The Women Chainmakers Festival 2013

Every year the trade union movement gathers in the Midlands town of Cradley Heath to remember a great victory won by women workers. This year's festival is on Saturday 8 June and Notts TUC will be running a coach to the event, picking up in Mansfield and Nottingham.

The details are as follows:

Leaving the new Mansfield Bus station at 9am
Leaving the Forest Ground, Nottingham at 9.30am
Arriving at Cradley Heath for 11am
Leaving Cradley Heath at 5pm
Facebook event

If you'd like a seat (cost £5) on the coach please contact Lee Probert, Trades' Council Women's Officer, on 07919952252. First come, first served!

More about the strike

In 1910 women chainmakers in the Black Country struck for 10 weeks against sweatshop labour conditions and low pay. The previous year the Liberal government had acceded to campaigns against 'sweated labour' by creating wage boards to set wage levels in some industries.

The employers and middlemen in the chain making industries combined to ensure that no woman would receive the new higher wage. The middlemen pressured the often illiterate chainmakers to sign opt-out contracts, denying them the wage rise that was their due.

Torture chambers

When union organiser Maray Macarthur arrived in Cradley Heath in the Black Country she described the scenes she saw as 'white slaves working in torture chambers'. Women worked for 54 hours a week for a pittance, often taking their children to work. On discovering the duplicity of the employers in cheating the women out of their wage rise she set about organising the workers.

Strike!

For 10 weeks women chainmakers fought against the employers. They were well organised and knew how to use the new media of the time to spread their message. They printed placards which the oldest women chainmakers were photographed holding and shortly before the strike 10 million people all over the world saw a Pathe news reel film about the conditions the women worked under. The indefateaguable Mary Macarthur raised so much money for the strikers that they didn't lose a penny during the ten week strike, receiving full strike pay throughout.

In honour of the women of Cradley Heath, the annual Chainmakers Festival remembers their victory and reminds us that the struggles won by our ancestors are the basis for much of what we take for granted today. See our leaflet 'What have the unions done for us?' for more info about what unions have won for workers.

Find out more about the Chainmakers strike and Mary Macarthur:

Buy the book 'Breaking their Chains'
Hear Frances O'Grady discuss the strike on Radio 4
24 page booklet from NUT website

People's Assembly in Nottingham With Owen Jones and Tony Benn

The People's Assembly comes to Nottingham! Saturday 18 May with Tony Benn and Owen Jones.

Notts TUC are proud to support one of the fist People's Assemblies to bring together the anti austerity left and chart a new course for campaigners opposed to austerity.

The horror of the Bedroom Tax and other attacks on benefits show that this is a government intent on class war against the poor. They're forcing working people to pay for a crisis they didn't create, and using recession as a cloak for swingeing cuts.

The NHS is under attack. Doctors and medical professionals are telling us this is privatisation by the back door but our supine media don't seem able to report the facts as they are. It is up to us to build the campaigning movement needed to save the NHS future generations.

The People's Assembly is a series of Workshops with a final rally with Tony Benn and Owen Jones as key note speakers. You can find a list of speakers at our website. RSVP at the site to confirm your place and keep up with the latest news and events.

Join the Facebook event here and use it to invite your friends!

Government 'turning the screw' on unemployed

Commenting on recent reports about targets being set for jobcentre staff to sanction jobseekers, Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said:

"It is frankly appalling that, instead of creating jobs, the government is turning the screw on people who are entitled to benefits when there are around 14 times as many people who are unemployed or looking for more work as there are vacancies."

"Jobcentre staff did not join the employment service to be in conflict with claimants, they joined to help those in need, and jobcentres should not be used by ministers as battlegrounds for their political prejudices."

The union says ministers should come clean about how their benefits regime means that jobcentre advisers are routinely required to achieve targets or "expectations" for making referrals for sanctions.

It also says, given ministers continue to insist there are no targets  the practice of measuring advisers' performance, and placing them on formal improvement plans, in relation to issuing sanctions should end immediately.

PCS press release 23 March 2013

Notes

- For information and interview requests contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 07833 978216 or richard@pcs.org.uk

- PCS is the UK's sixth largest union and represents civil and public servants in central government and in parts of government transferred to the private sector. Mark Serwotka is the general secretary and the president is Janice Godrich - on Twitter @janicegodrich

- Follow PCS on Twitter @pcs_union

We oppose the bedroom tax - demonstration 16 March

At 1.00 pm on Saturday 16 March, in towns and cities across the UK, people will be coming together to say 'no' to this most foul of ConDem policies.  Protestors will gather at Speakers Corner, Nottingham Market Square (by the Cloughie statue).

A Government with a proven record of hitting the poorest hardest will introduce a tax that will hit the poor harder than ever.

From April 2013, council tax benefits claimants will see an average cut to their benefits of £14 per week on average - a devastating cut to disabled people, people whose children have flown the nest and working people on low incomes.

A Facebook group has been set up for this event:  http://www.facebook.com/events/613425092006763/



Following the protest, on Tuesday 19 March, there'll be a Campaign for Benefits Justice planning meeting at the New Mechanics Institute, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ from 7.00 pm

Notts TUC are proud to support both of these events!

Dunston Primary School NASUWT members in 3rd week of strike action

NASUWT members at Dunston Primary School will be taking their third round of strike action this Wednesday and Thursday ( 19th & 20th). Staff At Sin Fin Community school in Derby will also be on strike against Michael Gove's forced academy status.

Staff at Dunston Primary are angered that they have been monitored excessively by the head teacher since the beginning of term when Gove tried to loosen restrictions on observations as a precursor to cutting teachers' salaries. Teachers at Dunston have felt intimidated by the atmosphere created by this new regime and had no choice but to take strike action after discussions with the headteacher failed.

They will welcome support on their picket line in the morning between 8am and 9am. If you are not able to visit the picket line please send a message of support via Dave Wilkinson to:
DerbyshireNASUWTNEM@mail.com

See below for latest press release

Dunston Primary - Toby Perkins, MP, moves things forward, but strikes continue

Parents of children at Dunston Primary School, together with school staff, will be grateful to Toby Perkins, the school's MP, for convening a meeting with the NASUWT, the School Management, the Chair of Governors and the Local Authority, to try to reach an agreement to end the Dunston Primary School strikes. The meeting will take place on Thursday afternoon (20th December) in Mr Perkins' Constituency Office.

NASUWT welcomes Mr Perkins' intervention, which marks a refreshing change from three weeks of intransigence on the part of the governors and the Local Authority. Unfortunately, Mr Perkins' intervention is not sufficient, at the moment, to lead to this week's strikes being lifted. This is because the NASUWT has brought to the Local Authority's attention serious failings in the day to day management and governance of the school during the past three weeks, has asked for immediate action on the part of the Local Authority, and has not even received a courtesy response to the concerns it has raised.

I have made it clear today to Councillor Mike Longden, Derbyshire County Council Cabinet Member for Education, that if the Local Authority or School Governors act to address appropriately the serious concerns raised by the NASUWT, then the NASUWT strike action this week could be lifted. I have let Councillor Longden know that the NASUWT can lift this week's strike action any time up to 9pm tomorrow if the Local Authority is willing to face up to its responsibilities and take appropriate action to secure minimum standards of leadership and governance in the school. I therefore await Councillor Longden's call.

If this does not occur tomorrow, the strikes on 19th and 20th December 2012 will go ahead, although an opportunity will occur to reach agreement on Thursday to avoid strike action in the New Year.

Messages of support to: DerbyshireNASUWTNEM@mail.com

Lobby to Defend Council Tax Benefits Claimants 18 December

Local residents are lobbying councillors outside council offices at Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, next Tuesday, 18 December at 12.30pm as the council meet to discuss a proposed new Council Tax Benefit scheme following a city council consultation. Residents will also rally later in Nottingham Market Square at 5.30pm


The lobby has been organised by Notts Defend Council Tax Benefit Campaign whose contribution to the consultation described the proposals as “unworkable” and has been included in the Council’s consultation report. Some issues highlighted by the group may be addressed in the final scheme, but the group say the scheme has to go.
“The City needs to keep the current Council Tax Benefit scheme, which is a fully funded scheme based on need, and kick out the new scheme which will lead to cuts in benefit for the poorest in the city.”   Notts TUC are proud to support this campaign.

Trade Union members’ angry protest at “Scrooge” council



Nottingham City Council's "roll of shame"

  Over 100 angry members of Unison, GMB and Unite unions staged a peaceful but angry protest outside Nottingham City Council on Friday 14 December against the Council’s ‘broken promise’ over pay.

Protestors spoke of their anger and disgust at Nottingham City Council’s withdrawal a £250 payment to staff earning less the £21000 - despite Government recommendations that this should be paid.

The Defend Council Tax Benefits campaign, Gary Freeman,
addresses protestors

 Many staff working for the Council earn much less that £21000 and in many cases earn below the living wage rate of £7.45 per hour – a rate that many councils across the UK have agreed to pay to staff in recognition that this is the minimum people should be paid to enable them to pay their bills, feed and clothe their families and themselves without having to rely on tax credits and other state benefits.

One protestor said “Nottingham City Council have broken their promise to us. We have endured year after year of pay freezes and our staff are some of the lowest paid in the city. What sort of message does this send to us?”

Unison shop steward and protest organiser Jean Thorpe said “The Council are blackmailing staff, saying that jobs will be lost if the money is paid. That is a disgrace. They have broken a promise to staff who have worked hard to keep the city running this year and every year.”   The meeting was addressed by Paul Martin on behalf of the PCS union. He said “PCS members have faced year after year of pay freezes. For many, this amounts to a 20% real-terms cut in their pay over the last few years. We didn’t cause the economic mess that this Government are making worse.”

Meanwhile, another Labour controlled council, Ashfield, had recently agreed to pay their lowest paid staff the £250 payment. Justifying the payment, Councillor Mick Coppin said “Ashfield District Council workers have now endured three years of a pay freeze. Ashfield District Council sincerely appreciates the stalwart work, loyalty and commitment of all its staff and wishes to take this opportunity to publicly thank each and every one of them.”