'Always Look On The Sour Side of Life'

How Ken Loach Renders Reality on Film

Reviewing  'I, Daniel Blake' & the impact of 'Social Realism'

by Brian Bamford

Reverend David Grey, a former friar, at Ashton Jobcentre

THE film Ken Loach's 'I, Daniel Blake' had the biggest domestic opening of its director's career with receipts of more than £2 million after its first three weeks.  Audiences predictably have been massive in Newcastle where the film is staged.  But also on social media, where the hashtag #iamdanielblake took off.   It is to be released in the USA on December 23^rd.

The Euro-septic MP, Iain Duncan Smith at one point complained that the film was unkind to the staff at the job-centres and benefit offices, who were enforcing the sanctions which is central to the film's message.

As things turned out audiences in this country have been flocking to see the film, which portrays the difficulties experienced by a Newcastle joiner with an heart condition trying to make sense of the British benefit's system. 

Working class culture has a rich tradition in many post-war British films.  In 1996 I interviewed Jim Allen, one of Ken Loach's screen-writers and a former building site worker, who had just collaborated with Loach on the film 'Land & Freedom' about the Spanish Civil War, and had previously worked with him on 'Raining Stones' (1993). 

At that time in an essay entitled 'Rendering Reality on Film: art and the emotion racket' (The Raven, Spring 1996), I wrote:   

'... in Raining Stones in 1993 (based on a council estate in Middleton, Greater Manchester), they are  concerned with the problems of survival on the dole in Britain today.  How to get by on a council estate amid the loan sharks and drug pushers.  Making out and leading a decent family life, in the aftermath of an era of social blight and desperation for the poor that shows  no sign of ending in the near future.'

Loach himself is uneasy about being identified with 'social realism' because he thinks it pigeon-holes his films puts off the public, he has said:  'It's a way for critics to isolate someone's work... As a film-maker you just want people to come with an open mind.'

Some doubt the accuracy and truth of the events in the film, although Mr Iain Duncan Smith has given a radio interview in which he said:that the film showed 'the very worst of anything that could happen'.

The benefit agencies and jobcentres have long been held responsible for inflicting suffering upon people at the bottom of society's pile.  Only last week the National Audit Office which found that  the Government spent £147 million more on administering the system than was saved through sanctions.  In my capacity as a Trade Union Council Secretary in Tameside, Manchester, I recently wrote to Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS union that represents jobcentre workers:

'...  the protests at Ashton Jobcentre are now in their second year...  During the last two-years, staff working at Ashton Jobcentre, have made numerous complaints that they have felt threatened by protests taking place outside Ashton Jobcentre.  While this has often led to police intervention, no protestor has ever been arrested, cautioned, or rebuked in anyway.  The police have often considered these complaints, as time-wasting or baseless...  You may be interested to know that on one occasion, the Reverend David Grey, a former friar from Gorton Monastery, entered Ashton Jobcentre dressed in clerical vestments (see picture) to offer staff spiritual guidance and counselling..  We were later told that the Jobcentre had summoned the police on the pretext that staff felt threatened and intimidated by this man of God.'

This kind of corny confrontation between the British benefit bureaucracy and the claimants has been going on for as long as I can remember.  It's an authentic long-running farce played out daily up and down the country.  Towards the end of the film, Daniel Blake asks to sign-off as a claimant saying that applying for work with a heart condition like his was just wasting everyone's time and only served to humiliate him as a claimant.   The film critic Antonia Quirke has written:  'Very few people can hit you in the thoracic cavity like Loach.  Of course I cried, as I always do...'.

This is what my mother would have called a 'tear jerker' or Bertold Brecht the 'emotion racket', but while social realism may scare some off the cinema Danny Leigh in the Financial Times suggests:

'That is the essence of modern social realism – a place on the screen for people often seen as statistics'.

The film has already won the Palm d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and has scored as  a hit at the British box office. 

General Strike anniversary

90 years since the 1926 General Strike – learn the lessons to fight back!

NINETY years ago today, millions of workers were taking part in the General Strike to defend the miners from a brutal Tory government.  The NSSN along with militant unions has championed the idea of generalised strike action to face down Tory austerity and their planned anti-union laws. 

The PCS National Vice-President John McInally celebrates the 1926 General Strike and draws out the lessons for today’s generation of trade union fighters:

'The 90^th anniversary of the general strike of 1926 allows us to reflect on the potential of the working class through their own organisations - the trade unions - to organise and fight back against attacks on their terms and conditions.

'But the current generation of conservative union leaders will also no doubt use this anniversary to expound a defeatist narrative, best expressed at the 2012 TUC Congress during a debate on the feasibility of calling a general strike, that “..we tried that once and it didn’t work”.  This cynical, ignorant statement seeks to re-write history as a series of defeats to prove industrial action is pointless and that gains made through generations of struggle were actually gifted to us by a munificent ruling class.

'In fact in 1972 the very threat of a general strike forced the government to resurrect archaic legal procedures in order to release jailed Dockers from Pentonville prison.  In 2011 public sector workers saw a glimpse of their massive latent strength during the two million strong N30 pensions strike that was sold out by cynical “leaders” who choreographed a “settlement” with Tory ministers that robbed them of pension rights.  The 1984-85 Miners strike is also cited as “proof” that struggle is useless and only “diplomatic” entreaties can restrain the bosses from implementing the worst aspects of a never-ending race to the bottom.  But with solidarity action from the rest of the union movement, Thatcher could have been defeated then.

'Leadership now as then is critical.  In 1926, the Daily Mail accurately described the  general strike as a “revolutionary move” but with the purpose of frightening the Labour Party and union leaders, which it did.

'Jeremy Hunt’s imposition of unacceptable contracts on junior doctors is a key stage in privatising our National Health Service and he seeks to intimidate them but also warn off right-wing union leaders by claiming the strikers aim to overthrow the government.

'My union PCS along with the Fire Brigades Union called on the TUC general council to call a day of action in support of the junior doctors. The TUC must, as a matter of priority, reconsider their decision not to support this call.

'The real lesson of the general strike is not that we can’t win but with determined leadership, workers can secure priceless victories.'

Special Demonstration Squad Spied on Workers

NEWLY uncovered documentary evidence shows how police officers infiltrated campaigns by construction workers protesting against deaths on building sites. The documents include a series of letters written to and from Mark Jenner, an undercover officer from the discredited Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), who during the late 1990s claimed to be a carpenter while infiltrating the construction union UCATT.  Using the cover name of Mark Cassidy, the spycop ingratiated himself with the Colin Roach Centre (formerly known as Hackney Trade Union Resource Centre) and targeted a series of trade unions and union backed campaigns, attending union branches, conferences, picketlines and pay talks.   

The new documents give an insight into how deeply, the police went to embed themselves into even grassroots union campaigns. On 21st March 1997, Cassidy / Jenner  wrote a letter to a number of different organisations regarding the 'Building Workers Safety Campaign',which he describes as a 'rank and file organisation run by building workers', asking for support in getting 'information on deaths on building sites' in order to visit 'the site within one week after the event and ask workers to stop work'. The police authored letter continued: 'We believe that only by hitting production can we hope to stop the killings on building sites'. This was in 1997, when the fatality rates in construction were averaging around 3 deaths a week. 

The identical letter was sent to a number of trade union bodies including Haringey UNISON, Hammersmith UNISON, TGWU North London Textile branch and civil servants in the CPSA union (forerunner to PCS). The police spy also sent the letter to the charity 'Inquest' that provides free legal advice to people bereaved by a death in police custody. Why a charity dealing with deaths in custody would be an obvious source of information about deaths on building sites is difficult to fathom but raises questions of public interest about what the undercover police officer was trying to achieve.   

One response from the local authority funded and well respected safety charity the London Hazards Centre, identifies HSE inspectors, the Coroners Office and the local police as sources of information but highlights that the authorities 'can be very tight lipped when it comes to giving out information' - this no doubt brought a smile to Jenner's face when reading it.  

The documents were uncovered by Brian Higgins, a 75 year old Glaswegian grandfather and blacklisted retired bricklayer based in Northampton who was the national secretary of the rank & file Building Worker Group (BWG). Brian Higgins has been granted 'core participant' status in the Pitchford public inquiry into undercover policing alongside a number of other union activists from the Blacklist Support Group, as information gathered by police officers appears on a number of blacklist files kept on construction workers by the notorious Consulting Association. 

Brian Higgins commented: 

'The police would be infinitely better employed investigating, prosecuting and jailing the corporate criminals responsible for the killing and maiming of many building workers, rather than spying on those of us who dedicate our industrial lives to trying to put a stop to this wanton carnage and the terrible grief which accompanies it. Intelligence gathered by these police spies has found its way onto an illegal blacklist in the construction industry. They say justice never sleeps: time it woke up over this!'

Alison (not her real name) was the female activist that Mark Jenner deceived into a long term relationship and lived with during his deployment.  It was from their shared address in Hackney that the undercover police officer joined the construction union UCATT and became a regular attendee at the Hackney branch meetings.  Alison is one of the women that has received an unreserved apology and compensation from the Metropolitan Police for the abuse and human rights violations they suffered due to the activities of undercover police.  Alison recalls having numerous conversations about the building industry and trade union campaigns which she describes as 'a key part of his work' and 'a big part of what he was doing during this period'.  

Another trade unionist who was spied upon by Mark Jenner and has been granted core participant in the Pitchford inquiry is the RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary, Steve Hedley.  He commented: 

'Mark Jenner gained my confidence and even stayed at my mothers home in Ireland. When I learned that he was a police spy I was dumbfounded .Why the police would be interested in a trade unionist like me is quite frankly astonishing. All my activities were open and transparent and usually even minuted. What kind of a society are we living in, when the state feels it's necessary to employ people at the taxpayers expense to snoop on people carrying out perfectly legal activities?'

Blacklist Support Group

book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCa8yQmZ70

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/

Putting Tameside TUC in its Place!

Manchester TUC: They Know Their Swedish Meatballs!

LAST June, in a posting on this Blog, Blanco Posnet  wrote:
‘… a former Public and Commercial Services Union (P.C.S) representative, John Pearson, was confronted by an angry Jobcentre worker outside Ashton Jobcentre, who rebuked him for displaying a P.C.S placard while protesting against benefit sanctions. Although the P.C.S union have called on their members to support groups campaigning against the Tory Government's sanctioning regime, the member of staff, (who we understand to be the P.C.S union rep at Ashton Jobcentre), denied any knowledge of this.'

Then on the 6^th, August, Blanco Posnet  posted something entitled ‘Are Ashton Jobcentre acting like NAZI's?’, which included the following:
‘… only last week a meeting took place in Ashton between P.C.S. union representatives and two invited activists who have been campaigning against the governments iniquitous sanctions regime outside Ashton Jobcentre, for the past 12 months.  The meeting was initiated by Annette Wright (pictured above) a union official of the P.C.S union and President of Manchester Trades Council, and Evan Pritchard, a lay branch official from the Greater Manchester Unite Community Union.’
After a meeting today of the Greater Manchester County Association, the union officer, Annette Wright, was asked by a Northern Voices’ journalist as to what was the constitutional status of the meeting referred to above which was held at Ikea, famous for its Swedish meatballs, in Ashton-under-Lyne.  She said that it was convened as a joint meeting of the PCS, and the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch.
Blanco Posnet had also written, last August: 
‘… it seems that much of the time [at this meeting] was taken up in admonishing Charlotte Hughes, a leading figure in the campaign…. [and that] Ms. Hughes, a “hardworking” single-mother with four children, who runs a blog – ‘The Poor Side of Life’, a weekly diary of events outside Ashton Jobcentre – was asked to remove items from her blog concerning Ashton Jobcentre and the P.C.S. union.’  When this was raised today by the Tameside delegate in his report at the Greater Manchester County Association of Trade Union Councils, Ms. Wright became flushed in the face and her colleague from Manchester TUC, John Clegg,(bottom right of picture), was heard to utter a four-letter word, and both began hectoring the Tameside delegate.  Even the Northern Voices' Blog was mentioned in their excitable ejaculations. 
Oh dear! 
Both Mr Clegg, and Ms. Wright insisted that the matter had been resolved, and said that it was not a matter for the Trade Councils of Greater Manchester.  Ms. Wright claimed that Charlotte Hughes had not complained of her treatment, and that everything was amicable.  The duo then went on to lambaste Tameside TUC, which has helped to finance the campaign against unfair benefit sanctions in Tameside.  
After the meeting was over,  Ms. Wright was asked when she was going to put in an appearance on the picket outside the Ashton Jobcentre. 
To which, reply came there none!

National Gallery on indefinate strike

FROM PCS website: First day of National Gallery all-out strike "stronger than ever" (11 August) - Indefinite strike action by PCS members at the National Gallery against privatisation and victimisation started Tuesday, 11 August.

The members, who first walked out in February over plans to privatise visitor and security services, have already taken a total of 55 days' action.  

The action is being escalated because the gallery has brought forward the announcement of the appointment of private security firm Securitas to manage the visitor-facing and security services on a 5-year contract reportedly worth £40million.   About 300 gallery assistants who guard paintings and help visitors will be affected. They will no longer be employed by the gallery and will instead work for Securitas.  

The striking members have walked out today and plan to stay out indefinitely until management offer a settlement.  

PCS industrial officer Paul Bemrose said:

'The mood on the picket line today was upbeat and members are feeling positive.  There was a picket line of about 30 members and we have heard that more rooms inside the Gallery have been closed than on previous strike days.'  

Victimisation

Lead rep Candy Udwin was suspended on the eve of the strike and then sacked.  While her colleagues at the gallery were out in force today on the picket lines in Trafalgar Square, she was attending an appeal hearing with gallery management.   

Earlier an employment tribunal interim relief judgement ruled that it was likely she had been unfairly dismissed for trade union activities.  

Urgent appeal

PCS is paying strike pay of 50% to the striking members, but many are still facing hardship. You can help the campaign in a number of ways by:

• organising a collection at your workplace
• donating to sort code 08-60-01; Account Number 20169002
• sending cheques to PCS Culture Media and Sport Association, c/o PCS North West Region, Jack Jones House, 1 Islington, Liverpool L3 8EG
• donating via PayPal
• showing your support by visiting the picket lines, which will be outside the gallery between 9-11am every strike day

For latest news of strike go to www.pcs.org.uk and follow #NationalGallery & @NGNotForSale on twitter

Crewe Conference of Trade Union Councils

Where Are The Workers?

THE Sunday Times in an editorial following the May 2015 elections declared:

'Trade unionism is a minority cause.  The days of an economy dominated by large manufacturing industries are long past.  The proportion of private sector employees who belong to a trade union is just 14%.' 

Last weekend's Crewe Conference dramatically displayed the gulf between private sector trade unionism, and  public sector unions like the PCS.  Some eight Motions were dedicated to the attacks on trade unions and about half referred to the PCS union.  Other Motions  expressed concern about the representation of the working class following the defeat of the Labour Party in the General Election.   

A Motion 7. from Cardiff noted 'attacks by local government on union branches' and the 'clear intention of (Francis) Maude and the Tories is to destroy PCS financially by withdrawing the check-off from government departments'.  From the building trade, a UCCAT delegate questioned this domination of the public sector when things were so bad on the building sites, and the anarcho-syndicalist trade unionist Dave Chapple from Bridgewater TUC, challenged the call in Motion 17. from Merseyside TUC that the TUC should 'wave affiliation fees from [the] PCS [union]'. 

Similarly the reference to the 'blacklisting and victimisation of union reps' in Motion 7. must strike people working in the British industrial wild west of the building sites as strange, when they have suffered for donkey's years from blacklisting on a massive scale.  To a former blue collar worker like myself; the delegate from UCATT; the thousands of workers in the British building trade; and even a postman like Dave Chapple, the Secretary of Bridgewater TUC who said that his delegates 'would be displeased if the PCS delegates had their affiliation fees waved'; the plight of the PCS would seem somewhat feather-bedded.


In Spain, in the famous anarchist trade union, the CNT, there were times when the land-labourers of Andalucia had their union dues waved because of the hardship they suffered through the irregular work pattern in the field with unpredictable harvests:  the anarcho-syndicalist industrial workers in the factories of Catalonia and Barcelona were more than willing to shoulder the costs of their Andalucian brothers and sisters. 

But, comparing the English PCS union today to the Spanish trade union confederation the CNT of the 1930s is like comparing a white-collar pygmy to an industrial giant: it just doesn't bear comparison on any scale of reference. 
In 1966, I led a raid with group of Manchester anarchists on my local dole office in Rochdale to obtained a my labour exchange file.  When we examined my file compiled by Labour Exchange staff (the kind of people who are now members of the PCS) we found that it contained a section marked 'Derog' in this derogatory dossier, as part of my labour exchange record since I was involved in the national apprentice strike in 1960, there was a stream of derogatory references entered by those law abiding employees at the Rochdale Labour Exchange who had interviewed me over the years after I'd been sacked after the apprentice strike up to 1966 when we purloined my dole documents. 

It's nice to know that the people in the Labour Exchanges of the 1960s, and would now be members of the PCS union working in Job Centres, were routinely black-balling me back then and for all I know may still be blacklisting claimants now.  Yet, these people in the PCS, who operated as willing blacklisters of working people in the 1960s, are now asking me and my Trade Union Council for support because the Government, to which they have been for years the loyal  servants of the State is getting at them. 
I have a heart, but isn't this kind of cant and humbug asking rather too much of me under the circumstances?

Protesters call on Jobcentre' workers to join campaigns against benefit sanctions!

Protesters who are campaigning against the Government's unfair sanctioning regime outside a Jobcentre in Ashton-under-Lyne, are calling on Jobcentre workers to join their protest and to support their own union's opposition to the 'draconian' sanctioning regime within Jobcentre's.

Last week,  a former Public and Commercial Services Union (P.C.S) representative, John Pearson, was confronted by an angry Jobcentre worker outside Ashton Jobcentre, who rebuked him for displaying a P.C.S placard while protesting against benefit sanctions. Although the P.C.S union have called on their members to support groups campaigning against the Tory Government's sanctioning regime, the member of staff, (who we understand to be the P.C.S union rep at Ashton Jobcentre), denied any knowledge of this.

At their last conference, P.C.S delegates voted for a motion that called on P.C.S members to:

a) Support initiatives that seek to undermine and expose the draconian sanction regime that exists in Jobcentres.

b) Encourage campaign activity with local groups around the issue of sanctions.

c) Actively support staff who are targeted with disciplinary action for using their discretion when considering sanction referrals.

d) Raise the profile of the issues around the government's war on the poor.

As we recently reported, the scale and persistence of poverty in Britain, has led to many people in work, becoming increasingly reliant on in-work state benefits as welfare is being used to top-up poverty pay. Some 40% of staff who work in Jobcentres, qualify for the state benefit 'Universal Credit'.

One of the reasons for low pay, is the inability of many British workers to demand a bigger share of national wealth because their trade unions are shackled by some of the most stringent anti-union laws in the western world. These laws, or legal hurdles, are intended to make it difficult for unions to take official industrial action to obtain better terms and conditions of employment. One consequence of this, is the 'flexible labour market' - zero hours contracts, low pay, temporary jobs and more agency work.

Apart from low-pay, Britain is also plagued by low productivity and a skills shortage. UK productivity is 14-15 percentage points lower than France and 17 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7,  in 2013. The British economy under the Tories is being built on low wages and low productivity and is heavily reliant on its financial sector.

As we head towards another referendum as to whether the UK will continue to be a member of the EEC, we should perhaps recall a speech that was made at Upminster by the Tory grandee, Sir Keith Joseph, in June 1974. In that speech, given seventeen months after the UK joined the EU in January 1973, he said:

"Compare our position today with that of our neighbours in Germany, Sweden, Holland, France. They are no more talented than we are. Yet, compared with them, we have the longest working hours, the lowest pay, and the lowest production per head. We have the highest taxes and the lowest investment. We have the least prosperity, the most poor and the lowest pensions."

It seems, that even after forty years, some things in Britain never change. We still have low pay, low productivity, long working hours compared to many other EU countries, less holidays and poorer state pensions. The only thing that as changed, is the excuses that are given by politicians for Britain's economic decline. Back in June 1974, Sir Keith, didn't blame Britain's membership of the EU or immigration for Britain's economic failure. He told his audience, that it was all the fault of the Labour Party and socialism.

"Okey cokey pig in a pokey" - Ashton Jobcentre gets uppity over protesters placard!

The weekly protests outside Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre, have attracted the attention of various media organisations, but not the local press in Tameside. The only local newspaper now in business in Tameside, the Reporter and Chronicle, is owned by the housing company, New Charter Housing Trust Ltd under the guise of 'Piccolo Communications'. The housing company, which has close links to Tameside Council, also owns Tameside Radio and are involved in delivering the 'Troubled Families' agenda with the council. Under this initiative, the Conservative Government have identified 120,000 'persistently anti-social families'. However, it later emerged that this figure was actually a measure of social deprivation and not behaviour. Unemployed single-parents, have been designated 'troubled families' by Ashton Jobcentre and referred to the scheme because they were not considered to be doing enough to look for work.

On Thursday, researchers from NINELIVES.media.co.uk, called at Ashton Jobcentre and spoke to protesters. They are making a television documentary for Channel 4's 'Dispatches', about welfare and benefit reforms and want to speak to people in receipt of in-work state benefits about how reforms are affecting them. Anyone who is receiving JSA, Universal Credit or Working Tax Credits, and wishes to speak to 'Dispatches' on a 'confidential basis', should contact - Jessica Bell or Jane Drinkwater directly on 0161 832 2007 or jessica.bell@ninelivesmedia.co.uk and jane.drinkwater@ninelivesmedia.co.uk

Many people are often unaware of the extent to which state welfare is being used to subsidise poverty pay in Britain. Today, only one-in-eight people who are receiving housing benefit, are not in work. In other words, people who are in work, are often unable to pay their rent because they are not paid enough. State benefits have become the prop for the failure of capitalism to deliver decent jobs and wages. Since 1980, unemployment has averaged more than three-times the post-war rate, while the proportion of those in low-paid jobs, has doubled to over 20%. Britain is the only country in the G7 group of leading economies where inequality has increased this century. (Credit Suisse - annual global wealth report - October 2014, P.33). Yet, while many of us have got poorer, this has coincided with a boom in the number of rich and super-rich in Britain. Those people who can least afford it, have paid the price for the man-made financial crisis caused by the bankers and politicians.

Even people who work in the Jobcentre are not immune from poverty pay. According to Mark Serwotka, the General Secretary of the PCS trade union, some 40% of his members who work in the Jobcentre, do qualify for the state handout Universal Credit, because they are "fantastically low-paid." Yet these very same people who are in receipt of state benefits, are often the ones, who vilify claimants and stop their benefits in order to meet government sanction targets.

With the introduction of the Tories 'Universal Credit' (UC), things are likely to get a lot worse in terms of personal scrutiny, regulation, and control.  One aspect of Universal Credit, is what is termed 'conditionality', and this will have implications for anyone who is in work and is claiming Universal Credit, JSA, or Working Tax Credits. As with the unemployed, people in receipt of in-work benefits, will be required to attend regular Jobcentre interviews and could face sanctions (loss of benefits), if they fail to carry out directions given to them by the Jobcentre, such as being required to look for better paid work or to increase the hours that they already work.

Some Jobcentre staff in other areas of the country, have been disciplined for not sanctioning enough people on benefits and opposition to the Government's harsh sanctioning regime is growing. At the last PCS conference, it was agreed that PCS members would be encouraged to support local groups campaigning against sanctions and would support initiatives that sought to undermine and expose, the draconian sanction regime that exists in Jobcentres. However, this is unlikely to make much of an impression on staff working at Ashton Jobcentre, who have been heard boasting in the local Caledonian pub in Ashton, about the number of 'dole-ites', they have sanctioned that week.  On Thursday, one diminutive and stroppy female member of staff, came out of Ashton Jobcentre accompanied by a G4S security guard and admonished a demonstrator, for carrying a PCS placard, which she objected to. "I know who your are" she told the burly protester. With hardening attitudes like this, it seems likely that these protesters are in it for the long haul. 

PCS Strike at ICO

Staff at the Information Commissioner’s Office are to hold a three day strike over pay

The strike on 26 and 27 February and 2 March follows a two day strike on 3 and 4 February which was solidly supported by around 95% of members and disrupted the ICO’s helpline, casework services and external speaking engagements. Around 20 PCS members staffed picket lines at the ICO’s main office in Wilmslow on both days.

PCS members are striking to demand fair pay for all staff after three senior executives were awarded average increases of 11%. Pay rates for the rest of staff remain significantly lower than those for equivalent jobs in the civil service and at other regulators, leading to problems with recruitment and retention.

ICO management are refusing to improve a pay offer and have instead taken the confrontational step of issuing individual letters to staff threatening that the offer may be withdrawn. A majority of staff have refused to agree the changes and are demanding ICO management return to negotiations to reach a collective agreement with PCS.

PCS members have been left with no option but to strike again. The strike will disrupt the ICO’s Data Protection Practitioner (DPP) conference in Manchester on 2 March, which will be attended by around 750 delegates. PCS will lobby delegates on the day of the conference to highlight the ICO’s low pay problem.

Branch secretary Paddy Dillon said: “PCS members at the ICO are determined to demand fair pay for all staff, not just the most highly paid executives. They have made it absolutely clear that they want ICO management to reach a collective agreement with their union rather than take the divisive step of issuing individual letters.”
Messages of support can be sent to icobranchpcs@gmail.com
Not a PCS member? Join today for protection at work.

Pressure to penalise claimants

FRESH evidence that job centre managers routinely put pressure on staff to impose financial penalties on benefit claimants has been submitted to the Commons work and pensions select committee inquiry into sanctions.

Documents produced by the PCS union at the committee’s request present a series of emails from Job Centre Plus managers which the union says show that staff who fail to instigate or approve enough sanctions are subject to performance reviews.

It says the emails reveal how staff are pressurised to meet sanctions targets, seemingly regardless of whether the penalty is appropriate. Staff who do not meet “expectations” are given a “must improve” rating by managers and in some cases are denied performance-based pay rises, it says.

A sanction involves the stopping of claimants’ benefit payments for at least four weeks – equivalent to almost £300 – as a penalty for breaching benefit rules and conditions, typically failure to look for work or attend jobcentre appointments.

The PCS disputes the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) claim that sanctions targets do not exist and that sanctions are only imposed as a “last resort”.

The Union states:

This is a Kafka-esque situation in which the department denies any targets as it penalises its own staff for not meeting these targets

The PCS says that in one region individual job centres were given colour ratings of red (bad) or green (good) depending on whether they had met targets to sanction job seekers, incapacity benefit claimants, and recipients of income support.

Staff attending a regional briefing last month at which the ratings were unveiled were told that “off-flows” (the removal of claimants from the unemployment register) would help deliver savings to the welfare budget.

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ACCORDING to the union, staff were told the internal publication of the ratings helped offices “see how their performance translates into monetary savings for the country”.

Other emails purport to show how staff are encouraged to use the “hassle factor” to “frustrate claimants off benefits” by imposing increasingly onerous claimant commitments on customers - typically, stringent targets for job searches or the imposition of daily signing-on requirements.
In one email a Job centre manager queries why only two claimants failed to meet their commitments from the 916 interviewed that month, and suggests tighter conditions must be imposed if official sanctions level expectations are to be met.

The employment minister Esther McVey is likely to be asked about the allegations when she appears before the select committee on Wednesday morning.

The PCS evidence follows separate written submissions to the committee by two former jobcentre employees who alleged that officials set up “hit squads” to target benefit claimants for sanctions and put pressure on them to sign off the dole.

Latest official figures show that 918,000 claimants were sanctioned between April 2013 and March 2014 for apparently breaching benefits rules. Sanctions rates have risen sharply since 2010, and soared since tighter conditions were introduced in Autumn 2012.

Job centre staff who fail to make sufficient sanctions referrals are placed on Performance Improvement Plans, which can result in them losing out on annual pay awards, the union claims.
It says it has been inundated by staff complaining about the pressure to sanction claimants and meet sanctions targets, which it says are

Skewing the role of our members in jobcentres and polluting the relationship between jobcentre advisors and claimants

A spokesman for the DWP said there was “nothing new” in the claims. He added:

In return for their benefits, claimants are asked to do everything they can to look for work, and more than 70 per cent say they are more likely to follow the rules if they know they risk having their benefits stopped. 

With the record number of vacancies, it’s right that claimants are asked whether they are doing enough to find a job. There are no targets for sanctions.

PCS MEMBERS CALL ON THEIR UNION TO SUPPORT UNFAIRLY DISMISSED PCS REP!

Rank and file union reps and members of the Public and Commercial Services Union have sent an open letter to General Secretary Mark Serwotka demanding greater support for reps and members in employment tribunals.

The letter, published online here, was initially motivated by the case of John Pearson. John was a PCS rep at Hewlett-Packard, who was sacked as a result of his trade union activities during a dispute over job cuts.
John was forced to pay the Employment Tribunal fees and engage a private solicitor to fight his automatically unfair dismissal claim, after union officials refused to support him, asserting that his claim had ‘no reasonable prospect of success’. The tribunal vindicated John and his supporters by finding that he had been unfairly dismissed and that the principal reason was his activities as part of an independent trade union.


Following on from the verdict, the open letter to Mark Serwotka demands: “Full support for John from PCS as he pursues reinstatement following his ET verdict, and full recompense for the legal costs he has paid at his own expense” as well as “A written guarantee that reps and activists victimised by their employer will receive full and unwavering support when fighting that victimisation, by all available means including ET, as a point of principle.”

Strikes in October & NSSN

THE next phase of the strikes to break the ConDem pay freeze will start in under 3 weeks’ time.

The decision of yesterday’s PCS NEC ensures that up to a million and half public sector workers from Unison, PCS, Unite, GMB, UCU and NIPSA will be striking in 3 consecutive days of action. The health unions had already
decided to strike for four hours on October 13. The day after, council workers and FE lecturers will be out followed by civil servants on October 15.

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) gives full support to these workers, which can be a step up from the million-strong July 10 strike. We call on everyone to support the action – visit the picket lines and join in any strike rallies. But at the end of that week on Saturday October 18, get on the TUC’s ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ demonstration in London.

The pay strikes are back on…this fight can be won!

Read from the following union websites:-
PCS -
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/national-strike-on-15-october-pcs-to-join-72-hours-of-action-in-public-sector

Unison - http://www.unison.org.uk/news/nhs-england-action-set-for-13-october

NIPSA -
http://www.nipsa.org.uk/News/News-Releases/2014/NIPSA-Members-to-Strike-on-14-October-2014

UCU - http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=7206&from=1676

Blacklist Support Group: May update

1. Government refuses to support blacklisted workers:

After a 3 year investigation into blacklisting, the Scottish Affairs Select Committee report proposed a number of recommendations to eradicate blacklisting. The cross party report by MPs called for no public contracts to be awarded to blacklisting firms until they prove they have "self-cleansed". This included paying compensation at levels agreed by the trade unions, direct employment on future public contracts and a procedure to ensure that blacklisted workers are not denied jobs in the future. The proposals were sent to the government but unfortunately they have all been disregarded by both the governments in Scotland and Westminster.

The response by Ian Davidson, chair of the Select Committee is in this link:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/scottish-affairs-committee/news/publication-of-report-blacklisting-in-employment-update/

http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/government-has-not-learnt-the-lessons-of-the-blacklisting-scandals/ 

2. Employment Agency exposed as running blacklist of pro-union workers:

A Danish TV programme has exposed ongoing blacklisting by the employment agency Atlanco Rimec. The agency operates in the UK and Ireland in the construction industry. The Scottish Affairs Select Committee have stated that they will open up further investigations into ongoing blacklisting following this revelation.

http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Andre_sprog/English/2014/05/12/131454.htm

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/wider-political-news/blacklist-allegations-spark-new-inquiry.24243603 

3. UCATT Conference:

UCATT national delegates conference last week unanimously passed a motion calling for a full public inquiry into blacklisting and in support of the Shrewsbury Pickets.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-4bf6-Ucatt-members-back-campaign-for-public-probe-into-blacklisting#.U3p0fPldUud

4. Recent blacklisting protests have taken place at Alder hey Hospital in Liverpool where Laing O'Rourke and Crown House continue to blacklist union activists and at the Scottish parliament during the debate about the proposed procurement Bill. Great stuff everyone who took part (pix attached).

5. Friday 23rd May - sparks day of action against agencies:

Following the recent changes in the rules on self-employment there have been a number of industrial disputes involving agency workers demanding to be taken on the cards directly. Some of the sites have been successful, with workers either taken on directly by the contractor or the agency, while other agencies have developed an "umbrella" scheme to avoid the law. The UNITE construction rank & file under the banner of 'Site Worker' paper are organising a series of actions across the UK on Friday 23rd May against agencies who are refusing to take workers on the cards. Blacklisted workers will be participating in the events in London, Manchester, Wales, North East and Midlands

For further details contact: siteworkers@virgingmedia.com 

6. PCS Conference:

Blacklisting is being discussed at a fringe meeting about undercover police at PCS conference in Brighton this Wednesday evening. 

Keep the Faith

Dave

 

Blacklist Support Group

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCa8yQmZ70

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/ 

Hewlett Packard suspends Branch Secretary for representing PCS members!

Industrial action by PCS members at Hewlett Packard has been resumed after compulsory redundancy notices were issued last month. About 50 PCS members, at Lytham St. Annes, Newcastle and Sheffield, were amongst approximately a hundred who received notice at these sites, where IT services are provided for the Department of Work & Pensions. Many more have taken voluntary redundancy.

Shortly before the sackings took place, HP had given notice of imposition of its 1.6% pay offer. The long running dispute, which had previously seen a one day strike on 29th April, is over both the 2013 pay claim for PCS members covered by collective bargaining and job security. HP has declared its intention to concentrate work at ‘strategic delivery hubs’, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Erskine, Scotland with its other sites being run down. It is also sacking permanent staff whilst continuing to recruit in large numbers, graduates on lower rates of pay.

There is controversy too, over HP’s receipt from the Scottish Government of a £7 million Regional Selective Assistance grant. The company had told the funding authority, Scottish Enterprise, that the grant money would go towards investment in creating 720 new jobs. The union claims that HP is merely moving to Erskine, work that was previously done by the people whom it is sacking on its English sites.
Two further days of strike action took place on 24th and 25th July and a work to rule resumed from 26th July.

Meanwhile, the Branch Secretary of the PCS HP North West Branch, John Pearson, remains suspended, charged with breaching company confidentiality by sending details of the redundancy selection job pools to his branch's members. 


On 4th July, John received a warning from a HR manager that he risked disciplinary action if he accepted invitations to represent members in grievance and disciplinary cases. He has now received an instruction to attend a disciplinary meeting on Wednesday 7th August. The letter conveying the instruction to attend the disciplinary meeting contained details of a second charge :


"Failure to follow HP and client policies and processes in respect of press interviews : On 22 April, you were quoted in a Tech Week Europe article and referenced HP's work on the launch of the Universal Credit, part of its DWP account. No prior permission was sought from either HP or the DWP, contrary to HP's Confidentiality Policy and the DWP publicity request process".


The second charge illustrates perhaps even more clearly than the first that HP is aiming to destroy the very concept of an independent trade union, requiring elected officers to seek the employer's permission to talk to the press on matters affecting their members.

In view of this attack on the union, it is a cause for concern that, in the apparently simple matter of publicising on the union’s official website a brief article on John’s case calling for messages of solidarity and support for an online petition  to the Managing Director of HP, there has been several weeks of bureaucratic delay.

Messages of support should be sent to : pcs_nw@hotmail.com

PCS Walkouts in Defence of Jobs

PCS national programme of action in defence of jobs, pay and conditions. Come and support the one hour walkouts this week in Manchester:

1. Equality & Human Rights Commission, Arndale Centre , 11.00-12.00, Wednesday 8 May. Picket on Corporation St, opposite Selfridges.

2. British Council, 11.00 -12.00, Friday 10 May. Picket on Whitworth St between Oxford St and Princess St.

Fore more information go to:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/id/EF876480-F8B2-450D-83294E07286780FE

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/5ED34771-99A1-4C1D-8ED919ED7CBB88DD

In Solidarity,

Richard Lighten

Secretary, Manchester Trades Union Council

secmtuc@gmail.com

07841411013

manchestertuc.org

Ashton-under-Lyne: Universal Credit

YESTERDAY saw a small demonstration at mid-day outside Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall in Tameside, called by the PCS union against a pilot scheme which was just introduced to test the consequences of the Government's proposed new Universal credit to try to simplify a range of benefits into a single benefit:  the proposal is to combine JSA, ESA, IS, Housing Benefit and tax credits.  It is estimated that 8 million households will get this universal credit (UC).  Optimistically, the Government hopes this scheme will be implemented during the four years from 2013 to 2017.

The demo yesterday was sup[ported by Alec McFadden, the TUC-JCC representative for the North West and manager of Salford Unemployed Centre, supporters of Salford Against the Cuts, and delegates from Tameside Trade Council.  John Pearson and other members of the PCS union, Alec McFadden and Barry Woodling (Salford Against the Cuts and the Northern Anarchist Network[NAN]) addressed the gathering.

There are fears that this new benefit will lead to less benefits for claimants and to administrative problems within the benefit system.  Even the Government seems nervous as witnessed by the introduction of this small and cautious pilot in Ashton which only applies to a few postcodes in the tameside area.  Later some of the demonstrators led by delegates from Tameside TUC went to leaflet outside the local Job Centre, where many of the media had congregated.  There the press officer for the Dept. of Work & Pensions [DWP]/ Job Centre told Barry Woodling that the scheme was operating well so far.  Some leafleters were distributing a flyer criticising the 'Bedroom Tax'.

Ashton-under-Lyne and Tameside is an interesting as in the 1990s it was one of the areas that was foremost in challenging the Job Seeker's Allowance.

Welfare Week 29 April- 5 May:

PCS is spearheading a united campaign against welfare cuts alongside other trade unions and charities. 

PCS will have a week of activities around welfare. It will start with a protest in Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall (near the Jobcentre Pathfinder) from 12.30pm on 29 April. This Pathfinder is the first trial of Universal Credit (UC). 
Throughout the campaign week our members will be able hand out a variety of leaflets to colleagues and the public highlighting the problems of UC and busting myths about welfare.
Our core campaign objectives: 
Set out an alternative vision for welfare

Protect public service delivery

Defend members’ jobs from cuts and privatisation

Defend claimants’ rights and entitlements

Bust welfare myths

Coordinate a united campaign.

Join the protest

Join the protest to defend welfare at Ashton town hall steps, Market Place, Ashton-Under-Lyne OL6, on 29 April from 12:30–1:30pm. Please see flyer and circulate wide..

For information and to sign up to the campaign, email welfare@pcs.org.uk

Read and share our pamphlet Welfare: an alternative vision 

Find out more about the campaign at pcs.org.uk/welfare 

Protest Against Universal Credit Pilot Scheme - Ashton Town Hall, Monday 29 April.

"On 29 April, the Universal Credit Pilot starts at Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre. PCS believes the introduction of 'conditionality' for those in work, and stricter sanctions for those out of work at this time, are cruel, ineffective, unnecessary and discriminating; the governments preferred option of online claiming discriminates against those with disabilities and those on low incomes. The government target of 80% of Universal Credit being claimed online is unrealistic. We are calling on the government to rethink Universal Credit and develop an approach based on creating jobs as opposed to puishing them for not being able to find jobs."

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), who represent Jobcentre staff, have organised a protest to 'Defend Welfare' and are inviting people to join them on the steps of Ashton Town Hall on Monday 29 April between 12.30 - 1.30 pm. Speakers from PCS, Unite and community campaign groups.


PCS is spearheading a united campaign against welfare cuts alongside other trade unions and charities and will have a week of activities around welfare. It will start with a protest in Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall (near the Jobcentre Pathfinder) from 12.30pm on 29 April. This Pathfinder is the first trial of Universal Credit (UC).

Throughout the campaign week our members will be able hand out a variety of leaflets to colleagues and the public highlighting the problems of UC and busting myths about welfare.

Our core campaign objectives:

Set out an alternative vision for welfare

Protect public service delivery

Defend members’ jobs from cuts and privatisation

Defend claimants’ rights and entitlements

Bust welfare myths

Coordinate a united campaign.

Join the protest to defend welfare at Ashton town hall steps, Market Place, Ashton-Under-Lyne OL6, on 29 April from 12:30–1:30pm. Please see flyer and circulate wide..

For information and to sign up to the campaign, email welfare@pcs.org.uk

Read and share our pamphlet Welfare: an alternative vision

Find out more about the campaign at pcs.org.uk/welfare

PCS Strike Tomorrow

THIS Wednesday, 250,000 civil service workers in the PCS union will strike back against government cuts. Below is a list of picket lines in and around Manchester. Show your support by visiting the picket lines this Wednesday morning. 
Ministry of Justice: 
* Manchester Civil Justice Centre, 1 Bridge Street West

* Manchester Crown Court, across road from Civil Justice Centre

* Manchester City Magistrates Court, Crown Square, Wood St, back from Deansgate

* Crown Court, Minshull Street, off Aytoun Street, M1 3FS

* Salford National Business Centre, Prince William House, Eccles New Road, M5 4RR 

Equality & Human Rights Commission, Young People's Learning Agency, Skills Funding Agency:
* Arndale Centre, Corporation Street, opposite Big Wheel, M2 1NP

Highways Agency, Ofsted, TDA, MOD
* Piccadilly Gate, Store Street M1 2WD

Department for Communities and Local Government, Tenant Services Authority
* One Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester M1 1RG 

British Council
* Bridgewater House, 58 Whitworth Street, M1 6BB 

HMRC
* Trinity Bridge House, 2 Dearmans Place, Salford, M3 5BG

* Stone Cross House,Churchgate, Bolton BL1 1YA

HMP & YOI 
* Styal, Styal Road, Wilmslow, SK9 4HR 

Dept of Work & Pensions
* Alexandra Park Jobcentre, Moss Lane East M15 5JB

* Altrincham Jobcentre, Roberts Rd, Altrincham WA14 4PU

* Cheetham Hill Jobcentre, Crescent Rd M8 9DQ

* Chorlton Benefit Delivery Centre, Graeme House, Chorlton Square, Chorlton, M21 9BU

* Didsbury Jobcentre, Palatine Rd M20 3JQ

* Longsight Jobcentre, Clarence Rd M13 0ZL

* Newton Heath Jobcentre, Oldham Rd M40 2EP

* Rusholme Job Centre, Wilmslow Road, M14 5BJ

* Salford Jobcentre, Baskerville House, Browncross St M3

* Stretford Jobcentre, Arndale House, Chester Road M32 9ED

* Wythenshawe Jobcentre, Wavell Rd M22 5RA 
In Solidarity, 
Richard Lighten:  Secretary, Manchester Trades Union Council
secmtuc@gmail.com 
07841411013
manchestertuc.org 

North West TUC Conference Report:

For a future that works:

Trade Unions and the Environment

A NW TUC Conference 

Report & Recommendations

The NW TUC held a conference dedicated to Trade Unions and the Environment on 21^st July 2012 at the Savoy Hotel, Blackpool. The speakers included Chris Baugh, Assistant General Secretary PCS, Derek Wall, former principal speaker for the Green Party and Clara Paillard, Merseyside TUC Green Officer. The Conference attracted over 50 delegates, a third of them being Green Reps and half of them representing Trade Councils. The main unions represented were PCS, Unite, UNISON and UCU and NUT, RMT, UCATT and BFAWU also had representatives. Also present were members of the local community (Residents Action against Fylde Fracking), the Green Party, the University of Lancaster and Friends of the Earth.

The main plenary session explored the Trade Unions roles within the environmental agenda along three key messages:

•        Green Reps – the TUC Greening the Workplace initiative has encourage Trade Unions to appoint Green Reps in order to advance environmental awareness and negotiating in the workplace

•        Politics & Economy – the austerity agenda of the current government needs to be challenged using the idea that economic and environmental crisis can be resolved simultaneously by investing in jobs that will support a sustainable and just economy – an argument being put forward by the One Million Climate Jobs campaign.

•        Local Environmental struggles – the Trade Union movement need to act in support of local environmental campaigns in conjunction with environmental groups and the local community.

The plenary session was followed by workshops on four themes: fracking, food, transport and waste incineration. The rest of this note set out an outline of each theme and suggestions / recommendations made in each workshop

Fracking

The workshop introduced the issues raised by the controversial 'fracking' gas extraction technique which has recently caused earthquakes in Blackpool.  A presentation put together by the campaigning group Frack Off as well as the short film 'Fracking Hell' quick-started the discussion.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Support a fringe meeting at TUC Congress in Brighton in September to highlight the anti-fracking motion and campaign.

•        Support to the anti-fracking campaign at national and local level, including the production of quality leaflets and support of events, including Camp Frack 2 in the Autumn.

•        Support to the anti-fracking activists trialled after occupying the Banks fracking site

•        Encourage all Trade Unions to adopt anti-fracking policies and support the One Million Climate Jobs strategy as an alternative.

•        Call our Trades Council to demand “Frack-free zones” in their locality and support the One Million Climate Jobs strategy as an alternative.

•        Lobby for a ban of Fracking (not only on the grounds of safety but also on the grounds that gas is not a carbon free energy source) along with positive campaigning in support of the expansion of renewable energies and policies.

For more information visit: -

http://stopfyldefracking.org.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/frackoffuk

Food

A presentation outlined the number of issues related to food and climate change along the entire production chain (agriculture, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal) as the food industry is responsible for up to 20% of UK CO2 emissions. 40% of world’s agricultural land is degraded because of poor farming practices and the use of chemicals and GM food may constitute a threat to the environment and people’s health. Food processing involves the use of many chemicals, has generated many food scandals and is an industry where workers are often exploited. Food transport and import /export generate mass of CO2 emissions and refrigeration contribute to green house gas emissions. Obesity and malnutrition are two side of unbalanced food consumption across the world while 30% of UK food is wasted.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Existing campaigns supported by Trade Unions and campaigning group to be investigated and summarised in a report (Bakers’ Union, Farmers’ Union, USDAW, Education unions, Unite Community Branches, War on Want, COOPs, Incredible Edible, Food Future, Organic Farmers Association) and a round table to be organised by the NWTUC inviting the different stakeholders.

•        NWTUC to support the creation of a resource booklet for Green Reps on the topic of food (including case studies on the “life cycle” of specific products on the model of The Story of Stuff) and consider funding initiatives led by Green Reps / Trades Councils.

•        Work to be done on alternative policies around the theme of “food democracy / right to healthy food”, including coops, urban gardens, community schemes (ie. on composting, anaerobic digestion, tool hire), land reform & reclaim public land projects.

•        Investigate how a campaign against supermarkets can be supported

Waste incineration

HAGATI (Halton Action Group Against the Incinerator) explained their 5-years campaign to oppose the construction of an incinerator by multinational Ineos Chlor that will burn 820,000 tons of waste per annum with all electricity produced going to the company. A ‘gate fee’ of £100 is charged to local authorities (such as Greater Manchester) tight up in 25-years contract, out of which 60p goes to Runcorn Council. Health concerns are numerous about the effects of micro-particles, mercury and dioxins and the process will detract from recycling as the waste needs to be rich in plastic to be energy-efficient.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Awareness raising – NWTUC to support the production of a quality leaflet explaining the issues arising from waste incineration

•        Contracts & Contractors – NWTUC to encourage unions/green reps to identify workplaces’ waste contractors and to request information from City Councils about their waste contractors, contract renewal timescales and methods of waste management.

•        Lobby – Lobby City Councils not to enter long-term contracts with incinerators / Lobby Parliament for incinerators to be submitted to the Carbon Tax

•        Local groups – Encourage Trades Councils to establish links with local anti-incineration groups and support their campaigns.

For more information and resources, see:

http://ukwin.org.uk/oppose-incineration

www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/dirty_truths.pdf

www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/changing_climate.pdf

Transport

This workshop was closely linked with the Action for Rail campaign led by ASLEF / RMT. Kevin Morrison, RMT Exec for NW introduced the workshop and highlighted that the government's McNulty report called for job cuts, service cuts and allowing rail firms to raise fares as much as they like.  Buses nationally have suffered from 28% reduction income.  So while public transport is vital for dealing with climate change it is being threatened by the coalition government's cuts.

Suggestions & Recommendations:

•        Challenge closures – through the use of Quality impact assessment (particularly on grounds of disability access) and Freedom of Information Act to gain information to stop closures.

•        Free public transport – suggestion of running surveys to show that free public transport might save money by reducing pollution and congestion.  

•        Linking with other campaign – such as Cycle Use groups and the Campaign for Better Transport (http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/)

•        Action & Democracy - The importance of democratic and active trade unions was stressed by many participants and the RMT was seen as an inspiring example in this regard.  In a wide ranging discussion ideas from fighting the sale of Britain's roads to the idea of guerilla fly posting of timetables were also mentioned.

Concluding Comments

The Conference concluded with a commitment for the recommendations to be presented to the NWTUC Council / Executive for consideration and to consider the possibility of an annual conference on the Environment. A group photograph was taken at the front of the Hotel (see below).