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North West
SSN lobbies Manchester City Council
Shop Stewards
Network supporters working and living in Manchester lobbied outside
the Manchester city council meeting on Wednesday 8th
December, with a great response from council workers and passers-by.
We called the
lobby to signal to both councillors and the public that we do not
accept the cuts agenda � not from the Con-Dems and not from Labour
councillors either. Our slogans of �NO CUTS to council services and
workers! Don�t carry out the Con-Dem government cuts! Defend Services
� Defend Jobs � Defend Incomes� proved very popular.
Despite being one
of the richest large local authorities in the region, Manchester city
council is attempting to force changed conditions on their workforce.
Unite, whose branch secretary joined the lobby, is rightly resisting
this not-so-thin end of a mass redundancy wedge. Unison�s branch
leadership recommended the change on the grounds it avoids compulsory
redundancies. Workers understand that it will mean job losses by the
back door, and a majority of those who voted in the unions� ballots on
the issue voted against it.
The council
claims it has a huge deficit even before the Con-Dems� cuts, though
the government claims the council has �108million banked in reserves.
The �deficit� will be used as an excuse for cuts and for refusing to
stand up against the Con-Dem cuts. Our lobby is the first step in
resisting the council�s intent to pass on the cuts to our services,
jobs, incomes and communities.
We were standing
alongside the South Manchester Law Centre anti-closure campaign, and
supporters came from many unions including PCS, Unite (Health, Local
Government, and Voluntary Sector), Unison, NUT and others. A whole
group of newly-trained union reps came straight from their TUC course
to the lobby!
The overwhelming
majority of trade unionists and socialists in the city want to see a
fight against the cuts and we will do our best to assist that. Our
meeting in the evening adopted a plan of quarterly supporters�
meetings as well as public meetings around specific disputes as they
arise, to mobilise strongly for the 22nd Jan NSSN national
conference, to mobilise in support of blacklisted electrician Steve
Acheson at the courts on 22nd December in Manchester, to
build for the TUC-organised national youth unemployment rally in
Manchester on 29th January and the PCS-called march to it,
and to send messages of support to workers and students under the
Con-Dem cosh.
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[email protected]
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