**Chelmsford Public Meeting 26th May*** BRENDAN BARBER TO VISIT CHELMSFORD

BUILDING THE ALTERNATIVE Public meeting Thursday 26 May 2011, 7.30pm Trinity Methodist Church, Rainsford Road, Chelmsford CM1 2XB.

The coalition government totters from one ill-thought-out idea to another, devises new proposals to move money from the poor to the rich, and places the whole of the UK’s economy in jeopardy

Policies for growth, jobs and social justice are what’s needed Come to the meeting, hear more, and share your views

SPEAKERS: Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary. Glyn Hawker, Unison Eastern regional secretary. Anthony Sullivan, Chelmsford Against the Cuts

Meeting chaired by Andrew Coburn chair of Chelmsford TUC

“Standing up for trade union rights: past, present & future.”

Len McCluskey & Sally Hunt 'In Conversation'


In Conversation 


Len McCluskey, UNITE and Sally Hunt, General Secretary UCU


“Standing up for trade union rights: past, present & future.”

Thursday 26th May 2011, 6.30—8.30 pm

<http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=529954&y=181477&z=0&sv=wc1b+3ls&st=2&p
c=wc1b+3ls&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf> TUC Congress House Great Russell
St, London WC1B 3LS
Chaired by John Hendy QC

This second ‘In Conversation’ is a result of what we all hope will become an
annual collaboration between The Institute of Employment Rights, The Haldane
Society of Socialist Lawyers <http://www.haldane.org/>  and the
<http://www.tuc.org.uk/> TUC

2011 is an important anniversary year for the trade union movement as it
marks 100 years since the 1911 Transport Workers strike
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911_Liverpool_general_transport_strike;>  50
years since the Council of Europe
<http://www.coe.int/T/DGHL/Monitoring/SocialCharter/;> ’s Social Charter and
10 years since the Friction Dynamics Strike
<http://www.caernarfonherald.co.uk/caernarfon-county-news/local-caernarfon-n
ews/2011/03/24/caernarfon-re-union-a-decade-after-friction-dynamics-strike-s
tarted-88817-28391700/> 

Set in this context, the topic of ‘Conversation’ for 2011 will be trade
union rights: where they are now, and where we want them to be in future.

Free Admission
£10 to legal practitioners requiring CPD points
To book email office@ier.org.uk

Government creates 'climate of fear' as London Metropolitan University slashes 70% of courses

18 April 2011

Responding to the news that London Metropolitan University is to cut 70% of its courses in a bid for financial sustainability, UCU warned that the government's higher education funding plans would see courses and departments closed and could even put the long-term viability of some universities at risk.

UCU said the government's new policy was in disarray and that cutting university teaching budgets by 80% and introducing a market in fees was a recipe for disaster. The union said that while London Met was acting disproportionately, the government had created a 'climate of fear' that was panicking institutions in to wielding the axe hastily.
 
UCU also pointed to the example of Liverpool Hope University, which is looking to make cuts to its teaching training department in anticipation of funding changes to teacher education.
 
The union further warned that many of the institutions being put at financial risk by the government's plans were those who specialised in arts and humanities courses, which will no longer receive any state funding, and universities with a track record of widening participation in higher education.
 
London Metropolitan University, which is the capital's largest university, is to slash courses in history, performing arts, philosophy and modern languages.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Here is concrete proof that ministers have succeeded in creating a climate of fear that is panicking institutions in to making hasty cuts. London Met's decision to axe hundreds of courses is completely disproportionate, but since these enormous funding cuts were announced, UCU has repeatedly warned that university courses and departments will close and in the worst case scenarios, the future of whole institutions will be put at risk.'
 
'What is happening at London Met and Liverpool Hope is a worrying portent for the future under the government's new funding system. Institutions with a track record of widening participation are particularly at risk. We have said from the start these plans are a recipe for disaster.'

• Alex Rossiter
  press@ucu.org.uk
  Tel:020 7756 2598
  Mobile: 07977 562 686
  Fax:020 7756 2501

Workers rights to work in a safe and healthy workplace are under threat.Briefing seminar,10th may

Date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 4:27 PM
Subject: DANGER! Workers rights to work in a safe and healthy workplace are under threat
To: reports@righttowork.org.uk

Workers rights to work in a safe and healthy workplace are under threat.
* The government have cut the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by 35%.
* From April the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has decided to stop inspecting most workplaces in London .
* In October HSE’s popular and useful Infoline will be closed and not replaced.
* The government has started a major review of all health and safety legislation. The HSE has agreed to reduce all ‘proactive’ unannounced inspections by a third with immediate effect – that’s 11,000 fewer workplace inspections this year.
The following industries will now never get an unannounced inspection and only get a visit from an inspector after an accident or serous complaint: the whole of the public sector including health, education, local government, prisons and emergency services; public transport including buses and airports; the post office and parcels delivery; quarries; agriculture; manufacturing industries including light engineering, plastics, rubber, furniture, printing and paper.
The government is rolling back important rights for workers to boost business.
What are the implications of these attacks and what can be done about it?
You are invited to a briefing seminar, hosted by the Right to Work Campaign, to hear the facts and discuss options for trade unionists.
Speakers include:
Mick Holder (Hazards Campaign),
Simon Hester (Prospect union representative for London ’s HSE inspectors),
Tony O’Brien (Construction Safety Campaign).
Tuesday 10 May, 6.30pm, Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London NW1 1EE
www.righttowork.org.uk

Request for support: Reinstate sacked RMT Tube driver reps

Date: Wed, May 4, 2011 at 4:06 PM
Subject: Request for support: Reinstate sacked RMT Tube driver reps
To: Janine Booth <J.Booth@rmt.org.uk>

To all trade union branches and supporters of trade unionism in and around London

 

On 16 May, RMT Tube drivers will begin strike action to demand the reinstatement of sacked union reps Eamonn Lynch and Arwyn Thomas.

 

London Underground sacked Eamonn for following an instruction which turned out to be wrong, despite not sacking other drivers who made similar - or even worse - errors. LU sacked Arwyn following accusations from strike-breakers during last year's strikes against station job cuts. In both cases, Employment Tribunals have awarded 'interim relief', ruling that London Underground sacked them unlawfully, unfairly and because of their trade union activities. Despite this, and despite campaigning and lobbying, London Underground is still refusing to reinstate them, so RMT has had to call strikes.

 

London Underground's actions are an attack by a publicly-owned employer not just on RMT but on all trade unions and on trade unionism in general. If London Underground gets away with this, then all trade unionists will be more vulnerable; if we can win reinstatement for Eamonn and Arwyn, then all trade unionists will be stronger.

 

Please support our strikes and our campaign. There are many ways in which you can help - send us a message of support; invite us to speak at your next meeting; visit our picket lines; and more.

 

Please offer your support by emailing me j.booth@rmt.org.uk

 

You can read more information about this issue and our campaign here: http://www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk/defendreps

 

Thank you.

Jayaben Desai: Lessons from the past for the future

The Tricycle Cinema was crowded this afternoon for a commemoration of Jayaben Desai, leader of the Grunwick Strike Committee, who died in December 2010. The meeting temporarily brought together councillors and activists who have recently been battling over local council cuts. As the audience reflected on the events of the 1970s both sides could draw lessons from this historical strike.
As I watched the film and once again saw Jayaben's bravery in the face of police violence, her impish sense of humour that bettered many a journalist, her self-identification as a strong woman against crude stereotypes of Asian female submissiveness and most of all her steadfastness in standing up for her rights and that of her fellow workers, I could not help but be moved. As people spoke about Jayaben from different perspectives our appreciation deepened. We heard from Amrit Wilson how Jayaben invited her to her home and talked at length about herself and the strike and the links with race and colonial struggle. It was alleged that George Ward, the Grunwick boss, continued to pursue Jayaben after her death, with threats of legal action against obituarists who mentioned accusations of racism at Grunwick.

We heard from an Asian Women's group how Jayaben clashed with the group's chair about the suppression of ego and advised the women to stop buying jewellery with their money but instead empower themselves by using the money instead to buy driving lessons. It also emerged that she was an erudite contributor to the Gujerati Literary Society.

Cllr Janice Long asked for support to persuade Brent Council to name a building after Jayaben Desai to commemorate her life and urged to audience to write to the leader of the council, Cllr Ann John, who was also present. Another speaker, stressing the need for children to be educated about the importance of Jayaben's role, urged that a school be named after here.

Broader issues were also raised. Pete Firmin linked the struggles of immigrant workers, and the support they received from rank and file white trade unionists, with David Cameron's attacks on multiculturalism and the attempt to divide new arrivals into 'good' and 'bad' migrants. Jack Dromey, then Secretary of Brent Trades Council and now a Labour MP reminded the meeting that a few years before Grunwick, dockers and Smithfield meat porters had marched in support of Enoch Powell after his 'rivers of blood' speech. Jayaben had said, 'We are lions - I am afraid of no one' . She went on to say that the strike had shown that immigrant workers will fight and white workers will support them. Dromey concluded that Grunwicks had 'demonstrated all that is best in our movement and in our immigrant community'.

There were many critical comments about the TUC's role at Grunwick's and warnings that their lack of will to fully use their potential power remains in 2011 as we face the attacks on public services, benefits and the vulnerable. Geoff Shears, at the time a young legal representative for the strikers, confessed that he had felt intimidated by Mrs Desai. He said that anti-trade union laws did not exist in their present form then but instead there was a conspiracy that enabled courts to break the law by restricting the solidarity action of postal workers, the police to break the law by attacking pickets, and George Ward to ignore the recommendations of the Scarman Inquiry that came down 90% in favour of the strikers. He said that had prepared the ground for Thatcher in the 1980s and warned that it would be used again by the Coalition government. Mrs Desai had understood the meaning of solidarity as requirement for workers to organise collectively to ensure that the unions served their interests.

Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (successor to the Union of Post Office Workers) said that the union's next conference would be considering awarding honorary membership to Jayaben Desai and wiping out the fines imposed by the union on the Cricklewood postmen who refused to deliver Grunwick mail at the time.

As I have remarked on this blog before LINK Jayeben and the story of Grunwick is a far better subject for children to study in Brent Black History Month than rehashed versions of American black history that currently dominate the curriculum.

Posted by Martin Francis at 8:20 PM

Jobcentre call centre staff name strike date

Jobcentre call centre staff name strike date (from http://www.pcs.org.uk)

8 April 2011

Thousands of Jobcentre Plus call centre staff will strike on 18 April after bosses refused to improve working conditions and customer service.

In a ballot of the union’s 7,000 members in JCP’s 37 call centres across the country, 70% of those who took part voted for strike action. The turnout was 43%.

Following this strong result, the union agreed not to call any industrial action to allow negotiations to continue. But senior managers have shown little willingness to resolve the dispute.

The action will follow a well-supported two-day strike in January by more than 2,000 workers in JCP’s seven newest contact centres who have been forcibly moved from processing benefit claims to handling enquiries by phone.

The union wants to improve the levels of customer service in call centres; end the target driven culture, particularly by changing the way unrealistic ‘average call times’ are used; and introduce proper flexible working arrangements.

PCS’s Department for Work and Pensions group president Jane Aitchison said: “We are being prevented from providing a good quality service to the public because of unnecessary and unrealistic call centre targets.
“We entered into negotiations in good faith because we care about the help and advice we give to some of the most vulnerable people in society. It’s very disappointing that our management didn’t do the same.”
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “With unemployment rising and welfare recipients being blamed for an economic crisis they did not cause, it is outrageous that standards are being driven down in Jobcentre Plus.

“Instead of punishing people who are claiming benefits through no fault of their own, the government should be investing in our public services to help get people back to work quicker and to help our economy to grow.”

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