NSSN 289: March with the Junior Doctors & Teachers!

London demo April 26 to support the Junior Doctors

The streets of London were crammed last Saturday on the People’s Assembly demo, with protesters calling for ‘Dodgy Dave’ and the rest of the Tories to go. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, the Junior Doctors in the BMA take their next 48-hour strike against Jeremy Hunt’s imposition of his new contract. Their heroic dispute is at a pivotal stage.

At its recent conference, the NUT teachers’ union passed a motion to ballot for strike action against forced academisation and link up with the Junior Doctors. In London on the evening of the first day of the strike next Tuesday, the BMA and NUT will be marching together.

The NSSN has given our full support and calls on all our supporters and affiliates to come on the march and do everything possible to build for it. Get your union, nationally and locally and your trades council to add their support.

If you are outside London, please contact the BMA and the NUT to see if other protests are organised.

Assemble 5pm St Thomas’s Hospital for march to Department of Health read more on the blog of Martin Powell Davies NUT London regional secretary

PCS: March to support junior doctors and teachers

BMA Junior Doctors dispute – after the Tories announced their plan to impose the new contract, the next Junior Doctors 48-hour strike is 26 – 27 April: Full withdrawal of labour between the hours of 8am and 5pm on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 April (18 hours in total). BMA website – Junior doctors: 48 hour industrial action begins in England

For info on picket lines, strike rallies etc follow #JuniorDoctorsStrike #NotSafeNotFair #JuniorDoctors on twitter. BMA launches judicial review http://oneprofession.bma.org.uk/

The NSSN has produced a model motion that can be used in unions at all levels and trades council here

NUT – Get ready to win the strike ballot to defend national pay and conditions

Nationalise Tata – support the Steelworkers

Llanelli Trades Council/NSSN joint public meeting: ‘Nationalise Tata – keep the furnaces firing!’ – Wednesday 20 April 7pm Queen Victoria Club, 4 Queen Victoria Rd SA15 2TL https://www.facebook.com/events/216489898725192/

Sign online petition: Nationalise to #SaveOurSteel here

First Annual Bob Crow Memorial Meeting: Keep the Furnaces Firing – 7.30pm Friday April 2^nd in Caerphilly Pensioners Hall, Park Lane CF83 1AA https://www.facebook.com/events/1599583643695826/

BFAWU / Fast Food Rights

Statement by Ian Hodson National president of the Bakers food and Allied workers Union in relation to the announcement by McDonalds that it will offer all workers a contract of employment:-

We welcome the decision by McDonalds to offer workers a contract of employment. The BFAWU has been campaigning to end the use of Zero hours contracts across all employment. Our success at Hovis proved employers did not have a real need for their use and the decision by McDonalds who we have been targeting as part of the Unions fast food rights campaign signals a step forward in ending these types of exploitative contracts.

Our Trade union has been working with our members in McDonalds and January this year we petitioned the EU in relation to the use of Zero hour contracts by McDonalds.

This will mean that workers will now start to enjoy real employment rights something denied to people on zero hours contracts it will mean that those who work for McDonalds will be able to start planning their lives as they will have some guarantees of hours but whilst welcoming this move workers are still not happy that McDonalds pay workers based on their age not their skills and want to see an end to inequality they also want to be able to join the union. The BFAWU has recruited a number of workers whom are now actively encouraging their colleagues to join the union. This step forward proves that we are right and we acknowledge McDonalds for their recognition in relation to this and doing the right thing for their workers.

We encourage McDonalds to meet with us to help facilitate our continued support for workers in McDonalds

NSSN on BFAWU/Fast Food Rights Wakefield April 14 protest

Sign the petition: Raise the minimum wage to £10 for all workers details on BFAWU website

‘How we defeated zero hours contracts’: Forum with New Zealand & UK fast food workers – 3pm, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, WC1H 0XG London https://www.facebook.com/events/496421810566280/

NUT

Support Simon O’Hara — Teachers at Small Heath School in Birmingham are continuing to take action to support Simon who remains suspended. You are encouraged to send messages of support to David Room at [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/Reinstate-Simon-OHara-1090494714318024/

Schools ‘disruption’ expected as Powys teachers strike

Save Pent Valley School in Folkestone https://www.facebook.com/groups/1696643377239906/

CWU

Reinstate Clive Walder

Clive Walder, a longstanding leading rep in the CWU had an appeal against unfair dismissal rejected by British Telecom on 9 November, confirming his sacking after 38 years of service. Clive is chair of the CWU Birmingham, Black Country & Worcester branch.

Clive worked in a BT call centre and was dismissed after an aggressive customer reported him to management just 33 seconds into a phone call. The decision was made without taking stress into account despite the local CWU branch reporting that 7% of staff at the call centre leave their jobs each month, some walking out mid shift. Management took the decision without consulting any medical advice or taking into account any mitigation.

Clive is a NSSN steering committee member and we will be supporting the campaign protesting the sacking and campaigning for his reinstatement.

Contact Clive to send messages of support and invite him to your union branch, shop stewards committee, trades council etc – [email protected] 07771931185

NSSN official fringe meeting at CWU Conference – lunchtime Sunday April 24^th, Branscombe Suite, BIC, Bournemouth – “How do we get the Tories out?” Support the Junior Doctors & teachers, Nationalise Tata Steel, Defend unions – #KillTheBill Speakers include: Tony Kearns CWU Assistant General Secretary (invited), Junior Doctor, Rob Williams NSSN national chair

NSSN / Kill the Bill news

FBU: Tory concession on Trade Union Bill is step in the right direction but nowhere near enough, say firefighters

This year’s annual NSSN conference – our 10^th – will be on Saturday July 2^nd in Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL – 11am-4.30pm. Conference fee is £6 each. Please put in your diaries!! www.facebook.com/events/1361018323924300/

The last two pink NSSN ‘£10 Now’ t-shirts are available for £8. Both are women’s large sizes. First come first served! Order by emailing [email protected]

Get your trade union branch or trades council to affiliate to the NSSN – it only costs £50. Already affiliated? Please think about renewing it. Also, many of our supporters pay a few pounds a month. You can set up a similar standing order to ‘National Shop Stewards Network’, HSBC – sort code 40-06-41, account number 90143790. Our address is NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE. Affiliation letter attached and here

Download the ‘Join the NSSN’ leaflet here

And if you can, come to one of our regional Conferences. If there is not one in your area, get in touch to either assist in organising or have a speaker at one of your meetings or events. Contact Rob or Linda on [email protected]

More Union News

PCS

Welsh museum staff bullied into taking pay cut (18 April) – Low-paid staff at National Museum Wales are being threatened with dismissal if they do not accept the latest offer. The long-running dispute in Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales is about management’s removal of extra payments for weekend working. Members in the museums have taken strike action throughout the dispute and are currently involved in a fresh round of weekend strikes which has resulted in sites being closed to the public read more

Uncertainty for Imperial War Museum staff (18 April) – PCS is calling for security and visitor engagement services at the Imperial War Museum in London to be brought back in-house after the company running the services went bust. There is uncertainty over the future for 160 staff delivering the services, a little over 2 years since their controversial privatisation after the Shield Guarding Group, which won the £10 million contract, was bought by facilities management company Noonan read more

PCS statement: Long-running National Museum Scotland dispute resolved (15 April) – The three-year industrial dispute at the National Museum of Scotland has been resolved. Following a breakthrough offer from management, PCS suspended the first three weeks of a planned six weeks of sustained, weekend industrial action. Members had been due to escalate their action from Easter until the Holyrood elections at the start of May read more Joint statement: National Museums Scotland and PCS resolve industrial dispute

Unite

Unite drivers at building supply giant planning strike ballot in overtime pay dispute (20 April) – Unite is planning an industrial action ballot of its drivers in an overtime dispute with landscape products and natural paving group Marshalls which could cause severe disruption to the building trade read more

Industrial Action at Catalyst Housing – Plan to halve the number of neighbourhood managers. Catalyst Housing plan to halve the number of Neighbourhood Managers it employs. Unite members at Catalyst say this will result in a drastic decline in service. Staff say that the workload of neighbourhood managers is already unmanageable; doubling the workload would be disastrous. The management refuse to recognise Unite the union, making normal negotiations impossible, but staff have voted to take industrial action; a work to rule will start on Wednesday April 20^th http://www.housingworkers.org.uk/readnews.html?con_id=311#sthash.NOhFNH2B.dpuf

No library closures in Greenwich – Unite the Union is leading the fight to defend public services in Greenwich. If the Council gets its way, this will be a library closure, impacting not just on library workers but the much wider community. It will also signal an intensification of cuts in Greenwich. Over the next couple of months, the Council will make a decision about the future of the library. That is why we now need to step up the pressure. We have organised 3 lobbies. All will take place at the Town Hall:-

20th April – Lobby of Council Cabinet 6pm

18th May – Lobby of Annual Council Meeting 6pm

19th May – Lobby of Council Cabinet 6pm (Unite will be addressing this meeting which will make the decision on the future of the Mobile Library)

Unite Construction Rank & File National Meeting: Saturday 14th May 2016, Methodist Central Hall Manchester 12 – 3pm GMB: Engineering Construction Protest 7 April

GMB

Industrial Action At Unilever in Norwich (April 18) – GMB Members Begin Industrial Action At Norwich Unilever Today. This is clearly a case of robbing Peter to Pay Paul Polman says GMB. GMB members will commence industrial action at Norwich Unilever today, Monday 18th April 2016, in a protracted dispute over pay. The company has rejected GMB and Unite members’ claim for an increase in pay in line with the average pay settlement for manufacturing groups across the UK in 2015 (2.4%) read more

No Cuts For Nationwide Cleaners (April 14) – GMB Cleaners Unanimously Reject £40 A Week Pay Cut At Nationwide. Nationwide want to paint themselves as a ‘good’ employer, while not caring in the slightest about the serious impact on their lowest paid workers says GMB read more

Unison

Glasgow CCTV workers secure better pay deal (15 April) – After twelve days of strike action in six weeks, Glasgow’s CCTV workers have secured an acceptable pay deal from their employer. The nineteen members of UNISON are employed by Community Safety Glasgow, an ALEO of Glasgow City Council, and were taking strike action over the employer’s failure to pay shift allowances. The dispute was about fairness and pay equality read more

Glasgow City Council refuses to speak to their school janitors as further strike action announced (15 April) – Cordia and their political masters at Glasgow City Council are refusing to talk with the city’s striking school janitors in an increasingly bitter industrial dispute read more

RMT

RMT Southern guards record massive vote for strike action (19 April) – RAIL UNION RMT said today that conductors on Southern services ,operated by Govia Thameslink Railway, have voted by massive majorities for action‎. The ballot, for both strike action and action short of a strike, is over the wholesale introduction of Driver Only Operation (DOO) that threatens jobs, conditions and public safety read more

‘Good progress’ in talks sees Piccadilly strike date pushed back (17 April) – the National Executive Committee, which has noted the reports on file and taken the decision to cancel the planned strike action between Tuesday 19th and Friday 22nd April 2016. Instead, affected members are now instructed NOT TO BOOK ON for any shifts that commence between 12:00 hours on Tuesday 26th April 2016 and 11:59 hours on Wednesday 27th April 2016 and 12:00 hours on Thursday 28th April 2016 and 11:59 hours on Friday 29th April 2016 read more

RMT goes into dispute and prepares to ballot on Scotrail over Driver Only Operation (15 April) – RAIL UNION RMT confirmed today that preparations are now under way for a ballot of guards across Scotrail for industrial action over the extension of Driver Only Operation and Driver Controlled operation read more

RMT to ballot for action at main tube track maintenance and renewals depot (14 April) – TUBE UNION RMT confirmed today that it has begun preparations for a ballot for both strike action and action short of a strike for all staff working out of the main track maintenance and renewals depot at Lillie Road in Earls Court read more

FBU

It’s a lie that we can’t afford decent public services, firefighters’ union leader tells TUC (18 April) – The leader of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), Matt Wrack, today told delegates at the Scottish Trades Union Congress, that the Panama papers have exposed the lie that our society can’t afford decent public services read more

NUJ

Strike ballot looms at BBC as expenses dispute escalates (11 April) – BBC staff are discussing taking industrial action as a new expenses deal will leave many of them out of pocket read more

Newsquest forcing staff to decide: sign new contract or lose job (8 April) – The NUJ is calling for an immediate halt to the imposition of new contracts at the Newsquest owned Clyde and Forth Press newspaper titles in Scotland read more

BECTU

Bare necessities missing for workers at MPC (13 April) – In the week when the long-awaited new version of the Jungle Book is released in the UK and across Europe, BECTU highlights persistent concerns about working conditions for VFX workers, many of whom feel forced into working unpaid overtime. This unease is evident at the Moving Picture Company which provided visual effects on Jungle Book. BECTU issued the following press release today read more

NAPO

Local Government Pension Scheme – Please Sign The Parliamentary Petition here

Mandate / SIPTU (Ireland)

Support the Luas workers. Support Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/533923853456339/ SIPTU members cancel this weekend’s Luas work stoppage to facilitate talks

SIPTU salutes Tesco members’ success in forcing company to begin improving its offer

Mandate Trade Union call for a union wide campaign against Tesco cuts

United Voices of the World

Reinstate ‘The Topshop 2’ & demand a Living Wage – https://www.facebook.com/events/217272261973878/

See video of April 16 protest:-

Other News

May Day 2016 – email us your local demonstrations and rallies so we can publicise Southern and Eastern TUC (SERTUC) May Day & Workers’ Memorial Day Events

London – Sunday 1st May assemble at Clerkenwell Green from 11.30 – marching to Trafalgar Square. Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn & John McDonnell http://www.londonmayday.org/

Leeds – Saturday 30 April 11.30am Victoria Gardens, The Headrow. Speakers include Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary, Richard Burgon MP Leeds East and BMA junior doctor rep https://www.facebook.com/events/555541267957520/

After demo Yorkshire NSSN public meeting: 90 Years Since the General Strike – Time to Strike Together Again – The Victoria Hotel, 28 Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3DL https://www.facebook.com/events/999562806746176/

Blacklisting & Victimisation

Buy the book ‘Blacklisted: The Secret War between Big Business and Union Activists’ Author: Dave Smith and Phil Chamberlain. Blacklisted tells the controversial story of the illegal strategies that transnational construction companies used to keep union activists away from work. See the official trailer from ReelNews

Blacklist Support Group financial appeal: the Blacklist support group is desperately short of funds, to continue the incredible work in 2015 we need more finance, would you please consider making a donation, raise it at your branches and trade councils. Please make cheques payable to Joint sites committee and send to 70 Darnay Rise Chelmsford Essex CM1 4XA. Please forward onto your contacts many thanks Steve Kelly (JSC Treasurer)

‘Blacklisting mastermind’ refuses to give evidence at High Court hearing (12 April) – The alleged architect of the construction ‘blacklisting’ scandal, Cullum McAlpine, has declined to give evidence in the High Court case, due to start next month, to establish the extent of wrongdoing in the industry read more on Unite website

Blacklist Support Group – update 8th April 2016

Blacklisted workers taunted by central figure in the blacklisting conspiracy

http://www.mirror.co.uk/opinion/blacklisting-victims-havent-suffered-enough-7752746

Blacklisted workers speak at the High Court about how standing up for fellow workers affected their families

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV7lL2Gm9zw

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2016/04/13/blacklist-contractors-pay-out-another-15-20m/

Please share and circulate this video far & wide – and donate to Reel News

Cullum McAlpine ‘mastermind’ behind blacklisting conspiracy refuses to give evidence in High Court trial

http://unitelive.org/the-fight-goes-on/

http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/blacklisting-mastermind-refuses-to-give-evidence-at-high-court-hearing/

http://www.buildingconstructiondesign.co.uk/news/blacklisting-mastermind-refuses-to-give-evidence-at-high-court-hearing/

George Tapp – working class hero – has been awarded £80,000 compensation for the life changing injuries he suffered after he was run down by a motorist whilst handing out leaflets at a blacklist protest against the construction giant BAM during the Crossrail dispute. Well done to the union & lawyers for fighting the case http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8957-Court-Awards-Blacklist-Hero-Tapp-80,000
Overview of the High Court trial

https://undercoverinfo.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/blacklisting-the-blacklisters-the-evidence-subscribers-key-players-finances-etc/

Undercover police spied on the Grunwick strikers & caused the abandonment of the Grand National

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans/2016/apr/13/covert-police-spied-on-strikers-and-their-supporters-in-iconic-dispute

https://network23.org/redblackgreen/2016/04/10/1993-the-year-the-grand-national-was-sabotaged-with-help-from-special-branch/

Major conference on undercover police spying on activists this coming weekend – with an all star line up of speakers and a workshop on blacklisting

http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=107

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans/2016/mar/30/doreen-lawrence-to-speak-at-conference-on-undercover-policing-and-racism

Blacklist firm Balfour Beatty also exploiting construction workers in Qatar

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/13/balfour-beatty-interserve-accused-migrant-worker-labour-abuses-qatar

Mildred Gordon R.I.P.

Mildred Gordon MP for Bow & Poplar and an active supporter of the Construction Safety Campaign has passed away. http://eastlondonnews.co.uk/former-bow-poplar-mp-mildred-gordon-dies/

“Is it not true that, in this country, no employer who has been found guilty of negligence that has caused a fatal accident on a building site has ever been imprisoned for criminal negligence? Should not such employers be sentenced? If it is their fault that a worker dies, is it not true that only imprisonment will make them take the matter seriously? When great profits are at stake, fines of £400, or even £2,000, will not improve the position”

Construction & Offshore safety concerns