Amnesty staff stage second strike over cuts and job losses

Members of Unite will mount a picket line outside the organisation’s office in London after the union warned that plans to make £2.5m worth of savings will lead
to compulsory redundancies among the 200 employees in this country.

Unite regional officer Alan Scott said: “We call on the management to enter into meaningful talks with our members. At this rate, Amnesty’s management is going to be responsible for the death of AIUK as a campaigning organisation.

“Staff fear that lasting damage will be caused to Amnesty’s human rights work because of senior management’s headlong rush into this huge cost-cutting exercise, which is being implemented with the misguided blessing of AIUK’s board.

“The reason management wants to make a significant number of staff redundant is because it has decided to greatly increase the amount of money AIUK gives
annually to the international body.

“Our members have no confidence in the management.”

An Amnesty spokesman said: “We entirely respect the right of our staff to take strike action but regret that they feel the need to do so, particularly as the action is over how much money
Amnesty International UK 
should contribute to increasing human rights work in the global South. That’s something we
cannot and wouldn’t want to change.

“The highest decision-making body of the Amnesty movement, the International Council Meeting (ICM), made decisions on how much national sections like AIUK should contribute and how quickly this should rise, to increase Amnesty’s work in the global South. The Board of AIUK will abide by ICM decisions.”