Npower’s plan to scrap 550 jobs in Stoke-on-Trent must be fought!

 Npower have now announced what they have had planned for almost twelve months that it’s call centre in Fenton, will close next June as part of a total of 1,400 workers nationally being thrown on the scrap heap.

The plan is to outsource the 550 Stoke-on-Trent jobs to India under the ‘management’ of Tata Consultancy Services. 

Npower offices in Fenton where 550 jobs are in danger

Npower say it is being done, “to improve our customer services and keep our costs down at a time of external pressure on customer’s bills”
Does anyone believe this crap? Npower are so concerned about ‘customer’s bills’ that they are increasing prices by 10.4% in December.
As for keeping “costs down” they should look at what they are paying their chief executive Paul Massara. Despite ‘earning’ £450,000 this year he refused to give up his £150,000 bonus saying to do so would be just a ‘gimmick’. This is some ‘gimmick’ – £150,000 is almost NINE times the average Stoke-on-Trent worker’s annual income! If this was not enough he will also save £22,500 as a result of George Osbourne’s tax break for millionaires.

Fight together against Npower

Npower are trying to turn customers against their workers by saying that sacking 1,400 will reduce bills for customers. But it will be the top employees and shareholders who will pocket any ‘savings’ not hard pressed customers.
One worker who has been at the Fenton site for over ten years told us, “I’m disgusted that Unison seem to be just accepting the redundancy package. They should be fighting to save our jobs and keep the Fenton site open”
Npower have now announced a 60 day ‘consultation’ period. Unison, representing Npower workers at Stoke, should make sure that this ‘consultation’ includes building a campaign to defend all these jobs.
They should link up with other Npower workplaces faced with job losses and closure in Oldbury, West Midlands and elsewhere.

Open the books

In 2012 Npower posted a 25% increase in profits to a bumper £390 million just four months after increasing prices for customers by 9% and followed that with a further 8% increase in profits in the first nine months of this year.
As part of the ‘consultation’ Unison should demand that the books of Npower are opened up to public scrutiny so we can see exactly where these profits are going.

Renationalise Npower and other major energy companies

As one of the top six privately owned energy companies, Npower is in business, like the others, to make maximum profits for it’s top earners and shareholders. This includes sacking workers and increasing bills when it suits them.

But this is not what workers or customers want. A recent Mirror online poll found 94% would like to see energy returned to public ownership.

Energy industry unions should draw the necessary conclusions from Npower’s attempt to sack more workers while still increasing prices for customers as a warning of what the future holds if their plans are not fought and stopped. If Npower get away with it then the other five top companies will do the same to remain ‘competitive’.

Unison and other unions involved should fight this latest round of job cuts and launch a campaign for the immediate renationalisation of the major energy companies to be run in the interest of the majority. Only in this way could jobs be saved and customer prices be kept down now and in the future.

There would be no need to compensate the fat cat owners, although small shareholders would be compensated in cases of proven need.

DOWNLOAD OUR LEAFLET HERE, PRINT SOME OFF AND PASS THEM ON WHEREVER YOU CAN

SUPPORT WORKERS IN STRUGGLE

Over the next week there will be a number of strikes taking place with picket lines locally;

 

• Thursday this week staff at Keele University, Staffs Uni, Stoke-on-Trent College and Newcastle College will be on strike. There will be a picket line on the front and back gate at Keele from 8am onwards. No details yet for Staffs Uni or colleges 

• Friday - Firefighters will strike again at 6.30pm - 11pm at Longton, Hanley, Newcastle and Sandyford (if you go to the picket to offer support I recommend you are there at 6pm sharp
• Monday next week 4 Nov - Firefighters will again be on strike at 6am (but again you would need to be there at 6am)
• Monday also postal workers will also be on strike with picket lines at postal depots in Biddulph, Leek, Cheadle, Uttoxeter, Newcastle, Kidsgrove, Burslem, Stoke, Stone, Stafford and elsewhere. Picket lines will be in place from 6.15am onwards.
• There will also be a picket at Customer Services at 7am and MDec at 5.30pm both near old Sentinel depot on Festival Park.

Workers on strike are always pleased to get visitors to their picket lines to show support. Tell them you are from the National Shop Stewards Network. I have leaflets for the various disputes you can take along to hand out.

 

Please call/text me on 07845893607 if you want leaflets or if you want any advice or to discuss further about going to the pickets

Lobby the TUC Congress on Sunday September 8^th All out Together in November!

The struggle to defend the NHS from being dismantled and privatised is becoming increasingly important. It's vital therefore that the TUC demonstration outside the Tory Party Conference in Manchester on 29 September is massive.

It has been called to ‘Save our NHS – Defend Jobs & Services. No to Austerity’. For more details, including transport – TUC Unite  Unison  The NSSN will be having a contingent behind our banner: ‘for a 24 hour general strike to stop the Tory cuts!’ March with us!

However, we also believe that co-ordinated industrial action is a key part of the strategy to save the NHS and fight austerity overall and it is urgent. Therefore we will continue to lobby the TUC now and also at TUC conference on Sep 8^th.

Please join us! 

We are pleased to announce this lobby is now supported by five TUC Joint Consultative Committee (TUCJCC) Regional Representatives, the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom and the TUC National Unemployed Centres Combine.

Lobby TUC Congress on Sunday Sept 8^th – All out Together in November!

NSSN rally at the TUC Congress at Bournemouth on September 8th followed by a lobby of Congress.

Confirmed speakers:  

• Bob Crow, Mark Serwotka, Steve Gillan, Ronnie Draper and Ian Lawrence (RMT, PCS, POA, BFAWU and NAPO general secretaries respectively)
• Alec McFadden (North West representative on TUCJCC for trades councils and also President Merseyside County TUC)
• Teresa MacKay TUCJCC & Ipswich Trades Council
• Linda Taaffe (NSSN).

A rally will take place between 12.30pm-2.30pm Hardy Suite, Hermitage Hotel, Exeter Rd, Bournemouth (opposite Bournemouth International Centre, TUC Congress venue).

NSSN Lobby of TUC Conference Sunday 8 Sept

Urgent message to all NSSN supporters across Staffordshire;

We need to find out as soon as we can how many are likely to be going to the NSSN lobby so that we can pool transport to reduce costs as much as possible

Can you let us know asap if you are definitely going or are thinking of going or would like more info before making up your mind. It would help also if you can let us know if you will not be attending.

Call or text on 07845893607

 

NSSN Bulletin 154 - ZERO TOLERANCE FOR ZERO CONTRACTS

EBulletin 154- Zero tolerance for zero-hour contracts!!

August 7, 2013

 

NSSN e-bulletin 154 – Zero tolerance for zero-hour contracts!! Zero-hour contracts have hit the headlines over the last week, with 24,000 (80%) of JD Wetherspoons staff and 20,000 (90%) of Sports Direct all on such contracts. Even Buckingham Palace and the Coalition Government use them! Zero-hour contracts offer no guarantee of hours or pay, and are regularly used to stop people organising at work. Many workers who do try to organise to improve their conditions have their hours cut as punishment. Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) has been campaigning against zero-hour contracts, with protests outside Sports Direct up and down [...]

NSSN Bulletin 153 "An Anti-Austerity Summer and a Hot Autumn?

http://shopstewards.net/2013/08/ebulletin-153-an-anti-austerity-summer-and-a-hot-autumn/

NSSN Staffordshire calls for blackilisting firm Keir’s council contract to be scrapped

The National Shop Stewards Network Staffordshire welcomes the motion (below) moved by City council leader Mohammed Pervez and seconded by Councillor Crowe at the full city council meeting on 4 July 2013. All attempts to stop the blacklisting and victimisation of workers should be supported.

“That this Council notes and supports the campaign by Unite the Union to stamp out the deplorable practice of ‘blacklisting’ of individuals because of their affiliation and association to a trade union within the construction industry. Blacklisting is a national scandal and too many construction workers have had their lives ruined just because they had legitimate concerns over health and safety in one of Britain’s most dangerous industries or just because they belonged to a trade union.
The Council expects our joint venture partners or any organisation or contractor working with or on behalf of the council to have a zero tolerance policy towards this practice and if applicable to be co-signatories to the Construction Industry Joint Council Working Rules Agreement which aims to ensure that this practice is not prevalent in the construction industry.
This Council will take every legitimate step necessary to ensure that the City Council never knowingly engages or contracts with a company that operates a blacklist or has been found to operate a blacklist.”

But passing motions alone will not eradicate this practise which has been proved to be rife within the construction industry.
Words are of course important but actions are what matters. Keir is one of 44 blacklisting companies who subscribed to the Consulting Association. This ‘Association’ complied a national list of construction workers who it deemed as ‘undesirable’ for companies to check out who they were hiring. Many construction workers who were on this secret list have never since found work in the industry.
Keir have said that,
“The activities of the now-disbanded consulting association are both historic and regrettable.”
NSSN Staffordshire organiser Andy Bentley, responded to this by saying, “But the activities of the consulting agency and Keir are anything but of ‘historic’ interest for the more than 3,000 construction workers who were proved to be blacklisted. It’s only too current for those who have never worked since and are still being prevented from finding work today.”
“Therefore the Staffordshire area of the National Shop Stewards Network is calling on the city council to act on their motion by cancelling their contract with Keir and instead employing Keir workers directly with the council to safeguard jobs.”

Unite meets roadblock in New Labour – Time to discuss bold step of disaffiliation

The attack on Unite, the biggest trade union in the country, following New Labour’s suspension of the election candidate selection process in Falkirk West, is a decisive moment in the relationship between the unions and the Labour Party.

Unite’s preferred candidate, Karie Murphy, and constituency chairperson Stephen Deans, have been suspended from party positions.
Tom Watson, New Labour‘s general election strategist, has resigned his position following these moves.
New Labour has scrapped the scheme, originally backed by party leader Ed Miliband, which allowed unions to pay the first year of membership subscriptions from their political funds and which Unite used in Falkirk West to sign up over 100 of its members to the party.
Outrageously, Miliband is handing over Labour’s secret report, not shown to Unite, to the police! Unite members will be indignant at these scandalous moves.
They have echoes of Labour alleging ‘corruption’ against the Liverpool city councillors and Militant who fought against cuts in the 1980s. If Unite does not fight now, the union will be seriously damaged.
Any pretence that Ed Miliband was independent of the right has been blown away by this confrontation as he has become a prisoner of the Blairite faithful. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey was prophetic when interviewed in the journal New Statesman on 24 April this year:

Len McCluskey, Shrewsbury 24 press conference, 23.1.13, photo Bob Severn   (Click to enlarge)

“He fears, though, that Miliband could still fall under the sway of those he pejoratively refers to as ‘Blairites’. He singles out the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander and the shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, for criticism.
.
“Ed Miliband must spend most of his waking hours grappling with what lies before him. If he is brave enough to go for something radical, he’ll be the next prime minister.
“If he gets seduced by the Jim Murphys and the Douglas Alexanders, then the truth is that he’ll be defeated and he’ll be cast into the dustbin of history” [our emphasis].
Murphy has been prominent in this crisis with scathing attacks on Unite and Len. One unnamed Blairite has called Unite an ‘organised conspiracy’! Furthermore, these attacks have been egged on by Cameron, the Tories and the capitalist press.
They are all in favour of a tame, pro-capitalist Labour Party. Unite must come out fighting to rebut this onslaught at every opportunity.

Transformation of Labour

But this is not just an organisational attack on the trade unions and the left that remain in New Labour.
As the Socialist Party has consistently explained, this is part of the political transformation of Labour from a party based on workers, that had socialist aspirations, albeit with a pro-capitalist leadership, into a pro-big business party with similarities to the Democrats in the US.
Even from the first attacks on our predecessor, Militant, we predicted there would be attacks on the left and left unions.
With reference to the process against the Militant Editorial Board, which led to five expulsions, we wrote:
“The purge will not stop at Militant. It will grow to other left groups within the party” (Militant 628, 26 November 1982, quoted in ‘Rise of Militant’).
Unite is now considered part of the ‘left’ within New Labour and has been compared to Militant by the press! To this end, the Blairites have decided the union must be humiliated. They want to rid the party of union influence and expel unions whose predecessors helped to form the Labour Representation Committee in 1900!
New Labour has consistently refused to listen to the unions on policy. There have been no real commitments on scrapping anti-trade union laws.
Cuts and privatisations are carried out by Labour councils and councillors who oppose them are suspended or expelled.
Now, Miliband and Ed Balls have affirmed their commitment to the Tories’ spending plans. In other words, cuts planned by the Tories will be implemented by a New Labour government, if the party wins the next election.
This will mean confrontation with the working class and the unions. The idea of a general strike against austerity cannot be postponed in the hope of ‘better times’ under Miliband. If not fought for and called now, the demand will still be urgent under New Labour.

Unite members in action: Strike at ‘One Housing’, June 2013, Woodgreen site, London   (Click to enlarge)

Unite’s strategy

The political strategy of Unite, to recruit its members to Labour in order to get more working-class election candidates selected, has come across another roadblock.
The Socialist Party has explained on many occasions that the Labour Party is unreformable. New Labour has closed all the democratic avenues for real change that once existed.
But given Unite’s agreed strategy, we said the only chance it had of being successful would be for Unite to go in with its full programme against all cuts, the scrapping of the anti-trade union laws, and nationalisation, win over the ranks of Labour and get rid of the Blairites.
Even then, we said it would be unlikely to succeed given the obstacles in Unite’s path.
But the union’s strategy was first challenged when a handful of Labour councillors who voted against cuts, some of them Unite members, were suspended or expelled from Labour groups and the party.
The two brave Southampton councillors who opposed austerity have drawn the correct conclusions and become part of TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition).
Warrington councillor Kevin Bennett has recently had his suspension from the Labour group extended for a further six months.

Unite members and others supporting Kevin Bennett outside his Labour group appeal hearing on 1st July 2013   (Click to enlarge)

Now the focus has switched onto the parliamentary selection stage. New Labour does not want representatives who would fight for the working class.
Unite now has three possible ways forward. The first would be to capitulate to New Labour. This would be disastrous, not just for its political strategy but for its industrial one too. There would be growing anger and indignation in the rank and file, and doubts would be raised over the union’s commitment to fight for its policy. This would cause serious problems for Len and the left leadership of the union and jeopardise their position.
The second would be to continue with the current strategy. This would mean the likelihood of further collisions with the Labour bureaucracy, in which Len has already admitted he ‘can place no trust’. This would not prevent Unite having to make a decision later on the continued scandal of providing funds to New Labour, to the tune of £9 million since Miliband was elected Labour leader in 2010, with the support of the unions! Immediately, Unite would also face the decision of supporting anti-cuts councillors.
The third path is to take the bold step of the union disaffiliating from New Labour. The Socialist Party believes this is the correct road to take. The working class has waited too long for its own party since New Labour accepted the free market and dropped its famous Clause 4, Part IV, which envisaged nationalisation and socialism.

What Unite should do:

Unite members, in their branches, stewards committees and constitutional committees of the union, should pass resolutions defending the union against these attacks and calling for a full, democratic discussion of the alternative. In particular, they should call on the leadership to implement the following plan of action:

• An emergency executive council should be called to discuss the crisis.
• The EC should pass a resolution for a recall rules conference which would have the end of removing the references to Labour Party affiliation from the rulebook, thereby facilitating disaffiliation. This conference should also discuss political representation for the working class.
• Should this be carried, Unite should call meetings and conferences of trade unionists, from affiliated and non-affiliated unions, including those linked to TUSC, with the aim of forming a new workers’ party which would have the programme of fighting the cuts, scrapping the anti-trade union laws and opposing privatisation of public services. Such a party would truly reflect the needs of the working class and fight in workplaces, communities and in elections for socialist ideas.