Socialist Appeal - Trade Unions

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Trade Unions - Send us your letters, articles or workplace and trade union reports!

Unison Conference: No Cuts, No job Losses!

By Unison Socialist Appeal Supporters

Friday, 11 June 2010

Next week's conference of the public sector union Unison will be the most important for decades given the severity of the cuts being promised by the new government. Many of Unison's members are low paid or part time and will be hit hard by a government keen to cut costs to bail out the bosses crisis.

Unison Conference Meeting:

"Which way forward for Unison?"

Thurs 17th June 5.30pm start

Royal Exeter Hotel, Bournemouth.

[HoV] Venezuelan revolutionary activists speak at trade union conferences

By Hands Off Venezuela
Monday, 31 May 2010
As part of their visit to Britain in May 2010 to attend the Hands Off Venezuela conference, Venezuelan revolutionaries Katy Jaimes and Elias Chacón also spoke at fringe meetings at the conferences of the Public Commercial and Services Union in Brighton and the Communication Workers Union in Bournemouth

Unions back John!

By LRC
Monday, 24 May 2010
The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) has issued the following press release outlining union support for John McDonnell to be on the ballot for Labour leader.

Conference Votes to Campaign for a Public Sector Alliance to Defend Public Services.

By Darrall Cozens, delegate to the Conference from the West Midlands.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Against the backdrop of a Con-Lib government intent on savagely cutting public spending to make working people pay for the crisis of the capitalist system, the annual Conference of Trades Councils took place in Blackpool on the weekend of May 15^th and 16^th.

UNISON General Secretary Election approaching final stages - Vote for Paul Holmes!

By Unison Socialist Appeal Supporters
Monday, 17 May 2010
On Monday, May 17th, 1.3 million ballot papers will go out for an election that has the potential to worry the ruling class even more than the general election, which we were told had world financial markets in jitters.

{Video} Hicks/Holmes Press Conference

By Socialist Appeal
Friday, 14 May 2010
A joint press conference by Jerry Hicks and Paul Holmes was held in London on Thursday. Click here to watch a video of Jerry speaking.

Significant victory at Severs

By Severfield Reeve workers
Monday, 10 May 2010
Severfield Reeve workers in Yorkshire have won a significant concession in their struggle

Book Review: "When We Were Miners"

By Sam Hammersley
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Some academics may sniff their noses at historical accounts written by participants in those events, claiming that ‘objectivity’ is questionable in such works. Marxists, of course would argue that there is no such thing as objectivity, since every story is told from a point of view, a perspective. Indeed, most works of history are written by bourgeois academics reflecting the point of view of bourgeois society at the time of writing. Those which run counter to that view are rare indeed. This is such a book.

CYWU Unite Members Fight to Defend Public Services in Coventry.

By Darrall Cozens, UCU, Coventry Trades Council, Coventry NE Labour Party (all in a personal capacit
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Over the past year, members of the CYWU section of Unite have been fighting and campaigning to defend Youth Services provision in Coventry. The Tory-controlled City Council had employed Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) as its partner consultants and the Youth Service is the first in line to feel the axe at a cost of £67,000. PWC will examine all areas of the Council’s operations and advise on “savings”, that is cuts...

Severfield Reeve - Update

By Socialist Appeal
Monday, 12 April 2010
Socialist Appeal has received this update on the position at Severfield Reeve which we reported on a few weeks ago. It’s clear that there is a militant mood developing in the factory

RMT ballot ruling: Courts in bosses pockets

By Socialist Appeal
Tuesday, 06 April 2010
Yet again the bosses' judicial system has intervened to stop a union taking industrial action. This time they have forced the RMT to cancel their strike action due to take place this week.

PCS strike in Coventry solid.

By V. Infantino, U.C.U (personal capacity)
Thursday, 01 April 2010
Here is a late report on the PCS strike of March 24th from the Coventry area.

National Rail Strike called as unions mobilize

By Socialist Appeal
Friday, 26 March 2010
Maintenance staff with Network Rail are set to take strike action after the Easter weekend. This could bring the whole country to a standstill, since all the train operating companies use the network. The issue is safety. Though talks are still going on as we go to press, no-one should doubt the determination of the RMT membership to stop the management assault.

PCS Strike, 24th March 2010, Stratford HMRC and DWP

By Eddie Kacar & Ben Peck
Friday, 26 March 2010
Picket lines were formed once more outside government offices on the day Mr. Darling announced the Budget. The PCS union on the 8^th and 9^th of March called strikes, and again, on the day of the Budget came out in protest against the attacks on their pensions and job security. We attended a picket line outside the HMRC and DWP offices in Stratford to offer our solidarity and to assess the mood of the workers.

PCS Strike shows workers’ anger - New Labour attacks low paid workers

By Fred Weston
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Yesterday, March 24th, civil servants organised in PCS staged another strike in protest at government measures that will affect pensions, redundancy pay and jobs. It is a sign of the growing militancy of British workers, who are reaching the limit of what they can take.