Solidarity Magazine

REBUILDING THE TRADITION OF INDEPENDENT WORKING-CLASS EDUCATION

MEETING

Saturday 4^th February 2012

10.30 – 3.30

Brunswick Centre, near Russell Square Tube, London

£6.00 includes lunch. Pay on the day.

Please email now to confirm / book your place

venablesk@yahoo.co.uk

“How can Independent Working-Class Education contribute to today’s class struggle? What can we learn from history?”

The programme will be participatory, valuing what colleagues bring to the day. Presentations will include:

Colin Waugh: Lessons from the Plebs Strike; Louise Raw: The Matchworkers’ Struggle;  Jane Martin: Organising for Socialism: Mary Bridges Adams and IWCE; John Grigg: The Work of Labour Heritage; Mary Davis: Shop Stewards Education and Women – a neglected majority of the working class; Dave Welsh: Trades Councils and Workers’ Education today – New Directions.

Directions: from Russell Square Tube follow Marchmont Street to Entrance One of the Brunswick Centre / big block of flats. There will be signs. Put Flat 10 (Community Centre) in entry phone and ring. Lift to Floor 2. Follow signs.

IWCE Project tries to

• Develop a diverse range of education materials and approaches for trade union and other working-class and progressive movement groups
• Respect the role of the working class in making history, and in making the future.

By Frank Horn, ASLEF London Underground District Line

This dispute is not so much about the money basically as about the longstanding agreement we’ve had with London Underground that depots would be booked off for Boxing Day. There are four depots on the District Line, so once every 4 years we would get the day off. It’s the same on other lines.
It’s not as if they need the trains. Two years ago we had four trains at Wimbledon at 5am with one passenger on board. We would like to see Boxing Day working done by volunteers where we can. We have drivers that don’t celebrate Christmas or Boxing Day – they take other holiday days off.

The pay claim is because we need an incentive to work. We know they won’t agree to three times the usual pay for working on Boxing Day – we’re just setting the bar at a certain level. But it’s not true, as the papers make out, that the average driver could be on is £52,000 – that’s in 4 years and is the highest rate paid only to driver-instructors.

LUL has said it’s disgraceful that ASLEF balloted for a strike while we were still in negotiations, but as they well know there have been changes in the law on balloting which mean if we waited we wouldn’t be able to get agreement to strike before Boxing Day. They’re twisting our words, just taking one side of the argument.

It’s not so much about money. All they’re interested in is mileage – getting trains out. They want to run a Saturday service on Boxing Day when it used to be a Sunday service. But the argument you get in the papers about people wanting to shop in the Boxing Day sales is nonsense. Boxing Day sales aren’t a big deal – all the shops have sales right up to Christmas. When Boxing Day was a big shopping day, in fact, LUL ran a Sunday service – so why can’t they do that now?

Waitrose [a part of the John Lewis group] trumpets it’s caring approach.  But they have as a supplier, ANZSCO/CMP, a company which has locked out over 100 of its workers for six weeks, because they won’t accept a 20% pay cut.

Amanda Chase , one of those locked out, has been in theU.K.recently talking to the Food & Drink sector of UNITE.  She says

So many people in Unite have invested in this dispute right from the top, General Secretary Len McCluskey to shop stewards(delegates) and grass roots workers. Its an honour and a privilege to have such comrades locally, ,nationally and internationally. We locked out workers know we represent the stance of unions in totality, past, present, and future, and we will stand strong.

The John Lewis Partnership  Corporate Social Responsibility 2011report says, “Continued commercial success requires a real commitment to doing business responsibly. For us, our commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not only driven by good economics, but also by the Partnership spirit and our sense of doing the ‘right thing’.”

Pressure from U K unionists has forced Waitrose, lest they appear completely hypocritical,  to ask ANZCO to go back to mediation and reach a settlement with locked out CMP Rangitikei workers.

New Zealand Council of Trade Union president Helen Kelly says ANZCO hasn’t followed up on Waitrose’s request.

We’ve come to expect all sorts of unreasonableness from ANZCO, but refusing to listen to Waitrose, its major CMP Rangitikei customer, takes this dispute to another level of madness,” she says. “Despite the locked out workers agreeing to sacrifice 10% of their income, the company continues to try and starve workers and their families into accepting up to 20% pay cuts, to undermine the union and to mislead the public about the company’s proposed cuts.

Mrs Kelly says Waitrose has a commitment to ethical standards in its supply chain which includes respecting workers rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Lockout threatens NZ meat brand in UK

“ANZCO and Chairman Sir Graeme Harrison are threatening the entire New Zealand meat brand in the United Kingdom by not resolving this dispute,” she says. “Unite, Britain’s largest union, will start to picket high profile Waitrose stores if ANZCO doesn’t start negotiating instead of dictating.

ANZCO foods locked out 111 workers from its CMP Rangitikei sheep processing plant on October 19.

Supporters of the locked out workers held their first national fundraising day today outside of McDonalds, a customer of ANZCO.

http://union.org.nz/anzcolockout

Pat Bolster
Wellington Trades Council
New Zealand.

TRANSPORT UNION RMT confirmed today that members on the Tyne and Wear Metro working for DB Regio and Nexus will strike alongside public sector colleagues on the 30th November.

Following a vote of more than 80% in favour all members are to take strike action by not booking on for any turn of duty commencing between 00:01hours and 23:59 hours on Wednesday 30th November 2011.

In addition, all members are to take action short of strike in the form of an Overtime and Rest Day working ban between 00:01hrs and 23:59hrs on Wednesday 30th November 2011.

As well as the Metro the action will also hit ferry services.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

With a massive mandate for action we can expect absolutely rock solid support from our members in the North East on the 30th November.

We will be sending the clearest message to the Government that we will defend our pensions to the hilt. RMT will be there shoulder to shoulder with millions of other public sector workers taking action next week to resist the attack on pensions.

It’s the bankers and the bosses who have gambled with our country’s future and the men and women who make this country tick should not have tolerate a worse pension and be forced to work longer to make up for their mistakes.

RMT members on Tyne and Wear Metro and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary have shown that they are not going to sit back and take this outrageous attempt to consign them to a life of poverty in their old age.

SHIPPING UNION RMT confirmed this morning that members on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary have voted by large margins for strike action and action short of a strike in the dispute over pensions.

In the ballot around 60% voted for strike action and 80% for action short of a strike.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary services the Royal Naval fleet around the world.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary services the Royal Navy in times of both war and peace. It is nothing short of a scandal that brave men and women who risk their lives to get supplies through to the ships in war zones around the world are facing an attack on their pensions by this Government to help bail out the bankers-led financial crisis.

Only this morning we learn that top bankers salaries have risen by 12% while the men and women out on the high seas in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary are expected to stand back and watch their pensions that they have built up down the years take a battering.

RMT National Secretary Steve Todd said:

Our members at the Royal Fleet Auxiliary are angry about this attack on their pensions that would see them pay more, work longer and get less and that anger is reflected in this vote for strike action and action short of a strike.

We are calling upon the Government even at this late stage in the run up to the 30^th November to think again and haul back from a position that would see loyal public servants like the RFA staff footing the bill for a crisis cooked up in the boardrooms and on the trading floors of the spivs and the speculators.

TUBE UNION RMT has today written to London Mayor Boris Johnson after it emerged that tube cleaning contractors Initial are planning to sack staff in order to fund the costs of paying their workers the London Living Wage.

In their “Business Case” document, Initial say that as a cost saving measure brought on by “the recent increase in London Living Wage from £7.85 to £8.30” Initial are proposing to axe cleaners jobs to bridge the gap.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

Initial generates tens of millions of pounds in profits off the back of cleaners like those on the London Underground contract and it is outrageous that rather than just funding the London Living Wage out of those profits they are planning to sack staff to cover the cost.

Basically the company is holding a gun to the workers heads by telling them that one cleaners living wage is another cleaners job.

This scandalous plan rides roughshod over the whole principle of a London Living Wage and we are calling on Mayor Boris Johnson as Chair of Transport for London to pull in Initial and tell them to put a stop to this blatant attack on the people who do a hard and dirty job, often in appalling conditions, keeping our tube system clean.

Unite workers in Manchester and Crewe have voted to take Strike action this Monday (the 19th).  Work to rule, including and overtime ban is already taking place in response to the victimisation of Crewe Unite rep Alan Jenney who’s contract was breached in order for him to be made redundant by the company. Unite is also concerned that Fujitsu will renege on earlier promises with regards to pensions and redundancy.

Read a leaflet explaining why you should support the workers here.

Unite has organised a public rally at 8 AM at Fujitsu, Central Park, Northampton Road, Manchester