NSSN 441: Stop the closure of Ford Bridgend

June 7, 2019 in Bulletins

This week, we headline our bulletin with the horrendous news that Ford intend to close the Bridgend engine Plant. This would mean that over 1700 workers in the plant and many others in the supply chain and related industries are directly affected. But in addition, working-class communities in South Wales will be affected. The NSSN gives our full support and solidarity to the Ford workers and their unions. NSSN chair Rob Williams, a former convenor at the now closed Swansea plant said, “This is a catastrophe for these workers, their families and communities and the whole Welsh economy. It comes […]

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NSSN 440: RMT SWR strike back on over guard guarantee

June 5, 2019 in Bulletins

  RMT announces five days of strike action on SWR (30 May) – RAIL UNION RMT today announced five days of strike action on South Western Railway – accusing the company of dragging their heels in protracted talks over the guard guarantee after the union suspended action back in February in good faith based on written assurances over the rolling out of driver only operation. As a result of SWR’s failure to move forwards on an agreement RMT members will take action as follows: We instruct our SWR Guard, Commercial Guard and Driver members to take industrial action by not […]

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439: Support the South London Unite strikes in Woolwich & Bromley

May 29, 2019 in Bulletins

We headline this week’s NSSN bulletin with two Unite disputes in South London. Woolwich Ferry workers are in the middle of 10 days of strikes while library staff in Bromley will be going on infinite strike action from June 6th. Please give your solidarity and send messages of support and any financial assistance via Unite regional officer Onay Kasab Onay.Kasab@unitetheunion.org Woolwich Ferry staff strike for 10 days in Groundhog Day safety dispute, says Unite – Workers, who operate the Woolwich Ferry used by an estimated 2.6 million passengers a year, are to strike for 10 days in a dispute over […]

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NSSN 438: Come to NSSN Conference 2019 on July 6th

May 24, 2019 in Bulletins

  This year’s National Shop Stewards Network Conference is on Saturday July 6th in London. It is open to everyone in the labour and trade union and anti-cuts movements. Come and take part in the biggest annual gathering of rank and file trade unionists. Hear from some of the biggest union struggles such as the victorious Glasgow Equal Pay strikers and the Birmingham Bins and Homecare Workers as well as the Swindon Honda shop stewards, fighting to save their plant from closure. There will also be militant union leaders addressing conference. This is a vital time for trade unionists with […]

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437: Breakthrough for Birmingham Homecare workers – save Honda

May 14, 2019 in Bulletins

We headline this week’s NSSN bulletin with what appears to be a major success for the Birmingham Home care workers in Unison. We hope that this can be confirmed and consolidated. We also report on the catastrophic news that senior Honda management have announced that they intend going ahead with the closure. We have been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with both groups of workers and will continue to do so. In the last few months, we have organised NSSN meetings in both areas to give a platform to the workers’ struggles. We invite them both to speak at […]

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NSSN 436: Pay rise victory for privatised NHS workers

May 8, 2019 in Bulletins

From the GMB website: Striking NHS catering workers at two hospitals have won a huge victory today [Friday May 3, 2019] after a £1.2 billion outsourcing giant agreed a wage rise. The low-paid workers – mainly women working in the kitchens at Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Bassetlaw hospital – had been on strike since May 1 after French company Sodexo refused to match the pay rise other members of staff across the hospitals have received. But today, Sodexo bosses agreed to pay the award in full and backdate it to April last year. The agreement is a big win for […]

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435: Southampton teachers & support staff defeat school cuts

May 2, 2019 in Bulletins

Teachers and support staff at Valentine Primary School, members of the National Education Union (NEU), are celebrating an important victory following strike action. Union members reached an agreement with Southampton’s Labour-run city council for a two-year freeze on cuts. This report is from local NSSN supporters who have been prominent in giving solidarity to striking teachers and support staff alongside campaigning and parents. “A united campaign of school staff, the NEU, the head teacher, the senior leadership team, governors and parents, stood solidly together over months of organising. We fought to ensure the damaging cutbacks were not inflicted through staff […]

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NSSN 434: #WeStandWithLyra

April 25, 2019 in Bulletins

The NSSN stands in solidarity with the family, friends, workmates and comrades of Lyra McKee and her union the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Lyra was killed while reporting on rioting in the Creggan area of Derry on April 18th. Our supporters took part in vigils and remembrances in Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK yesterday on the day of her funeral as well as protests, including by many trade unionists, in the last week. In a statement Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ General Secretary, said the murder has shocked colleagues in Northern Ireland and expressed sympathy to her partner and colleagues […]

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433: PCS members fight back in Ealing Tax Office and BEIS

April 15, 2019 in Bulletins

As PCS undertakes a national strike ballot against the continuing pay cap, members of the union took 3 days of strike action last week in two different disputes – to stop the closure of Ealing Tax Office and for low-paid outsourced workers to get the London Living Wage in BEIS. Please support both disputes as well as the national ballot. As you can read below, PCS members in Wolverhampton are also going to be balloted to fight the proposed closure of their tax office General secretary tells HMRC strikers: “HMRC don’t care about Ealing” (10 Apr) – PCS members in […]

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432: Victory for Unison Strikers at Liverpool Women’s Hospital

April 9, 2019 in Bulletins

From North West Unison website: The staff will no longer be paid just the legal minimum wage but receive the NHS rate for the job. UNISON members who work as domestics, catering staff, porters and security staff at Liverpool Women’s Hospital have won their campaign to secure NHS rates of pay. The staff will no longer be paid just the legal minimum wage but receive the NHS rate for the job.  This is worth more than £1 an hour, and over £2,000 a year for full-time staff.  Staff will also as part of a 3 year deal get the same […]

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NSSN 431: Honda workers march – “This is the fight of our lives!”

April 2, 2019 in Bulletins

The streets of Swindon were filled last Saturday with Honda workers, their families and supporters from the trade union movement. Thousands marched against the planned closure of the car plant in 2021. 3,500 Honda workers’ jobs are on the line and up to 10,000 more affected in related industries. Amongst the speakers at the rally were Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and plant convenor Paddy Brennan. Speaking alongside his shop stewards, Paddy said, “This is the fight of our lives.” The NSSN will support any action taken by the workers to defend their jobs. We call for the plant to […]

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430: Join demo to stop the Swindon Honda closure!

March 26, 2019 in Bulletins

The NSSN will be joining thousands in Swindon this Saturday March 30th on the demonstration called by Unite the union against the closure of the Swindon Honda plant. The plan is for this to happen in 2021, with 3,500 Honda workers’ jobs on the line and up to 10,000 more affected in related industries. This will be devastating for the community. We give our full support to the union and its members. The NSSN has built up a longstanding relationship with the Honda shop stewards. Plant convenor Paddy Brennan successfully won his reinstatement after being suspended in 2011. Paddy calls […]

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NSSN 429: PCS launches national pay strike ballot

March 19, 2019 in Bulletins

We headline this week’s bulletin with PCS’s national industrial action ballot on pay, which opened yesterday. PCS is one of our longstanding affiliated unions and we give them and their members our full support and solidarity. The NSSN vice-chair Katrine Williams is a member of the PCS NEC:- “To challenge the Government’s pay restraint it is vital that we break through the 50% threshold in our current PCS ballot of 125,000 mainly Government Department members. So that we can demand the full funding for a 10% pay rise that is needed to increase pay to decent levels in the civil […]

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428: NSSN Birmingham Rally to build solidarity for strikes

March 12, 2019 in Bulletins

  Tonight March 12th, the NSSN is hosting a public solidarity meeting with striking Birmingham Unite binworkers and Mandy Buckley Unison Convenor for homecare workers as well as PCS Universal Credit strikers from Wolverhampton and Walsall at 6.30pm in the Birmingham Midland Institute – 9 Margaret St B3 3BS. Speakers include striking workers from all three disputes alongside Unite Assistant General Secretary Howard Beckett and NSSN national chair Rob Williams and Greenwich Unite branch secretary Danny Hoggan Facebook event   Unite Birmingham bin strikes suspended as new offer on the table (7 March) – Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union has […]

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NSSN 427: #IWD2019 – support the ‘Women’s Lives Matter’ campaign

March 6, 2019 in Bulletins

NSSN 427: IWD2019 – support the ‘Women’s Lives Matter’ campaign This Friday is International Women’s Day. This year we are highlighting ‘Women’s Lives Matter’ – the campaign against cuts to domestic violence services. Please take this to your trade union and trades council and table it for discussion and debate to help build the campaign:- The union notes that: Domestic violence kills women. On average two women a week are murdered by a male partner or ex-partner in the UK and a further three women a week kill themselves to escape abuse. Services for women and children fleeing domestic violence […]

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NSSN 426: Support the Swindon Honda workers – stop the closure

February 26, 2019 in Bulletins

The NSSN sends our full solidarity and support to the Honda workers in Swindon after the company announced plans to close the plant in 2021. In addition to the 3,500 workers directly employed at the plant, over 12,000 jobs in component and related industries are on the line. We hope that the union and the workers’ campaign forces Honda to reverse their decision. But as when the Port Talbot steelworks were threatened three years ago, the NSSN believes that if necessary, such vital industrial plans should be taken into public ownership to ensure jobs and communities are protected. The NSSN […]

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NSSN 425: Victories show action works!

February 18, 2019 in Bulletins

This week, we headline our bulletin with news of recent successes after long running disputes – by women workers in Glasgow fighting for equal pay and the RMT fighting Driver Only Operation on Northern Rail. We send our solidarity and hope that both will be finally settled acceptably to both sets of workers and their unions   Unison & GMB ‘We won’ – Glasgow women celebrate equal pay (7 Feb) – City Chambers rally greets council’s ratification of £548m deal to compensate for years of unequal pay. “We won!” was the cry as underpaid women workers held a celebratory rally […]

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NSSN 424: Birmingham binworkers get ready to strike again

February 5, 2019 in Bulletins

The NSSN sends solidarity to the binworkers who were on strike in 2017 and are being forced to take action again. From the Unite website:- Birmingham bins dispute escalates as council ignores deadline for peace deal (4 Feb) Unite, the UK and Ireland’s largest union, has announced that over 300 refuse workers employed by Birmingham council will begin two days of strike action a week, starting Tuesday 19 February, in an escalation of the ongoing industrial dispute. The two days a week of strike action, will be in addition to the overtime ban and the work to rule which the […]

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NSSN 423: Support the Ireland Nurses and Midwives strike!

January 29, 2019 in Bulletins

  Nearly 40,000 health workers in Ireland are due to start strike action tomorrow against wage restraint. The National Shop Stewards Network gives our full support and solidarity to Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and its members. “Ireland’s nurses and midwives will go on strike for 24 hours on January 30th, it was announced. The union is legally required to give one week’s notice, but has given three to allow for safety planning. Should the dispute go unresolved, there will be further 24-hour strikes on 5th and 7th of February, and then the 12th, 13th and 14th. The strike […]

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422: Glasgow women workers step closer to equal pay victory!

January 22, 2019 in Bulletins

Last October, thousands of Glasgow council workers sent on a 48-hour strike to demand equal pay. We are delighted to report that a potentially decisive step has been reached in talks with the employer:- GLASGOW EQUAL PAY UPDATE from Unison Glasgow City Branch:- Earlier this week the claimants’ campaign gave Glasgow City Council a revised proposal on a “Take it or Leave it Basis”. The proposal kept all the principles that the campaign has been built on: Value Equality inclusion Parity Consistency Clarity Transparency Protection Unity The council negotiators agreed to take the proposal to Councillor Aitken with a recommendation. […]

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NSSN 421: Support the striking Durham bus drivers!

January 15, 2019 in Bulletins

From Unite website:- Unite in talks on Durham bus pay dispute, as new strike dates announced (11 Jan) – Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union, is to hold talks with Arriva Durham County Ltd on Thursday (17 January) in a bid to resolve the long-running pay dispute. But at the same time, the union announced a further ten days of strike action by its 650 bus drivers from 00:01 on 27 January until 23:59 on 5 February. The bus drivers, based at Darlington, Durham, Redcar, Stockton and Whitby, are currently on strike for a week in the pay dispute. The […]

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NSSN 420: March this Saturday for a General Election to get the Tories out!

January 9, 2019 in Bulletins

The NSSN is supporting this Saturday’s ‘Britain is Broken – General Election Now’. It is vital that the trade union movement mobilises to force out the Tories and fight for a government led by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell on the pro-worker anti-austerity Labour manifesto from the 2017 General Election. This is the best way to unite workers and not allow them to be divided. Saturday 12th January – Britain is Broken – General Election Now! Demonstration in London hosted by The People’s Assembly against Austerity. Assemble 12pm BBC Portland Place near Oxford tube station Facebook event       […]

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NSSN 419: Happy New Year – get the Tories out in 2019!

January 3, 2019 in Bulletins

The NSSN sends solidarity greetings to our supporters and affiliates as we enter 2019. Let’s make this the year that we get rid of this Tory Government. Saturday 12th January – Britain is Broken – General Election Now! Demonstration in London hosted by The People’s Assembly against Austerity Facebook event   NSSN news 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 […]

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