First it was the U-turn on tax credits, then Personal Independence Payment after Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation and now on top of the division over Europe, Cameron has been shaken by the Panama tax exposé. The Tories really are on the edge! The question is how do we push them over it?!
It’s clear that an increasing number of people want to fight and take action alongside the Junior Doctors, teachers and the steelworkers fighting to save their jobs. Last Saturday, thousands demonstrated against Cameron outside Downing Street, in Sheffield on the PCS demonstration against the closure of BIS offices and in Lambeth to save libraries.
This Saturday April 16th, thousands more will be converging on London to march on the National Demonstration for Homes, Health, Jobs, and Education: End Austerity Now, which is now a ‘Cameron Must Go – Tories Out! mobilisation!
Let’s fill the streets of London this Saturday and then use it as a platform to demand from the TUC and the unions that they get together with the BMA, NUT, the steel unions and everyone else fighting the bosses and the Tory cuts to call the mass demonstrations and joint strikes that can take out Cameron and his government!
People’s Assembly April 16 March for Homes, Health, Jobs, Education | End Austerity Now – Assemble: 1pm, Gower Street / Euston Road, London NW1 http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/hhje
Join the NSSN bloc: meet outside Waterstones – 82, Gower Street or follow us on twitter: @NSSN_AntiCuts #NSSN
NSSN public meetings – ‘Nationalise Tata – keep the furnaces firing!’:-
Port Talbot: Wednesday 13 April 7.30pm Grand Hotel (opposite train station) www.facebook.com/events/1689063208026256/
Llanelli: Joint with Llanelli Trades Council – 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
Steelworkers’ meeting outcome: new demands of Government (April 4)
Unite: Jaguar car workers urge Tata against steel ‘fire sale’
South London NSSN public meeting: ‘South London Fights Back’ – 7.30pm Wednesday April 13th Karibu Education Centre, 7 Gresham Rd, Brixton SW9 7PH https://www.facebook.com/events/845645872228112/
BMA Junior Doctors dispute – after the Tories announced their plan to impose the new contract, the next Junior Doctors 48-hour strike is 26 – 28 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
London demo April 26 to support the Junior Doctors
We marched against academies in March – now march for the Junior Doctors in April – the NUT in London is supporting the BMA North & South Thames Junior Doctors’ march to the Department of Health on the evening of April 26th – assemble 5pm St Thomas’s Hospital read more on the blog of Martin Powell Davies NUT London regional secretary
BFAWU / Fast Food Rights
#WakeyFor10 – protest in Wakefield & everywhere on #FastFoodGlobal April14
The Tories re-branded the minimum wage as the National Living Wage on April 1st. The 50p rise is nowhere near enough to take low-paid workers out of poverty pay and the under-25s are excluded!
But we won’t be fooled by Osborne’s gimmick wage! To counter the Tory hypocrisy, a campaign is being launched to fight for a real minimum wage of £10 per hour with no youth exemptions. This is being headed by the BFAWU bakers’ union, the GMB and the Hungry for Justice / Fast Food Rights coalition (in which the NSSN campaigns alongside the BFAWU, John McDonnell Shadow Chancellor, Youth Fight for Jobs, Unite the Resistance, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and others).
There will be a big focus in Wakefield on April 14, where on the day there will be a demonstration and social. There will also be protests led by BFAWU fast food workers in Glasgow, London, Scarborough and Cambridge as well as the events in Wakefield. Join the April 14 protests or organise your own. Please also use and follow on social media – #FoolsGold #A1 #WakeyFor10 #10Now4All #10AndAUnion
Sign the petition: Raise the minimum wage to £10 for all workers details on BFAWU website
Joint Press statement by #Wakeyfor10 and the Bakers Food and Allied workers union Britain’s food union read more on NSSN website GMB On National Living Wage
For more information and details of protests around the country, see BFAWU, Fast Food Rights / Hungry for Justice and Youth Fight for Jobs websites
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/
Unions welcome Parliamentary debate on forced academies
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 24th, Branscombe Suite, BIC, Bournemouth
NSSN / Kill the Bill news
This year’s annual NSSN conference – our 10th – will be on Saturday July 2nd 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/
South London NSSN public meeting: ‘South London Fights Back’ – 7.30pm Wednesday April 13th Karibu Education Centre, 7 Gresham Rd, Brixton SW9 7PH https://www.facebook.com/events/845645872228112/
Triple defeat for the government on trade union bill (17 March) – Peers in the House of Lords rebelled against the government on three key issues: electronic balloting, political funds and facility time. The trade union bill had its first day at report stage in the House of Lords on Wednesday 16 March, with a major backlash against the government’s unrelenting persecution of trade unions read more on PCS website
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
Thousands turn out for PCS Sheffield march for jobs (11 April) – Thousands of PCS members and supporters, including shadow chancellor John McDonnell, joined a march for jobs in Sheffield on Saturday, vocally opposing plans to cut the business department’s office in the city. The lunchtime march and rally in the city centre was organised by PCS and Sheffield TUC in response to hundreds of jobs being hit in the city. At the end of January the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced plans to close its Sheffield site by January 2018, losing 250 jobs, 500 jobs are under threat at Revenue Customs and 400 in local government. While the steel industry has also been heavily hit read more
Huge doubts HMRC can investigate tax havens
Urge your MP to stop Land Registry sell-off
Unite
Waiters turn up the heat on Sajid Javid’s over delayed ‘tipping’ report (12 April) – The heat is being turned up on business secretary Sajid Javid over the long delay in publishing his report into ‘tipping’ abuses that have seen waiters being short-changed by their bosses. Unite, the country’s largest union, was instrumental in exposing ‘tipping’ abuses by Pizza Express and other popular restaurant chains which were pocketing a portion of tips instead of passing them on to staff. Unite activists in the hospitality industry will stage a protest on Thursday (14 April) urging the business secretary to stop procrastinating and deliver his overdue report – 4pm on Thursday 14 April outside Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET read more
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
Sussex Patient Transport Ballot (April 6) – GMB Ballot Members At Sussex Patient Transport Services For Industrial Action Over Unacceptable Working Conditions. Members have been left with little choice but to fight for their PTS and the reputation they care about deeply says GMB read more
Unison
Hundreds of Co Durham teaching assistants protest at pay cut plans (April 8) – Hundreds of teaching assistants protested outside County Durham council headquarters today against plans to stop paying them during school holidays read more
National Demo 18 April 1pm SOAS, University of London: Stop the contract, cleaners in-house now! SOAS J4C is calling for a national solidarity demo after SOAS senior management declared today they intend to sign the contract to outsource the cleaners for five years on April 18th, and postponed any further negotiations to April 21st https://www.facebook.com/events/1750430338524998/
Glasgow CCTV workers will strike every weekend from 7am on Friday mornings in pay dispute read more
RMT
RMT strikes again at Kings Cross this week in fight with ISS on Virgin East Coast contract (12 April) – RAIL UNION RMT today accused global facilities giant ISS of a failing to take staff concerns seriously and has confirmed that a further 24 hour strike will kick off on the Virgin East Coast contract at Kings Cross on Thursday read more
Next Piccadilly line strikes – Unless there is an outbreak of common sense among line management, two further 24-hour strikes will take place as follows: Tuesday 19 April, 12pm to Weds 20 April, 11.59am and Thursday 21 April, 1200pm to Friday 22 April, 11.59am read more
ASLEF
Southern and Gatwick Express ballot (8 Apr) – As a result of a threat to impose 12 car DOO(P) working, without agreement, from 9 April on Gatwick Express, we are to ballot drivers on Southern, and Gatwick Express, for industrial action 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
Rio board makes a move in the right direction (7 April) – BECTU and Rio staff are pleased that this week the Board at the Rio Dalston has undertaken to repay the outstanding monies forcibly deducted from staff in 2013 read more
Unions battle over BBC expenses
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/
IWGB
BikeBiz heralds historic 28% pay rise at ECourier and IWGB campaign victory (April 7) – The campaign for higher wages for cycle couriers run by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain has had its first major success, with eCourier agreeing a 28 percent pay raise for cycle couriers riding for the firm read more
United Voices of the World
Protest to reinstate ‘The Topshop 2’ & demand a Living Wage April 16 – after the People’s Assembly march on Sat 16th April United Voices of the World the union will be protesting at the playboy-parasite-tax avoiding-Cameron’s best mate-Philp Green’s-Topshop. They will be protesting for the living wage and for the reinstatement two cleaners who were just suspended for joining a union and protesting their poverty wages https://www.facebook.com/events/217272261973878/
Other News
May Day 2016 – email us your local demonstrations and rallies so we can publicise
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
- Blacklisting High Court latest figures:
Over 180 blacklisted workers settled their claims after renewed offers from the firms in the past 2-3 weeks. The estimated cost to the firms for these cases alone is in the region of £15-20million plus legal costs (which could be considerably more).
There are 154 live claims remaining (across all legal teams) plus 82 recently issued new claims. The next hearing is a Pre-Trial Review on 21st April. The full trial starts on 9th May and is scheduled to run until 31st July.
Pix: https://www.facebook.com/AAB3213/
https://www.facebook.com/familiesagainstblacklist/?fref=ts
Press:
- Corporate Criminals
Blacklist Support Group teamed up with the ‘BP or not BP?’ campaign to host a rebel exhibition inside the British Museum last weekend to highlight the unethical relationship of cultural institutions and corporate criminals. One exhibit was a Hart Hat artwork by BSG Artist in Residence, which has now been donated to the official collection under the Museums Act.
http://www.historyofbp.org/hard-hat/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DCQhlrCsek
- Radical Film Network conference – blacklisting workshop with Shaun Dey (Reel News), Stewart Hume (UNITE), Phil Chamberlain & dave Smith
STUC
Glasgow
29th April – May 2nd
- Major Spycops conference
Doreen Lawrence, John McDonnell, Imran Khan, Diane Abbott, Jenny Jones, Helen Steel & Dave Smith all confirmed speakers
Subvesrion, Sabotage & Spying conference – with blacklisting as one of the workshops
16-17 April 2016
South Bank Uni
http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=107
Blacklisted book http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCa8yQmZ70
Blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/
Donate to ReelNews – http://reelnews.co.uk/donationssubscriptions/
International
France: Workers and youth on the streets read more
Solidarity with attacked Brazilian civil servants read more on NSSN website
Swedish foodworkers fighting Findus factory closure by asset strippers Nomad Foods read more
Iran: Release teacher union leader Esmail Abdi read more
Unite London public meeting: Greece needs a Europe for working people: Giorgos Gogos, of Piraeus dockers – 6pm Wednesday 27 April, Unite House, Holborn – 128 Theobald’s Rd, London WC1X 8TN details
Diary (see & use false economy)
2016
April
16 People’s Assembly March for Homes, Health, Jobs, Education | End Austerity Now
Assemble: 1pm, Gower Street / Euston Road, London NW1 http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/hhje
28 Workers’ Memorial Day TUC website details of local events
May
1 International Workers Day
July
2 10th annual NSSN Conference in Conway Hall, London
9 Durham Miners’ Gala http://www.durhamminers.org/gala
15-17 Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/
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
