School closures due to 30th June industrial action

Listed below are the number of schools closed by local authoity area. Check out the relevant local authority websites for details of individual school closures.
Birmingham 95
Coventry 20
Dudley 67
Leicestershire 82
Lincolnshire 31
Northamptonshire 107
Shropshire 29
Solihull 16
Staffordshire 10
Telford and Wrekin 12
Warwickshire 80
Worcestershire 98

Action Mesothelioma Day update for West Midlands

Our friends at Asbestos Support West Midlands have updated us on their plans for Action Mesothelioma Day 2011.

As you will know only too well many people remain unaware of mesothelioma. This cancer, whose only known cause in this country is exposure to asbestos, claims many lives each year and the number is not expected to stop rising until 2015 at the earliest.
Action Mesothelioma Day exists to raise awareness and to change this situation, and this year it will take place on Friday the 1st July.
Please Attend this Year’s Events:

Friday 1st July. 2.00 -2.30pm, Ceremonial Dove Release, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD
A ceremonial Dove release will take place in front of the Birmingham Council House this year. The doves will be released by friends and relatives of mesothelioma sufferers across the midlands and everyone is welcome to attend.

2.30pm—4.00pm, Public Event, Asbestos– A Present Danger

Birmingham Council House Chamber, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD

The theme of Action Mesothelioma Day 2011 is awareness, especially awareness of the danger of exposure to low levels of asbestos. More and more people each year are being diagnosed with mesothelioma who have been exposed to very small amounts of asbestos, often in public buildings like schools.

This event will include presentations on how such exposures can be avoided in the workplace and in the home. It will also be our chance to remember all of those people who have suffered with this dreadful disease, with readings and music. If you would like to nominate a song, poem or reading please let us know.

Speakers will include:

Jayne Lawson: Asbestos in Schools Campaign

Barbara Hayes: Workplace Chaplain

Neil Vernon: UCATT National Executive Member

Jason Addey: Save Spodden Valley Campaign

And Music by the Clarion Choir

Picket lines for 30th June industrial action

We have been notified of some of the picket lines in operation this Thursday - they have ben added to the dedicated page at the top of our blog. We shall continue to add details as we are made aware of them.

30th June industrial action

Check out the new page which gives details of of the industrial action rallies planned for this coming Thursday. You can show your support by visiting picket lines and attending rallies - and remember it is really important to talk to friends and colleagues who may not understand why the dispute is taking place. Getting the trade union message across at this time is really important to counter the media's mis information about where we stand and why we fight for workers rights.

Midlands Trade unionists brave the Glastonbury mud!

This weekend has seen the Glastonbury festival disappear under the Somerset mud as heavy rain turned large areas of the site into brown goo. Ploughing through the mud are dozens of midlands trade unionists who are raising funds for their unions by working on the Workers Beer Company bars. Members of Unite, the GMB and PCS, plus reps from trades councils are working in the Union Castle bar, adjacent to the Dance stage And, for the first time this year, the Midlands TUC has a team raising campaign funds to support our efforts to help unions fight the cuts.
Pictured is a GMB flag on the Workers Beer Company camp site with part of the festival site behind. Thousands of pounds have been raised over the years by trade unionists in the Midlands - though not always under such dreadful conditions!

TUC response to Danny Alexander's comments on public sector pensions

Responding to Danny Alexander's comments on public sector pensions today (Friday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
"At such a critical time in complex negotiations this is a deeply inflammatory public intervention with a clumsy mix of announcements apparently designed to pre-empt the talks, coupled with crude threats that even worse terms might be imposed if unions refuse to acquiesce to this assault on their pensions.
"Many of the detailed proposals set out by Danny Alexander today have not even been put to the TUC negotiators, and the government has yet to give a response to specific proposals tabled by the trade union side.
"I have found over many years that if you are seriously trying to build trust to settle a difficult dispute you should talk honestly and openly inside the negotiating room and exercise self restraint outside.
"This speech, and the media-spinning operation around it, has dealt a serious blow to union confidence in the government's good faith in these talks."

TUC condemns Thameslink decision as a huge blow to British manufacturing

The TUC has today (Thursday) condemned the government's failure to award the Thameslink train production contract to Bombardier as a missed opportunity to boost British-based manufacturing and jobs. The TUC fears the promised new jobs in train maintenance will be dwarfed by the potential job losses at the Bombadier plant and in its supply chain.
Losing out on the Thameslink contract puts the future of rail production at Bombardier, the UK's last remaining train manufacturer in serious doubt, and is a devastating blow to British industry says the TUC.
The TUC has campaigned for the government to adopt a more proactive approach in ensuring that UK businesses benefit from public contracts for goods and services. While recognising that the UK must maintain its commitment to open competition and EU regulations, the TUC has argued that more can be done by government to level the playing field and work with businesses to build their capacity to put in effective bids for contracts.
Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'This is a devastating blow for Bombardier and its workforce but also for Derby and the wider UK economy. It is vital that our economic recovery is based on high quality manufacturing jobs that companies like Bombardier supply.
'The Thameslink contract would have secured the future of train production in the UK, so it is astonishing that the government would turn its back on UK manufacturing in this way, at a time when growth is weak and unemployment remains high.
'The government has a key role to play in making sure that UK businesses can compete fairly and effectively for the goods and services that it procures. Once again, the government has acted in a short-sighted and disjointed way with severe consequences for workers around the country.'

Farewell to Steve - and welcome to Ravi!

Steve Murphy

This month we say farewell to a stalwart of the Midlands TUC as Steve Murphy, Regional Secretary of Ucatt, leaves us to take up a similar post in his native Yorkshire. Steve has been a tireless advocate for his union and has championed opposition to the cuts, organising a very successful conference in Derby in 2010. Steve has been very active in ensuring Ucatt reps get the right training and has promoted weekend schools to his activists as a way of ensuring they have the right information to best represent their members.

Ravi Subramanian

UNISON have also had a change of Regional Secretary in the West Midlands, with Ravi Subramanian moving from the east midlands to take up his new role. Ravi joins us at a time when public service workers face truly unprecedented cuts to their jobs and pay and conditions - not forgetting the services they provide.
We wish both Steve and  Ravi every success in his new jobs.

Royal Mail Privatisation condemed by Postal Workers

Lee Baron, CWU Regional Secretary

Today (Thursday 9th June) marks a dark day for public services as MP’s get ready to take a final vote on the privatisation of the Royal Mail. Postal services face a very uncertain future on the Postal Services Bill passes through Parliament, which it is expected to do later today.The Bill will receive Royal Accent, expected later this month, which will lead to the largest privatisation of a public service since the Thatcherite days of the 1980’s. The link between the Royal Mail and the Post Office Network will be broken threatening the future viability of Post Offices.
Lee Barron, Midlands Regional Secretary of the Communication Workers Union said, “This is a sad day for a cherished institution. The spivs and gamblers in the Cabinet are putting our postal services out to the highest bidder with very little and indeed in some cases no guarantees whatsoever. When the vultures start circling over the industry the future of thousands of Post Offices, the one price goes anywhere principle and the amount of deliveries received will inevitably be cut to maximise profit whilst they diminish the public service. In the private postal operators across Europe standards are extremely worse with rural locations in the Netherlands receiving just 3 deliveries per week and prices in Germany twice as high as in the UK.
“Price rises are inevitable as once the Royal Mail moves into the private sector it will lose its VAT exemption resulting in a 20% hike in prices as no private company, who’s only interest is to maximise the returns for its shareholders, will absorb such a cost.


“We remain committed to opposing privatisation of the Royal Mail and will use every tactic we can to frustrate such a sale and retain the Royal Mail firmly where it belongs, in the public sector serving the public interest.”

For further information contact:: Lee Barron, Midlands Regional Secretary on 07850 - 247191



New trades council AGM a huge step forward

The newly elected officers of the Corby and Kettering
 Trades union council

The newly formed trades council covering both Corby and Kettering held its first Annual meeting last night in the Trades and Labour Club in Corby. A short business meeting elected new officers for the trades council followed by an open public meeting to discuss campaign priorities.
The open meeting was addressed by Nick Kelleher, Secretary of the very successful Wolverhampton, Bilston and District trades council who spoke about campaigning and growing his organisation by being visible in support of unions in the area. Street campaigning had been an important element in growing the trades council.
Alan Weaver, Midlands TUC Policy and Campaigns Officer, spoke about the current economic situation and emphasised that the cuts would not just hit public sector jobs but those in the private sector who had work with government departments and councils.
New trades council President Stewart  Campbell of Unite introduced the problem of street lights being turned off by the County Council and new Secretary, Natalie Newby of the GMB highlighted the issues around the government's proposals to introduce Free Schools.
The debate on these issues highlighted the problem of increased crime where lights had been turned off, and the possibilities that Free schools could move away from established terms and conditions for school staff. The meeting agreed that these would be the first two campaigns to be run by the trades council.

Moving May Day could hit retailers and domestic tourism, warns TUC



Moving May Day could hit retailers, break established holiday patterns and disrupt domestic tourism, the TUC warns today (Thursday) in its submission to the government’s pre-consultation on moving the May Day bank holiday as part of the domestic tourism strategy. The TUC submission says that May Day is one of the oldest British celebrations, dating back at least as early as 365 AD. It also marks the formation of Great Britain (1 May 1707) and International Workers’ Day since 1891 – the latter a bone of contention for some Conservative MPs.
May Day is associated with a large number of tourism-related events, including many outdoor activities across the UK due to the (generally) good weather, and is the busiest trading day of the year for garden centres and horticulture related businesses.
The TUC submission warns that moving May Day to late Autumn could threaten many of these outdoor activities, hit retailers and encourage holiday breaks abroad at the expense of the domestic tourism industry.
The submission highlights crucial problems with some of the alternative dates suggested for May Day:
• St. Georges Day (23 April) is just a week before May Day, so there will be little change in terms of activities, and it can clash with Easter, creating an administrative headache for employers.
• The celebration of Trafalgar Day (21 October) was abandoned in 1918 due to public revulsion towards the glorification of war.
• Turning Armistice Day (11 November) – a well-established and sombre day of remembrance of the war dead – into a bank holiday would distract from the importance of the day and could cause great offence, particularly if it becomes a day of celebration.
The lack of any strong support from the tourist industry for moving May Day suggests that the proposal is more about pleasing a few Conservative backbenchers who ignorantly assume it to be a ‘socialist holiday’, rather than a real attempt to boost the UK domestic tourism industry or improve people’s work-life balance, says the TUC.
The submission says that the government’s time would be better spent examining the wellbeing of UK employees who work among the longest hours in Europe and have the stingiest allocation of public holidays.
Creating a new day off in late October – focused on volunteering and community work – would be a much better way to generate health, social and economic benefits from our calendar of public holidays, says the TUC.
The TUC, along with the UK’s leading volunteering organisations, is calling on the government on the introduce a Community Day bank holiday in late October from 2013 that would be based around the celebration and encouragement of volunteering and community work.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “There’s not much of a case for moving May Day, other than satisfying the grudges of a few Tory backbenchers, but there are many problems that moving it would create.
“May Day is an important day for the domestic retail, tourism and entertainment industries and moving it to late Autumn could threaten all this.
“Ministers would be wise not to mess around with a popular public holiday that enjoys a wide range of support – from trade unionists to gardening enthusiasts. Instead, they should examine the wellbeing and ‘big society’ benefits of creating a new bank holiday.
“Given that UK employees work some of the longest hours in Europe and have the fewest bank holidays, an extra public holiday is long overdue.”

The Midlands TUC is very concerned about the planned reduction in services for passengers at railway ticket offices. Below we reprint the text of a letter sent to the London Midland Franchise Manager at the Department for Transport.

Dear Mr FrizzellLondon Midland ticket offices

I am writing on behalf of the Midlands TUC to request that you uphold the objections lodged by Passenger Focus and London TravelWatch to proposals made by London Midland to reduce ticket office opening times at 87 stations.

You will be aware that there has been overwhelming and widespread opposition to the proposed cuts. Petitions with more than 14,500 signatures, 3271 campaign postcards and over 700 individual responses objecting to London Midland’s plans were received by Passenger Focus during the three week consultation period.
Additionally an Early Day Motion was tabled in the House of Commons by Coventry South MP Jim Cunningham, calling for the proposals to be withdrawn due to the detrimental effect they will have on services and jobs.

London Midland’s plans to introduce 29 Ticket Vending Machines (TVM) as replacements for staffed ticket offices are wholly inadequate. Indeed, Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith pointed out that in the representations they received, passengers were “almost unanimous in their request for staff at stations, raising concerns about ticket machines and the need for staff for advice and assistance on ticket sales”.

A series of concerns were expressed by passengers during the public consultation period in relation to TVMs;

• Ticket machines do not sell the full range of rail products

• Season ticket holders cannot buy extensions

• Seats cannot be reserved

• Ticket machines do not sell promotion tickets

• The complexity of the ticketing structure means passengers need advice from trained railway staff to secure the cheapest available ticket and best possible route

• Machines cannot deal with damaged or mis-purchased tickets

• Machines are not always conveniently located

• Machines are subject to vandalism

Furthermore, passengers have made it clear both to Passenger Focus/London TravelWatch that a staff presence helps to maintain station facilities, improves security and offers reassurance to travellers, particularly those who feel most vulnerable such as women travelling alone.

The sheer scale of evidence, gathered in unprecedented numbers from across the whole of the London Midland area, presented to Passenger Focus confirms our view that the proposed changes are unnecessary.

I would therefore urge you protect station services and facilities by upholding the Passenger Focus objection.
Yours sincerely

CHERYL PIDGEON
Regional Secretary
TUC Midlands Region

10,000th hit on the blog!

Well, who would have thought that when we set up the blog it would attract so much interest? In these days when information pores out of every screen, we are rather humble that so many people from all over the world would seek out our blog to find out what the TUC is doing in the Midlands.
Today we passed the 10,000 page views milestone, a feat we did not expect to see so quickly. Our hits peaked in March with over 2,000 in one month, mainly driven by the TUC's successful March for the Alternative. Since then though we have received over 1500 hits each month, showing how worthwhile the blog has become in getting the TUC message out as far as we can. 
We have many visitors from overseas, in fact 50% of visitors come from other shores. We are getting occasional hits from South America and Africa now, as well as from the USA, Russia, China, and our near neighbours in Europe. You are all welcome!

Disability Forum plan year of campaigns

Members of the Midlands TUC Disability Forum with
Cheryl Pidgeon, second from the right.

The Midlands TUC Disability forum met in the Unison Regional office in Birmingham to consider the campaign priorities for 2011.
The Forum specifically wants to hold a conference in December on the International Day of Disabled People which would enable the forum to highlight Disability History Month and World Aids Day. The Forum also decided to organise a fund raising event to coincide with World Aids Day, hopefully in conjunction with the region's LGB & T Network.
The Forum decided to use the full range of publicity outlets available to them, including press releases, blogs, the TUC website and special editions of the Midlands TUC eNewsletter.
Midlands TUC Regional Secretary, Cheryl Pidgeon, said, "It is great to have a plan of action where we all can work towards delivering successful events and campaigns. The Forum will lead the way and I intend to encourage other groups to follow their lead in establishing sensible and deliverable campaign strategies."

Midlands TUC Disability Forum to decide campaign priorities

Today will see the third meeting of the Midlands TUC Disabilities Forum at which delegates will be considering their campaign priorities for the coming year. A report of the decisions will be on the blog later this afternoon.

Banner Theatre play Derby this Friday

Banner Theatre’s 1st of May Band is touring Fighting the Cuts!, a multimedia cabaret of songs, music, comedy and video. The Band delivers a punchy soundscape of reggae, rap, flamenco, folk and blues to lay bare the real story behind the crisis, and support the campaign to defend our welfare state.

See this exciting and hard-hitting new show on:
Friday 3 June 2011 at 7.30pm 
Déda, Chapel Street, Derby DE1 3GU
Tickets £6.00 / £4.00 concessions
Box Office: 01332 370911 Website: http://www.deda.uk.com/
Car parking available at Chapel Street Multistorey
Organised by Derby50KClub

For more about Banner Theatre, visit http://www.bannertheatre.co.uk/
or call 0845 458 1909
or email info@bannertheatre.co.uk