The following motion has been agreed by Nottinghamshire Trades Council, and by the local Joint Strike Committee, to propose to a mass meeting of strikers which will be held in Nottingham on 30 June. (The meeting is being held in a venue with a capacity of almost a thousand, and they expect to fill it.)
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We the assembled union members of PCS, NUT, ATL and UCU congratulate the union executives for balloting for industrial action over pensions. Today must be seen as only the beginning of an on-going campaign of action.
We urge our union leaderships to announce plans to escalate the industrial action over pensions. It is clear from recent announcements by the government that they are not yet close to withdrawing their pension proposals. Evidence for local campaigning across the country shows that members understand the issues involved in the pensions disputes and are prepared to take extensive industrial action to defeat the government?s pensions proposals.
We therefore call on our respective National Executive Committees in consultation with local union organisations to draw up plans for a variety of further actions under the current ballots beginning with:
a) At least one further national strike day before the end July 2011.
b) A timetable for further strikes in the Autumn, both nationally and regionally based.
We further call on our National Executives to start urgent talks with other unions facing job cuts and attacks on pay, pensions and conditions but who have so far not balloted for action. In such talks the Unions should make the case for our sister unions balloting for strike action against these attacks as a matter of urgency.
Finally, we believe it is vital that rank and file union members are involved in this dispute and we call on the unions taking action today to establish strike committees both within and between unions.
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We believe this approach - holding meetings where strikers can debate the way forward and formulate demands for further action, rather than just rallies - is essential if we are to develop the 30 June strikes into a struggle that can win.
Why not try to do the same in your town or area? Or even if you cannot hold such a meeting on the day, please discuss this motion in your union branch, anti-cuts group, trades council etc.
For more information or to let the Notts activists know you're supporting the motion, or doing something similar, email Liam Conway of Notts Trades Council and NUT - william.conway@ntlworld.com
Comments
Motion passed by Sheffield Anti-Cuts Alliance
Motion for escalating strike/industrial action after 30th June
The members of the Sheffield Anti Cuts Alliance congratulates the union executives for balloting for industrial action over pensions, pay, and job cuts. Today must be seen as only the beginning of an on-going campaign of action.
We urge the union leaderships to announce plans to escalate the industrial action over pensions, pay, and job cuts. It is clear from recent announcements by the government that they are not yet close to withdrawing their proposals. Evidence for local campaigning across the country shows that members understand the issues involved in the disputes and are prepared to take extensive industrial action to defeat the government’s proposals.
We therefore call on the National Executive Committees of all public sector and concerned unions in consultation with local union organisations to draw up plans for a variety of further actions under the current ballots beginning with:-
a) At least one further national strike day before the end July 2011.
b) A timetable for further strikes throughout the year, both nationally and regionally based.
c) Any other action in defence of the above which is particularly damaging to the employer(s), e.g. action short of a strike, work to rule, overtime bans, selective and targeted strike action in particularly hard hitting sections of the workforce etc.
We further call on union National Executives to start urgent talks with other unions facing job cuts and attacks on pay, pensions and conditions but who have so far not balloted for action. In such talks the Unions should make the case for these sister unions balloting for strike action against these attacks as a matter of urgency.
Finally, we believe it is vital that rank and file union members are involved in this dispute and we call on the unions taking action on the 30th June to establish strike committees both within and between unions.
Motion passed by meeting of Croydon unions on 28 June
"We believe that 30 June must be seen as only the beginning of an ongoing campaign of action.
"We urge our union leaderships to announce plans to escalate the industrial action over pensions. It is clear from recent announcements by the government that they are not yet close to withdrawing their pension proposals. Evidence for local campaigning across the country shows that members understand the issues involved in the pensions disputes and are prepared to take extensive industrial action to defeat the government's pensions proposals.
"We therefore call on our respective National Executive Committees in consultation with local union organisations to draw up plans for a variety of further actions, beginning with a timetable for further strikes in the Autumn, nationally, regionally and sectionally based. We call for the raising of levies on union members in order to organise rolling and selective action, in addition to further national action.
"At least some dates should be announced before the summer as part of an ongoing campaign of awareness-raising among and mobilisation of members.
"We further call on our National Executives to start urgent talks with other unions facing job cuts and attacks on pay, pensions and conditions but who have so far not balloted for action. In such talks the Unions should make the case for our sister unions balloting for strike action against these attacks as a matter of urgency.
"We urge the unions represented at this meeting to agree to elect delegates to a Croydon joint strike committee at the first available opportunity in order to improve the co-ordination of future action. We further urge trades council delegates at this meeting to contact Croydon unions not represented here and encourage them to send delegates to the strike committee too."
Rotherham NUT motion on escalating the action
Motion for escalating the pensions action
Rotherham NUT committee calls on the National Executive, as a matter of urgency, to announce plans to escalate the industrial action over pensions after the 30th of June strike.
It is clear from recent announcements by the government that they are not yet close to withdrawing their pension proposals. Evidence from local campaigning across the country shows that the members understand the issues involved in the pensions dispute and are prepared to take extensive industrial action to defeat the government's pensions proposals. Members are also voicing their concerns that one day of strike action, like in 2008, is not good enough.
We therefore call on the National Executive to draw up plans, in consultation with local associations and division, for a variety of further actions under the current ballot beginning with:
a) On 30th June announcing a further date for strike action in the Autumn term
b) A timetable for further strikes in the Autumn Term, both nationally and regionally based, with consideration given to using rolling action and other forms of action short of strike action.
We congratulate the executive for making links with other unions balloting for industrial action over pensions and believe the success of those links will be seen on June 30th 2011. We urge the National Executive to liaise urgently with the PCS, CWU, UCU and ATL in planning further industrial action and to agree dates for further joint strike action to be announced on June 30th 2011, so that members know on that day what the next stage of the campaign will look like.
We further call on the National Executive to start urgent talks with those Public Sector unions which, so far, have not begun to ballot over pensions but whose members will lose out significantly as a result of the government proposals. In such talks the Union should make the case for our sister public sector unions balloting over pensions as a matter of urgency.
Finally, we support the collaboration between local public sector unions so far. We think this co-ordination should continue after the 30th of June and should form the basis of a local strike committee that is involved in organising pickets, demonstrations and local publicity.
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The Committee also voted to hold a post-30 June mass members' meeting to discuss escalation.