Wednesday 5 January 2011

Unite organises to fight cuts and support sacked shop stewards at Greenwich council

Members of Unite who work for a south London council will meet next week to discuss their campaign to win reinstatement for two sacked shop stewards.
On December 15 around 70 people - including the union's general secretary-elect Len McCluskey - demonstrated outside Greenwich council to support the dismissed workers.
There was talk of organising an industrial action ballot for Unite members across the borough.
Now a meeting has been called for Tuesday January 11 at 6.15pm in the Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich, SE18 6PW, to discuss the next move.
It is billed as for Unite members and people interested in joining.
The Greenwich Save Our Services campaign says the council has agreed £27 million of cuts - involving 240 job losses.
Campaigners say the youth service will be outsourced, mother and toddler groups will disappear, waiting times for services to the disabled will grow and charges for services to the elderly will rise.
Council workers think the freezing of incremental pay, and cuts to car mileage and parking allowances are the start of attacks on pay and conditions.
In October last year 8,000 Greenwich council workers were sent notice of possible dismisal - as reported in the News Shopper local paper.
Earlier in 2010 the borough's branch of Unison - the biggest local government union - was taken under the supervision of regional officials.
Branch secretary Onay Kasab was suspended from holding office in Unison for two years. He and three activists from other branches of the Union were accused of producing an offensive leaflet featuring the three wise monkeys.
Kasab, his colleagues, and supporters say they were witch-hunted because they support the Socialist Party.
Kasab has said on Facebook that he will be attending Tuesday's Unite branch meeting.

2 comments:

  1. Terms and conditions of employment have been fought for over centuries.

    This new admin wants to drive back employment too the days of the tolpuddle martyr's.

    The coalition government are spending more than ever before, yet our trade deficit is in decline and are imports have rapidly grown.

    It's shows the sheer ideological driven agenda that this new admin wants to follow, no intention of creating jobs and a walk on by attitude too those who lose their employment.

    We're in the fight of our life's to hold and protect what we have, we owe it too our forefathers and their fathers to stand steadfast and united against a government with a reckless plan.

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  2. It would seem inevitable that strike action on a large scale is looming, it is a last restort but a necessarily action.

    Let start the organisation now! lets us put out the fulltime offical, to negotiate a freeze on mortgage payments,lets make sure rents are covered, lets stock those garages and huts with food supplies, get the tumbowler stales in action and the raising of funds, let get organised for the fight ahead, lockout pay is demeaning and the problem we had with the last big industrial action back in 1984, was the lack of support for strikers.

    Be prepared is the motto, it's a fight we got to win.

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