Dear friends
Our next Full Council Meeting will be on Wednesday 11th September 2019 at Friends Meeting House from 7.30pm.
It was decided by the EC that our next Full Council Meeting will have a
large section of the meeting open to the public and non-affiliated
unions.
We will have Jane Loftus, the national president of CWU to talk of the
anticipated second national ballot of postal workers, why the ballot is
taking place and what it will mean.
We also have a Annapurna Morley from the Youth Strike 4 Climate campaign
who are holding a day of national action and strikes on 20
th
September. It was felt that as well as their message being a crucial
one, their campaigning has been remarkably effective and that trade
unions should be standing shoulder to shoulder with them.
There will also be an opportunity for delegates to raise ongoing and new disputes.
Current Disputes
The Trades Council have been made aware by
UNITE Housing branch that workers at
St Mungo’s
are balloting for industrial action over plans to deskill the workforce
and leave experienced and committed workers high and dry in favour of
replacing them with lower paid staff. The Trades Council will share more
information on this as we get it however UNITE Housing have our full
support.
The
Hands Off Moulsecoomb Campaign to save Moulsecoomb
Primary School from forced academisation continues to build momentum. As
instructed by the Full Council I wrote to Gavin Williamson, Secretary
of State for Education outlining our deep concerns and unflinching
opposition to the forced academisation order. On the plus side, the
school scored excellently in results which supports the call for a
second OFSTED report. After a series of unanimous indicative “straw”
ballots”, members of the
GMB, UNISON and NEU are all poised ready for a school year of industrial action ahead unless the order is revoked.
The community of Peacehaven’s attempt through the High Court to stop East Sussex County Council handing over
Peacehaven Community School
to Swake Academy Trust came to a sad conclusion last week when Mr
Justice Nicklin essentially ruled that it was not up to communities who
run their schools. In the face of outrage from everyone concerned East
Sussex County Council then went so far as to attempt to recoup their own
legal costs from the community group challenging them! As the Trades
Council’s very own (and Secretary of
East Sussex NEU)
Phil Clarke
told The Argus “East Sussex County Council have lost the moral ground”
and even for Mr Justice Nicklin this was evidently a bridge too far as
ESCC were told to pay for their own damn legal costs!
Up at
Brighton University both
UCU and
UNISON
are going to ballot members over their pay (or rather, lack of it). The
1.5% offer is dwarfed by the rising cost of living in the city and is
against a backdrop of similar paltry below inflation pay increases over
several years. This trades council understand that ballot papers will be
going out to members any day now and will support both unions in any
action they take.
Brighton & Hove City Council recently announced plans to close
Knole House which provides temporary assisted living for vulnerable people. This is as a result of the
NHS Trust
withdrawing their half of the funding from the important service. This
closure will involve the loss of dozens of jobs as well as a cut in
hours for those who are lucky enough to find any redeployment in a BHCC
run sister service. The Local Authority have stated that they do not
envisage any compulsory redundancies (which they know will mean the
balloting of the entire
UNISON local government
branch!) but even the Voluntary Severance requests were added up not
everyone shares their shares their optism. Similarly, users of the
services at Knole House will not come out better for it either although
they are unlikely to be able to march, protest or strike over the
closure themselves. BHCC say that they cannot afford to run the service
without the NHS Trust bankrolling some of it however whether either the
NHS Trust or the council can afford the long term costs of
“bed-blocking” in NHS hospitals and the already beyond crisis point of
Social Services remains to be seen…
If your branch are involved in a dispute that you would like including in the next newsletter please email
brightontradescouncil@gmail.com
TWT at Labour Conference
The World Transformed are holding a huge 4 day festival (21
st – 24
th September) of art, music and politics during the Labour Conference in Brighton.
The line-up of speakers include Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Dianne
Abbott, Yanis Varoufakis, Ash Sarkar, Faiza Shaheen, Ken Loach,
Francesca Martinez, Kali Akuno and many more. There will also be
interactive activities, talks by Wetherspoon strikers, Acorn Tennant’s
Union and many more. Please ensure that you branches are aware of this
gargantuan event and come along to get involved.
The Trades Council have been invited to have a stall at some point during the festival so we will need a volunteer or two!
Boris Johnson Shuts Down Parliament!
Well that's a sentence I hoped that I would never have to write.
Anyhow, after the last minute mobilisation of hundreds of people in
Brighton on Wednesday night protesting against the far-right power grab -
a second
large protest has been organised on Saturday 31st August at The Level at midday. Please do head down and add your voice and that of the Trades Council.
