News and views for trade Unionists and supporters in the Green Party
PCS Pay Campaign Rally
Wednesday 31 March 2021 @ 1pm
The focus of the event will be united activity with other key workers and their unions.
We have a health, British Gas and shop worker speaking at the rally alongside a PCS representative.
PCS is pushing for joint union campaigning on pay at the TUC, so building alliances at regional and local level with other unions is key.
PCS is inviting members of other unions to this event.
Please come along if you want to work with us on joint campaigning to get all key and public sector workers a decent pay rise.
Please encourage union and trades council members to attend and share invite.
Green Left notes that 70 GP practices in the Uk, 49 of them in London, have been taken over by the Centene Corporation, a major US health insurer, through its UK subsidiary, Operose. These were approved by NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) without consulting the public or local councils and with minimal oversight of the effect on NHS staff and quality of service.
We demand that CCGs prohibit any further takeovers by Centene or other for-profit companies; and that all such existing for-profit contracts be terminated as soon as legally possible.
While salaried GP partners quite reasonably prefer to use their training and experience to care for patients rather than on managing surgery finances, that task can be carried out by suitably qualified NHS employees.
We believe that Centene has made its large investment in UK NHS GP practices, through Its UK subsidiary Operose, in the expectation that Operose will in future pay dividends to the parent company. Operose has contracts to digitalise the NHS, transferring various patient-physician interactions to online only, with serious implications for future. quality of care. It is clear from the business model that dividends will involve the closure of non-profitable parts of its business. This could include closure of GP practices that remain unprofitable despite "rationalisation" through cuts in staff, wages and services to patients. Local GP practices in deprived communities, or with a large number of older patients, may be particularly vulnerable to closure and transfer of patients to large area GP hubs. This will create difficulty for patients with impaired mobility to reach a doctor.
Unless these profit-driven takeovers are stopped, our NHS GP Services will be commercialised and taxpayers will pay more for a reduced service, the profits ending up in the US.'
https://weownit.org.uk/blog/here-are-gp-practices-taken-over-us-health-insurance-giant-centene
https://greenleftblog.blogspot.com/2021/03/stop-centene-green-left-statement.html
What really happened at the Bristol protests? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r87RyNS3uxQ
This branch condemns the government’s preposterous and wasteful ‘Indo-Pacific’ defence strategy which involves increased expenditure on nuclear warheads. We call on UCU to campaign for more rational expenditure on such areas as combating climate change, an internationally just distribution of anti-pandemic measures and increased UK foreign aid.
Workers and workers' organisations have a fine record fighting
for democratic rights, at least since the Chartist movement to the
movement for universal suffrage. Now, we are fighting for an electoral
system that does not give the party of big business an unfair advantage.
It is therefore very positive to see trade unions
including Unite, Unison and others are considering supporting a
move to a system of Proportional Representation (PR) for elections in the UK at
their forthcoming conferences. Five trade unions including the Bakers,
Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), the Transport Salaried Staffs'
Association (TSSA) and Musicians Union (MU) support introducing PR.
Greens will note that a growing number of Labour MPs including Clive
Lewis, Ben Bradshaw, and Ruth Maskell support introducing a proportional
electoral system. Three quarters of Labour Party members support this, as do
nearly a third of Constituency Labour Parties.
This is the moment for Green trade unionists to be working within their
trade unions to build support for Proportional Representation.
A right-wing government is in power, in large part because
of an unfair voting system in which millions cast votes that
are entirely unrepresented in parliament. Millions more are
disenfranchised entirely, because their citizenship and migration status
unjustly prevent them from participating in UK elections. The Conservative
government is planning to introduce voter ID schemes that will further
disenfranchise already marginalised communities.
If the last general election had been held using a proportional
electoral system, the Conservative Party would have 81 fewer MPs
and would not have a majority in the House of Commons. Both Labour and the Greens
would have gained more MPs. If all residents of the UK were permitted and
empowered to cast votes, our political landscape would be transformed for the
better.
By working within their trade unions, Greens can help get Proportional
Representation and begin to build a real democracy.
"The Police,
Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSC) due to be debated and voted on in the
House of Commons this week presents the gravest threat to civil liberties in
more than a generation. It must be opposed at all costs, in parliament and on
the streets.
"The
Coronavirus Act 2020 gave police wide-ranging and ill-defined powers to
crackdown on nonviolent protest. During the past year, police forces have shown
that they cannot be trusted with such drastic powers. Using the Act security
forces have already critically limited freedoms of assembly and association,
with women, people of colour, working class and other structurally oppressed
groups being disproportionately harmed.
"The police's
violent handling of social movement demonstrations, such as Black Lives Matter
and recent feminist demonstrations, have shown that the police must not be
vested with more power. And yet that is exactly what this bill does: it
criminalises an extraordinary range of actions, on the grounds that they put
people "at risk" of suffering "severe annoyance";
it introduces shocking 10 year sentences for demonstrators; it oppresses
marginalised people including Gypsy, Roma & Traveller communities;
these are just a few examples.
"Upholding
freedoms of assembly and association is a duty of all progressives everywhere.
Trade unionists know from experience that police violence is disproportionately
inflicted on working class people, whether in their communities or on the
picket line.
"We stand in
solidarity with all victims of state violence and call on all MPs to oppose
this bill. We call on all Green Party members and trade unionists who are able
to contact their MPs and demonstrate publicly against this bill."
The Green Party Trade Union Group welcomes the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to uphold the Employment Tribunal’s view that Uber drivers are workers in the view of the law, not contractors or self-employed individuals.
Uber drivers are owed the basic rights owed to all workers: a minimum wage, union representation, the right to fight for collective bargaining, sick pay, annual leave and so much more besides.
In truth, the legal facts of this matter were never really in doubt. Uber has known for a long time that its exploitative business model is predicated on denying its workers the rights they are owed by law. But instead of negotiating a fair and just settlement with its workers and their trade unions, Uber has chosen to wage war on employment rights and avoid its responsibilities altogether.
It has taken the workers involved in this case six years to win this Supreme Court ruling. Meanwhile, Uber’s statements this morning make clear that they will continue to attempt to shirk their legal and moral responsibilities, while trying to misinform their workers and push anti-union narratives. We have seen from recent developments worldwide, including California’s damaging Proposition 22 ballot initiative, that platform capitalists will stop at nothing to keep exploiting their workforce. We in turn must stop at nothing to defeat this ongoing exploitation.
Now the UK government must waste no time in asserting and enforcing the protections to which app-based workers are legally and ethically entitled. We congratulate the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU), GMB, and all who worked so hard for this victory.
We encourage all private hire drivers to join a trade union specialising in organising drivers. We encourage all Green Party members and supporters to provide financial and other support to these trade unions in the fight ahead.
Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the BFAWU
Climate Change, Workers and Trade Unions
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/EJBkRpe0iqYhkGr4vVp9D2FCK8_zVlWOMhz_3BmFxY4qA AcrgKVFB3h8GK-UbVQs.JLiRyOYsvfk3eOyr
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The government
proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff is correctly being described as ‘a kick in
the teeth’ and ‘an insult’ by workers and their unions (4/3/2021). NHS workers
have often reached beyond their contractual duties to combat the COVID-19
pandemic, at great personal risk and sacrifice.
With NHS staff nearing the end of a 3-year pay deal, this conference resolves
to support the Moving Forwards on NHS Pay campaign led by fourteen trade
unions (including Unite, Unison, GMB, RCN) representing over 1.3 million
members, to secure a fair pay rise for all health service workers. We believe
if the government can award lucrative contracts to ministerial cronies, it can
afford a decent pay award for health workers.
This conference
also resolves to support the demands of the grassroots NHS Workers Say No to
Public Sector Pay Inequality and Nurses United campaigns, including
a restorative 15% pay rise across the board for all NHS workers on ‘Agenda for
Change’ contracts and for outsourced services in the NHS to be brought back in
house.
Conference urges
Green Party spokespeople and councillors to support the fight for a fair pay
rise for health service workers, and to make links with these campaigns
locally, regionally and nationally. We urge Green Party members to engage
actively with NHS workers’ independent trade unions in supporting these
campaigns.
We instruct our MP, Peers and Leaders to write to the NHS Pay Review Body and
make it clear that applause is not enough.
