Carling brewery worker's massive vote for strike action at Burton-on-Trent

Brewery workers in Burton-on-Trent have voted 97% in favour of strike action against a vicious assault on pay and conditions from their employers Molson Coors.

As Molson Coors CEO of Europe counts his £360,137 a year, brewery workers face £8,000-£9,000 a year pay cuts, cuts in working conditions and a threat to sack everybody if they don't agree to the proposals by 14 June.

Some workers face losing their homes as a result of this savage attack and have no choice but to fight against this ultimatum. But as Unite branch secretary Phil Salt says, "We are a well-organised site with over 90% membership. We believe that if we allow this to happen, employers will believe they can do anything, anywhere.”

The outcome of this struggle will be watched by workers and employers in the food, drink and tobacco industry across the Midlands and nationally. It's in the interests of all these workers that Burton brewery workers win this battle to defend pay and conditions. To do that they will need maximum support.

Trade union members should raise it in their branches and discuss what practical and financial support they can give.

• Click here for more information about the dispute

• Messages of support may be sent to Burton.Brewery@unitetheunion.org or via #burtonbrewery on Twitter.
• A fighting fund has been established. Cheques should be made payable to 'Unite' with 'Burton Brewery' written on the back and sent to Unite the Union, Finance Department, Transport House, 9-17 Victoria Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 8HX

Show your support for PCS Strike next Wednesday 5 June on picket lines and at the Rally in Hanley

 

Show your support at picket lines:

 

from 7am at Benefits Centre and HMRC (Tax Office) in Albion Square Hanley

 

from 8am at following Job Centres

Huntbach St, Hanley

 Paradise St, Newcastle

The Avenue,Kidsgrove

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t miss NSSN 7th annual conference1

 

Video of NSSN lobby of TUC:

http://shopstewards.net/2013/04/video-nssn-lobby-of-the-tuc/

Don’t miss

NSSN 7th annual conference

11am-5pm, Saturday June 29th, Camden Centre, Judd Street,

London, WC1H 9JE

Speakers include:

• Mark Serwotka – PCS general secretary
• Billy Hayes – CWU general secretary
• Steve Gillan – POA general secretary

The NSSN was initiated by the RMT transport union in 2006. Seven national unions – RMT, PCS, CWU, NUM, POA, NUJ, and BFAWU – are either affiliated to the NSSN or officially support it as well as countless union branches, shop stewards committees and trades councils.

We support workers in struggle as well as those facing victimisation for the crime of defending their members from the employer’s attacks.

The conference will include main sessions on resisting the cuts but also workshops on defending the NHS, organising in the workplace, housing, organising the unorganised, fighting blacklisting etc. It’s open to everyone in the unions and all those fighting these brutal cuts.

Contact info@shopstewards.net

Send your fee of £6 per person, payable to: ‘National Shop Stewards Network’ to PO BOX 54498, London, E10 9DE

Facebook event here http://www.facebook.com/events/127178207444661/
Download the colour leaflet here
Download a black and white version here

For info about transport from North Staffs please call or text Andy Bentley on 07845893607 or email andybentley3@hotmail.co.uk

The National Shop Stewards Network is supported by:

Support Carling workers at Burton-on-Trent

Our strike ballot has now started as members at Burton Brewery face what can only be described as a vicious assault.

Molson Coors are proposing :

• Pay for 184 of our 284 Technicians cut by £9000 per year, with the remaining 100 becoming "A" grade Technicians on the same salary

• Pay for FLT cut by £8000 per year

• Site agreement book to be destroyed and re-written by the employer

• Abolition of site agreement that protects pay for two years when shift changes result in loss of pay

• 49.5% of our 455 members facing an extreme pay cut

• Forced introduction of extreme shift working that would leave members on call or working at least 95% of the time

• Threat to sack us all if we don't agree to the proposals by June 14th

This attack has cast a shadow across the town, as other workers and employers watch carefully how this will end. The branch believes that employers through out the Midlands andthe FDT sector nationally will also be monitoring this dispute closely.

We are a well organised site with over 90% membership. We believe that if we allow this to happen, employers will believe they can do anything, anywhere.

Our fight is every workers fight. If successful, this proposal will depress the local economy. We are told we are paid "upper tier" pay rates. Bring those rates down, and the averages come down for everybody else. Most employers now use local "market rates", and if this attack succeeds, local rates will be coming down for everybody else - in our minds there is no doubt about that.

Our members face losing their homes. That's how extreme these proposals are.

A ballot for strike action is underway, and we expect a resounding YES vote. The ballot closes on May 28th.

Messages of support may be sent to: Burton.Brewery@unitetheunion.org or via #burtonbrewery on Twitter.

A fighting fund has been established. Cheques should be made payable to 'Unite' with 'Burton Brewery' written on the back and sent to Unite the Union, Finance Department, Transport House,9-17 Victoria Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 8HX

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like any further information regarding the

dispute.

In solidarity,

Phil Salt

Branch Secretary

64 year old Unite member and leading blacklist campaigner George Tapp is in Manchester Royal Infirmary hospital today with 2 broken legs and a fractured knee cap after a car drove through a crowd of protesters at full speed outside Manchester City FC last night (Wed 15th May)

George was at the Blacklist Support Group AGM and alongside Steve Acheson negotiated a blacklist ban at Salford Council last month.

2 other blacklisted workers protesting against proven blacklisting firm Bam were also hit by the deliberate hit and run but only suffered minor injuries.

Everyone at the Blacklist Support Group wishes George a speedy recovery

Please send messages wishing George a speedy recovery, text via 07949 335 390.

Blacklist Support Group

video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRB9DjmhBHg

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/

Support HMRC worker’s stay away

PCS members in Stoke will continue their campaign activity over coming weeks to press the HMRC to commit to firm agreements on jobs, attendance management and ending privatisation.

Further action is being planned in Stoke’s Tax Offices in week beginning 3 September. PCS members are being asked: Monday 3 September –to stay away from work from 07:00 until 09:00 and Friday 7 September – to stay away from work from 15:30 until 17:30.

Although PCS welcome the £34million being recycled into 1,000 temporary and fixed term appointments (TFTAs) rather than going to the treasury’s coffers to pay for an economic crisis not of our making, PCS believe HMRC could and should go further.

PCS says that as a minimum, all TFTAs (current and new) should be given fixed term appointment (FTA) status, meaning they have the right to apply for permanent jobs within HMRC. The civil service is increasingly becoming more casualised, both as a result of employing temporary and fixed term staff to replace permanent jobs and because of an increased use of the private sector in its contact centres.

The need for a properly staffed and funded HMRC to tackle the problem of tax avoidance and the national debt has clearly been raised through political campaigning. The need for Tax fairness is now accepted by the majority of the public, however the government are adopting a general anti-avoidance rule and the prime minister has even tried to claim that he has presided over an increase in staff levels.

Should negotiation now fail PCS members in Stoke will now join other HMRC workers throughout the country on 03/09 and 07/09 to say no to privatisation of services, to demand permanent jobs and to fight for tax justice for all.

Working class people really are “all in it together” now because we are all being hammered in so many ways by employers, the government and local councils as well. A few weeks ago it was REMPLOY workers, on the 3 and 7 September it will be PCS members taking action. 

Sooner or later it will be YOUR turn.

If you can, please give your support to PCS members on these days of action.

Visit their protests outside Blackburn House, Albion St, Hanley on 3^rd September between 07:00 and 09:00 and/or on Friday 7 September from 15:30 until 17:30 to show your support!

 

Mark Serwotka to speak in Stoke

PCS General Secretary Mark SERWOTKA is to speak in an important debate about the ‘alternative’ to the Government’s Austerity programme of cuts at the Potteries Museum Theatre on 09/10/12 (6:30pm).

The debate “A Fairer North Staffordshire – debating the alternative to cuts and privatisation” is being staged by PCS in conjunction with Keele UCU, the Stoke Branch of the National Pensioners Convention and the North Staffs Trades Union Council.

Other speakers at the event will include Dot GIBSON (National Pensioners Convention) and Roger SEIFERT (Professor of Industrial Relations at University of Wolverhampton).

For more details contact: PCS pcsdwp.nstaffs@btinternet.com or North Staffs Trades Council northstaffstuc@gmail.com

SUPPORT TOMORROW'S

HMRC Strike for jobs, services and Tax Fairness

HM Revenue and Customs PCS members in Stoke will join more than 55,000 revenue staff nationwide in a strike on Monday (25) over massive cuts that will seriously undermine any efforts to clamp down on the kind of tax avoidance schemes used by comedian Jimmy Carr.

 

The industrial action in all HM Revenue and Customs offices in the UK is over the government’s plan to axe a further 10,000 HMRC jobs, on top of 30,000 that have gone since the department was formed in 2005.

It will mean face to face tax offices will be closed and calls to telephone enquiry lines will go unanswered. In response to reports about Jimmy Carr’s use of the ‘K2′ scheme to avoid paying income tax on earnings, prime minister David Cameron yesterday described tax avoidance as “morally wrong”.

The union, which represents more than three-quarters of HMRC staff, says that as well as “wringing their hands” about the morality of tax avoidance, ministers have the power to do something about it, starting with an immediate halt to the job cuts.

An estimated £120 billion is lost every year because of tax evasion and avoidance – largely by very wealthy individuals and organisations – and because the department does not have sufficient resources to collect what is owed.

The strike is also in opposition to creeping privatisation in HMRC, as the department is currently spending £4 million on a year-long trial using two private companies to handle tax credit enquiries.

The strike will be followed by ongoing industrial action short of a strike, meaning staff refusing to do overtime because it is used to mask the effect of staffing cuts.

* Please support Picket line at Blackburn House, Hanley *

(between the Albion pub and B&M)

DEMAND TAX FAIRNESS - support the strike on 25/06/12

A VICTORY FOR ONE WORKER IS A VICTORY FOR ALL WORKERS!