Green Party Trade Union Group sends support to the workers of the BMW oxford car plant

Green Party Trade Union Group sends support to the workers of the BMW oxford car plant

The Green Party Trade Union Group sends solidarity to the workers of the BMW Oxford car plant who are now threatened with redundancy. (https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/18677045.hundreds-workers-lose-jobs-mini-plant-oxford/). We support the efforts of Unite to minimise the impact of these cuts. It is the duty of unions, especially in the current hostile economic circumstances, to defend their members’ pay and conditions including the terms under which they may end their employment.

As Green Party members, we advocate the creation of a low carbon economy in order to stop our worsening climate crisis. This would involve the phasing out of some types of industry. Motor vehicle production, especially of vehicles that cause carbon emissions, contribute to climate change and air pollution, is one of those industries. However, we favour a process of just transition, so that workers can maintain their standard of living whilst developing their skills to contribute to a new type of economy. The example of the Lucas plan where Lucas Aerospace workers showed how socially useful production could be developed, shows that this can be achieved.

Instead of making redundancies to bolster its flagging profitability, BMW should be considering retraining workers and redesigning its production to meet the future needs of a planet friendly economy. In the event that BMW does not follow this sensible course, the Green Party Trade Union Group agrees that Unite must do whatever it needs to defend the Oxford workers.

Mass Protest Against Redundancies

Mass Protest Against Redundancies

Saturday, August 29, 2020 at 10 AM – 2 PM

13–20°C Rain Showers

Royal Festival Hall

Public · Hosted by PCS Southbank and PCS Culture Group

Join PCS Southbank and other culture trade union branches to protest the mass redundancies taking place in the arts. Full details TBC

Students and workers demand justice for education.

JUSTICE FOR EDUCATION

18 August 2020 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

 https://youtu.be/tNj68wVZLL8

Students and workers demand justice for education. Despite the U-turn on A-level and GCSE results, this government is causing chaos to our education system. Join NUS president Larissa Kennedy, UCU general secretary Jo Grady, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, MP for Streatham, and Lauren Mura, head of politics and a curriculum team leader for A-levels at Blackburn College to talk about the exam results fiasco, what happens next and our campaign to Fund the Future.

Not a penny more to Serco - Give local, public teams the cash!

12 August 2020

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION ON TRACK AND TRACE CONTRACTS - TUESDAY 18TH AUGUST

Matt Hancock needs to scrap Serco and Sitel’s failed contracts now instead of renewing them on August 23rd.

The government must give the £528 million allocated for these contract extension to local authorities and Public Health England teams instead. Privatised track and trace has been a disaster that is costing lives. 

It’s time to put local public health teams in charge of the whole system. They have the tools and the local knowledge they need to do this vital work before any second wave this winter. Now they need the money.

PLEASE JOIN OUR DAY OF ACTION ON TUESDAY 18TH TO SAY: NOT A PENNY MORE TO SERCO - GIVE LOCAL AUTHORITIES THE CASH!

1. Organise a group to meet at your local authority building or landmark, (or Serco site if you're nearby). 
   • Remember to bring a camera!
2. Download and print this picture of a penny to take with you, along with this placard and bring one penny per person for the photo! Alternatively you can make a bigger cardboard cut out of a penny! 
   • Remember to check out guidelines on how to stay safe and stay socially distanced. Gloves, hand sanitiser and masks are a must and We Own It can reimburse you for them!
3. Let us know you're organising the action. We'll help with the local press! Email Chris at christopher@weownit.org.uk 
   Let others know! Make a Facebook event too and invite other people who might be able to join! Main Facebook event here.
   You can also let your local radio or newspaper know that you're organising this.
4. On the day, make sure to share your photos with us at info@weownit.org.uk.
   Share the action on social media tagging us on twitter, facebook and instagram too.
   Lastly, email your picture to Matt Hancock directly! 

Can't make an action in person?

Send your ‘Not a penny more’ message to Matt Hancock. You could take a photo, ideally with you in it, holding a penny, to share on social media for example. 

Make sure to tag Matt Hancock (Here’s his Twitter and Facebook) and include the caption: 

Not a penny more to Serco - Give local, public teams the cash! Sign now: https://weownit.org.uk/save-lives-scrap-serco-now

Privatised track and trace has been a disaster that is costing lives. It’s time to put local public health teams in charge of the whole system. 

Join in a Day of Action on Tuesday 18th to show you support safe, local track and trace for your community! 

ACTIONS ALREADY ORGANISED

• Wandsworth Town Hall - 12pm
• Sheffield Town Hall - 12:30pm
• Wallasey Town Hall - 11:00am
• Darlington Town Hall - 12:30pm
• Hackney Town Hall - 12:30pm
• Leamington Town Hall - 11am
• Bristol - College Green, outside Bristol City Hall - 12pm
• Sunderland Centre - 10:30am
• Southampton Civic Centre - 16:30pm

Labour is not asserting its commitment to a Green New Deal, peace and disarmament

To Ed Milliband, shadow secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

We note that ADS, the main representative body for UK companies in the “stricken” aerospace, defence, security and space sectors, are warning that 30,000 jobs are potentially at risk. More than half these jobs are in the “red wall” sector seats won by Conservatives from Labour at the last election. (Observer, 26 July). 

We also note that you are quoted as saying

“Ministers have left our world-leading aerospace sector in a downward spiral. High-quality, well-paid jobs are being lost in communities that simply cannot afford to lose them because of government inaction.

The government must bring forward a support package for aerospace which protects jobs in our world-leading sector and helps it to lead the low-carbon future. The failure to act is a betrayal of so many people who were promised this government would be on their side.’ 

We support the reference to the need to protect jobs but question why Labour is not asserting its commitment to a Green New Deal, peace and disarmament as part of its response. As part of the UK Ventilator Challenge, the Airbus site at Broughton in North Wales showed how it could turn its production line around to rapidly produce ventilators but is now facing nearly 1500 job cuts. This is in line with the New Lucas Plan to switch production from armaments to socially useful jobs. We question therefore why there was no mention of such a much needed and transformative initiative in your comments? 

There is a significant opportunity to repurpose or create jobs in the aerospace sector that will enable the transition to a zero carbon economy such as in wind turbine manufacture or mass public transport, or in providing ongoing much needed support for the NHS, and wider health and social care services.    

The minimal response you outlined appears to be a betrayal of both these workers and of wider society. It is also an own goal if we are looking to bring “red wall” constituencies back into the Labour fold.

Yours sincerely

Peter Murry, Secretary,

 pp Green Party Trade Union group

Green Party Trade Union Group Statement Black Lives Matter

Green Party Trade Union Group Statement Black Lives Matter

 Sunday 9 August 2020

Martin Luther King once said that: ‘True peace is not the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice’. As eco socialists and active trade unionists within our party we find these words to be both true and a template to strive for within the communities we seek to serve.

Our active support alongside the internationalist struggles of people of colour has been amplified in recent times by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and brought into sharp focus the need for our general membership, organising groups and leadership to be able to give clearer offerings of support going forward. Not least because these matters are all too often left for only a handful of activists to work upon but which clearly resonate within our understanding of what a just Green future might hold for everyone through a progressive position on matters of equality.

The disproportionate impact of Covid19 on BAME workers who are often in precarious jobs with poor working conditions and low wages has highlighted the need for trade unions to organise in such workplaces in order to ensure  workers’  have decent wages and to safeguard their health  and safety.

As a party we hold speaking ‘truth to power’ as our watchword so we call on everyone to join in both the interrelated debates and production of clear understandings that will both inform and guide our membership and our interaction with our wider communities. By doing this we will provide the nurturing space from which we can all both see and learn, because we absolutely know that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.

Beccy Sawbridge  Equalities Officer pp Green Party Trade Union Group

The Green Party Trade Union Group sends its support to the Tate Gallery workers

The Green Party Trade Union Group sends its support to the Tate Gallery workers striking against the unnecessary and damaging cuts being proposed by management. The strikers key demands are entirely justified, ie

1. No redundancies while anyone is paid more than 

£100,000

2. 10% of the Governments £7m bailout earmarked for 

the Tate to be invested to save jobs

3. If the money isn't enough, the Tate must join PCS 

and speak out about the lack of government support.

The Tate strikers are not only defending jobs, pay and conditions, as is the right of all trade unionists, they are also defending this country’s cultural heritage.

P.Murry, Secretary pp. Green Party Trade Union Group