NSSN 306: Junior Doctors, UberEats & Southern Rail strikes

BMA Junior Doctors re-start strikes September 12-16

The BMA has today confirmed that junior doctors will take further industrial action. The first 5 days will be September 12-16. We know that trade unionists and the majority of ordinary people everywhere will support this action as they did earlier in the year.

 

These dates happen to be the week of TUC Congress, taking place this year in Brighton. The NSSN calls on the TUC to invite the BMA to send a speaker to address Congress and to go further. This is happening at the same time that draft plans from the Tory Government have come to light which would see further drastic NHS cuts. There should be a dialogue between the TUC, health unions and the BMA for an emergency national demonstration to support the junior doctors and to oppose health cuts and defend the NHS and in addition mass joint strike action to force the Tories back.

The NSSN will be holding a rally before the start of TUC Congress on Sunday 11 September. We invite the BMA to speak on our platform as we pledge to continue our support for their action BMA statement: Junior doctor contract proposals – Further industrial action confirmed (31 Aug)

Unite: NHS England assurances draw sceptical response amid calls for consultative ballot of GPs

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

 

IWGB

SIGN PETITION: UBER-EATS: STOP VICTIMISING YOUR WORKERS – reinstate Imran Siddiqui NOW!!! – Following the recent cuts to promotional offers that attracted many couriers to work for UBER-EATS, drivers are now seeing drastic reductions in their wages, with many averaging below the national minimum wage even before the costs and expenses incurred on the job. Uber-Eats has blamed the workers themselves for their low-earnings, shirking the idea that rock-bottom rates has anything to do with it. Uber-Eats exploits a legal loophole by employing their couriers as independent contractors so they can dodge minimum wage requirements as well as divest their workers of a string employment protections including protection from unfair dismissal.

Uber-Eats couriers went on all-out strike against poverty-wages on Friday 28 August 2016 and are promising no end to protest actions until Uber-Eats agrees to pay the London Living Wage for the hours they are available for work.

Rather than seeking to resolve the issue, Uber-Eats decided to ‘deactivate’ a.k.a. sack Imran Siddiqui, a lead activist in the Living Wage campaign, without any notification or cause. Imran invested in his motorbike, clothing, mobile data plan and insurance to be able to work for Uber-Eats, only to be dismissed for exercising his right to protest. This stroke of retaliatory victimisation has backfired and the public is getting behind Imran to demand Uber-Eats formally apologise and immediately reinstate him.

Following that, we are calling for Uber-Eats clean up the mess they have made and pay the London Living Wage to their couriers.

UBER-EATS: REINSTATE IMRAN SIDDIQUI IMMEDIATELY AND PAY THE LONDON LIVING WAGE NOW!!!   Watch video    and here

Twitter: follow @IWGB_CLB and @UVWunion, tweet #UBEREATSstrike and #shamedaydelivery

Facebook: IWGB Couriers and Logistics Branch and United Voices of the World Union

 

RMT

RMT announces strike action by station staff across Govia Thameslink Railways (25 Aug) – RAIL UNION RMT today confirmed 24 hours of strike action by station staff 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. Members will not book on for shifts between 00.01 hours to 23.59 hours on Wednesday 7th September read more

TSSA: GTR to meet TSSA at ACAS over Southern Rail safety

RMT strike ballot at UK freight giant Freightliner Heavy Haul under way in a dispute over pay (31 Aug) – RAIL UNION RMT confirmed today that a ballot for both strike action and action short of a strike will close on the 13th September at Freightliner Heavy Haul in a dispute over pay. Ballot papers were issued last week, with the ballot closing in just under a fortnight, in a dispute at one of the largest freight companies in the country read more

RMT campaign brings major Tube maintenance contract back in-house (24 Aug) – A long-running campaign by tube union RMT has scored a significant victory with the final confirmation from the London Mayor today that a major slice of tube maintenance work is to be brought back in house next year read more

 

John McDonnell to speak at NSSN TUC rally 11 September in Brighton

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.

Support BFAWU General Secretary Ronnie Draper who has been suspended from the Labour Party read more   BFAWU EC statement

Ronnie Draper BFAWU general secretary
Ronnie Draper BFAWU general secretary

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

North East NSSN public meeting: ‘Co-ordinate the strikes to fight the Tories’ #KeepCorbyn – Saturday 17th September 1pm Old George pub Newcastle 

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 attached and here

Download the ‘Join the NSSN’ leaflet

Ankara Massacre Model Motion

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

PCS

Performance management campaign winning concessions (31 Aug) – PCS is campaigning to scrap the current discredited civil service performance management and has forced the government and various departments to make a range of concessions read more

HMRC cleaners’ strike to escalate (26 Aug) – PCS members employed by multinational ISS, working as cleaners in HMRC buildings on Merseyside, are to take 3 further days of strike action in September against imposed changes to their pay and conditions read more

Guards who keep Met Police safe to strike over pay (26 Aug) – Security guards employed by multinational Engie, who keep the Met Police’s central communications command (CCC) centres safe, have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action…We have notified Engie of the ballot result and invited them to improve the 2016 offer. We have given them a deadline of the 1 September to respond. Show your support:-

Donate to the PCS commercial sector hardship fund, account number: 20244707, sort code: 60-83-01. Send cheques to the PCS London and South East regional hub, PCS, 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN.

Send messages of support to: [email protected]

 

NUT

Workload and testing – is that ‘just the way it is’ – or can unions make a difference? (27 Aug) – GCSE results day has been and gone and so teachers, in all sectors, know their summer break is coming to an end. Of course, many teachers will have been working hard even while schools have officially been closed. A YouGov poll for the TES confirmed that “a third of those in their first year of teaching expect to work for at least three weeks this summer” in an effort to keep up with the ceaseless demands placed on them. As new NUT General Secretary, Kevin Courtney, commented, “It’s no wonder that there are so many that leave the profession so early” read more from Martin Powell Davies’s blog

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

 

Unite

Prudential staff start industrial action over job losses to India (31 Aug) – Prudential staff have today (Wednesday 31 August) commenced industrial action because of the decision by the company to offshore skilled jobs to Mumbai. The Unite members based in Reading, voted 97 per cent in favour of industrial action over plans to offshore some 76 jobs dealing with annuities to India read more

Unite suspends Bank Holiday bus stoppage to allow Tower Transit to ‘reflect’ on ‘solid’ strike action (26 Aug) – There was solid support for today’s (Friday 26 August) 24-hour stoppage by London bus workers at the bus operator Tower Transit. Unite members took to picket lines and services were severely disrupted over the imposition of roster changes and a failure by an increasingly hard line management to commit to constructive industrial relations read more

Westbourne Park picket line on the Friday strike
Westbourne Park picket line on the Friday strike

 

Unison

Scotland’s FE workers to strike on Tuesday 6 September (31 Aug) – First national strike will take place in support of fair pay and parity with lecturer colleagues read more

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

 

 

UCU

UCU response to UCEA’s latest final offer (25 Aug) – UCU today said its branches would be meeting next month to discuss the latest offer from the Universities and Colleges Employers Association. UCU has been in dispute with UCEA since the spring and strike action has taken place at universities across the UK 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

Royal Mail employees return to work after wildcat strike (24 Aug) – Royal Mail employees who went on strike today over claims of bullying and harassment by managers and the suspension of a union officer are now back at work. Around 300 postal workers at Royal Mail’s delivery office in Dorcan gathered outside the depot on the A419 from 6am after deciding “enough is enough”. This afternoon a Royal Mail spokesman said the dispute had been settled read more in Swindon Advertiser

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

 

FBU

96 hour shift system proposed in Cambridgeshire is ‘unsafe and unlawful’ (25 Aug) – The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has slammed fire chiefs in Cambridgeshire for attempting to introduce a Victorian shift system that would see firefighters working 96-hour shifts at a time. The system, known as day crew plus, would mean the hours a firefigther works in one week would double and their hourly salary would be one of the lowest in any fire service in the country read more

 

Nationalise Tata – support the Steelworkers

For latest developments, follow Facebook group

 

BECTU

Ritzy ballot result to be considered by reps (30 Aug) – A vote on industrial action by members at the Ritzy concluded today, Tuesday 30 August. However details will not be made public until representatives have had a chance to consider members’ feedback at a meeting this Sunday 4 September read more

VFX: Workers on ‘Sausage Party’ urged to organise (25 Aug) – BECTU’s VFX branch has written an open letter to the VFX sector worldwide following the latest reports of poor working conditions on ‘Sausage Party’ an adult animation film released in the US earlier this month. The animation team was hired by Nitrogen Studios read more

 

Dublin Bus strikes

NBRU and SIPTU announce series of 48 hour Stoppages during September

 

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

#RightsNotGames Week of Action: September 4th-10thThis September DPAC will be using the interest surrounding the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio to draw attention to the cumulative impact of the cuts on Disabled people that are taking Disabled people’s rights back decades with attacks in every area of our lives from education to independent living to employment to income. Whilst we will not be protesting against the Games themselves, we will be using this opportunity to raise awareness of the increasing numbers of Disabled people whose access not only to sport and recreation but also to basic human rights such support to eat, drink and use the toilet is being taken away as a result of the cuts. Below are the events we have planned but please do organise your own and let us know so we can publicise read more

Firefighters Under Occupation, story of firefighters working in the Occupied West Bank – it is a film showing regarding the work of Firefighters in the Occupied West Bank. This film was made by Ciaran Gibbons and Jim Malone and supported by the FBU. The free showing will be taking place on Wednesday 14th September at 7pm at Hub67, Hackney Wick, E9 5HA. Refreshments will be provided and there will be the opportunity for a Q and A after the film showing

New TUC Courses

We are now recruiting for the TUC union reps courses for both North London and Essex. To apply click on any of the links below to direct you to the nearest courses in your area. I have also attached two flyers with details of courses just in case you may want to forward to other interested reps.

North London course details here  Essex courses course details here

If you have any queries or wish to discuss anything regarding the courses you can also contact me on 02084423075

Kind regards

Jonathan Jeffries TUC

 

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

Macedonia: free Zoran Bozhinovski read more on NUJ website

IFJ calls for end to threats and intimidation of Somali journalists read more on NUJ website

 

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/

 

November

5 National libraries, museums and galleries demonstration https://www.facebook.com/events/282708008768589/

 

 

CONTACT US

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ADDRESS NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE