Community Issue 16 | Spring 2011
stronger together
SA VED our steel
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Marching for jobs
stronger together INSIDE …
Dear member, After just ten months of the Tory-led government the economy has shown signs of stalling and the unfair cuts are starting to hit working people. With each week we hear news of another policy that will affect members’ lives. From drastic changes to Disability Living Allowance to raising VAT – this coalition continues to claim they have no alternative. We know there is an alternative and on 26 March, London will witness the biggest trade union march for a generation. The March for the Alternative will bring together working people from across the UK in a defiant demonstration against the Tory-led government’s cuts agenda. I will be marching and I hope you will join me. You can find more details inside this edition of Stronger Together. Despite the doom of the Tory cuts, there is some good news. We have “saved our steel” on Teesside. This is a fantastic outcome to a long, hard campaign and I want to pay tribute here to the local officials, MPs and everybody who has been involved in the Save our Steel campaign which has been running since the plant was first threatened almost two years ago. Thai steel company SSI has agreed to buy the steelworks from Tata Steel – this will secure 700 jobs and will create at least 800 more. The SSI deal was done with little or no help from government – despite Nick Clegg desperately trying to bask in the limelight. To create
News 4 How Community inspired a student band Have a heart, say OCS staff Campaign for supported employment Meet Terry Pye, National Operations Officer Marching for jobs and growth 6 TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber explains why Community members should march for the alternative on 26 March How our steel was saved 8 Successful end to a 22-month campaign to save Teesside Cast Products Forging ahead 9 Community’s support provider Communitas continues to win new funding and provide practical help and training Community child benefit 10 Could you be eligible? And is there a budding artist in your family? If so, they could win £40-worth of vouchers Regional reps It’s an opportunity to help people and do something of value
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more jobs for working people and tackle the worrying rise in youth unemployment more government action is needed. This is why the March for the Alternative is not just about unfair cuts, it’s about Jobs, Growth and Justice. Justice is fundamental to the work of unions. In this issue you can read more about some of our current workplace campaigns, which are all about justice – fair pay for cleaners at OCS and jobs for disabled people at Blindcraft. All good reasons to join the March for the Alternative – for jobs, for growth and for justice.
If you have any comments or suggestions for the next edition please contact the editor on editor@community-tu.org or on 020 7420 4000 Stronger Together. Spring 2011 Cover picture: Mark Pinder/reportdigital.co.uk Editorial Office: 67/68 Long Acre, Covent Garden, WC2E 9FA Tel: 020 7420 4000 email: editor@community-tu.org Printed by The College Hill Press www.collegehillpress.co.uk
Yours in Unity General Secretary Michael J. Leahy OBE
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news
Community campaign inspires student band AN ACOUSTIC trio based in Street, Somerset, the home of Clarks Shoes, were so inspired by a Community campaign that they named their band after it. Reinstate Sarah are David McSparron, Alex Brian and Martin Sheills, a group of students who formed the band at Strode College. The band’s logo features Community Campaign Manager Michael Auguste in cartoon form (right), as drawn by band member David McSparron. Michael and his sign became a well-known feature in Street
ARE BETTING SHOPS SAFER?
during a campaign on behalf of one of our members at Clarks. The Reinstate Sarah campaign has ended but we hope the message will live on through the band. Community is continuing to campaign in the community in Street – the Reinstate Sarah campaign raised the union’s profile in the area and local reps are considering how they can build on the campaign’s success and do more organising in the community. You can find Reinstate Sarah on Facebook.
AS PART of Community’s campaign for safer betting shops, we got the previous government to make employers sit round the table with the union and other partners to improve safety. In the coming weeks and months the partners involved in the Safebet Alliance will be reviewing progress. We’ll be asking members ‘is your betting shop safer?’ Look out for more details soon.
‘Have a heart’ say OCS staff COMMUNITY UNION members employed by the OCS group at the Tata Steel site in Port Talbot went out on strike on Valentine’s Day following a protracted battle to secure a fair pay settlement. OCS pays its workers significantly less than any other contractor on the Tata Steel site and Community representatives have been negotiating since June 2010 in an attempt to remedy this injustice. The campaign has been a great credit to OCS members and their reps and it has seen a significant increase in membership with more OCS workers joining in support. Unfortunately OCS management has so far proven unwilling to pay its workforce a fair wage and, following a strong vote for strike action, OCS members were forced to take strike action. Campaign Manager Sue Lewis said: “Community never takes industrial action lightly, but our members have been left with
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OCS staff picket Port Talbot
‘Our members have been left with little choice – fair pay for our members is not too much to ask’
little choice – fair pay for our members is not too much to ask.” The strike began on Valentine’s Day and workers produced Valentine’s cards calling on OCS management to “have a heart” and give fair pay to OCS workers. The strike was well supported, with OCS members on the picket line at Port Talbot from 5am on a cold and wet morning, and steelworkers made a great show of solidarity during the two-day strike. At time of writing the dispute was unresolved and members were considering their next steps.
Members lead campaign for supported employment COMMUNITY MEMBERS at Edinburgh BlindCraft have been mounting a highprofile political campaign in Scotland to secure sustainable supported employment for disabled workers. The BlindCraft workers have fallen victim to local council cuts and the business is being closed. BlindCraft was founded in 1793 – it has survived 218 years of Scottish history but it will not survive savage cuts by the LibDem-SNP council in Edinburgh. BlindCraft members have been doing all they can to try to save their workplace and they have received cross-party political support for their campaign. On February 18 they launched the 2-18 email campaign to get their MSP, SNP Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, to intervene. On 10 March a ‘last march’ to Parliament to call on Scotland’s political leaders to create a sustainable future for supported employment. The case for jobs for disabled people will become all the more important as the unfair
cuts bite and Community will continue to lead the fight for jobs for disabled workers in Scotland.
BlindCraft members with MSPs outside the Scottish Parliament
NEW NATIONAL OPERATIONS OFFICER THE UNION is changing the way it works to give more consistent and targeted support to all our members and to focus our work on building a bigger, stronger union. A new National Operations Centre (NOC) will co-ordinate campaigns and support across the union and it will be led by the new National Operations Officer, Terry Pye. Terry brings his lifelong experience of trade unionism to Community. A former Regional Secretary for Amicus, familiar to many activists in steel from his time as the National Officer for Steel at Unite, Terry will head up the NOC team based in Kidderminster. “I’m looking forward to getting out and meeting members and activists and to helping you build a stronger union in your workplaces. It’s a privilege to work for Community and to continue both its great traditions and its modern approach to trade unionism,” commented Terry.
Terry Pye: lifelong experience of trade unionism
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jobs march
Why we are marching TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber tells Community why you should join thousands of trade union members and other campaigners on 26 March
GOVERNMENT SPENDING cuts will damage public services and put more than a million out of work. They will hit the vulnerable, damage communities and undermine much of what holds us together as a society. And of course it is not just the public sector that will suffer. Private sector jobs will go too. This is because the government is cutting spending on things like construction and the sheer speed and scale of cuts will slow the whole economy down. Ministers say there is no alternative. But both of the government’s two key decisions are political choices, not economic necessity. Eliminating the deficit in just four years is a savage timetable that does not give economic growth the opportunity to close the deficit by raising the nation’s tax take. Indeed the cuts promised will depress the economy even more than it is already. Raising four pounds through cuts for every pound raised through tax – and doing most of the latter through a VAT rise that hits the poor and those on middle income the most – is deeply unfair. The recession was made in the finance sector, yet banks and those enjoying gigantic bonuses again are not being asked to make a fair contribution. None of these policies were put to the British people at the election. David Cameron told us that there was no need for cuts in frontline services. People throughout the country are already campaigning against these deep, rapid cuts. Students have shown their opposition to teaching cuts, the end of the EMA and increases in fees. Parents and teachers have opposed cuts in school building. School sport, libraries and public woodlands all now have
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COMMUNITY MEMBERS MEMBERS OF the Voluntary, Community Care and Social Housing Workers’ branch joined fellow members from National League of the Blind Disabled Hull, whose jobs at the B-Line sheltered workshop are under threat, to support a lively and well-attended demonstration (above) through the centre of Hull on Thursday 24 February. The demonstration was called by the City Council trade unions (including Community) to protest at the LibDem council’s proposals to slash £65 million from the budget and throw 1,300 workers onto the dole, including blind and disabled Community members from B-Line. Hull is suffering the highest percentage budget cuts of any city in the Yorkshire and Humberside region,
HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE TUC Community’s regional offices are co-ordinating logistics with local TUCs and other unions. Hundreds of coaches have been booked to get people to London from all over the UK. Contact your regional office to find out how you can join the march. ■■Scotland: 01698 304567 ■■North East: 01642 246040 ■■Yorkshire and Humberside: 01709 702291
strong defenders. Few towns now do not have their own campaign group. Many members of Community have also been involved in local campaigns. But only the TUC can bring all this together. This is why we are organising the March for the Alternative. A different timetable for reducing the deficit will allow recovery to make a much bigger contribution to closing the deficit. A fairer tax system that clamps down on tax dodging by big corporations and wealthy individuals spreads the burden more fairly. Making the banks pay a Robin Hood tax asks those who caused the crash to undo the damage they did. And above all we need economic policies which create jobs and boost sustainable economic growth. This is the only long term way to close the deficit and reduce the nation’s debt.
None of these policies were put to the British people at the election. David Cameron told us that there was no need for cuts in front-line services
ON THE MARCH IN HULL giving the lie to the Tory-led government’s claim that “we are all in this together”. Expressions of support for Community’s campaign to save the B-Line workshop were virtually unanimous from everyone on the street in Hull but it remains unclear whether the Lib-Dem Councillors will take much notice. However, their enthusiasm for cutting jobs and services to please their leader in Westminster may well cost them their majority on the City Council in May’s elections and the Labour Group leader has promised the unions that he will withdraw all outstanding compulsory redundancy notices if his group is running the city after those elections.
DEMONSTRATION ■■North West, North Wales and West Midlands: 01562 749150 ■■East Midlands and Eastern England: 01604 810326 ■■South Wales and South West: 02920 668800 ■■South East and London: 020 7420 4000 Bring your family, bring your friends, bring your banners and placards and join the March for the Alternative on 26 March.
TSOSARY Y C E SAAIR AND UNN E TS UNF G CU N I D N SPE Assemble on Victoria Embankment between Temple Place and Blackfriars, at 11am to march to a rally in Hyde Park
more details at www.tuc.org.uk/march join the campaign at www.falseeconomy.org.uk
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SSI deal
Michael J Leahy: This is truly wonderful news for Teesside steelworkers and the wider community 22 months that TCP was under threat – a great victory for the union. Talking about the Save our Steel campaign General Secretary Michael J Leahy said: “This is truly wonderful news for Teesside steelworkers and the wider community. I cannot recall a more positive development in over 40 years of my involvement in the UK steel industry. “It must not be underestimated how difficult the past months have been for our members on Teesside – continually surviving the uncertainty as well as seeing hundreds of colleagues leave the workplace through early retirement or voluntary redundancy is difficult. “That is why I want to pay tribute to Community’s local union officials who have led the campaign and supported our members throughout this challenging period. The SSI deal is just reward for their efforts.
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SAVED:
our steel “Now we must look forward to building a strong union within SSI to face the new challenges that will come as TCP returns to steelmaking and to continue to secure a good deal and a fair share for our members and for the local community.” Local members have already volunteered to help the union get “ready to restart” steelmaking to ensure that Community continues to be a strong and wellorganised union on Teesside as people return to their old jobs and new employees start work for SSI.
PICTURES: MARK PINDER/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK
FINALLY, THE news Community’s members on Teesside have been waiting for arrived on 24 February. We saved our steel. Thai steel company SSI agreed to buy Teesside Cast Products (TCP) from Tata Steel for £291 million, with a further £600 million expected to be invested by SSI to put Teesside back on the map as a world-class producer of slab steel. The agreement marks the end of a 22-month campaign led by Community at local and national level. Community always believed that there was a market for TCP’s steel and demanded that Tata Steel secure the future of steelmaking and not just abandon the workforce and the Teesside community. The General Secretary travelled to Italy, Thailand and India to try and secure a future for TCP and to keep the pressure on Tata Steel to do the right thing by our members. Community’s pressure also meant that there was not one hard redundancy throughout the
Communitas Forging Ahead with training and help
The last firing of the Teesside blast furnace and the protests against its mothballing
COMMUNITY’S SUPPORT provider Communitas continues its work giving members learning and development opportunities and responding to redundancies. Communitas has provided practical help and re-training for over 22,000 people, harnessing over £13m of funding from a variety of sources for learning projects. Currently the most successful and innovative activity is the Forging Ahead workplace support programme set up in October 2009 to help members facing redundancy in South Yorkshire. The programme includes sessions on CV writing, interview techniques, computer skills and managing your money, as well as advising about local training and job opportunities. Originally devised to help 1,500 steelworkers, the programme has since been delivered
for employees of Jarvis Rail, Marks & Spencer, Fox’s Biscuits, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, Carrington Wire and MS Toiletries. Forging Ahead’s success is that it involves several key partners working together to provide a unique, co-ordinated and bespoke response to redundancy or the threat of redundancy and shows Community’s commitment to not abandon our members when they need us most. Sadly, as the Government’s unnecessary and unfair cuts bite ever deeper and new redundancies are announced every day, the demand for Forging Ahead is inevitably increasing, particularly from public sector employees. Wherever possible and whenever needed, Community will strive to get learning and skills support to members under threat of redundancy.
SOME RECENT SUCCESSES
COMMUNITAS HAS won significant new funding from the Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF), for the project Community Building for the Future – The Next Level. This project will establish six additional workplace learning centres across Wales and will further develop the skills and qualifications that people in the workplace have gained during the past few years. In turn this will enable members to cope with change both at the workplace and in their own lives and will help them to respond to future changes in the Welsh manufacturing sector by giving them transferable skills. This project will bring the total number of Community workplace learning centres which have been supported through WULF to 11. Communitas has also been short-listed as a specialist provider of employability and other skills to the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) Work Programme in the Yorkshire and Humber region. This short-listing recognises that we are providing high quality services to people seeking employment or coping with redundancy. The learning resource centre at Tyco in Stockport has been relaunched, which improves the training and support available to members at the fire protection products manufacturer.
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Community child benefit CHILDREN’S DESIGN COMPETITION – WIN £40 WH SMITH VOUCHERS
Is there a budding artist in your family?
COMMUNITY’S CHILD Benefit scheme is proving a hit with members. Almost 1,000 children of members have been registered for Community’s child benefit scheme. Over 700 of the children were eligible for the £50 “baby bonus” which is paid to member parents of children born or adopted after 1 July 2004. Children registered under the scheme receive ongoing support from Community. They will receive birthday cards and vouchers at key stages of their childhood such as when they first go to school or when they start secondary school. Now we are launching a competition for members’ children to design the next birthday card. Two winners will be chosen from age categories 0-8 and 9-16 and the winning entries will go to print. The lucky winners will also each receive £40 worth of WH Smith vouchers. Get creative kids! Get your pencils or crayons out and design our cards. Send in your design with your name, address and age on the back. Parents, please also put your membership number on the back. The closing date for entries is 15 April 2011. The winners will be announced in the next issue. Send all entries to our National Operations Centre, Carpet Weavers Hall, Callows Lane, Kidderminster, DY10 2JG.
Competition terms: Entries received after the closing date will not be considered. Winning entries will be selected by an appointed representative of Community. Competition open to Community members’ children only, defined as parental, adoptive or living in the same household. Prizes to be sent within 28 days of closing.
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IM A L C O T E L IB IG L E E B U O Y D L COU ILD BENEFITpti?on of a COMMUNITY CH by bonus after the birth or ado
“ba MEMBERS WILL receive a £50 er parents stages of the child’s life memb key at t tha n tio en int r ou is child. It d school equipment. rs for items such as books an will receive gifts and vouche y 2004 are born on or adopted after 1 Jul en ldr chi all of ts en par er Memb born on 1 July 2004 Member parents of children eligible for the “baby bonus. . will receive an additional £50 ption of a child member upon the birth or ado This benefit is payable to any hip for at least ing they have held members vid pro t, en par a are y the of which birth. 12 months prior to the child’s then both can claim. If both parents are members through Branch Child Benefit form available Members should fill out the r website. Member Service Centre or ou the , ces Offi l na gio Re es, ari Secret tificate which ied by a copy of the Birth Cer Any claim must be accompan her or mother. one member as either the fat st lea at of me na the n tai must con
Regional reps are delivering for members
regional reps
Last year Community launched its Member Representation and Support Network (MRSN). Co-ordinated from the National Operations Centre, volunteer reps across the country have been recruited and trained to represent Community members in unrecognised workplaces or when full-time officials are unavailable. WITH AN initial group of 28 volunteers – comprised of retired former activists or current reps who were willing to represent members outside their own workplace – the MRSN went live in August last year. Since then it has gone from strength to strength providing representation for hundreds of members at grievance or disciplinary hearings and even supporting branches in redundancy consultations. Regional rep Derek Loughborough took early retirement when Teesside Cast Products was mothballed last year. As a long-time activist and former NEC member, Derek jumped at the chance to continue supporting Community members on Teesside. “Being a regional rep is extremely rewarding and it’s extremely important too. In the past few months I’ve represented a number of members who were at risk of dismissal. Using the training I’ve received from Community and the experience I’ve gained over the years I was able to reduce the charges against the members to verbal or written warnings.”
‘Becoming a regional rep has given me the opportunity to help people and do something valuable’
Brenda Clarke, a regional rep and former textile worker in Nottinghamshire, tells a similar story. “All too often employers don’t follow their own procedures,” says Brenda, “but with a trained rep by their side our members can challenge their bosses and make sure that they aren’t treated unfairly.” Tom Butler, Community’s branch president at Thamesteel in Sheerness, describes how he came to volunteer to be a regional rep. “Every Community member deserves to have the right representation and support at work. That’s why I volunteered to be a regional rep. I can help members in my own workplace but I can also help members in my nearby community. For me, that’s what being in Community’s all about.” Mick Lavin worked in the betting industry for a number of years before he became a regional rep and, although he was never a branch official, he explains why he felt he had something to offer: “I’ve always been active in my trade union and had a strong sense of justice and what was right and wrong. Becoming a regional rep has given me the opportunity to help people and do something valuable, and with the excellent training I received I have never felt out of my depth.”
COMMUNITY MEMBERS NEED YOU THE MRSN is always looking for more volunteers to join its group of regional reps. If you want to make a real difference, which helps Community members in your local area, and at the same time is personally rewarding, give something back and become a Community Regional Rep. Full training will be provided as well as any out-of-pocket expenses. You will be fully supported
by our team at the National Operations Centre. In particular, we’re looking for more reps in the North West (specifically Merseyside, Preston and Blackpool), the South West, in Scotland and in London. If you want to talk about the role please contact Oliver Stockley (ostockley@ community-tu.org or 01562 749181) or Mark Jones (mjones@ community-tu.org or 01562 749183).
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MARCH FOR THE ALTERNATIVE
Join thousands of trade union members and campaigners marching for Jobs, Growth and Justice on March 26
SIGN UP A NEW MEMBER
They can call freephone 0800 389 6332 or visit www.community-tu.org/join