Category Archives: Demo
Postcard from London Mayday
Barnet TUC goes to May Day Bank Holiday Monday
13th of March: Make Some Noise for Orgreave Justice
“The NHS will last as long as there are folk with the faith to fight for it” Nye Bevan, Founder of the NHS
It’s Our NHS
- No cuts, closures or privatisation
- End the pay restraint for NHS staff
- For a fully funded, publicly owned health service
National Demonstration
Saturday 4 March 2017, Central London
Full details soon
Our NHS is in a major crisis and this government is doing nothing to stop it. Some say the NHS only has one winter left in it.
On the backdrop of continued cuts and closures, private companies seek to gain even more of a foothold within the NHS.
Continued pay restraint has seen the value of NHS staff salaries reduce by 14% since 2010 and there are now 25,000 nursing and 3,500 midwifery vacancies in NHS England alone.
The Government’s latest plans for Sustainability and Transformation Plans are, in reality, just a smokescreen for £22bn in cuts and it’s latest instrument of privatisation.
The NHS is the single greatest achievement of working class people in Britain. We cannot allow it to be undermined and ultimately destroyed by a Tory government who’s priority is to put profit in the pockets on the corporations & big business.
Please help us make the demonstration as big as possible. Leaflets, posters and publicity will be available soon from the People’s Assembly office. In the meantime, please share and invite your friends on Facebook, discuss with your union branch, local campaign groups and community organisations about supporting the demonstration & book transport to London.
The People’s Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/
Update on Save Barnet Libraries campaign: Protest with Unison workers on 6th of December
Barnet UNISON Library
workers 46% of whom are facing the sack are quite rightly outraged by the latest financial information on Council spend which was published last week.
Barnet Council Policy & Resources Committee meets at Hendon Town Hall at 7 pm on Thursday 2 December 2016.
It is Agenda Item 10 – Annual Procurement Forward Plan which has caused anger and dismay and disbelief.
Scroll down to point 17 in the procurement plan it reveals proposed spend on Libraries construction of £12 million with additional items 18-25 showing an additional £2.125 million for additional associated costs:
Making a total of £14.125 million.
A quick recap on other Barnet Council spend.
Below are the Agency/Consultancy figures for the last four years.
- £12,526,943
- £13,775,546
- £15,538,090
- £17,907,052
Making a total of £59, 747,631 million
In the first two quarters of this financial year Barnet Council has spent £9.3 million which, if it continues at this rate, will bring the total spend for this year to over £20 million on Consultants/Agency.
Barnet Council claims it is being forced into the Library changes by a need to cut £2,162 million from the Library Service budget by 2019/20.
Members and Barnet UNISON have been asking a very simple question:
“Is it true that in order to save £2,162 million Barnet Council are spending over £6 million (which does not include redundancy costs) on a project to close four public libraries (by handing them to volunteers), on a project that will restrict access for disabled people and children under 15 and are now planning to spend an additional £14,125 million on construction and associated costs (making a grand total of £20.125 million)?”
This latest revelation seriously calls into question as to why staff are being made redundant and why a service with a 97% Customer satisfaction is being brutally dismantled.
As far as Barnet UNISON is aware the £14.125 million construction and additional costs have never been disclosed in any of the reports going to previous Children’s Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committees.
What can we do?
There is still time to stop the destruction of the Barnet Libraries Service. Barnet UNISON will be speaking at General Functions Committee on Tuesday 6 December at 7 pm at Hendon Town Hall. The Leader of Barnet Council Richard Cornelius is on this committee. The committee could refuse to implement the redundancies which would save the Library Service.
Join Barnet UNISON on #6December
5th of November – Call for Stewards for the Save Libraries March
Keith Martin writes:
Hi supporters of libraries, museums, galleries and all who work in them.
Attached is a letter in today’s Ham and High. It is published too in the Barnet Times and, I hope, in the Barnet Press and Camden New Journal, which has a wrap around publicising the National Libraries, Museums and Galleries demo on 5 November.
For this demo, which starts at 12 noon from The British Library and goes via The British Museum to the National Gallery, we shall have the Metropolitan Brass Band and the speakers include Michael Rosen. The march has a KIDS4LIBRARIES group.
The Metropolit
an Police are allowing us to march on the roads, but they are stretched for resources marshalling another demo the same day and advised us to recruit our own stewards. This we are doing, and our aim is to have thirty yellow-clad volunteer stewards to maintain all our health and safety.
If you are willing to be one of these thirty stewards, please email me your name and email address (keith.martin18@btinternet.com), and I shall see that you receive a briefing on what is required.
The aim of the demo is to stop the cuts to our library, museum and gallery services, and to save the jobs of all who work in them.
There is a national crisis, and we are determined to achieve these aims.
Tories Out – Austerity Has Failed
At Teresa May’s first Tory Party Conference as Prime Minister the People’s Assembly with the support of the TUC will be holding a mass demonstration to say we demand an alternative to ‘Austerity Britain’.
We will demand investment in public services, in infrastructure, and in decent jobs for all. An end to scapegoating of migrants which divides our communities and whips up racism. Join us and help make sure the demonstration is as big as possible. Transport is being arranged for Barnet:
Dep: 8:50 London Euston so be at station for 8:15a.m
Dep: 16:50 Birmingham New Street to arrive London Euston 18:18
A small number have been pre-bought: please get email Helen.Davies@barnetunison.org.uk if you would like to buy one.
Please circulate info,
- Sign up to the Facebook Event, share, and invite your friends
- Download leaflet artwork (or order leaflets from office@thepeoplesassembly.org.uk)
Remember, remember…
It’s the demonstration every Library & Museums campaigner has been calling for and now it’s on. The march will start from the iconic British Library and end outside the House of Commons for a Rally. Jeremy Corbyn is supporting the protest.
Public Libraries and Museums remain the lynchpin of communities, offering access to learning, reading, history, art, information and enjoyment. Libraries are, or should be, trusted public spaces for everyone. They play a crucial role in improving literacy, in combating the digital divide and in widening democratic involvement. BUT, in the UK since
2010, we’ve LOST:
• 8,000 paid and trained library workers;
• 343 libraries (600-plus including ones handed to volunteers); and
• One in five regional museums at least partially closed.
We’ve also seen:
• Libraries’ and museums’ opening hours cut;
• Budgets, education programmes and mobile/ housebound/specialist services slashed;
• An escalation in commercialisation and privatisation;
• A 93% increase in the use of volunteers in libraries;
• Income generation become the priority for almost 80% of museums.
This is a crisis and not an opportunity. Users, staff, campaigners and unions need to unite and fight before it’s too late. PCS Culture Sector, Unite the Union, Barnet UNISON & Save Barnet Libraries, and Campaign for the Book have been calling for a national demonstration to highlight the ‘clear and present danger’ to our national Library service. Support the protest on 5th November!
JEREMY CORBYN, Leader of Labour Party says: “I give my 100% support to this demonstration. The Tories have devastated our public services using austerity policies as justification. I promise that a Labour Government will act to ‘in-source’ our public and local council services and increase access to
leisure, arts and sports across the country. We will reverse the damage the Tories have done to our communities in the cities, towns and villages.”
County Durham Trades Union Council & County Durham Teaching Assistants
County Durham Trades Union Council 
MEDIA RELEASE 06 June 2016
County Durham Teaching Assistants (#ValueUs) and County Durham Trades Union (CDTUC) to stage joint solidarity rally in opposition to council decision to sack 2,700 staff and slash pay by 25%
This event will take place on Thursday 9th June 2016, at 19.00 (registration will open at 18.00) at the Durham Miners’ Hall, Flass St, Durham, County Durham DH1 4BE
Durham Trades Union Council will host and chair a public meeting in support of County Durham Teaching Assistants, who are currently fighting against Durham County Council’s controversial decision to fire and rehire thousands of staff on vastly reduced terms, which will see many facing up to a 25% pay cut.
The purpose of this event is to support the existing Teaching Assistants grassroots campaign #ValueUs, which has been running since the council announced its plans last October.
This event will bring together local community groups, teachers, unions, parents, pupils and local MPs, who have made the decision to unite in opposition to this attack on a low paid and predominantly female workforce.
Keynote speakers include Davy Hopper, General Secretary of Durham Miners’ Association, John Gilmore (NUT), Gillian Iveson, Lisa Turnbull, Claire Reed and Anne Richardson (Teaching Assistants and #ValueUs campaign organisers).
CDTUC Secretary, Ben Sellers, said:
As many other people in the wider labour movement have stated, the way County Durham’s teaching assistants have been treated is nothing short of disgraceful.
County councillors will say there is nothing to be done, but many of us feel that when low paid workers are facing pay cuts of up to 25%, there has to be a better solution and we are determined to ensure that negotiations between the council and unions continue until they find it.
But, devastating though these cuts are, it’s not all a tale of woe; what we have witnessed in the determination and organisational ability of these Teaching Assistants is in the tradition of the best of our movement. They’re an inspiration.
Teaching Assisatant and #ValueUs campaign organiser, Gillian Iveson, said:
This event is incredibly important to our campaign because we need to get the truth out to the public. This is not simply a dispute about holiday pay as some would like to think. We are full time employees being forced into part-time contracts with part-time wages. We work above and beyond our contract on a daily basis and this cut is kick in the teeth to those of us who have dedicated years of service out of a love for the job we do and the children we care for.
Teaching Assistant and #ValueUs campaign organiser, Anne Richardson, said:
Having been truly inspired by the vigour and impact that Durham Teaching Assistants have achieved thus far through their own determination and efforts to highlight the catastrophic life changing measures being forced upon them, I feel this event is a vital stage in the growth and development of the TA’s campaign, as it is increasing public awareness of the real tragedies in this story. The Teaching Assistants’ voices are going to be heard and more importantly listened to, as they gain the support of other unions at both county and national level.
General Secretary, Durham Miners’ Association, Davy Hopper said:
Education is one of the most important public services we have and frankly it is unbelievable that a Labour Authority is behaving in this way. They should immediately start renegotiating with the Teaching Assistants and sort out this mess. My solidarity is with the Teaching Assistants.
Grahame Morris, MP for Easington, said:
“I whole-heartedly oppose the decision by Durham County Council to substantially cut the income of low paid teaching assistants and I’m frankly appalled they would use such an abhorrent practice of dismissing and re-engaging, in order to impose a new contract.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For further information about this event please contact:
Kathryne Wray (Press and Communications, CDTUC) 07946719668 kathrynewray@hotmail.com
- County Durham Trades Union Council (CDTUC)
CDTUC is a registered branch of the Trades Union Congress and works to bring together unions to work and campaign around issues affecting working people in their local workplaces and communities. Our aim is to raise public awareness of rights at work and the union role in enforcing those rights; promote organising and recruitment drives to build union membership; and support union and community campaigns for dignity and respect in the workplace and beyond.
For further information about CDTUC please contact:
Ben Sellers, Secretary, secretary.cdtuc@gmail.com
- #ValueUs – County Durham Teaching Assistants – campaign group
For more information about this grassroots campaign please contact:
Gillian Iveson, gill1968@aol.com, 07580562837
