SCOTLAND

Largest teachers' union accepts pay deal and ends long-running strikes

Jody Harrison
Fri, 10 March 2023

Largest teachers' union accepts pay deal ending long-running strikes (Image: PA)

Teachers have called off all industrial action after accepting a pay deal with the Scottish Government.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) have voted overwhelmingly to accept a new offer from Ministers, calling and end to the long-running dispute which has closed schools and cancelled classes across the country.

Teachers with the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) backed the sixth deal put to them, which will see a 7 per cent pay rise backdated to April 2022, a further 5% next month, and another 2% in January.

EIS members voted 90 per cent in favour of accepting the deal, with only 10% opposed on a turnout of 82%.

READ MORE: Teacher strikes suspended as EIS urge members to accept new pay offer

The EIS tweeted: “Pay offer will be accepted. All strike action in pursuit of an improved teachers’ pay offer cancelled.”

The ballot follows that of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA), who voted 85.3% in favour of accepting the offer, with 14.7% rejecting it. Turnout was 79.9%.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils in both Primary and Secondary schools have had classes cancelled during the months of the industrial dispuite, leaving many parents struggling to arrange childcare.

Flying pickets also targeted the constituencies of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Shirley-Anne Somerville, along with Scottish Green education spokesman Ross Greer.

Andrea Bradley, EIS general secretary, said the high turnout shows members had “taken a pragmatic decision in voting to accept the current pay offer”.

She added: “While it does not meet our aspirations in respect of a restorative pay settlement for Scotland’s teachers, it is the best deal that can realistically be achieved in the current political and financial climate without further prolonged industrial action.

“It compares favourably with recent pay settlements across the public sector, and does provide pay certainty for Scotland’s teachers for the next 16 months until the next pay settlement is scheduled to be delivered in August 2024.”

Under the deal, most teachers will see their pay increase by 14.6% by January 2024, Ms Bradley said.

HeraldScotland:

The EIS members’ approval of the deal came after a breakthrough in negotiations last week, which saw the union pause its planned 20-day campaign of rolling strikes in every part of Scotland.

The pay dispute between councils and the teaching unions had become bitterly contested, with the first walk out taking place last November.

Shirley-Anne Somerville labelled the latest deal a “historic offer” which she said would see teacher pay “increase by 33% from January 2018 to January 2024”.

She said: “I am very pleased that EIS and SSTA members have voted overwhelmingly to accept this historic offer and I look forward to the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers giving it formal consideration in due course.

“It is the most generous offer to teachers in more than 20 years and one that is fair, affordable and sustainable for everyone involved.

“Teachers in Scotland are already the best paid in the UK and this deal will mean a salary rise of £5,200 in April for most teachers, and a cumulative rise of 33% since January 2018.

“A resolution to this dispute and an end to the threat of further strike disruption in our schools will be a huge relief for children, young people, parents, carers, and teachers, too.”

HeraldScotland:

EIS and SSTA leaders had recommended members accepted the deal.

NASUWT members are also involved in the dispute and its general secretary, Patrick Roach, had condemned the latest offer from Scottish Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville as “only a paltry improvement” on the previous proposal.

That union is also balloting its members on the deal.

SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said: “The membership has determined to accept the latest pay offer.

“Throughout the period of industrial action, the SSTA has taken a measured approach and has been willing to negotiate to find a solution to the pay dispute.

“The SSTA is proud to be a member-led union, and the ballot is a fundamental part of our democratic process.”

READ MORE: Teachers hold rally outside Nicola Sturgeon's office

Mr Searson said the SSTA will now push for teachers to receive the backpay they are due as quickly as possible.

He continued: “However, the SSTA has a major concern over the unnecessary pay cap; this seems to be an act of political dogma rather than a rational proposal.

“The inclusion of this is a considerable barrier in the professional career structure for secondary school teachers.

“The career ladder has been stifled for many years, the number of posts of responsibility has been cut severely. Posts such as these are needed in secondary schools as they are essential for good management systems.”

SCOTLAND

Strike action at airports suspended after new pay offer

Lucinda Cameron, PA Scotland
Fri, 10 March 2023 



Planned strike action involving airport fire and security staff in the Highlands and islands has been suspended as a union considers a new pay offer.

Prospect union members at Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) had been due to walk out on Monday and next Friday in a dispute over pay.

However the union said it has agreed to suspend the action after an improved offer from the employer.

It said workers have been offered 7%, which it described as significantly better than the previous rejected offer of 5%.

Prospect members will now be balloted on whether to accept the new offer.

Jane Rose, Prospect negotiator, said: “This is a welcome improvement to the offer from the employer which we will now be putting to members via ballot, although it is clear there are wider pay structure issues at Hial which remain to be addressed.

“As a gesture of good faith in the negotiations, and recognising the positive change in the offer from Hial, we will be suspending all industrial action until the conclusion of consultation with members.”

Hial said it met with the three trade unions involved – PCS, Prospect and Unite – on Thursday and made an enhanced pay offer.

Inglis Lyon, Hial managing director, said: “The new business case presented to Transport Scotland at the beginning of the week was approved and allowed us to make an improved pay offer.

“The trade unions welcomed this offer and have confirmed that they will now ballot their members on acceptance.

“We look forward to the outcome of the ballot and are hopeful for a positive result to resolve the current industrial dispute.

“We apologise for the disruption this industrial action has caused and would ask passengers to contact their airline if they have any questions on flights.”

Hial airports have been affected by a series of strikes in recent months as Unite members walked out over the pay dispute.

Shauna Wright, Unite industrial officer, said: “Unite can confirm that we have received a new and improved pay offer from Hial.

“Unite’s members are currently being balloted on this offer, which Unite has welcomed as a significant step forward by the company but ultimately it is in the hands of our members who will make the final decision.

“All proposed industrial action involving Unite members is now postponed until we receive the ballot result on March 20.”

The PCS said it will consult with its members and its national disputes committee.

It said strike action planned for next Wednesday will not be suspended, however it said airports affected will remain open as normal and no disruption is anticipated.

Earlier this month Loganair announced it was being forced to temporarily suspend flights from Inverness to Stornoway and Benbecula, and from Inverness to Kirkwall and Sumburgh, due to work-to-rule industrial action.

It said it now aims to resume services as soon as it is practical.

A Loganair spokesman said: “We warmly welcome this positive step forward in negotiations between Hial and their unions.

“Loganair aims to resume services from Inverness to Kirkwall, Sumburgh, Stornoway and Benbecula as soon as it is practical to do so and we will issue further updates in due course in line with the ballot outcome.”

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “We welcome the progress made by Hial and the unions and call on airlines to reinstate services as soon as possible to minimise disruption to communities affected.”

UK
Climate protester confronts judge over ‘amoral’ order on what jury could hear


Laura Parnaby, PA
Fri, 10 March 2023

A road-blocking protester who could face jail has confronted a judge over the decision to ban him from mentioning his climate-related motivations to a jury.

Insulate Britain activist Stephen Pritchard, 63, from Bath, used his speech in court ahead of his sentencing to condemn the order made by Judge Silas Reid as “amoral” and “irrational”.

The Buddhist and former parish councillor appeared at Inner London Crown Court alongside former probation officer Ruth Cook, 71, gardener Roman Paluch-Machnik, 29, and carpenter Oliver Rock, 42.

All four were convicted by a jury of causing a nuisance to the public by obstructing the highway after they stopped traffic at Junction 3 of the M4 on October 1 2021.

Insulate Britain said they are the first protesters to be convicted of causing a public nuisance – a common law offence which carries a maximum penalty of lifetime imprisonment.

Judge Reid had ruled that they should not mention their climate motivations during their trial, but asked them to “concentrate as much as possible on motivation” in their speeches ahead of sentencing.

He told them: “Blocking the road in the way you did, if it was done for no reason, is a serious matter and would result in a prison sentence.”

Pritchard told the court he turned to protest action after he had “exhausted every other means”, including writing to his MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, signing petitions, leading sustainability projects, and planting tens of thousands of trees.

Stephen Pritchard outside Inner London Crown Court (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

He said he felt “overwhelming sadness” about Government “inaction” on climate change.

Addressing Judge Reid, Pritchard said: “I think that your rulings were amoral; I believe also they were irrational given the situation that we’re in.

“People’s lives are being lost. The only possible way I could imagine stopping peaceful civil resistance in this context is for you to tell me that this country has stopped pumping greenhouse gases into the air.

“I’m well aware of what prison is like, having been to prison. It’s not a very nice place. But I feel like I’m already a prisoner of my conscience.”

Rock said he has spent two months in prison over similar protests, and felt “traumatised” by it, adding that he was worried he would “have a complete mental breakdown” if he were jailed again.

Oliver Rock is hugged by fellow campaigner Ruth Cook outside Inner London Crown Court (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

He said there were “three prison guards to around 80 prisoners” and many took “bucketloads of drugs to control their anxiety”.

Rock, from Dulwich, south London, said he felt compelled to take part in the 2021 protest because he believes his young nephew and niece “don’t have a decent future” due to climate change.

“I feel really angry,” he said. “I think we are headed to a very dark place. I don’t think we are going to turn this ship around in time.

“I see the reactions from politicians, and they don’t know what to do and they just want everyone to be quiet.

“I don’t know what to do. I am desperate to change the future we are facing.”

Ruth Cook outside Inner London Crown Court (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Rock said his motivations were “moral and spiritual”, and referred to the court case as “fiddling” with paperwork “while the world is burning”.

Cook, who founded a training company after leaving the Probation Service, said she had spent decades “upholding the law” but resorted to disruptive protests so she could “look her grandchildren in the eye”.

Speaking about Judge Reid’s imposition of limits to their defence, the grandmother from Frome, Somerset, gestured to the jury bench and said: “I’m really aware of those empty seats.

“I am going to say things now that I wish they would have been able to hear, so that they weren’t discussing traffic data and listening to boring statistics about traffic, but knew why we did what we did.”

Cook, who is also a Quaker, said her work delivering aid in Africa on behalf of Oxfam and the Refugee Council and seeing climate refugees in the continent “changed me fundamentally”.

Stephen Pritchard, Ruth Cook, Roman Paluch-Machnik and Oliver Rock (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

“I saw the impact that the climate emergency was having on their lives,” she said.

Cook said going through the court system had been “far more stressful than sitting on a motorway” and she did not intend to take part in any further law-breaking protests.

The defendants also mentioned the impact the campaign had had on their friend Xavier Gonzalez-Trimmer, who killed himself after spending time in prison over an Insulate Britain protest.

Pritchard said: “He was a brave, gentle and caring human being who could see the future we were facing and was desperate to do something about it, and now he’s dead.”

Paluch-Machnik used his speech to highlight the impact of climate change, adding: “This isnt a belief system of mine, this is a measurable process.”

The four will return to the same court for sentencing by Judge Reid on a date to be confirmed next week.

Canada: inquiry into police unit accused of excessive force against green activists


Leyland Cecco in Toronto

THE GUARDIAN
Fri, 10 March 2023 

Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

Canada’s federal police force has opened an investigation into a controversial unit tasked with overseeing environmental protests, following hundreds of complaints that officers used excessive force, disregarded court orders and violated protesters’ rights.

Related: Giving the middle finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, a watchdog arm of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said on Thursday it would examine the activities of the community-industry response group, or C-IRG, based in British Columbia.

During the Fairy Creek blockade against old-growth forest logging on Vancouver Island, officers with the special unit were accused of ripping off protesters’ masks to pepper-spray them and dragging them by their hair.

A British Columbia supreme court judge subsequently ruled that the exclusion zones created by the RCMP – set up to prevent media from entering certain areas of the injunction area – were unlawful.

The C-IRG was also involved in protests over the Coastal GasLink pipeline, deploying riot control officers, dogs and helicopters to dismantle blockades – and as the Guardian has previously reported, was prepared to shoot on Indigenous protesters.

The RCMP has long faced criticism for its conduct against Indigenous peoples, and in recent years has faced mounting concerns over accountability and a disregard for court orders. The C-IRG has faced accusations of harassment, racism and excessive force – allegations the unit’s leadership has denied.

The unit is currently the target of a lawsuit alleging it used “unlawful tactics” to dismantle the Fairy Creek protest, and is also linked to a broader press freedom lawsuit after RCMP officers detained two journalists reporting on police efforts to tear down blockades against the Coastal GasLink pipeline on traditional Wet’suwet’en territory.

Related: ‘I felt kidnapped’: Canada police sued for arresting photographer covering protest

The RCMP oversight body says it will assess whether the unit’s operations are consistent with Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms, as well as recently passed legislation on the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. The force has said it will also ensure the unit’s actions align with recommendations from a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

The chair of the oversight group, Michelaine Lahaie, is not part of the RCMP.

The C-IRG unit, staffed with volunteer RCMP officers, was originally formed in 2017 to help resource-extraction protests proceed by breaking up public protest and blockades. The unit has cost nearly C$50m over the past five years, according to CBC News.

The CRCC has the ability to examine the conduct of individual officers to determine if policies or training need to change, the RCMP said.

The RCMP said in a statement it had anticipated the investigation.

“We knew about the possibility for a review and have been working cooperatively to ensure that the CRCC have comprehensive access and a fulsome understanding of the C-IRG’s policies, procedures, practices, guidelines, training and deployments,” Staff Sgt Kris Clark, a media relations officer, said.

HS2 delay will discourage British investment, says infrastructure expert

The High Speed 2 rail project has been beset by delays and cost re-evaluations

Jasper Jolly
Fri, 10 March 2023


The UK’s decision to delay the HS2 rail line will discourage British investment at a time when the US and mainland Europe are pushing forward with major spending on green technology, according to the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission.

Sir John Armitt said the delay to HS2, a high-speed line that aims to increase British rail capacity, contrasted with the heavy investments by the US and EU on decarbonisation.

“That investment is going elsewhere,” Armitt said on BBC Radio 4. “We need all the investment we [can get] in this country. Making these sort of announcements simply dims the prospect and causes uncertainty in people’s minds.”

Joe Biden’s $369bn (£308bn) Inflation Reduction Act has fuelled a subsidy race between the US and EU, leaving the UK scrambling to catch up.

Ministers on Thursday confirmed that HS2 would be delayed. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said the decision was the result of “significant inflationary pressure and increased project costs”. The delay will spread the cost over a longer period.

Parts of the planned line between Birmingham, Crewe and Manchester will be “rephased” by two years. The line to Crewe may not be open until 2036, and Manchester not until 2043.

Critics of the project point to long delays and the fact that the budget has already grown significantly. Some people affected by construction plans are also opposed. Simon Clarke, the Conservative MP, said he had “serious doubts as to value for money and cost control” on HS2 after scrutinising it at the Treasury.

However, Armitt said the delay would increase the total cost of the project by drawing out the process and prevent businesses from investing.

“It will increase the end cost,” he said. “That impacts the confidence and certainty people have in investing in this country. We’re about levelling up; we’re about competing with the world. We don’t level up, we don’t compete with the world if we create uncertainty.”

Armitt was chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, which oversaw the construction of the venues, facilities and infrastructure for the 2012 Games in London, and in 2013 he wrote an influential review that recommended setting up the commission in order to speed up the construction of big projects.

However, since then the UK’s record of development has been patchy. Meanwhile, the UK’s productivity growth has stagnated since the financial crisis in 2008, and business investment has lagged behind, particularly since the Brexit vote, costing billions in lost potential output.

Armitt said it was not unusual for major infrastructure projects to run over budget, in part because politicians often announced how much it would cost before detailed work was carried out.

“HS2 is an integral part in delivering that long-term success for our transport system, for decarbonisation, and for business growth in this country,” he said.

HS2: All the delays and U-turns on £100bn rail project since it started

The High Speed 2 rail project has been beset by delays and cost re-evaluations ever since it was first put forward in 2009.


Ross McGuinness and Chris Parsons
Fri, March 10, 2023

An artist's impression of a HS2 train. (PA)

The government has announced fresh delays to some sections of the High Speed 2, or HS2, pushing parts of the project back by a further two years.

In a written statement to MPs, Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced the delay of the Birmingham to Crewe leg of HS2, blaming increased costs and inflation.

Phase One of HS2 involves the railway being built between London and Birmingham, with the line extended from the West Midlands to Crewe in Phase 2a.

Phase 2b will connect both Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands to the East Midlands.

The announcement comes come after HS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Thurston said the impact on the project from inflation has been “significant”, adding to the cost of building materials, labour, fuel and energy.

The Transport Secretary also confirmed the government would be prioritising HS2 services between the Midlands and Old Oak Common, suggesting that those using the high speed line to travel from Birmingham to London would still have to complete their journeys into central London using the London Underground, adding time on to their journeys.

The £106bn HS2 project has been beset by delays and cost re-evaluations ever since it was first put forward in 2009.

Work continues on the Colne Valley Viaduct on December 12, in Hillingdon, west London, which will become the longest railway bridge in the UK, as part of the HS2 project. (Getty)

The project has been dogged by criticism over its financial and environmental impact.

In October 2020, levelling up secretary Michael Gove suggested capital investment for HS2 would be reviewed, but Hunt subsequently backed the project.

The target cost of Phase One between London and Birmingham was £40.3bn.

A budget of £55.7 billion for the whole of HS2 was set in 2015, but this has since spiralled to an estimated £72bn-£98bn at 2019 prices. That budget is now likely to be much higher due to rising inflation.

It is just the latest blow to the HS2 project, which has ballooned in cost and angered residents and politicians.

The first phase between London and Birmingham was supposed to open at the end of 2026, but this has been pushed back to between 2029 and 2033. The second phase, originally scheduled to open in 2032, is now expected as late at 2040.
The delays and U-turns of the beleaguered HS2 project:

January 2009

The then Labour government sets up HS2 Ltd to look at the case for building a high-speed railway line.

January 2012

HS2 is given the green light by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, despite concerns about its cost and its impact on the environment. It has an initial budget of £32bn.

June 2013

The projected cost of delivering HS2 rises to £42bn.

An aerial view of the entrance to the Chiltern Tunnels, part of the work on the HS2 network, on 3 November, 2021. (PA)

September 2015

The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee notes that the new projected cost for HS2 is £56bn.

June 2016

The National Audit Office warns the project is already under financial strain and could be delayed by a year.

August 2019

The government announces a review of HS2 which will analyse whether it should continue to go ahead, with the Department for Transport promises a “go or no-go” decision by the end of that year.

The review will be led by former HS2 Ltd chairman Douglas Oakervee.

Later that month, the BBC reports the government and HS2 bosses knew the project was over budget and behind schedule three years previously in 2016.

September 2019

HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook says HS2 may not be completed until 2040 and could cost as much as £88bn.

January 2020

The Oakervee Review is delivered and finds that costs have ballooned even more, projecting an overall cost of £106bn.

However, the report finds that the project should continue.

A demonstrator carries a 'Stop HS2' banner during a protest in London. (PA)

That same month, the National Audit Office accuses the government of underestimating the complexity of the project, saying it is impossible to say with certainty just how much the final cost of HS2 could be.

February 2020

Despite the concerns, prime minister Boris Johnson gives another green light to HS2, approving the entire line.

May 2020

MPs say the HS2 project has gone “badly off course” and that further increases in costs cannot be ruled out.

Read more: HS2 costs ‘rose by £1.7bn in past year’

The all-party Public Accounts Committee accused the Department for Transport of hiding information about delays and cost overruns.

September 2020

Formal construction on HS2 begins, with Johnson saying it is an “incredible” project and “crucial for our country”.

September 2021

MPs say there is “no clear end in sight” to the cost and delays of HS2.

An artist's impression of the proposed HS2 station at Euston, London. (PA)

The Public Accounts Committee said it is “increasingly alarmed” about key parts of the project.

October 2021

The government says that dealing with anti-HS2 protests has cost the high speed rail project up to £80m.

Johnson tells the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester that his government “will do Northern Powerhouse Rail, we will link up the cities of the Midlands and the North”.

November 2021

The government is accused of committing a 'great robbery' as Grant Shapps confirms that the eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds has been scrapped.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said Northern Powerhouse Rail – the name given to proposals for an east-to-west high-speed train line across the North – had been “a fraud”.

The government's revised HS2 route, which it announced in November 2021, involved scrapping the route to Leeds. (PA)

July 2022

A £3bn branch of the High Speed 2 network designed to speed up rail journeys between London and Scotland is quietly ditched by ministers, provoking outrage from rail industry groups.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham have since held private meetings about the best way to replace the axed Golborne link to take high-speed trains to Scotland.

March 2023

Transport Secretary Mark Harper announces the delay of the Birmingham to Crewe leg of HS2, blaming increased costs and inflation.

In a written statement to MPs, Harper also confirms the government will be prioritising HS2 services between the Midlands and Old Oak Common outside central London, meaning commuters from Birmingham to the capital will have to continue their journeys from the western suburbs using the Tube, adding journey time.

Harper's announcement does not appear to give a definitive date of when HS2 will be completed so people can travel direct into London Euston.

Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion costs surge 44% to C$30.9 billion


 A pipe yard servicing government-owned oil pipeline operator

 Trans Mountain is seen in Kamloops

Fri, March 10, 2023 
By Nia Williams

(Reuters) -The cost of the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion has jumped 44% from last year's estimate to C$30.9 billion ($22.35 billion), the federal corporation building the project said on Friday.

Trans Mountain Corp (TMC) said it is in the process of securing external financing to fund the remaining cost of the project, which is now expected to start shipping oil in the first quarter of 2024.

The 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline expansion will nearly triple the flow of barrels from Alberta's oil sands to Canada's Pacific coast, opening access to Asian markets. It has been beset by regulatory delays, environmental opposition and hefty budget overruns.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government bought the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc in 2018 to ensure the expansion got built, drawing sharp criticism from environmental groups.

Last February TMC increased the cost estimate to C$21.4 billion, up from C$12.6 billion in 2020 and C$7.4 billion in 2017. Following last year's jump, the Canadian government said it would halt any further public funding for the project.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland reiterated government plans to sell the pipeline once it is complete.

"As we committed to Canadians last year, no additional public money will be invested in this project as construction is completed," Freeland said in a statement.

"The federal government does not intend to be the long-term owner of the project, and we will launch a divestment process in due course."

BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities have been engaged by the government to provide advice on certain financial aspects of the project.

In a letter to the government on Friday, the banks said once the expansion is complete TMC is expected to generate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of more than C$2.4 billion a year and would be commercially viable.

BMO declined to comment and TD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Eleven oil shippers, including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd and MEG Energy have committed to long-term contracts that make up 80% of Trans Mountain's capacity.

TMC blamed the cost increase on a number of factors including high global inflation and supply chain issues, floods in British Columbia, unexpected major archaeological discoveries and challenging terrain.

The corporation also said the current cost estimate does not include reserves for "extraordinary risks" and could change again.

"As with all projects of this size, risks to the final costs and schedule will remain as work is completed through 2023," TMC said in a statement.

Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, said buying and building the pipeline would go down as one of the worst infrastructure decisions ever made by a Canadian government.

"It was always a disaster from a climate change perspective, but this is now an economic crime that has stolen C$30 billion of public funds from real climate solutions," Stewart said.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia, Steve Scherer in Ottawa, Maiya Keidan in Toronto and Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler, Grant McCool and David Gregorio)

British unions lose legal challenge over $23 billion pension reform bill

Fri, 10 March 2023 


'Britain Deserves Better' Trade union protest march in London


LONDON (Reuters) -Two British trade unions on Friday lost a legal challenge to changes to public sector pensions they argue allows the government to unlawfully pass the 19-billion-pound ($23 billion) cost of discriminatory pension reforms onto workers.

The Fire Brigades Union and the British Medical Association argued Britain's finance ministry was effectively making members of newer pension schemes foot the bill for its own mistake.

But a judge at London's High Court dismissed the two unions' case in a written ruling on Friday.

The legal action followed a 2018 court ruling that the exclusion of younger staff from more beneficial "legacy" pension schemes, as part of wider government reforms, amounted to unlawful age discrimination.

That decision landed the government with a bill estimated at between 17 and 19 billion pounds in additional future pension payments to around three million public sector workers.

In 2021, the government included that bill in the valuation of public sector pension schemes – without which, the unions said, scheme members' benefits would have increased or their contributions would have been reduced.

The unions' lawyers argued at a hearing in January that the decision was unlawful as it was taken without assessing other options.

The government had said it was faced with a "basic choice" between asking public sector employees – and ultimately the taxpayer – or pension scheme members to bear the cost.

Dr Vishal Sharma, chair of the British Medical Association's pensions committee, said in a statement: "We firmly believe that affected doctors and other public sector workers must not pick up the bill for the government's unlawful discrimination and we will be considering an appeal."

The Fire Brigades Union and Britain's finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin, editing by Deepa Babington)

Al Gore warns it would be ‘recklessly irresponsible’ to allow Alaska oil drilling plan


Oliver Milman
Fri, 10 March 2023 

Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Al Gore has warned it would be “recklessly irresponsible” to allow an enormous, controversial oil drilling project to proceed in Alaska, speaking ahead of a decision from the Biden administration on whether to approve it. Gore spoke amid growing alarm among Democrats and campaigners that the Willow development will drastically undermine the US’s effort to confront the climate crisis.

The vast, multi-billion-dollar ConocoPhillips oil project, to be situated on the tundra of Alaska’s northern Arctic coast, is awaiting approval from the federal government that could arrive as soon as Friday. Gore, the former US vice-president and leading climate advocate, told the Guardian that the planned drilling would threaten local communities as well as the task of curbing dangerous global heating.

“The proposed expansion of oil and gas drilling in Alaska is recklessly irresponsible,” Gore said. “The pollution it would generate will not only put Alaska native and other local communities at risk, it is incompatible with the ambition we need to achieve a net zero future.

“We don’t need to prop up the fossil fuel industry with new, multi-year projects that are a recipe for climate chaos,” Gore added. “Instead, we must end the expansion of oil, gas and coal and embrace the abundant climate solutions at our fingertips.”

The Willow project has become a leading target for climate campaigners due to the huge volume of planet-heating emissions it could unleash. The drilling operation would extract up to 180,0000 barrels of oil a day, about 1.6% of total US oil production from one site alone. In a grim irony, ConocoPhillips has said it may have to re-freeze ground that is rapidly thawing as the Arctic heats up in order to stabilize the drilling equipment.

An exploratory drilling camp at the site of the Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope is seen in 2019. Photograph: AP

This drilling would result in 278m tons of greenhouse gases over a 30-year lifespan of the development, according to the administration’s own estimates, the equivalent of adding 2m gasoline-consuming cars onto the road or running more than 70 coal-fired power plants for a year. The pollution produced would comfortably wipe out the emissions saved from all renewable energy projects on US public lands by 2030.

The Department of the Interior has said it has “substantial concerns” about the Willow project’s impact upon the climate and the subsistence lifestyle of native Alaskan communities but has completed an environmental review of the development that it said would improve it, such as drilling at three sites rather than five and reducing the number of roads and other infrastructure that would be built in the wilderness.

The prospect of the administration approving a full or abridged version of the project has sparked alarm among local communities, climate campaigners and Biden’s Democratic allies.

The International Energy Agency has said no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built if the world is to avoid disastrous climate change and two dozen Democrats in Congress have written to Biden warning that Willow poses “a significant threat to US progress on climate issues”. The lawmakers called upon the president to “stop this ill-conceived and misguided project”.

A wave of opposition to the Willow project has hit the White House in recent weeks, including in-person rallies in Washington DC and a viral #StopWillow campaign on social media. An online petition calling for the project to be halted has garnered more than 3m signatures. Critics have pointed out the project fatally undermines Biden’s promise to deal with the climate crisis, which he has called an “existential threat” to humanity.

“President Biden continues to address climate change during high-profile speeches and events but his actions are contradictory,” said Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of the Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, an Indigenous group that has warned the project would endanger the subsistence lifestyle of native communities that rely upon the migration of a caribou herd, as well as other established patterns in the environment, to live in their Arctic surrounds.

Biden has come under pressure from proponents of the project, too, with Alaskan lawmakers and some native groups arguing Willow would create much-needed jobs and investment for the region. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska, has called the size of the project “minuscule” and that it has been “meticulously planned” to avoid harm to the environment.

The battle over Willow is likely to end up in the courts, with environmental advocates vowing to keep fighting any iteration of the project. “I think that litigation is very likely,” said Jeremy Lieb, a senior attorney for Earthjustice. “We and our clients don’t see any acceptable version of this project.”

‘We are still suffering’: Families struggle to find food 6 months from devastating Pakistan floods

Rosie Frost
Fri, 10 March 2023 


Six months after widespread flooding submerged a third of Pakistan, people are still struggling to survive.

Inflation has sent the price of food skyrocketing and families, especially, are being forced to cut back on their meals. Doctors are reporting increased cases of malnutrition, according to Save the Children.

Many are still living in tents around stagnant water and surviving on just one meal a day, the charity says.

“This is one of the biggest disasters this country has ever seen, and after six months, we are still suffering,” says Khuram Gondal, charity Save the Children’s country director for Pakistan.

“These devastating floods are an acute example of how those living in a country responsible for less than 1 per cent of global carbon emissions are seeing their lives completely turned upside down by the climate crisis.”

Gondal adds that, as with many disasters, children are bearing the brunt of the impact.

Just this week, Pakistan's foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the flooding was “the biggest, most devastating climate catastrophe that we’ve ever experienced.”

And, at the time of the flooding, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that “what happened in Pakistan will now stay in Pakistan.” He called the country the “ground zero of climate change”.

Pakistan: Cases of malnutrition are rising

Communities in Sindh province affected by the floods have told Save the Children staff they are barely surviving due to agricultural land being ruined. It is the main income source for most families in the area.

Hajra lives in a tent with her husband and three children as their house is still damaged by stagnant flood water. Her husband barely earns enough money to buy food for one meal a day for the family as a daily wage labourer.

“We had nothing to eat during the rains, and no milk for the children. It was difficult for us to eat the food as our children start crying when they see us eat, so we fed them what we had,” she says.

“There was nothing left to eat for my husband and me. What should we do? Eat and see our children crying and hungry?”

Waheed, nutrition assistant, feeds Hajra's 10 month old baby at the clinic. - Khaula Jamil/Save the Children

Her 10-month-old baby has developed severe acute malnutrition due to a lack of food as Hajra was weak, sick and couldn’t breastfeed.

She brought him to a healthcare unit run by Save the Children where he was treated and has since improved. The doctor who treated her son, Dr Muhammad Hanif, says that the percentage of children arriving at his clinic with malnutrition has increased from 20 per cent to 60 per cent.

“All the produce that people had from their fields also drowned in the floods so people have absolutely nothing to eat.”

‘They are completely flooded’: Rising sea levels endanger life in Marseille’s coastal huts
What can be done to help people in Pakistan?

Around 33 million people - 16 million of them children - are still in need of help. The UN’s Pakistan Floods Response Plan is just 36 per cent funded more than halfway through its nine-month duration.

Save the Children is calling on the international community to step up and deliver the money needed to prevent a full-scale hunger crisis.

“When will the world listen to these children?” Gondal says.

“We welcome the fact that some steps have been taken - but children in Pakistan need more, not only to rebuild from this catastrophe but also to know that in future, when they will inevitably bear the brunt of yet more climate disasters, the world will not look away.”

The charity is also calling for progress on an agreement made at last year’s COP27 climate summit to establish a Loss and Damage fund. Save the Children says that funds need to be clearly earmarked for climate disasters like the flooding in Pakistan as well as slow onset events like rising sea levels.

Hundreds of pronghorn are dropping dead in Wyoming, officials say. What’s the cause?

Mitchell Willetts
Thu, March 9, 2023

Hundreds of pronghorn antelope have suddenly died in western Wyoming, and wildlife officials say a rare disease is to blame.

In a matter of weeks, starting in mid-February, an estimated 200 pronghorn have died due to pneumonia brought on by Mycoplasma bovis, a disease typically associated with cattle, the state Game and Fish Department said in a March 8 news release.

Photos shared by the department show the animals apparently falling down dead, their bodies collapsed in the snow.

It’s rare to see M. bovis spreading among wildlife in Wyoming, officials said.

“This is a nasty, nasty pathogen,” Hank Edwards, WGFD wildlife disease specialist, told Field & Stream. “Whether it’s in domestic stock or otherwise, it’s just incredibly fatal — particularly in pronghorn. The pneumonia that they’re getting is substantial. It’s killing them pretty ... quickly.”

The deaths appear to be centered in a specific area south of the town of Pinedale, according to the release. However, the source of the outbreak is unknown, and it’s unclear if the pathogen could be more widespread.

“While reported M. bovis outbreaks causing mortality in wildlife are rare, this is not the first occurrence of M. bovis being linked to pronghorn mortalities in Wyoming,” Edwards said in the release.

The disease is not a direct threat to humans, but it can have a devastating impact in other ways, according to the National Institutes of Health, as Mycoplasma bovis infections “are responsible for substantial economic health and welfare problems worldwide.”

From 2019 to 2020, the disease killed nearly 500 pronghorn in the northeastern part of the state before the outbreak burned out during spring, Wyoming wildlife officials said.

“We were hoping that that outbreak was the last of it … but we were really surprised to see it pop up again on the other side of the state,” Edwards told Field & Stream.

Wildlife officials will continue monitoring across the state for signs of M. bovis, the release said.