305: John McDonnell to speak at NSSN TUC rally 11 Sept

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) is delighted to announce that Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has agreed to speak at our rally on Sunday 11 September, before the start of TUC Congress in Brighton.

The NSSN gives full support to Jeremy and John McDonnell. Like tens of thousands of working class people who have joined solidarity #KeepCorbyn protests and meetings over the summer, we see Owen Smith’s challenge as an attempt by the Blairites to turn the political clock back to when Labour was a reliable tool of the establishment.

We hope that the NSSN rally, with John McDonnell speaking, can play a part in helping to mobilise trade unionists against attempted Blairite coup as well as popularising the call for mass co-ordinated strike action against Tory austerity.

NSSN TUC Congress rally: ‘Cameron Gone – get the rest of the Tories Out! #KeepCorbyn’ – Confirmed speakers: Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP, PCS President Janice Godrich, RMT General Secretary Mick Cash, BFAWU General Secretary Ronnie Draper and POA General Secretary Steve Gillan

1pm Sunday 11th September Ashdown Suite in the Holiday Inn 137 King’s Rd (seafront), Brighton BN1 2JF Map

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1100714456673911/

Our London supporters are block-booking train tickets from London Bridge to Brighton on the day – £28 for four places and the RMT are booking a bus. Please email us via [email protected] or phone 07748534891 if you would like us to book tickets for your members.

 

 

NSSN news

 This is a video of the 10th annual NSSN Conference which took place on Saturday July 2nd in London on the themes: “Cameron’s gone – now get rid of the rest of the Tories! Link the strikes!’

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 here NSSN Affiliation Appeal 2016

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]

 

 

Union News

IWGB

Deliveroo workers force bosses to back down! – Last week’s NSSN bulletin headlined the dispute of couriers working for Deliveroo who wanted to impose new contracts. The next day, the company had backed down. This is what their union, the IWGB posted on Facebook:-

*Breaking News**

— VICTORY TO THE DELIVEROO STRIKE —

The delegation of drivers have just exited the Deliveroo head office, having finished negotiations with Management. They agreed to the following:

– No victimisation

– No new contract

– Even if drivers have signed the new contract already, it no longer has effect and you are not bound to it

– This will be a trial until 14th September when Deliveroo will meet again with workers to assess the month’s pay

– If you don’t want to be on the trial, you WILL have to move zone, but you will be able to move to any zone of YOUR choice and be guaranteed the same hours you are currently on

NSSN supporting Deliveroo strike
NSSN supporting Deliveroo strike

IWGB Facebook  Watch video of IWGB striker here

Guardian: Collective action via social media brings hope to gig economy workers

 

NUT

July-August edition of NUT The Teacher magazine

Support Simon O’Hara — victimised teacher at Small Heath School in Birmingham

 

BFAWU

Reinstate Kumaran Bose – sacked by Samworths! The NSSN is supporting the BFAWU’s campaign in support of Kumaran Bose who was dismissed for speaking out and for organising a union in his workplace read more    Facebook group

 

RMT

Southern Rail dispute latest:

BREAKING NEWS!! RMT announces new strike dates in Southern guards safety dispute (23 Aug) – RAIL UNION RMT today confirmed a new programme of industrial action involving Southern rail guards after the company walked away from talks and opted instead to bulldoze through the roll out of the new operational arrangements from last Sunday without any serious attempt to secure agreement read more

RMT ballot of station staff across Govia Thameslink Railways sees 70% vote for strike action (16 Aug) – RAIL UNION RMT today confirmed a 70% vote in favour of strike action in its ballot of members on Govia Thameslink Railways  over a threat to jobs, pay and safety from the impact of ticket office closures and the reorganisation of the workforce. In addition nearly 80 % voted in favour of industrial action short of a strike. The result will now be considered by the union executive read more    Donate to hardship fund

 

RMT/Unite offshore oil

New announcement on Wood Group dispute (18 Aug) – The following announcement has been issued jointly by Wood Group and the Unite and RMT Trade Unions in relation to the current dispute involving workers on the Shell facilities in the North Sea read more

 

Unite

BREAKING NEWS!! Prudential staff vote for industrial action over offshoring to India (23 Aug) – Prudential staff have voted to take industrial action following the announcement that the company will be offshoring skilled jobs to Mumbai. The Unite members based in Reading, voted 97% in favour of industrial action over plans to offshore some 81 jobs dealing with annuities to India read more

Unite serves notice on London’s ‘unethical’ hotel sector with the launch of new report (22 Aug) – Global hotel chains stand accused of making London one of the most ‘unethical’ tourist destinations in the world by its own workforce in a hard hitting report launched today (Monday 22 August) by Unite, Britain’s biggest union. Unethical London, written by Unite, exposes the low pay and exploitative work practices that have been allowed to flourish unchecked in the multi-billion hotel industry, using the stories of London’s mainly migrant hotel workers in their own words. To mark the launch of the report, Unite hotel worker members will stage a series of protests on Tuesday 23 August, starting on the South Bank near the London Eye from 17:00 before moving to the Whitbread owned Premier Inn, County Hall, SE1 7PB read more

Unite asks BA to think again as 9 out of 10 BA cabin crew vote for industrial action over flawed ‘performance’ system (17 Aug) – BA management was today (Wednesday 17 August) urged to drop its new controversial ‘unfair’ performance scheme, after its cabin crew voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in protest. Members of the 8,800-strong British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA), a section of Unite voted by a massive majority of 91 per cent for industrial action short of a strike read more

 

TSSA

New strike threat at Southern (19 Aug) – TSSA began a strike ballot today at the troubled parent company of Southern Rail, GTR, over ticket office closures and job losses. It is balloting over 250 ticket office and platform staff over plans to close or partially close over 80 ticket offices and axe over 40 staff. The result will be announced on September 2 read more

Network Rail Bands 1-4 On Call Working – Action Short of Strike to commence Wednesday 24th August (17 Aug) – Following our ballot of Bands 1-4 our members who undertake On Call duties, voted by a margin of over 77% to undertake Action Short of a Strike. This will commence from Wednesday 24th August read more

 

Unison

Homerton Hospital workers to protest again – 12.30pm Thursday August 25th read more from Hackney Gazette

UNISON leads campaign to save Bolton children’s centres (19 Aug) – Union launch protest after council announces merger plan that will see two thirds of centres closed read more

Scottish college workers vote to strike in pay dispute (18 Aug) – College employers urged to use negotiations on 25 August to agree pay fairness or strikes will mark the start of new academic year read more

Support school support staff against pay cuts – Join teaching assistants Facebook Group here

 

BMA Junior Doctors dispute

Junior doctors call for ‘escalated’ industrial action (12 Aug) – Junior doctors in England will take ‘escalated’ industrial action if the Government refuses to address concerns over patient safety and fairness in its proposed new contract. Yesterday, the BMA junior doctors committee called for an extraordinary council meeting to approve a rolling programme of industrial action in September. Doctor leaders say politicians have remained ‘persistently silent’ despite worries being repeatedly raised read more

For more info follow #JuniorDoctorsStrike #NotSafeNotFair #JuniorDoctors on twitter

BURSARY OR BUST: Continuing the fight to save NHS bursaries https://www.facebook.com/NHSbursarycutsforum/

 

UCU

UCU confirms Saturday 19 November as date for national central London demonstration with National Union of Students (29 July) – UCU and the National Union of Students (NUS) have confirmed a November national demonstration in central London. Set for Saturday 19 November, the demonstration – ‘United For Education’ – will represent a rallying call for free, accessible and quality further and higher education across the UK, and to demand an end to the marketisation of university and college education read more

Stop the sackings of union reps at London Met – #savelondonmet #saveourreps Yesterday (April 30) our branch chair Mark Campbell and secretary David Hardman were made redundant in what is an outrageous attack on their strenuous and tireless trade union activities defending jobs and education at London Met read more   Sign petition   Since launching this petition, the situation at London Met has now deteriorated further. University management have commenced a further round of compulsory redundancies that threaten the jobs of almost 400 academic and administrative staff – some one-third of all substantive university staff. They have also stated their intention to further increase the use of zero-hour contracts and reduce research to that which explicitly ‘generates a profit’. Please see details here

 

CWU

Post Office strike vote sparks call for talks (19 Aug) – Following today’s announcement of a 83 per cent vote for industrial action by Post Office workers, the CWU has urged the company’s chief executive to “enter talks as a top priority.” read more

Reinstate Clive Walder – Clive Walder, a longstanding leading rep in the CWU was sacked last November after 38 years of service with British Telecom. Clive is chair of the CWU Birmingham, Black Country & Worcester branch. Last week, his Employment Tribunal was dismissed on a technicality after a claim by BT, denying Clive the right of a fair hearing. This is outrageous.

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

 

Nationalise Tata – support the Steelworkers

For latest developments, follow Facebook group

 

NUJ

Stressed-out staff ballot for strike action at Newsquest titles in London (22 Aug) – Journalists on Newsquest titles in London are balloting for industrial action over inadequate staffing levels, excessive workloads, reduced quality of newspapers, the health and safety of employees, plus pay read more

 

United Voices of the World

STRIKE AT 100 WOOD STREET IS OVER! – After 58 days of strike action by the cleaners at 100 Wood Street have won their dispute. Read more on United Voices of the World Facebook Group and Website

Read more on United Voices of the World Facebook Group and Website

 

 

Other News

Burston strike school rally – Sunday 4 September Annual rally to celebrate the longest strike in history: Schoolchildren ‘went on strike’ in 1914 to support their teachers, sacked by the rural squirearchy for organising agricultural workers read more

 

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 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)

Blacklist Support Group update – John McDonnell at major employment rights conference, 16-17 Sept

John McDonnell is just one of many high profile speakers confirmed to speak at the ‘Blacklisting, Bullying & Blowing the Whistle’ conference at University of Greenwich on 16-17 September.

This conference is co-hosted by the Blacklist Support Group (BSG) and the Work & Employment Rights Unit (WERU) set to expose the hidden underbelly of the modern workplace often ignored by the mainstream media and academia. The conference is FREE to delegates and is ideal for union members, students, lawyers, journalists and TUC diploma courses – in fact anyone with an interest in improving employment rights for working people.

The conference is smack in the middle of TUC & Labour Party conference and just days before the close of the Labour Party leadership election closes and is bound to attract media coverage.

Runing alongside the conference is supporting artwork by a number of contemporary artists and photographers, coordinated by Art Against Blacklisting

Booking is strongly recommended.  Please circulate to your mailing lists.

http://www.gre.ac.uk/business/services/events/events/current/BlacklistingBullyingBlowingtheWhistle

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

End repression at South African winemaker – NOW! read more

 

Diary (see & use false economy)

 

2016

 

September

4 Burston strike school rally https://burstonstrikeschool.wordpress.com/2016-rally/

10 6th Wigan Diggers’ Festival https://wigandiggersfestival.org/

 

11 NSSN TUC Congress rally ‘Cameron Gone – get the rest of the Tories Out!’ – 1pm Ashdown Suite in the Holiday Inn 137 King’s Rd (seafront), Brighton BN1 2JF https://www.facebook.com/events/1100714456673911/

 

 

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