

 

[rollinder]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6968794.stm
page now says the strike's over

"Mr Caton told BBC News 24: "We will lead our membership back to work and we will do that in an orderly fashion and that is regardless of any court injunction.."

Asked when the end of the strike should happen, Mr Caton replied "straightaway". "

 

[bluestreak]

i think we should send in the riot police. this is clearly a breakdown in law and order and these people are holding us to ransom. the decent folk of the british isles should not be held to ransom by the actions of a minority.

 

[Irenick]

Prison officers end pay strike

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6968794.stm

"Cardiff prison where inmates locked in their cells have taunted a picket line in the car park with shouts of "You're breaking the law"..."

Do you suppose the cruel taunts from Welsh prisoners did for the striking screws' morale?

 

[rollinder]

i think we should send in the riot police. this is clearly a breakdown in law and order and these people are holding us to ransom. the decent folk of the british isles should not be held to ransom by the actions of a minority.

 

[nightbreed]

Socialist Worker have yet to comment on the dispute. Most SWPers I have known in the past have thought the POA to be reactionary.They are usually quite quick to put something on their site but by 9pm tonight nothing has appeared. It obviously isnt important.

BTW,Respect (or should I say Galloway) has this to say

http://www.respectcoalition.org/?ite=1543

 

[junius]

It is curious how the usual rent-a-strike trot brigade have nothing to say about this dispute. They must still be waiting for instructions from 'the centre'.

A good example of how when a group of workers really moves into action - however momentarily - the sects are nowhere to be seen.

 

[bluestreak]

hey junius, would you support a police strike? i mean, in the sense that you'd be hopping on the barricades with them etc?

 

[JoePolitix]

Depends

http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Latest/Police.html

 

[junius]

hey junius, would you support a police strike? i mean, in the sense that you'd be hopping on the barricades with them etc?

Of course, provided the strike was't for reactionary reasons eg to clamp down on civil liberties etc.

In certain situations, absent at the moment, even this most reactionary of workers - a section of them at least - can be split from the class they serve.

Neutrality or hostility by the left when these workers move against their masters is downright idiotic. The job of the left is to 'split,split,split' in these situations, to put it in angular fashion.

Unfortunately the left is more likely to split itself on these occasions than try to split the institutions of the capitalist state.

 

[BarryB]

Don't put words in my mouth. The POA are scum, I would like to see their organisation smashed as it would lead to the removal of the biggest bar to improving the conditions for prisoners and enabling rehabilitation rather than the whole prison service being run for the conveience of a bunch of racist fat fuckwits.


Steam in police people!

From what I saw on the BBC News there are quite a few black prison officers at Wormwood Scrubs. Same goes for Pentonville when I passed it on a bus the pm.

BarryB

 

[treelover]

The ever perceptive and very active John Mcdonnell on the dispute, its implications and a wider autumn of discontent.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Prison Officers' Dispute is Tip of Iceberg of Public Sector Workers' Discontent.
The industrial action taken by members of the Prison Officers Association should come as no surprise to anybody familiar with the dire straits of industrial relations in the prison service. The trigger for today's dispute is the Government's decision to refuse to honour the Pay Review Body's pay award of 2.5% and instead to insist that the payment be staged resulting in prison officers receiving less than the rate of inflation and significantly less than other assessments of the real rise in the cost of living.

The depth of anger amongst POA members can be gauged by the 87% vote in favour of the industrial action in its recent ballot. It is completely understandable why are they angry.

http://www.johnmcdonnell.org.uk/

 

[treelover]

Yes, this was very noticeable across the country going by media reports, i think some of the critics may be stuck in the 80's and 90's, though i am willing to be proved wrong.

From what I saw on the BBC News there are quite a few black prison officers at Wormwood Scrubs. Same goes for Pentonville when I passed it on a bus the pm.

BarryB

 

[Groucho]

I support the POA strike on this issue (and their opposition to private prisons).

The strike raises the issue of Brown's public sector pay restraint and the right
to strike. A victory in this strike would damage Brown's pay curbs, and the anti-union laws, and would therefore be a blow for all public sector workers. Socialists should therefore be fully supportive of the POA in this dispute without dropping our criticisms of prison regime in general, nor of particular POA policies on other issues.

(The POA have supported Public Service Not Private Profit and their Gen Sec has been relatively progressive on the issue of prison reform by the way. There has been a certain maturing of a trade unionist outlook within the POA in recent years. Not that I would want to overstate that.)

 

[Groucho]

Yes, this was very noticeable across the country going by media reports, i think some of the critics may be stuck in the 80's and 90's, though i am willing to be proved wrong.

The membership have elected a black national chairman as well.

 

[cockneyrebel]

I am curious to see how this board reacts to this, since I have previously seen it said that prison officers should not be allowed to be in a union

Agree with what Groucho has said and I think some people are stereotyping what they believe the far left to be.

The argument about the police (and probably prison officers as well or PCS members who are snatch squads), isn't that they shouldn't have a union, but that they shouldn't be part of the workers movement or part of the TUC. How can they be, when part of their role is to spy on and smash the workers movement. However if police and prison wardens become radicalised (such as in the link by JP) then that's a good thing.