NSSN Bulletin
No. 100!
20 July 2012
Yes, we've made it to 100! Just a few weeks after the 6th annual
NSSN conference - the 100th ebulletin. The NSSN is now a fixture
in the union movement - building the rank & file since 2006,
when we were initiated by the RMT. Big thanks to our supporting
national unions RMT, PCS, POA, NUM, CWU and NUJ plus many other
union branches, shop stewards committees, trades councils and
the thousands of stewards, reps, activists and all those in the
union & anti-cuts movements, young and old who support the NSSN.
We hope you've found our weekly email valuable and informative,
although we know it can be a bit long! The way we look at it,
the longer it is, it must mean that workers are fighting back
more. Our first weekly ebulletin was in March 2010, just before
the ConDems were 'elected'. That was when the media used to say
that workers in Britain don't fight like our brothers and
sisters in Europe. No one says that anymore! Not after March
26th, J30, N30, M10...or the Sparks, Unilever, MMP, Coryton,
Sova etc plus fighting and defeating union victimisation on
London Underground, Honda and Ratcliffe. At long last, priceless
victories to show that fighting back works.
The NSSN has been proud to support all these struggles. We were
there in building the idea of co-ordinated strike action across
the public sector to defend pensions that culminated in the 2
million-strong N30 as well as lobbying the TUC on December 19th,
to try and keep the strike coalition together. We committed all
our resources to help build the fantastic open conference called
by PCS Left Unity on January 7th to regroup the willing unions
that made May 10th possible, which sent a defiant message to the
government - this is not over!
Now we welcome the TUC demo on October 20th and are committed to
getting a million on the streets of London and Glasgow. But we
think that it can't be the end of the fight against austerity
and the estimated 85% of the cuts to come. The NSSN is lobbying
the TUC conference on September 9th in Brighton to call on the
union leaders to use the platform of October 20th to organise a
24 hour general strike as the starting point for the sustained
co-ordinated action necessary to defeat this government of the
corrupt bankers and the tax-avoiding rich. The transport is
being booked in your area - to reserve a seat, email
[email protected]
.
How do we celebrate our anniversary? Telling you about another
busy week in the union movement - Remploy workers, Essex
firefighters, East London teachers all on strike and Coryton oil
refinery workers protesting as well as workers' struggles all
over the world. After the first century there is another....keep
the news coming! Solidarity!
(Rob Williams, NSSN Chair)
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NSSN UPDATES
North west
NSSN held an excellent meeting on how to fight victimisation and
what else needed to happen in the onslaught from the bosses,
trade unionists heard Steve Acheson, blacklisted electrician,
speak on the recent BESNA victory and the continuing battle
against blacklisting. Many of those attending were construction
workers and they lambasted the mostly unelected trade union
officials in UNITE and UCATT for their persistent failure to
lead a struggle for members and, in some cases, for
collaboration with blacklisting. London
NSSN also met with representatives of several unions
including RMT, PCS, POA and Unite to plan a London mobilisation
for the lobby of the TUC on Sep 9th.
STRIKE AGAINST AUSTERITY! NSSN lobby TUC: letter to
union branches and leaflet for lobby of the TUC are available on
our website. London RMT & Bolton Trades Council has also agreed
to support the lobby.
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GENERAL UPDATES: STRUCK,
STRIKING, BALLOTS & more!
a) STRUCK!
REMPLOY GMB & UNITE
Struck yesterday across England, Scotland & Wales. Lively but
determined picket lines were out in force, with great local
support. This is a further attack on disabled people who want to
have a choice of what form their working lives take, whether
it's supported employment or mainstream employment. Remploy
factories play a vital role in enabled disabled people have a
sustainable, independent working life as opposed to being left
to rot on the unemployment scrapheap, reliant on ever
diminishing benefits. It stands alongside the NHS as an
historical legacy won through the Labour government elected in
1945. Given the number of attacks that disabled people face, its
hardly any wonder why some REMPLOY workers are also arguing for
a Strike against Austerity!
More
FBU Essex struck again this
week over cuts & imposed changes in Terms & Conditions. Essex
fire chiefs today stand accused of trying to intimidate
fire-fighters by introducing fast-track disciplinary measures to
use against those taking strike action. It is a local dispute
however as the authority has imposed the changes outside of
agreements, this dispute has national implications. Matt Wrack,
FBU general Secretary, speaking at the end of a lunchtime
protest in Chelmsford of local and UK wide fire-fighters,
announced further action was being proposed unless real talks
were forthcoming.
More
Royal Mail CWU workers: At
7.30am this morning 100 at Bridgwater Delivery Office in
Somerset walked out in a lightning protest strike against Royal
Mail managers' bullying and breaking agreements with their trade
union the CWU. BMA Staff 2nd
24 Hour Strike this week over Pay.
More Warrington Trades
Council was pleased to help RMT members employed as cleaners on
the Trans-Pennine Express route as they leafleted passengers
outside Warrington Central station on Saturday.
More
b) ABOUT TO STRIKE…
IWW John Lewis Cleaners
to strike during today. The cleaners of the flagship John Lewis
Partnership store on Oxford Street are continuing their strike
against staff cuts & for the London Living Wage. Notice has been
served notice that their next strikes on Thursday 26th.
Paragon print workers take
two more days of strike action . Unite members working for
Sunderland based print company Paragon will take two more days
of 24 hour strike action on Tuesday 24 July and Friday 27 July
over an attack on their terms and conditions.
More
PCS Home Office
- Members of PCS have voted for industrial action over pay,
privatisation and the victimisation of their reps, striking on
the 26th July. A pay freeze has been in place for a number of
years and is expected to continue for a number more. On several
occasions PCS reps have been disciplined on dubious charges
including two dismissals. Messages of support to:
[email protected] & [email protected].
More
UNISON Health workers at
Northumbria Healthcare will lobby their trust governors' AGM
ahead of a one-day strike. This will be the second strike in
their bid to protect terms and conditions, having previously
walked out on 28 June.
More
RMT strike protest for London Living Wage & Olympic Bonus 12
Noon Stratford.
c) BALLOTING
PENSIONS: Unison Higher Education
Service Group Executive vote to recommend REJECT in ballot on
pensions - NSSN supports REJECTING the proposals
which do see tiny enhancements but still mean workers will be
expected to pay more, work longer and get far, far less!
Unfortunately, the UNISON Local Government SGE has voted to
recommend that their members accept it. We support those Unison
activists campaigning for a REJECT vote.
NUT ballot open now to strike over pay and
conditions.
More.
Unite members at Portsmouth International Port
balloted for industrial action over its decision to dismiss and
rehire them on inferior contracts which has created a two-tier
workforce at Portsmouth International Port.
RMT will begin balloting this week for
strike action on Northlink ferry services in Scotland
after the new company running the routes, SERCO, refused to give
assurances on jobs, hours and working conditions
More. As there are so many
ballots going on in RMT, heres the link of all the sections
results, from Initial in Bristol to Carlisle Cleaners!
More
& UPDATES
UNITE Bus Workers
London bus workers back £577 Olympic bonus. After six
days of negotiations at the conciliation service Acas TfL and
the employers made money available to secure a fair offer that
recognised the contribution that bus workers are going to make
to keeping London moving during the Olympics.
More.
Coryton oil refinery workers
and their families will be demonstrating outside the Vopak
terminal in Purfleet from 10am this Saturday (2st1 July),
demanding a public inquiry into the controversial sale of the
refinery with the loss of 850 jobs. Come and join the Coryton
oil workers and their families in their fight for justice and
their community. Contact Russ Ball, Unite regional officer on
07845 684 616. [email protected] or
[email protected]
Workers at Greencore, a key
supplier of cakes and desserts to Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and
Waitrose also protested yesterday over the company's attacks on
workers' rights by slashing pay and threatening redundancy.
More
GMB CARILLON workers took
part in a further one day stoppage on Sunday 15th July at
Carillion at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, because instead
of dealing with the evidence of shakedowns and corruption by
Carillion managers that their own second investigation found,
the company has chosen instead to take disciplinary action
against workers.
More
Unite Housing workers -
Swift action by Unite in St Mungos has led management to back
away from plans to outsource its bank of locum workers.
More
Rail Money? The DAY after
Nick Clegg and his coalition partners confirmed that they are to
fund a series of long-delayed rail improvements through a
combination of job cuts & fare increases, rail union RMT have
announced that they will be taking a rail protest right to the
heart of his Sheffield.
More.
RMT Thameslink - As
Parliamentary session ends, Government kicks Thameslink fleet
contract and future of UK train building deeper into long grass.
More Action from RAIL
conference,
report
POA Prison closures - “This
is short-sightedness by Ministers. They talk about
rehabilitation but have given prison officers no space to do
that key work that protects the public from re-offending. The
prison population is vastly overcrowded”.
More
GMB welcomed Bournemouth
Borough Council’s intention to bringing 22 or more jobs,
outsourced to Mouchel over the last 20 months, back-in house in
a series of measures to attempt to kick start the local economy.
More
STOP THE CUTS – NSSN letter
of support to 2 Southampton Labour councillors & ex Lambeth
Labour who have voted against cuts but are now being challenged
by their own parties. ‘We wanted you to know that many in the
labour and trade union movement are behind your brave and
principled stand. The NSSN is opposed to all cuts whoever
implements them and we stand by those Labour councils and
councillors who refuse to pass them on to working-class
communities. As a result, we have supported Kingsley Abrams from
Lambeth, who has been suspended from the Labour Group over the
last year’.
VICTIMISATION….....................................
DEFEND THE FOUR
– Brilliant news as high court decides that Unison cannot claim
£100,000 costs against the 4. Please continue to circulate the
petition against this
ongoing campaign against socialists.
More
FACILITY TIME: An eight-week
consultation over government plans to cut what is known as
facility time, is being fought. More from
PCS &
UNISON
RATCLIFFE POWER STATION -
Rank & File Sparks have called protest at the Nottinghamshire
plant at 6am next Thursday July 26th at the renewed
victimisation of Jay Poulter
INTERNATIONAL….......................................
SPAIN- trade union
confederations CCOO and UGT led a protest against at
the austerity policies of the Spanish Government. Just days
after receiving loans from the rest of Europe to bail out the
banks, the Spanish Government has proposed yet more stringent
attacks on the welfare state, hitting the living conditions of
workers, pensioners and the unemployed.
More . Spanish miners have
occupied mines, marching to Madrid & been forced into pitch
battles on the streets. UK miners/ex-miners have set up for
Spanish miners: Contact [email protected] or 07768 300 148.
KAZAKHSTAN - Vadim Kuramshin,
the prison rights campaigner arrested 6 months ago on trumped up
charges has declared that if the trial against him is not
resumed within ten days he will declare a hunger strike.
More
TURKEY - Early on the
morning of 25 June, trade union activists were targeted in a
police operation which swept through 18 Turkish cities Within 12
hours of the arrests, KESK members had organized protests across
Turkey. In Istanbul some 4,000 demonstrators held an evening
protest rally, with parallel actions taking place in other
cities.
More.
TAIWAN - 300 textile workers
in the Hualon Corporation’s factory in Miaoli County, Taiwan
declared indefinite strike on 6th June. Since then they have
occupied the factory for one month. They are fighting for money
owed on their wages and pensions going back over a decade.
Protests to the Taiwan Government via your local consulate & to
the Ministry of Labour
web-site Solidarity
messages:-
[email protected]
EGYPT - More than 23,000
workers angered by low wages at Egypt's biggest textile company
staged a strike on Sunday, bringing production to a halt and
adding to the challenges facing the new president.
More
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DIARY
21 & 22 July
Protest over proposed clousre of Coryton Oil Refinary. 10am
Vopak Terminal, Oliver Rd, West Thurrock, Essex RM20 3ED
23 July
Austerity Games from
Youth Fight for Jobs!
Action for Rail leafleting
7-9am Liverpool St, London
26th July
Action for Rail day of Action London Midland
27th July
RMT strike protest for London Living Wage & Olympic Bonos 12
Noon Stratford.
28th July
Pentonville 5 & dock dispute of 1972-73 celebration. Isle of
Dogs & POPLAR BLACKWALL & DISTRICT ROWING CLUB, The Boat House,
Ferry Street, Isle of Dogs, London, E14 3DT, opposite Island
Gardens DLR station
More.
Protest at the corporate takeover of the London 2012 Games. The
protesters will defy an attempt by Transport for London to ban
the demo.An alliance of 43 campaign groups plans to assemble at
Mile End Park at 12 noon, march down Bow Road
11 August
National Rank & File JIB electricians & construction trades
meeting, 2pm-5pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London
31 August
National Hazards conference, Keele University
[email protected]
02 September
Longest strike in British history!
09 September
'Strike against Austerity!' NSSN lobby of TUC conference:
Brighton 1pm
22 September
Protest against the LibDem conference Brighton – Saturday No to
Austerity Government! Meet at the Level Midday. Organised by
Stop the Cuts and the Brighton Trades Council.
07 October
Protest at Tory party Conference.
20 October
TUC Mass demonstration against austerity.
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Follow us on Twitter
NSSN_Anticuts Share information with us on Facebook Main
group 'National Shop Stewards Network' & the NSSN FB 'Stop the
cuts' & regularly check our
Website! But most
importantly get active to develop the NSSN and our trade union
and community movement against the cuts! There is an
alternative!
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 07952 283 558
Post: NSSN, PO Box 54498, London E10 9D
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