HOVIS DISPUTE

From: TMellish@TUC.ORG.UK
To:
Subject: FW: HOVIS DISPUTE
Colleagues, please see below for your immediate attention. Please support. Many of you will not be able to be there physically but  please send messages of support.

Tom Mellish
TUCJCC Secretary
Trades Union Congress
Congress House
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS

020 7467 1380
Stronger Unions: A blog from the TUC Organising Team <http://www.strongerunions.org/>
Unions in the Community <http://www.unionsinthecommunity.org.uk/>


 <http://unionsinthecommunity.org.uk/>           <http://actionforrail.org/> 

 
From: T ABBOTT [mailto:t.abbott801@btinternet.com]
Sent: 16 September 2013 11:01
To: Kara Stevens; Sumner, Nicola; Formby, Jennie - UNITE Political Director; (dave.quayle@trafford.gov.uk) ; SHARON HUTCHINSON; Mick; JohnLea; Graham, Des (EC); Tom Mellish; Alex Halligan; Neil Sheehan; Peter Bury; Andrew Ford; &#39;tony.woodhouse@live.co.uk&amp;#39; ; tucwigan@yahoo.com
Subject: HOVIS DISPUTE 
After a four hour battle with the Police and scab Management this morning Monday the 16th, nothing came out of the plant for two hours then escorted by the police the first wagon took 40 minutes to travel just over 500 metres,but a price was paid when three of the pickets were arrested at the main junction when the police used heavy handed tacticsand threw a female across the road on to her back narrowly missing the pavement edge and a set of railings.
Comrades we are calling for a show of solidarity on Wednesday the 18th from 2am to support the Hovis workers and the Bakers Union in their heroic strike against zero hours contracts.
Please make every sacrifice they are on a 24 hour picket line, they are fighting on behalf of the whole Trade
Union Movement against Slave Labour. 
The address of the plant is Cale Lane, Wigan WN2 1HD, 

How can Greens in Local Government Fight Austerity ? videos

How can Greens in Local Government Fight Austerity ?  Green Left/ Green Party Trade Union Group  Public meeting near to the Green Party of England Wales autumn conference, Brighton 14/9/2013.

Introduction: Chair: HOWARD THORP (Green Party Campaigns Co-ordinator)

http://youtu.be/cLzwculFwqM

The speakers: Peter Allen (Green Left), Dani Ahrens (Brighton Bedroom Tax Victims' Support Group), Sean Thompson (Left Unity), Adam Ramsay (Oxford Green Party/Young Greens), http://youtu.be/Z2qCuOnaZXU

Discussion part 1  http:`//youtu.be/76P44u5L0UY

Discussion part 2  http://youtu.be/3HCe19tozQ4

Blimey, we won something! PCS won our legal challenge to Eric Pickles' decision to scrap check-off

Dave Plummer via lists.greenparty.org.uk	3:12 PM (18 hours ago)
to gp-tu

Blimey, we won something! PCS won our legal challenge to Eric Pickles' decision to scrap check-off in he Department of Communities and Local Government.

I think this, posted in the PCS members' Facebook group, is going to be the statement on the PCS site later:

   Eric Pickles costs taxpayers £90,000 in attack on union

   Taxpayers face a £90,000 legal bill after communities secretary Eric
   Pickles' "reckless and political" attack on the Public and
   Commercial Services union was ruled unlawful.

   The Department for Communities and Local Government had tried to
   unilaterally end a decades-old system for collecting union
   subscriptions through salaries -- an arrangement that costs the
   department just £300 a year to administer.

   But a High Court judge ruled today (3) the move was a breach of
   contract and must be reversed, and that DCLG will have to pay the
   union's legal costs as well as its own.

   The judge agreed with the union that having union subscriptions
   deducted through salaries -- known as 'check off' -- forms part of
   DCLG staff members' contracts and therefore could not be withdrawn
   without consent.

   Pickles has previously advised local authorities to end check off
   but was the first cabinet minister to attempt to apply it in the
   civil service.

   PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "It is staggering that
   Eric Pickles pressed ahead with this reckless and political attempt
   to undermine our union in his department.

   "Pickles has very serious questions to answer about why he decided
   to spend tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money fighting to
   scrap something that costs less than £30 a month."


There'll be some video of this morning's protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the PCS Euston Tower Branch YouTube channel later (I ain't finished editing it yet!)

http://youtube.com/pcseuston

Green Left and Green Party Trade Union Group Public Meeting 14/9 Brighton

How can Greens in Local Government Fight Austerity ?

Starting with BRIEF introductions to the meeting from

Peter Allen (Green Left),  Dani Ahrens (Brighton Bedroom Tax Victims' Support Group),Sean Thompson (Left Unity), Adam Ramsay (Oxford Green Party/Young Greens),

Chair: HOWARD THORP (Green Party Campaigns Co-ordinator)

ALL Brighton Green Councillors will be invited to participate

Saturday 14th September at  8.00 pm Brighton Media Centre FRIESE-GREENE HOUSE 15-17 MIDDLE STREET  BRIGHTON BN1 1AL

Local Councils across Britain are in severe financial crisis, finding it difficult to carry out their statutory duties and certainly unable to expand and improve services in a climate of growing need. Brighton and Hove Council is in a particularly difficult situation, having suffered deeper cuts in central government funding than most.

● What is to be done?

● How can Green Councillors in Brighton and Hove and elsewhere most effectively fight the cuts?

● What role can Green Party members and anti-cuts campaigners play?

● How best to link up with local campaigns against council cuts ?

● How much more difficult is this when our Green Council in Brighton and Hove are making cuts?

● What should be our response to anti cuts campaigns in Brighton and elsewhere?

● Should Green Party members support Council workers and Unions in dispute with Councils? Even Green led Councils?

Should Green Councillors anywhere EVER vote for cuts?

Lend Labor Day Love to These 4 Striking Worker Groups

(acknowledgements to Pete Frmin (Brent Fightback))

• 
  

1. Fast Food Workers

The labor dispute gaining the most attention currently is between fast food workers and their management. Unions have organized sporadic strikes at assorted restaurants across the country, including McDonalds, Taco Bells and KFCs, though there are currently mobilization efforts to turn the strike into a nationwide action.

Workers are demanding both the ability to unionize and a living wage. The $200 billion fast food industry is hardly short on profits to pay its employees fairly, but it may require the companies to stop paying their executives more than twice as much in a single day than their average worker makes in a year.

Show your support by signing this petition!

2. BART Employees

San Francisco’s popular public transit line is currently in a heated labor dispute. Though the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) continues to run during a 60-day “cooling off” time, it looks like the dispute might not get settled during this period on account of a $100 million discrepancy between union and management proposals.

BART workers haven’t received a raise in five years; their union representatives argue that pay needs to be adjusted to not only match inflation, but also the extraordinary cost of living around San Francisco.

The threat of a BART strike is frightening business for a city that has previously experienced the repercussions. With BART servicing nearly 375,000 passengers each weekday, buses and ferries were ill equipped to handle the sudden surplus, leaving many of the city’s commuters stranded.

3. The Minnesota Orchestra

Since last autumn, the Minnesota Orchestra has been in a prolonged labor dispute with its management. After having to cancel last year’s symphony season altogether, it looks similar action could occur this year if an agreement isn’t reached in the next couple of weeks. This time, however, if the two parties can’t successfully negotiate, the Minnesota Orchestra is likely to be permanently — apology for the pun — disbanded.

Thus far, the musicians are unimpressed with the management’s offer to cut their base pay by 32%. While the Minnesota Orchestra did agree to a mediator’s proposed compromise that would have the group rehearsed and ready for upcoming Carnegie Hall concerts, it was the management that declined this proposal.

4. Port Truck Drivers

Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers are fighting the good fight for the ability to unionize. Comparing their jobs to “sweatshops on wheels,” the truckers complain that they are paid wages that leave them in poverty, are denied bathroom breaks and are forced to work overtime without compensation.

Thus far, the drivers’ parent company, Green Fleet, has intimidated the workers from trying to unionize, even going so far as to hire a law firm known for union-busting. Still, their threats were not enough to stop over one-third of the workforce from striking this past Monday, hindering the day’s shipping business.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/lend-labor-day-love-to-these-4-striking-worker-groups.html#ixzz2doTQLGAY

FBU Motion 78 to TUC next week: Solidarity with Greek workers

acknowlegements to https://www.facebook.com/GreeceSolidarityCampaign

Congress notes the continued austerity programme carried out by the Greek government, backed by international financial institutions and other European governments. These attacks include sacking public sector workers, slashing salaries and pensions, worsening contracts of employment, cutting benefits and decimating public services. 

FBU Motion 78 to TUC next week: Solidarity with Greek workers
Congress notes that workers, the unemployed, pensioners, the young and poor in Greece are at the sharp end of these attacks. But this austerity agenda is Europe-wide and affects us all. 

Congress condemns the Greek government’s actions bringing about the overnight closure of ERT (the Greek national broadcasting corporation) and applauds the Greek journalists and technicians, and the European Broadcasting Union, for their occupation of the building and the continued transmission of news and programmes to the Greek people.

Congress also calls on the Greek Health Ministry to end its appalling, degrading policy of forced HIV tests aimed at immigrant and marginal workers and the LGBT community, in the context of massive public health cuts.

Congress supports the Greece Solidarity Campaign, who organised a joint delegation with the FBU and other trade unionists to Greece in March 2013, as well as other campaigns and solidarity. 

Congress supports the Medical Aid for Greece appeal, launched in response to a call for support from Greek anti-austerity campaigners in association with health unions, health workers and community organisations in Greece.
Congress supports the labour movement resistance to these attacks and encourages all affiliates to forge direct links with workers and their representative organisations in Greece.
Fire Brigades’ Union

Walmart workers demand: reinstate illegally fired workers and publicly commit to pay a real wage.

Making Change

Happy Labor Day weekend! Walmart workers are giving Walmart until the end of day tomorrow to reinstate illegally fired workers and publicly commit to pay a real wage.

Like this if you support the working people who are standing up to make this economy work for all of us! http://action.changewalmart.org/page/s/ARealWage

acknowledgements to Peter Firmin of Brent Fightback