Union campaigns — Page 2

Frances O'Grady
Add your name for the Shrewsbury 24

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Supporters carry the campaign’s banner on last October’s TUC march in London. Photo Alan Denny

The TUC gives its full backing to the Shrewsbury 24 campaign in its quest to right a 40-year-old wrong which – alongside the ban imposed on unions at GCHQ in the 1980s – rates as one of the worst attacks on organised workers’ rights in British history. We won’t rest until justice is done.

In the early 1970s these men experienced a grave miscarriage of justice. They were ordinary, decent men working long hours in difficult and dangerous jobs, who stood up for their rights and fought for fair pay, better safety and against the growing casualisation of the construction industry.

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Posted on January 23rd, 2013 by Frances O'Grady filed under: Union campaigns
Billy Hayes
Celebrate Your Postal Workers

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You can download posters for the Postal Workers Day from CWU’s website

In Scunthorpe postman Dave Shipman saved a family-of-five’s house from burning down when he heard a smoke alarm while out on his round.

In County Durham postwoman Mandy Joyce summoned up strength she didn’t know she had to push away a car that was crushing an 82-year-old grandmother. When the old lady left for hospital in an ambulance Mandy calmly finished her round.

Britain’s local papers are full of such stories – about postal workers embedded at the heart of their communities. That’s why, earlier this year, residents of villages near Llanelli started a campaign to stop their postman being transferred elsewhere. They felt reassured that a local postman, who everybody knew, was a point of daily contact who provided a lifeline for the elderly and isolated.

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Posted on December 13th, 2012 by Billy Hayes filed under: Union campaigns
Matt Dykes
Unions take action over soaring rail fares

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Rail union leaders take their message to commuters and the media at London’s Euston Station this morning.

Rail fares are continuing to outstrip inflation and wages, even in times of recession. Our research has shown that from January 2008, rail fares have increased over 26%, three times faster than average wages.

Now they’re set to rise again, with a 3.9% increase in January, the tenth straight year of inflation-busting rail fare rises. This, being an average figure, masks the more eye watering hikes you’ll see on some fares, including up to 6.5% on some season tickets.

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Posted on December 11th, 2012 by Matt Dykes filed under: Union campaigns
Owen Tudor
Anti-austerity marches on: from ‘a future that works’ to ‘no to austerity’

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ETUC General Secretary Bernadette Segol and Belgian trade union leader Rudy de Leeuw join Frances O’Grady and Brendan Barber on the TUC March for a Future that Works

Wednesday 14 November is a European day of action against austerity, for jobs and growth, called by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). There will be events and campaigning across the European Union, from general strikes in the Mediterranean member states to demonstrations and lobbies further north.

The TUC mounted its protest against austerity with our huge march for a future that works on 20 October (along with similar demonstrations in Belfast and Glasgow), joined by trade unionists from across the Channel. Tomorrow we will be concentrating on lobbying (in London and Brussels) and online work. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber and TUC President Lesley Mercer will be handing in a letter to European Commission President Barroso at Europe House in Westminster. Others in the movement will be protesting more publicly, and the TUC’s General Secretary Designate, Frances O’Grady, is speaking at one of those rallies in Central London.

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Posted on November 13th, 2012 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity, Union campaigns
Tony Burke
Green jobs: taking the argument further

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Based on a speech I gave at the TUC’s Climate Change Conference on 23 October at Congress House in London.

Over the past three years the TUC, along with the Energy Intensive Users Group has produced three joint studies into the impact of “green and climate change policies” on the UK economy and specifically on heavy energy use industries. These include steel, glass, papermaking, oil, chemicals, aluminium, ceramics and cement.

It is important to remember that we need to look at the potential impact on the UK if these industries were to be lost to the economy. We have 160,000 direct jobs and 800,000 jobs in the UK supply chains in these sectors. They make a powerful contribution to regional employment; some sectors dominate regional economies and are vitally important to that region.

There is a combined turnover of £95 billion. The sectors make up 20% of UK manufacturing and 3% of UK GDP with a purchasing power of £68.6 billion and £6.6 billion in pay, NI and pension contributions. They pay £12 billion in corporate taxes and levies and there is combined gross value added of £14 billion which equates to 11% of UK manufacturing.

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Posted on October 27th, 2012 by Tony Burke filed under: Union campaigns
Guest marcher
#Oct20 – I’m marching for a better economy

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My name is Ele Wade and I am a member and union rep for Prospect. I think it is important to march on 20 October.

I will be marching because I believe the coalition’s austerity policies are counterproductive, reducing support for innovation and taking money out of the economy. I’m a Patent Examiner at the Intellectual Property Office, the IPO supports innovation to provide a firm foundation for British business. Without strong support for innovation the economy cannot grow.

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Posted on October 17th, 2012 by Guest marcher filed under: Union campaigns
Guest marcher
#Oct20 – I’m marching for our rights

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My name is Mhairi Threlfall and I live in the South West. I am a member of UNISON‘s National Young Members Forum. I am marching on 20 October for Future that Works.

At the Tory conference, George Osborne appealed to the workers of the land to stand up and fight…to give away their rights! What is worrying is that outside my close group of friends, some people (many employers) believe that exchanging unfair dismissal, redundancy and training for a share in a business is an incentive! This is just another example of why I have been motivated to march on the 20^th October.

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Posted on October 17th, 2012 by Guest marcher filed under: Union campaigns