Women Fighting the Cuts

At an inspiring meeting at Ruskin College, organised by the Oxford People's Charter Campaign for Oxford International Women's Festival.

Trish Lavelle, Head of Education at CWU, has just spoken about the importance of the trades union movement engaging with women workers. Really drives home the point when you think that union density is highest among women workers in the public sector and yet only one large trades union has over 50% women on its national executive. As Trish put it "in our trades unions, men still hold the leadership positions, structures and power."

If we are to defeat a cuts agenda which primarily targets women, women workers must play a leading role in the struggle. That means our unions must take the question of equality seriously, not just through mechanisms such as women's structures and reserved seats but by genuinely altering the power balance within the movement.

Liz Peretz, Unison Retired activist, now putting this into a local context and discussing the positive rays of hope. She has just described the November 30th strikes. The largest ever demonstration in Oxford with the vast majority of the people there women. Also, the way in which groups like Oxford Save Our Services, the Network of Oxford Women for Peace and Justice, and the Oxford Labour Party Women's Group are engaging with women activists and providing a focus on fighting the cuts.

As Liz says, this is so important when the agenda of the ConDems is to turn the clock back and force women back into the home.

Finally Carol Stavris, Unison Retired activist and organiser of the meeting, takes a step back from the issues and looks at the root of the problem in women's oppression and super-exploitation in the labour market.

Quote of the day, though came from Sarah Lazenby of the Network of Oxford Women: "I've learnt a lot this year but the most important thing is that competition means lower standards and higher costs."

An inspiring meeting and a real challenge to go away and look at how within my own union and more broadly in the Trades Council, we can support our women activists to show us how to develop the structures and the political context in which our women members can engage fully with the trades union movement and play a leading role in the struggle ahead.

@OxfordTUC: Unite Jaguar Land Rover win switch back from CPI to RPI, showing it can be done. #fairpensions4all

Next Steps in the Pensions Dispute

The decision by the UCU Executive to reject the government Heads of Agreement is significant. UCU will join a number of other unions, including the largest teaching unions and Britain's biggest union Unite, in rejecting the deal.

Their decision not to sign up to what the government claims will be its final offer is based on the fact that the overall position of working longer and paying more in order to get less has not changed.

The improvements the government has made in the accrual rate and the protection for those within 10 years of retirement have come at the expense of the career average calculation. Essentially these concessions are paid for by a change in the calculation of the career average which will reduce the value of all public sector pensions.

The decision is made even more significant by the fact that the dispute over pensions has now spread to the private sector. Workers at Unilever are currently taking part in 10 days of strike action against attempts to change their final salary scheme to a career average.

This shows exactly what we argued when this campaign began over a year ago, that private sector employers would use the opportunity provided by attacks government to downgrade the pensions of their own workers. However, it also presents us with an opportunity to link the struggle to protect public sector pensions with the defence of private sector schemes too.

And there are positive signs that these battles can be won. Unite, GMB and USDAW have worked together on a high-profile campaign of industrial action at Unilever which has drawn significant public support. Meanwhile, Unite members at Jaguar Range Rover in Halewood have successfully reversed the change from RPI to CPI which their employer had imposed. Similarly, attempts by other employers, such as BMW, to impose pensions changes have been seen off by robust union responses.

A campaign which follows from, and builds on, the magnificent day of action on November 30th, drawing in private sector workers fighting to defend their pensions, has a real chance of success.

Further strike action between now and April 1st, when contributions increases kick in, will be a crucial part of the campaign and the fact that PCS, NUT, UCU and others are looking to organise a meeting to discuss future action is very positive. However, there must be more to the campaign than just this. There are a number of unions who are currently consulting their members on the Heads of Agreement. Whilst it is likely that they will vote yes, this is by no means conclusive.

Then there is the question of Unison. Whilst Unison's public service executives have voted to continue negotiations on the Heads of Agreement, these will not be put to an immediate ballot of members. Instead, the outcome of negotiations will be put to members and the recommendation to accompany this ballot is not yet decided. Meanwhile, Unison is still in dispute with government over pensions and its industrial action ballot is still live. If members reject any deal reached in negotiations, they will be able to move back to a strategy of industrial action immediately.

Therefore any campaign must seek to draw in members of those Unions not currently taking action, in particular Unison, in order to maintain maximum unity.  In the long run, this will provide Unison members with the best basis on which to reject a deal which requires them to work longer, pay more and receive less and to rejoin a united campaign.

At the same time, those unions involved must start to put the pensions issue in context. We know that the overwhelming support for the campaign was based on the level of anger at the entire economic policy of this government, in particular its attack on public services. This must become a more and more explicit aspect of the campaign if it is to have a real resonance beyond those unions already committed to action.

We can win but it means developing a campaign with the clarity of purpose and diversity of tactics to unite a real movement against this government.

NUT Oxfordshire: UCU to Continue Pensions Campaign

NUT Oxfordshire: UCU to Continue Pensions Campaign: News just in: The Executive of the University and Colleges Union, representing teachers and lecturers in HE and FE, have rejected the govern...

Support Unilever Strikes!

@OxfordTUC: Solidarity to Unilever workers from our 20,000 affiliated members. Keep up the fight for pensions. Public & private sector workers together!

Support Unilever Strikes!

@GawainLittle: Solidarity to Unilever workers taking action today to defend their pensions. Unity is srength! #fairpensionsforall @unitetheunion

Witney Pensions Rally

Now with proper link!

Click here for new SOS video.

Nov30: Video in Support

@OxfordNov30: Support the strikes! Check out this video produced by Oxford SOS. http://t.co/ydfV86Bc #Nov30 #N30" --http://twitter.com/OxfordNov30/status/141646301220716544

Oxfordshire prepares for November 30: Three Great Campaigning Resources

Oxfordshire prepares for November 30: Three Great Campaigning Resources: On Saturday, the South East Region TUC held an excellent mobilising conference - Fighting for Public Services: Pensions Justice for All . ...

Oxfordshire prepares for November 30: We're all in it together... except for the fat cat...

Oxfordshire prepares for November 30: We're all in it together... except for the fat cat...: We all remember Cameron’s words - “We’re all in it together”. But public servants are taking a hit for the bankers’ mistakes! The public sec...

Great new blog for November 10th!

London Riots

I'll be honest and say that there's only one thing that has truly surprised me about the riots across London over the past few days.

And it's not:

~ that, following the police shooting of a 29 year old father of four (who it now seems may have been carrying but did not fire a gun wrapped in a sock), people in Tottenham felt angry;

~ that, in a borough with over 10,000 people unemployed and 54 people chasing every job vacancy which has (like most communities in Britain) been under sustained attack since this government came to power, that anger swiftly tipped over into violence;

~ that, with the closure of 75% local youth centres (which youth workers predicted would lead to violence on the streets) and 100% of young people losing access to EMA, young people felt angry and betrayed and wanted to get back at 'the system' which has let them down;

~ or that the riots have quickly spread to other areas of London.

It's that the official response of the Labour Party, delivered by Shabana Mahmood, drew attention to none of this, instead condemning the violence as 'appalling and unacceptable' and saying that it 'must not be tolerated'. Now I am not suggesting that these riots are an answer to the issues facing our communities.

But the people of Tottenham deserve more than a simple condemnation. There needs to be an attempt to understand WHY this happened and neither the failure of policing in Tottenham nor the role of government cuts, which have ripped the heart out of communities across Britain, should be brushed under the carpet.

I don't believe it is any coincidence that we last saw riots on this scale under a Tory government, in the 1980s and the 1990s. This is an anti-people government and it is bound to generate anti-government feeling amongst the people, however that is expressed.

Even the Guardian is not afraid to draw the links between cuts, social deprivation and riots, referring to Tottenham as a 'a social tinderbox waiting to ignite' and drawing parallels with Toxteth in the early 1980s. And yet from the Labour Party, there is silence on the issue of why.

The notable exception has of course been Ken Livingstone, who has not been afraid to call a spade a spade.

'The economic stagnation and cuts being imposed by the Tory government inevitably create social division,' he said. This is a point that must be rammed home over the next few weeks as we will undoubtedly see the riots being blamed on a 'small criminal element' and calls for tougher policing.

Cuts have consequences and we need to make that clear unless we want to see our communities ripped apart and then blamed for their own self-destruction.

Demonstration @BMW 6am Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Tuesday) Unite will be holding a demo at 6:00am outside gate 5 BMW Plant Oxford in support of the 68 dismissed BMW workers in Ontario.

The company intends to dismiss almost 100 workers on 31st August then immediately re-open the parts distribution centre, employing cheaper, less-experienced workers. They will have a similar demo at Southampton Docks.

I know it is very short notice but please pass this on to as many people as you can.

In solidarity,
Gawain Little
President
Oxford & District TUC

Support BBC Journalists

Date: Aug 1, 2011 12:20 PM

Just come back from a lively determined picket at BBC Oxford where NUJ members are fighting compulsory redundancies across the country as part of national strike action.

The current round of cuts are likely to be only the first wave and there is real concern that, when the Delivering Quality First report comes out in September, it will mean many more redundancies across the service.  Though it looks like BBC Oxford will be retained, after a vigorous campaign by journalists and the viewing public, there are likely to be compulsory redundancies in Oxfordshire, which will lead to a drop in service.

Cutbacks at the BBC will mean a loss of democratic accountability as we will find it harder and harder to access high-quality news which reports genuine issues and holds politicians to account. The recent scandal at News Corp (owners of the News of the World) shows what happens when news provision is left to the likes of Rupert Murdoch.

We should stand together with journalists at the BBC, locally and nationally, to demand an end to cuts and no more compulsory redundancies.

900 public sector workers march in Oxford

Sweet Solidarity!

A fantastic (and very tasty) gesture of solidarity!

Support from Unite

Just received a letter of solidarity from Unite members at the Cowley BMW plant in Oxford.

PCS picket line

Lively and enthusiastic picket line at Worcester Street Job Centre with reports coming in from accross Oxfordshire of the best ever response in a number of workplaces.

Member out in Oxford, Banbury, Abingdon, Didcot and Witney

PCS have members out across Oxfordshire and have just heard that High Wycombe has had its best response in years. Only managers are keeping offices open.

Joint the Oxford picket at Worcester Street Job Centre.

141 Schools Closing

Where have Michael Gove's bullying tactics got him? Teachers and head teachers in Oxfordshire know better.

They know that pension changes are part of the slow death of the education system as we know it.

We will not stand back and let this happen!

Support tomorrow's strike.