Monday, 23 June 2014


Trades councils conference shows that workers won't wait for TUC

Kevin Parslow, Waltham Forest Trades Council delegate
Trades councils - the local arms of the TUC - held their conference in Cardiff on 14/15 June. This year, there was a pleasant sting in its tail!

The very last motion debated was on political representation for the working class, proposed by Swansea Trades Council. It noted that the "lack of a political voice representing the needs and interests of trade union members is a serious concern for the entire trade union movement".

It then called on conference to encourage "trades councils to initiate discussions on how best to secure the kind of political representatives working class people need, considering all options."

Socialist Party members Ronnie Job from Swansea and Katrine Williams from Cardiff TC moved and seconded the motion, explaining how both locally and nationally, Labour Party representatives were divorced from the real needs of working class people.

There was opposition, with some delegates urging conference to 'wait' and be patient, support Unite's political strategy and other arguments against the motion that have been heard many times before.

But the conference decided, by 34 votes to 31, with 4 abstentions, to support the motion. The announcement was received with spontaneous applause!

No doubt the TUC leadership will not be best pleased with this resolution nor with the motion passed earlier in the conference which agreed "to restate in the 2014-15 programme of work that the TUC should facilitate a programme of co-ordinated industrial action involving unions and local TUCs, up to and including strikes".

These decisions show that the grassroots of the trade union movement are not prepared to sit and wait for the TUC to act but are urging action and a class-based political stance.
NSSN Staffordshire 
nssn baner
Strong support for today's HMRC action!

There has been strong support on the first day of a week of rolling action by our HMRC members in PCS. Read  more ...........

PCS members locally will be on strike this Thursday 3 July. Join the picket to show support - from 7am between B&M's and Albion Hotel, Old Hall St, Hanley  

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For full NSSN e-bulletin 198 "The July 10 pay strike.......IS ON!!" -  with info about current national & international disputes plus a diary of events go to :-http://shopstewards.net/2014/06/nssn-198-the-july-10-pay-strike-is-on/

Come to the NSSN Conference on July 5th - “Strike together for a pay rise”

Its official – Unison’s local government workers have voted to strike on July 10th against the ConDem pay freeze (read here - https://www.unison.org.uk/media-centre/local-government-workers-vote-for-strike-action).

This raises the prospect of well over a million public sector workers striking together in a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ unions that could also include Unite, GMB, PCS and the NUT. It is possible that the FBU, who were again on strike last Saturday could also take part on the biggest day of co-ordinated strike action since N30 2011.

That 2-million strong strike against the Government’s attacks on public sector workers’ pensions was arguably the biggest single day of strike action since the 1926 General strike. It could and should have been the platform for the decisive action that could have won a victory on pensions which would have blown a hole in Cameron’s austerity offensive.

Instead, particularly the leaders of Unison and the GMB with the support of  the TUC and its then general secretary the now Sir Brendan Barber stopped the struggle in its tracks. Undoubtedly, that loss of momentum only emboldened the ConDems to unleash the most vicious package of cuts since the 1920s. The NSSN along with militant unions like the RMT, PCS and POA attempted to build rank and file pressure to maintain this action.

Nevertheless, in the process, the ConDems have created a huge anger and frustration that would make the July 10th strike the most popular thing the unions could ever do.

This is the lesson of the tube strikes which had massive public support for the RMT because in the midst of all political parties signed up to austerity, workers want to see someone fighting back. That is why the unions should organise public strike rallies on July 10 to bring behind them all those suffering from these brutal cuts. The N30 demonstrations that took place in virtually every town and city were massive and these could be bigger.

But the main lesson that has to be learnt from N30 is that they have to be the start not the end of sustained action that takes in all the public sector and spreads to the private sector and even those workers currently not organised in the unions. Just over the last months we have seen a rash of disputes from workers in Doncaster Care UK and Safety Glass in Tyneside to One Housing and the indefinite strike in Lambeth College. These along with the big protests by the legal profession against the cuts to legal aid, the protests and stoppages by construction workers and the people that were attracted to Saturday’s Peoples Assembly march show the potential that the unions could realise if they put themselves at the head of this movement. The 750,000-strong TUC demonstration on March 26th in 2011 as well as the mass mobilisation of N30 that year shows once and for all the authority that the unions have when they act decisively.

The 8th annual NSSN conference is meeting on July 5, five days before the pay strike. I appeal to all activists in the trade union and anti-cuts movements to come along to discuss how to build the biggest strike possible on July 10 and how to sustain it into the autumn and beyond to win what could be a decisive victory against this fat cat government.

Rob Williams NSSN national chair

* * * NSSN News * * *

Come to the 8th Annual NSSN Conference on Saturday July 5th – ‘What recovery?
We want our share! Fight Together for a Pay Rise! – Break the pay freeze, fight for a real living wage, oppose zero-hour contracts, fight for PAYE’. Leaflet – http://www.scribd.com/doc/221151679/NSSN-2014-conference-leaflet


It will be on from 11am-5pm in Conway Hall – 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL – delegate/visitor fee £6. Confirmed speakers include;
Ronnie Draper BFAWU bakers’ union General Secretary
POA General Secretary Steve Gillan
Janice Godrich PCS President
Peter Pinkney RMT President… plus a speaker from the victorious Seattle $15Now campaign!!
Confirmed workshops include:-
Fast food rights/zero-hour contracts/living wage/$15Now
Fighting NHS cuts
Construction: fighting the umbrella scam and blacklisting
Political representation for workers after the Collins Review
Housing workers fighting back

Email us now if you want to come as well as if you want leaflets – info@shopstewards.net.

If you want to put yourself forward for the NSSN steering committee, email us by 12noon on Thursday July 3rd

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.
 

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 info@shopstewards.net