What A Farce by Les May

A RECENT article in The Telegraph claimed that the Kirklees branch of the National Education Union (NEU) gave £3,000 to Purpose of Life, a charity based in West Yorkshire, which later published online the name of the teacher at the centre of the row at Batley Grammar School.

As well as accusing the teacher of 'terrorism' and 'insulting Islam', the group's chief executive, Mohammad Sajad Hussain, said that the charity would not work with the school again until the Religous Studies teacher is 'permanently removed'.

The Kirklees branch is, of course, the one ‘supporting’ the teacher through the disciplinary process initiated by the school. Quite why this NEU branch thought that this donation was an appropriate use of its members’ union fees is unclear.

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Unite Steward Sacked for requesting rights

A Unite shop steward has just been sacked while working at Morgan Stanley Investment Bank in Canary Wharf after he asked for direct employment for all the electricians he represents. The company is D&D, who are sub-contracting for Phoenix Electrical who are a JIB registered company. Under JIB rules, all labour on site should be directly employed. This had actually been agreed in principle but when the steward actually asked to go on the cards, he was immediately dismissed. 

We are not standing for this. 

Casualisation is the scourge of the UK workplace. Zero hours contracts, agencies, temporary contracts and umbrella companies. But we don't have to simply accept this erosion of working conditions and legal rights. We can fightback and demand direct employment. If you want to fight back against the tide of casualisation & have a pop at global capitalism at the same time - join the picket:

Monday 27th July - 6:30am onwards

Morgan Stanley

25 Cabot Square

Canary Wharf

Morgan Stanley rule the world and Canary Wharf is the spiritual home for financial capitalism. If the construction firms want to have a fight about workers rights - we're happy to have it there.

Everyone welcome, especially any legal observers (as the private security and police might get heavy). 

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-0b2e-Union-rep-sacked-after-asking-for-direct-jobs

BREAKING: The industrial relations consultant representing the electrical companies in the Morgan Stanley sacking is Frank Westerman.

The ex-Amicus official now works as a freelance consultant for the major construction employers, including Skanska and other multinational firms responsible for blacklisting trade union members. Frank Westerman's name appears as the source of information on a number of Consulting Association blacklist files, especially in relation to electricians who worked on the Jubilee Line. Westerman denies ever deliberately grassing up his members to the bosses and any other wrongdoing. He himself has a blacklist file from his youth as a shop steward.

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.”