This week we headline with escalating action by RMT members in disputes against Driver Only Operation on Northern Rail and South Western Railway as well as on the Piccadilly Line on London Underground.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with the RMT, who initiated the NSSN in 2006 under the then General Secretary the late great Bob Crow.
Piccadilly Line tube drivers to strike again in long-running dispute over breakdown in industrial relations (15 Oct) – TUBE UNION RMT confirmed today that driver members on the Piccadilly Line will strike again next month in a long-running dispute over the breakdown of industrial relations following the latest phase of action last month which shut the line down for the duration. Members will take action by not booking on for any turns of duty as follows;
Between 12:00 hours on Wednesday 7th November 2018 and 12:00 hours on Thursday 8th November 2018 read more
RMT protest in support of guards at Liverpool Lime Street Station this morning is joined by Chicken Man as Grayling refuses to meet union (15 Oct) – AN RMT demonstration in support of guards and station staff at Liverpool Lime Street Station this morning, to coincide with ministers and rail bosses turning up at for what they are calling “Better Stations Day” and the final completion of the Liverpool Lime Street refurbishment, has been joined by Chicken Man as Chris Grayling continues to refuse to meet to discuss the on-going guards’ disputes. RMT is highlighting the fact that far from better stations, the rail bosses – at the behest of the government – are seeking to de-staff trains and stations read more RMT members rock solid again this morning on 31st day of strike action in fight for safety on Northern Rail trains
RMT confirms raft of new strike dates on Northern Rail in fight over guards and rail safety (12 Oct) – RAIL UNION RMT has confirmed a raft of new strike dates on Arriva Rail North over attacks on the role of the safety-critical guard and the extension of Driver Only Operation in the name of increased profits…All RMT Arriva Rail North Conductor, Conductor Instructor and Train Driver members had already been instructed to take action as follows:
Not to book on for on for duty between:
- 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Saturday 20th October 2018
The additional dates that RMT members are instructed to not to book on are for any shifts that commence between:-
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 27th October 2018
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 3rd November 2018
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 10th November 2018 read more
RMT confirms new phase of strike action on South Western Railway as company continues to refuse serious talks – RAIL UNION RMT has confirmed a further phase of strike action on South Western Railway (SWR) through the autumn as the company continues to refuse to engage in a serious talks process that could reach an agreement in the long running guards’ safety dispute. RMT members on South Western Railway working as Commercial Guards, Guards and Train Drivers are instructed to not to book on for any shifts that commence between:-
- 0001 Hours on Tuesday 23rd October 2018 and 2359 Hours on Saturday 27th October 2018
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 3rd November 2018
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 10th November 2018
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 17th November 2018
- 0001 Hours and 2359 Hours on Saturday 24th November 2018 read more
National dispute fund (DOO disputes) – If you would like to donate to the RMT National Dispute Fund which makes payments to support their striking members taking part in National DOO disputes then you can donate via PayPal using the donate button below or make a cheque payable to RMT National Dispute Fund and send it to the address below. Alternatively, you can ring their Freephone helpline on 0800 376 3706 who will be happy to process a credit card payment for you, or, if you would like to pay via internet banking, please email [email protected] for further details. Vicky Thompson, Finance Manager RMT, 39 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD. Tel: 020-7529-8843 read more
RMT Arriva Rail North Dispute Fund – As you know, our guard members employed by Arriva Rail North have been taking strike action for nearly two years now in defence of the safety critical role of the guard. This strike action has been brilliantly supported but obviously has caused financial hardship for many of our members. The National Executive Committee has made some payments to our members via our National Dispute Fund, but has now asked me to write to all members inviting them if at all possible to contribute to the Arriva Rail North Dispute Fund. This Fund has been specifically set up for these members. Donations can be made as follows:
Account number: 20398721 Sort Code: 60-83-01
Please use your name/organisation name as payment reference or make a cheque payable to RMT National Dispute Fund and send it to the address below or payments can be made by phone via our RMT Helpline 0800 376 3706.
Vicky Thompson, Finance Manager, RMT, 39 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD 020-7529-8843 read more
NSSN news
Video of NSSN TUC Rally on September 9th: ‘General Election to get Tories out!’
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
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]
Follow us on twitter via @NSSN_AntiCuts and Facebook
Union News
PCS
BREAKING NEWS!! PCS wins £3million check-off compensation (16 Oct) – PCS has achieved a major victory over the government as the High Court has ruled that ministers acted illegally by withdrawing check-off, the decades-old practice of collecting members’ union subscriptions directly from their pay packet. Our union has won £3 million from the government because of the illegal moves the Department for Work and Pensions took to try and smash PCS. In 2015 we were at the heart of opposition to the government, fighting against the government’s cuts and closures, robbing members of their redundancy rights and we were fighting to end austerity. As a result the then Tory Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude took a particularly vicious decision to attack members’ terms and conditions, attack our reps and try to bankrupt us by overnight announcing that he would not allow our members to pay their union subscriptions directly from your pay packet. A system that had been in operation for many decades. He did that because he knew that 90% of our income came from that method. In a magnificent campaign we signed up over 160,000 members to pay their subs by direct debit in a matter of weeks and months to stop us from going bankrupt and to ensure we could continue to represent members at work. We also took legal action in the High Court to show that the government had acted illegally and to get compensation. Today that case has been settled and in a humiliating defeat for the government, in its attempt to smash PCS and other unions in the public sector, it has to pay £3 million compensation and all of our legal costs read more
Unison
Support the Glasgow Unison equal pay strike – 5,200 Education and ex-Cordia members will be called out on a two day strike on 23/24 October. GMB members will also be taking strike action. Around 8,000 trade union members will be called out on strike read more from Glasgow City Unison Facebook page
Higher education members urged make voices heard in strike ballot – Ballot papers must be received before 25 October 2018. UNISON is urging on members at universities across the UK to vote Yes for strike action in a ballot which closes in just over a fortnight. The employers’ pay offer of 2% for most staff – up to 2.7% for others – is below inflation and doesn’t meet the needs of members, who have suffered years of below-inflation pay increases read more
Support the striking Birmingham homecare workers – Please send messages of support and donations to Unison Birmingham branch, 46 The Priory Queensway Birmingham B4 7LR. Email [email protected] Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/birminghamunison/
Grimethorpe primary school dinner ladies go on permanent strike – Dinner ladies have gone on permanent strike in a dispute over plans to axe their jobs. Ladywood Primary School, in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, has proposed that teaching assistants would supervise meals to save cash. It wants to make all nine school meals supervisory assistant roles redundant which has resulted in six days of strikes by Unison union members read more
Bolton hospital staff strike for NHS pay (11 Oct) – ‘I’ve never had to go on strike before, but we’re all standing together and I’m not scared’ – hospital domestic Andrea Lea. Cleaners, catering staff, porters and security staff were among Bolton NHS workers who started a 48-hour strike for fair pay this morning, staffing picket lines from 7am, with the promise of more action to follow if their pay issue isn’t resolved read more
Support Camden NSL workers – Camden UNISON members working for private company NSL as traffic wardens recently took 5 days of strike action as part of their fight for decent pay. They are asking for £11.15 an hour, an amount that Camden UNISON believes is very reasonable particularly when the top director at NSL gets over £320 an hour. For updates about the dispute and to send messages of support, contact [email protected] read more on Camden Unison website
Love Our Colleges: march, rally and lobby for FE funding October 17th – Come and join us for national action in London on Wednesday 17 October. The day will include:
March for further education
March will depart 12.30pm from Waterloo Place, finishing at Parliament Square.
#loveourcolleges rally
Join us from 1.30 – 2.30pm in Parliament Square to hear from a range of speakers about why we #loveourcolleges and want the government to invest more in further education.
Mass lobby of Parliament
Visit your MP in Parliament on the day and ask them to #loveourcolleges and support fair funding and better pay in further education. Please contact your MP as soon as possible in advance of the day to arrange a meeting – you may wish to talk to colleagues and students about arranging a group meeting on the day. You can contact your MP via https://www.writetothem.com/. Read more
Unite
Cammell Laird workers back strike vote move over ‘savage’ job cuts (15 Oct) – Unite members at Cammell Laird gave their unanimous backing to hold a ballot for industrial action today (Monday 15 October) over bosses’ plans to slash approximately 40 per cent of the Birkenhead shipyard’s workforce by March 2019. The decision at a mass meeting of workers gives the green light to Unite to start to make preparations for a strike vote of its members at the shipyard. Today’s meeting follows last week’s announcement by Cammell Laird that it was planning to shed over 290 jobs despite the shipyard winning two contracts, worth a total of £619 million, to support and maintain ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary over 10 years read more
Twelve days of strikes start at Derbyshire crane firm in pay dispute – The first industrial action at a leading Derbyshire crane manufacturer Street Crane for 20 years has started as the company has been unwilling to engage in constructive pay talks…The first of the 24 hour stoppages is scheduled to start at 00.01 on Monday (15 October) and followed by strikes on 22 and 29 October and 5 November. If the dispute is not settled by then, four 48 hour stoppages will go ahead on 12, 19 and 26 November and 3 December, all commencing at 00:01 read more
Support striking workers at at Prysmian Cables & Systems in Eastleigh, Hampshire – there have been 24 hour stoppages on 26 September and 3 and 10 October, with further strikes, already announced, for 17 October. A work to rule started on 25 September, including an overtime ban read more Email messages of support and solidarity to [email protected]
GMB
Cammell Laird Members Back Strike Vote (Oct 15) – GMB members back strike vote at Cammell Laird in anger over almost 300 JOB CUTS. GMB members gave a clear direction that they will oppose any compulsory redundancy and fight to defend their jobs if need be read more
GMB members at NASUWT vote for strike action over pension changes (Oct 12) – As a last resort, GMB members are now willing to take industrial action to prevent cuts to their pension scheme and to protect their rights to collective bargaining. GMB members working for NASUWT Union have voted to take strike action over pension changes. The industrial action will take place on October 17, November 5 and November 9 after members voted decisively on a high per turn out [77.6% turnout 87.6% in favour of strike] read more
CWU
Close the Gap victory tour draws to a close (Oct 11) – We Closed the Gap! That’s the resounding message that has gone out loud and clear at BT Consumer call centres across the country in a national celebration of the momentous victory the union has secured against the travesty of unequal pay for identical work. Following BT’s landmark agreement to end in entirety its use of exploitative ‘Pay Between Assignment’ (PBA) agency contracts, the mass rollout of permanent BT jobs to around 1,000 agency workers in Consumer is now drawing to its climax – well in advance of the March 31 deadline for a total cessation of the use of PBA contracts across BT Group. The company’s belated acceptance of what has, in recent years, become the central demand of the CWU’s long-running battle against an ever-mutating agency injustice, effectively spells the end of a decades-old resourcing model under which thousands of workers have been employed long-term on agency contracts with pay rates and Ts&Cs well below that of their directly employed counterparts read more
POA
Dignity at work at HMP Lindholme (Oct 13) – Leaders of the POA are waiting to see if HMPPS carry out their threat to take further legal action through the courts to support the management of HMP Lindholme as they continue to bully, intimidate and threaten members of the Union. The injunction prevents the Union from advising members to take any form of action read more
UCU
Lunchtime protest against gender pay gap at University of Reading (15 Oct) – Women at the University of Reading will take part in an “unpaid women’s non-working lunch” to protest at unequal pay at the university on Tuesday 16 October. The University of Reading has a gender pay gap of 19.6%, which means that women at the university are effectively unpaid for the rest of the year from Tuesday 16 October. The lunch will take place on the lawn outside Whiteknights House from 1pm. Whiteknights House is the institution’s main management building and, by holding the event on its lawn, the protestors aim to highlight the presence of the university’s “unpaid” workforce to management read more
Strike ballots over pay open in colleges and universities – UCU members in 147 colleges in England and 147 UK universities are being balloted for strike action in a row over pay. The ballots open on Thursday 30 August and close on Friday 19 October. The dispute in universities has arisen after the universities’ representatives, the Universities and Colleges’ Employers Association (UCEA, made a final offer of 2% at the final pay talks in May. UCU said the offer does nothing to address the falling value of higher education pay, which has declined in real terms by 21% since 2009 read more
UCU & UCAC
Strike ballots over pay to open in Welsh colleges – Staff in Welsh further education colleges are being balloted for strike action as part of a row over pay. The dispute has arisen after Collegau Cymru rejected the joint trade unions’ pay claim for a rise of 7.5% or £1,500, instead making a final offer of 1%. The unions said that the employers’ offer would do nothing to address the falling value of staff pay in further education, and that above-inflation pay rises are needed to ensure colleges can continue to recruit and retain staff. UCU and UCAC will begin balloting members at 12 colleges this week. The ballot dates are as follows:
UCU: Monday 24 September – Friday 19 October
UCAC: Thursday 28 September – Friday 26 October read more
UCAC website: http://www.athrawon.com/index.php?lang=cy
NEU
Greenwich Strike To Stop Forced Academisation Of The John Roan – NEU members will be on strike on Thursday 18th October and Wed 7 November against the forced academisation of The John Roan. Academisation is a failed system. Staff and parents are determined to remain an LA school.The UST has been named the sponsor without any consultation with the school community. We are being denied any say in the running of our community school. Come to our community picket to show your support! Facebook event
Enough is Enough: March for Education – Tuesday November 20th. Assemble 5.30pm Westminster Cathedral, Ashley Place, SW1P 1LT London Facebook event
EIS
A national EIS demonstration in support of our pay claim will take place in Glasgow on Saturday October 27th – As a union, we need a maximum display of our strength on the day. All members are urged to attend this event to send a clear message to Scottish Government and COSLA: Value Education Value Teachers! Read more
BECTU
BECTU supports petition calling for recognition at Royal Albert Hall (12 Oct) – BECTU is supporting a public petition calling on the Royal Albert Hall to recognise the trade union. The petition, which can be found here, follows repeated requests from employees since 2014 for the union to be recognised at the venue. In 2015 government-backed conciliation service, ACAS, facilitated a vote for staff on recognising BECTU for the purposes of collective bargaining. 52% of those voting did so in favour of union recognition. Although this was above the 50% threshold that the Hall had agreed to, the results were rejected by the venue. In the ongoing campaign BECTU has now begun a process of appeal through the Central Arbitration Committee and is calling for the public to support staff by signing the petition read more
Read the latest about the Picturehouse dispute on Brixton Ritzy Facebook Page and those of Hackney, Crouch End, Central, Dulwich East and Duke of York Brighton
Donate to the Picturehouse Cinema strike fund: https://www.crowdpac.co.uk/campaigns/250/picturehousestrike
IWGB
Rise of the Precarious Workers: National Demo October 30th 8am Transport for London, 197 Blackfriars Road SE1 8NJ Facebook event – They have killed our rights, but together, we are going to bring them back from the dead. On the eve of Halloween, The IWGB and other precarious workers will take to the streets of London to demand an end to the assault on their employment rights by bloodsucking bosses and a zombie government. On the day, the IWGB will be facing Uber at the Court of Appeal as part of the ongoing battle over workers’ rights. A victory would put us one step closer to ending the attack on our rights that so-called “gig economy” bosses are conducting with near impunity. This is not just about Uber drivers, but about all of us that are being forced into increasingly more precarious forms of work
Other news
New film by Mike Leigh: ‘Peterloo’ opens nationwide Thursday November 8th https://www.peterloo.movie/
New pamphlet: ‘The Peterloo Massacre’ by North West Socialist Party – £2 or bulk orders are 10 for the price of 7
Blacklisting & Victimisation
Blacklist Support Group financial appeal: the Blacklist support group is desperately short of funds, to continue the incredible work 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)
Blacklisted t-shirts available at: https://shop.hopenothate.org.uk/component/hikashop/product/78-blacklisted-t-shirt
Book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcgrNs6pB8
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/
Blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
International
‘One job should be enough!’: Marriott workers on strike in cities across the US read more
Diary
2018
October
20 International conference against racism & fascism in London details here
November
3 National Demonstration to Save Libraries, Museums and Culture – Assemble: 11 a.m. – The British Library, Euston Road, London read more
17 National Unity Demonstration Against Fascism and Racism Central London
CONTACT US
PHONE 07952 283 558
EMAIL mailto:[email protected]
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/NSSN_AntiCuts
FACEBOOK NSSN GROUP or STOP The CUTS Likes page
ADDRESS NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE
