There’s a number of local councils teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. They’re certainly not all high spending councils.
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Category Archives: Events
Trades Union Council Meeting
The meeting will be on WEDNESDAY 17 APRIL, commencing at 7.30 pm, at the RISING SUN PUB, LONDON ROAD, ISLEWORTH, TW7 5AQ. (At the junction with Wood Lane). This pub is 100 metres from Isleworth train station. Buses 235, 237 and E8 stop close by.
End Exploitation Of Care Workers
Public Zoom Meeting on
END THE EXPLOITATION OF CARE WORKERS FROM ABROAD
Monday 5th Feb 6.30 – 8pm
JOIN US to hear from the front line about the many ways in which vital care and support workers from abroad are financially exploited, harassed, intimidated and now threatened with separation from their families.
Share your experience and ideas and help us to organise resistance.
Speakers:
Fatou Jinadu from ‘Broke not Broken”, Manchester
Josie Tothill from ‘Care and Support Workers Organise’ (CASWO)
Lykelady Chiriseri from the ‘Pan African Workers Association’
Fran Kelly from ‘Patients not Passports’
Andrea Egan, President of Unison
Chair: Alison Treacher, founder member of CASWO, Unite activist
REGISTER HERE:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lcuiprTkrEtNtlhXraUk_7GTTRu26rfK7
and please share the link widely
Trades Council Meeting
The next meeting of the Trades Council will be held online on Wednesday 18th October 2023 at 7.30pm.
If you would like more information about this meeting, please contact Bill Reed at billreed2245@msn.com
Sign A Petition!
Hi, my name is Alex. I am part of Movement For Justice & the Strike To Win Committee that it set up. I am asking you to sign the Petition demanding that Newham Council reinstate Dennis Carabott. Dennis was working as a Refuse Driver for 18 years & has been a leader of his Newham Refuse co-workers for many years defending them against management abuse & discrimination. He has fought for his Refuse Loaders, who are one of lowest paid & do the most physically changeling work, to get better pay & recognition.
That’s why Newham Council decided to drive him out of the workforce & sacked him after a Kangaroo disciplinary process in July 2020. Dennis has continued to fight for his reinstatement and continues to support his co-workers, including being a part of the recent successful strike ballot, His Refuse co-workers are due to start their strike action in a few weeks.
Dennis’s Employment Tribunal hearing start on 25th – 29 September & will be open to the public. See his full witness statement & Tribunal address details, that we have published (Strike To Win bulletin No7) ahead of the hearing: https://movementforjustice.co.uk/
Fighting to win Dennis’s reinstatement, will be a victory for all workers who are playing a leading part of the strike movement.
Can you sign Dennis’ petition, circulate this message to people/groups you know. I would like to encourage you, if possible, to attend all/part of the ET hearing.
https://share.communityx.com/posts/1abd335f-ad68-4bfc-becc-d56fb221aedd/
Westminster libraries workers to strike in pay dispute
Members of Unite employed by Westminster City Council across the borough’s libraries will begin strike action this Wednesday (6 September) in a dispute over pay.
The workers have rejected the national pay offer of a flat rate increase of £1,925. The offer is below the rate of inflation and amounts to a real terms pay cut.
The workers will initially take 4 days of strike action on 6th, 8th, 13th, 15th September. Strike action will disrupt services across the borough.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members provide critical frontline council services. Despite the essential roles our members undertake their employer thinks it is acceptable to propose what amounts to yet another real terms pay cut, at a time when they increasingly can’t make ends meet.
“Unite never takes a backward step in supporting its members and is dedicated to enhancing their jobs, pay and conditions. Unite will be providing members across Westminster’s libraries with its complete support.”
A survey of Unite members in local authorities, has highlighted how years of pay freezes and below inflation pay deals has resulted in workers facing desperate financial choices. The survey found:
Nearly half (48 per cent) have struggled to afford heating, electricity and water bills
30 per cent have struggled to afford food and clothing
Almost a quarter (23 per cent) are skipping meals to save money
17 per cent have struggled to meet rent and mortgage payments
Six per cent have been forced to use food banks.
Councils are not legally bound to follow the local government pay increase and can pay a higher rate to workers if they wish to do so.
A total of 23 local authorities have voted for industrial action in the dispute which will escalate next month and throughout the autumn.
Unite regional officer, Lui D’Cunha said: “The proposed strike action will inevitably cause major disruption to Westminster libraries but this dispute is a direct result of local government employers failing to value workers and properly reward them for their hard work.”
RMT: Ticket Office Closure Demos
Between 7am and 9am on Friday 21 July, there will be a demo taking place at Putney Station.
Between 5 and 6pm there will be a similar demo taking place at Brentford Station.
If you can help at either of these locations, it will be much appreciated
It’s not just about jobs, it’s going to seriously affect the travelling public if these ticket office closures go ahead, particularly disabled and other vulnerable travellers.
Action!
Monday 13th March
– BMA Junior doctors begin their 3 day strike. There will be pickets at all major hospitals including North Middx and the Whittington from 7am-10am, and from 7.45pm-9pm
– Unite activists demonstrating at the three key government departments which control debt advice funding.
• 11.00 – 11.45 – Demo at Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), Caxton House, Tothill Street, SW1H 9NA (nearest tube St James Park)
• 11.45 – 12.30 – Demo at HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, SW1A 2HQ (nearest tube Westminster)
• 13.15 – 14.00 – Demo at Money & Pensions Service (MaPS), 120 Holborn, EC1N 2TD (nearest tube Chancery Lane)
– Islington and Haringey Stand Up to Racism Public Meeting 6pm, Finsbury Park Mosque, 7 St Thomas’s Rd, N4 2QH (see below). As well as speakers advertised, Danny Denny, General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration will be talking about reparations for slavery. With the government ramping up racism towards refugees, the far right attacking hostels, and the suspension of Gary Lineker for speaking out about this, the meeting is both timely and important.
Wednesday 15th March
Educators, civil servants, doctors, university lecturers and rail workers strikes and the National Budget Day demonstration
There will be a national teacher’s strike organised by the NEU, in addition there will be national strikes by civil servants (PCS), doctors (BMA), University Lecturers (UCU) plus tube workers (RMT & ASLEF) in London.
There will be a picket line at Seven Sisters Tube depot in Westerfield Rd (near the overground entrance) from 5am until 3pm. There will also be picket lines at some Haringey schools (details to follows) but the main focus here has been on getting people to the demonstration.
A National Demonstration is planned to go from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, assembling at 12pm on Park Lane. This is likely to be the largest weekday demonstration in a generation. Please share and come if you can. The main meeting place for people to go down to the demonstration from Haringey is Finsbury Park Station(by M&S) at 10.30am, with some people also meeting up at Seven Sisters (Overground entrance) and Alexandra Palace Station also at 10.30am.
Thursday 16th March
– Second day of the National NEU strike. All schools in Haringey will be affected, with many having picket lines (more details to follow).
– National rail strikes on the 16th and 18th March – picket lines at Kings Cross and Euston (more details to follow)
Saturday 18th March
National Resist Racism Demonstration organised by the TUC and Stand Up to Racism, from the BBC HQ in Portland Place to Parliament Square.. People from Haringey will be meeting up at Finsbury Park Tube (by M&S) and Turnpike Lane Tube at 11am to go down there.
Unite Meeting London & Eastern
There was a meeting of workplace reps from the London & Eastern Region that took place at the Royal National Hotel in London on Wednesday 24th May 2023, at which Sharon Graham, the General Secretary of Unite, gave a presentation to explain the direction that she feels the union should be going in.
Since Sharon Graham was elected General Secretary of Unite some twenty months ago, she has made it her goal to make some major changes to the way things get done.
She has launched a no-holds-barred investigation into the Birmingham hotel project where overcharging to the tune of around £30 million took place.
Another way she is trying to get things done is by setting up sector-wide combines. In the London bus sector, this had already been set up, and we have quarterly meetings for both stewards and convenors from all London bus operators. There is now a nationwide combine for bus operators set up, which has had several meetings. The process is in place to set up a docks combine. Other combines are in the pipeline.
Collective bargaining has always been the best way to achieve results and if efforts can be co-ordinated across a whole sector and not just involving one employer, there is hope that greater goals can be reached.
Leverage campaigns have been very effective in the past, and Sharon was involved in a number of these before she was elected GS, and these are set to continue when necessary.
All in all, it was an excellent meeting; interesting, thought-provoking, and motivating too.
Protect Your Right To Strike
Dear Friends and Comrades,
Protect the right to strike – Monday 22 May starting at 6:00 PM in Parliament Square SW1P 3BD
This Monday the TUC has called an emergency protest against the Government’s plan to abolish the right to strike.
If passed and if unamended, this Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill would allow Government ministers to order many staff to work or be sacked.
The Bill covers NHS staff, transport workers, firefighters, teachers, lecturers and more. Including over 5 million workers, it would mean that effective strikes could be outlawed at the whim of the Government.
As people get poorer and desperate, the Government is increasingly banning strikes and protests. Yesterday essential workers were clapped, today they’re being forced into poverty, tomorrow they can be sacked.
We can’t rely on a future Labour government – we need determined campaigning and a huge wave of anger to defend democratic rights.