Workers' Liberty

Lambeth Council bans trade union from Staff Conference

Birmingham council workers to strike 23-24 April

It's clear that Birmingham City Council and their corporate backers want to use the "Single Status" settlement to make fundamental attacks upon the council workforce and the users of City Council services: the entire Birmingham working class.

Forty socialist candidates will be standing in the local government elections on 1 May, under the umbrella of the Socialist Green Unity Coalition.

“Red” Ken Livingstone’s campaign for re-election is being supported with a high profile statement signed by... trade union militants? left activists? anti-cuts campaigners?

Lambeth council wants to increase council tenants’ rents by 6.5%. This is far higher than the increases in other boroughs and equates to around £250 a year extra for the average property.

Lambeth want to increase council tenants’ rents by 6.5%...

This is far higher than the increases in other borough and equates to about £250 a year extra for the average property.

Councils are preparing their budgets for 2008-9. Some councils, notably Newcastle and Southampton, are planning sizeable cuts.

On 29 November Edinburgh City Council’s SNP/Lib-Dem coalition administration announced plans to axe a thousand jobs. The announcement was e-mailed to staff even before the City Council unions had been informed.

I work in a social services department, where we are constantly fighting to provide the best service we can to their service users, with very scarce resources.

Like most councils our department is plagued by “performance indicators” (PIs) and the “star” system. The PIs work like targets in the NHS and league tables in schools. They put forward laudable aims — giving timely services, in a flexible and appropriate way — and that is what we all want. But in practice they skew the work done so that the limited resources are put into getting the appropriate box ticked, rather than prioritising, on the basis of assessment, areas of greatest need.

BY Faryal Velmi, TGWU 1/1148 branch

Despite the biggest demonstration seen in Lambeth (in South London) for a decade and an attempted occupation of the council chambers, savage cuts to Adult Social Services were voted through on Wednesday 28 February.

Ruth Kelly is determined to fight the rise of the BNP. The problem is the method by which she aims to do this – by treating foreigners in a way that the BNP would heartily approve of!

Kelly wants immigrants to learn English. Problem is, she intends to achieve this not by, erm, teaching them English, but by stopping Councils from providing translation facilities. How, exactly, will that magically enable someone to speak a language they can not speak at present?

Having saved ourselves from the wrecking ball last year, our estate - and all other estates in Hackney - now face another fight to defend the places we live. Hackney Labour has a plan for Council estates: to sell pieces of their land to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to build new 'affordable' homes on.

If you believe Hackney Council’s propaganda, you'd think we live under the most generous administration on the planet. Awash we are with fantastic new services.

Just the odd caveat:

• Many are re-openings or replacements of facilities closed by Hackney's Labour Council in the past. Petchey Academy is on the site of the old Kingsland school; Mossbourne on the site of Hackney Downs – both closed by the Labour Council against opposition from students, parents, staff and the community. It closed London Fields lido in 1988!
  
  

Hackney Council has a draft new policy for hiring out estate community halls, under which:

• Residents will no longer be able to use their estate's hall free of charge for events such as kids’ birthday parties.

• Anyone holding a one-off event must pay £150 deposit.
• Groups hiring a hall would have to pay more.
• TRAs will pay utility bills, currently paid by the Council.

The effects will be to:

Hackney Labour’s election manifesto said that the Council would build 2000 new affordable homes. As the government refuses to pay for this without privatisation, the Council would need to defy the government and provide public housing. But don’t expect that from Hackney Council. They have secret plans of their own.

Hackney Council is consulting on a new policy for hiring out estate community halls. This might not seem the biggest issue in a world of capitalist triumphalism and reactionary revivalism, but it's going to have an impact on working-class communities, so read on.

This one's for Hackney locals (including you Stoke Newington types who don't like to admit you live in Hackney), swimmers, and followers of useless local Councils and "Labour" politicians who fail working-class communities.

If you believe the propaganda department of Hackney Council, you'd think we live under the most generous and enlightened administration on the planet. Awash we are with fantastic new services. How will we ever find the time to enjoy them all or the means to thank our leaders as fullsomely as they deserve?!

Emergency Motion from Tower Hamlets Local Government Unison branch to Unison Local Government Service Group conference, 18/19 June 2006.

Leaflet from Unison United Left commenting on the local government unions' decision to call off the industrial action, continuing the campaign against pension cuts, due on 25-27 April.

An official statement from the public services Unison on 30 March condemned the Deputy Prime Minister’s “provocative” action in pressing ahead with cuts in local government pensions.

Snippets from the local government unions’ strike day on 28 March, when over a million workers struck against planned cuts in the local government pension scheme.

AWL bulletin for the local government unions' strike over pension cuts, 28 March 2006.

One million workers in local government, members of Unison and other unions, are set to strike on 28 March against the Government's plans to cut their pension provision.

The decision on 24 February by an adjudication panel of the Standards Board for England to suspend London Mayor Ken Livingstone is an outrage against democracy. Livingstone should be reinstated.