Newsletter #3
Download the UCU London Retired Members Newsletter from here...or see below
Articles on:
- The Labour Leadership Election and the NPC Pensioners Manifesto
- Lewisham Southwark college plan to close their Camberwell site and sell it for £5 million
- The Dominican Republic and Bahrain
- Ongoing Dispute at the National gallery and further developments at London Metropolitan University
- TUC to organise national demonstration in October
- A book on "Working Lives and Trade Unions in West London 1945-95"
Branch Walks
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2015 UCU London Retired Members Branch, All rights reserved.
UCU London Retired Members Branch - members and supporters
Our mailing address is:
UCU London Retired Members Branch
53 Fladgate Road
Leytonstone, London E11 1LX
United Kingdom
|
|
|
|
London Retired Members Branch
Number 3 - July 2015 Newsletter
The Labour Leadership Election
and the NPC Pensioners Manifesto
NPC Pensioners Manifesto
* A basic state pension for all, set above the poverty level of £175 a week
* Increases in pensions to be linked to the best of RPI,CPI, earnings or 2.5%
* Universal pensioner benefits (bus pass, winter fuel allowance, free TV licences for the
over 75's and free prescriptions) to be maintained without means testing
* A National Health and Care Service which is free at the point of use and funded through
taxation
* A legally binding Dignity Code to improve the quality and standards of care for older people
Following a discussion at the last UCU London Retired Members meeting, the branch
secretary has written to all the candidates in the Labour Leadership election asking them
whether they support the National Pensioners Convention's Pensioners Manifesto. Each
candidate has been sent an email to their campaign address, an email to the House of
Commons and a written letter in the post to the House of Commons.
After 3 weeks, only one has replied. Jeremy Corbyn's campaign team have said:
"Yes, Jeremy does indeed support the National Pensioners Charter".
The secretary has received numerous emails from the other candidates on a range of
different topics but, alas, nothing that relates to the question actually asked.
If you're a member of the Labour Party you can sign up to vote in the leadership election for free.
Otherwise, you can become a registered Labour supporter for £3 to vote in the leadership election.
More details from the website:
http: //support. labour. org. uk/
Stop this college closure: support the occupation
Lewisham Southwark college plan to close their
Camberwell site and sell it for £5 million. Police
have threatened to evict occupiers trying to save
the site.
Ian Crosson, of Defend Lewisham Southwark
College, said: “We want college governors to meet
with us and look at alternatives ways out of this
crisis than simply sacking key staff.”
UCU believe strongly that the proposed cuts will
have a devastating effect and that the notion these
cuts will "save" the college is farcical.
Furthermore, the proposal to close Camberwell
campus and its provision will further deprive the
community of vital educational opportunities.
The Society for Caribbean Studies condemns the threat by the Dominican Republic to expel
thousands of its citizens of Haitian heritage.
The Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic made a ruling in September 2013, which
retroactively stripped the birthright citizenship from tens of thousands of people whose families have
lived in the country for generations. The ruling covers Dominican citizens resident in the Republic
since 1929 and their descendants, rendering them not only stateless but unable to attend school or make
a living while becoming even more vulnerable to all kinds of hostilities.
Researchers have already noted the impact of the ruling. A recent report by US trade unions concluded
that “the deliberate creation of a stateless underclass increases the already formidable risks of
exploitation”. It warned that the ruling could worsen poverty among those affected, because without an
identity card people are relegated to informal jobs and have little bargaining power in relations with
employers.
The last time there was a major governmental crackdown against people of Haitian descent in the
Dominican Republic, during the 1937 “Parsley Massacre” by the forces of Dominican state, over
20,000 men, women and children were rounded up, then beaten or hacked to death for just being
considered to be Haitian or simply looking as if they were because they were of African heritage.
The Society for Caribbean Studies therefore calls upon governments, international and regional
organisations, as well as human rights, and trade union organisations to put all available pressure on the
government of the Dominican Republic to reverse this injustice.
No ethnic cleansing in the Caribbean.
Bahrain
In a recent statement, Education International
reports that Jalila alSalman and Mahdi Abu
Dheeb, leaders of the suppressed Bahrain Teachers
Association (BTA), have been awarded this year's
Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade
Union Rights.
For more than two years the UCU London Retired
Member branch has publicly opposed the atrocious
treatment of the BTA and other Bahraini opponents
of the absolute monarchy.
Prisoner of Conscience
The ongoing nature of the attack on the BTA is
emphasised in Education International's report on
the Svensson Prize:
"Mahdi Abu Dheeb, currently incarcerated, was
sentenced to five years in prison. His health
condition worsens steadily due to a lack of
essential and critical medical aid. He is
recognised as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty
International.
Jalila alSalman was released after nearly six
months in prison, but suffers still from a job ban
and restrictions to her right to free speech."
British Base
In May of this year our branch's motion on
Bahrain was carried at UCU Congress. In
particular, the branch has been concerned about
British government complicity in human rights
abuses in Bahrain and support for the repressive
regime which hosts a large British base in the
country and we are calling for an international
trade union led inquiry into British support for the
regime.
Read more about Bahrain on the branch website:
www. ucu retired london. org. uk/bahrain3. html
Ongoing Dispute at the National gallery
Previous issues of this newsletter have raised the
question of the National Gallery's plans to privatise
400 of their 600 staff. These are the staff who are
responsible for the security of the paintings and the
public, looking after millions of visitors every year.
50 days on the picket line
The next strikes in the campaign to oppose mass
privatisation within the National Gallery and to
demand the reinstatement of unjustly sacked PCS
rep Candy Udwin, take place on 2022 July 2015.
The action on 20 July also marks 50 days of strike
action taken by the PCS members working in the
Gallery and the strikers are planning to make the
day a real celebration of the tremendous solidarity
and support that the longrunning action has
attracted.
PCS members at National Gallery will be striking
every week through July and in August will be
voting on escalating their action still further, if the
gallery has not agreed to halt their privatisation
plans and to reinstate Candy Udwin.
Judge’s summing up at Candy Udwin’s
successful Interim Relief Employment Tribunal
Hearing
“it actually says no more than that the claimant did
what any employee, but perhaps more particularly
one in the trade union looking for relevant
material, could have done. That is, she accessed
the respondent’s internet legitimately and found a
document that was marked private and
confidential. Having found the document she used
it to do a calculation. That cannot be wrong or
improper.
". . . .the claimant could have shared this with any
other employee entirely legitimately. Instead, she
told Mr Bemrose, her trade union national
negotiator. I consider it highly likely that it will be
accepted, as the claimant urges, that an internal
trade union representative (here, the claimant) is at
liberty to consult a senior national (i.e. external)
trade union negotiator freely and openly with
relevant concerns. . . . . .I do not consider it likely that
the claimant informing Mr Bemrose will be found
to be culpable of blameworthy conduct, let alone
gross misconduct. . . . . . It actually was permissible
trade union activities is what I consider an
employment tribunal is likely to find.”
More details from the PCS website:
www. pcs. org. uk/en/national gallery/national gallery. cfm
Further developments at London
Metropolitan University
Unison branch secretary at London Metropolitan
University, Max Watson, has been targeted for
compulsary redundancy. Both UNISON and UCU
believe that this is politically motivated it is the
second time that they have tried to get rid of Max.
Management are using this as a diversion from the
fight to oppose 165 redundancies across the
univeristy. The trade unions at Lonon Met are
determined to fight the cuts and protect their union
organisation. They deserve everyone's support.
REDBRIDGE TRADES COUNCIL PASSES
MOTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH LONDON
MET:
This Redbridge Trades Council condemns the
compulsory redundancy notice issued to London
Metropolitan University UNISON Branch
Secretary, Max Watson.
We believe that the LMU management have taken
this action because of Max Watson’s Trade Union
activities and his active support for anticuts
campaigns, both within the university and the
wider community; we note his role in the
successful campaign to reinstate Charlotte
Monroe at our local,Whipps Cross hospital.
1) We call for the withdrawal of this notice
2) Offer unconditional support to UNISON in this
action
3) Express solidarity with all those fighting for
higher education and against the cuts at London
Metropolitan University
London Metropolitan staff will be on strike on
24th July:
Strike Rally: 12.002pm
Tower Building,
166220 Holloway Rd, London N7 8DB
The TUC will organise a national demonstration in Manchester this autumn against the government’s
austerity agenda and attacks on trade unions. It will take place on Sunday 4 October and will begin with a
march through central Manchester, culminating in a rally close to the Conservative Party Conference.
Workers and community organisations from across the country will join the demonstration, which will be
the first the TUC has organised since the Conservative government came to power.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
“This October’s march and rally will allow thousands of ordinary people to show the government exactly
what they think oft heir policies.
“The Conservatives’ planned attack on trade unions and extreme cuts are an assault on working people at
a time when they should be focused on securing the UK’s fragile recovery and creating better jobs to boost
productivity.”
Defend the Right to Strike
We propose an energetic campaign across the trade union movement to safeguard our rights. We intend to
make the case that trade union rights are democratic rights. No other voluntary organisation in society
faces as much legal intereference in their internal affairs as we do in the trade unions. The right to
withdraw one’s labour is a hallmark of
a free society.
We believe this law can be defeated if
the movement acts quickly and
decisively. Defeating it would be the
first step in recovering the trade union
rights which have been taken from us in
recent decades
