TGWU

Transport and General Workers Union

McDonnell appeals to TGWU leaders

Yesterday, 6 March, John McDonnell MP made a plea to left-wingers on the TGWU's General Executive Council to help him get on the ballot paper for the upcoming Labour leadership election, but was rebuffed. The GEC is meeting this week. "If you can't say that the TGWU supports my campaign, all right", said McDonnell. "But it should be possible for the TGWU to say that John McDonnell should be on the ballot paper". An official statement from the TGWU, calling on TGWU-sponsored MPs to nominate McDonnell, might bring McDonnell an extra 10 or 20 nominations. That - according to McDonnell's account...

Industrial News Round-up

Manchester strike 250 health workers in Manchester struck against cuts in community mental health teams on 31 January. This will be followed by another week's strike this month. The strikes follow a 91.6% ballot result in favour of action by community nurses, occupational therapists and team secretaries against cuts by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. These are: * cuts in community nursing, occupational therapy, team secretary and senior support worker posts which will mean higher caseloads, and a reduction in service; * downgradings for those staff who keep their job; * no...

‘union sell-out on Metroline’. I beg to disagree.

The 12 December issue of Busworkers Punch headlined the wage settlement at Metroline which drivers accepted on 13 December as ‘union sell-out on Metroline’. I beg to disagree. The hourly rate at Metroline going into the dispute was £10.33 an hour; the union asked for £11.00, 6.5%, and achieved 5.75%, £10.93, just 7p short of their claim. That can only be seen as a victory, and it is rightly seen as this in the London bus unions and the wider Labour movement. The strike was called off on Monday 20 November was because there was a real possibility that Metroline would be successful in getting a...

Industrial news: post, TGWU-Amicus merger, ESOL cuts, London buses, JJB

Defend Mark O’Reilly STOP press: North/ Northwest London CWU branch has perpetrated a bureaucratic stitch-up against Mark O’Reilly, a postal worker at Finsbury Park depot. Mark decided to challenge the incumbent union rep who has colluded with management over job cuts for over two years. Mark distributed a leaflet to workmates that referred to high work levels over the last Xmas period and demanded to know what the rep had done to alleviate the burden on staff. The branch then told Mark that he was banned from standing as he had contravened rules against canvassing, and the current rep would...

Unanswered questions from the M25 crash

By Jack Haslam Two people were killed and up to 60 injured when a National Express coach crashed on a slip road linking the M4 and M25 last Wednesday night (January 3). Our sympathies go out to the families and friends of the dead and injured. There are however important health and safety issues that are raised by the crash that need answering. Most of the press speculation has centred on the issue of the stability of double-decker coaches and the question of seat belts, but there are other issues that those who control the passenger transport industry don’t want aired. The focus on these...

City cleaners win!

As we reported on the front page of the last Solidarity, the T&G’s Justice for Cleaners campaign, seeking to organise and mobilise cleaners working in the City of London, has won substantial gains. After several weeks of demonstrations and direct action, including a sit in at the offices of Goldman Sachs and the threat of a hunger strike by five workers to put pressure on the Royal Bank of Scotland, three major companies — ISS, Lancaster and Mite — have conceded the union's main demands. These include collective bargaining to determine a uniform system for the whole of the City of London and...

The TGWU-Amicus merger: two views

On the TGWU-Amicus merger, by Tom Rigby Critical comments, by Martin Thomas On the TGWU-Amicus merger , by Tom Rigby A year ago we produced this draft of an article/statement of position on the issue of the then TGWU/GMB/AMICUS merger. In drawing up this document I consulted widely including with Jim D and especially with Tom C. The text represented our agreed position. Here are a few points from the statement of position followed by an assessment of where we now stand on the issues. The assessment is in bold. The assessment is agreed by myself and Jim. 1) This first extract deals with the...

The Alternative Busworkers Charter

The RMT took the initiative in launching a National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) at a meeting on 28th October supported by a raft of TU General Secretaries, including out own Tony Woodley. Its founding conference is pencilled in for 5 May 2007. Sympathetic convenors and officials should call a founding meeting for a London busworkers shop stewards and union activists’ network which would affiliate to the NSSN. Only grass roots involvement by the membership at large will begin to reverse the defeats of the last fourteen years. We must oppose completive tendering which maintains a constant...

London bus workers strike for a living wage

By Robin Sivapalan Two thousand five hundred Metroline drivers finally slammed the brakes on their bosses’ profiteering on 14 November, venting years of frustration in a solid strike on 96 bus routes across north-west London, and running well into central London and Hertfordshire. Several workers at one depot spoke to Solidarity with anger about the shameless exploitation of Metroline, who run nearly 14% of a bus service that was privatised under the Tories in 1994/5 and remained so under Labour and Ken Livingstone. Workers said that they had been forced onto the picket lines over a matter of...

Justice for cleaners: migrant workers fight for their rights

This is the big push for the Transport and General Workers' Union "Justice for Cleaners" campaign . NB The TGWU's "Justice for Cleaners" campaign is seeking to organise cleaners for City of London firms including Goldman Sachs, and has the AWL's full support. On London Underground (and throughout the whole rail industry nationally), however, we support the RMT, which has sole recognition from ISS on the Tube and is the union for all grades of railway workers. For more information on the RMT's campaign for cleaners on the Tube, see here and here . WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST ISS, 20 NOVEMBER-4...

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