save our ticket offices

 

I want to write to you to make an appeal for one more effort in the campaign to save our ticket offices. If you haven’t already done so, please respond to the consultation, and please encourage your workmates, friends and family to do the same by sharing on WhatsApp.   There are now just 2 weeks to go before the public consultation ends on plans by the Tory government and the private train operating companies to close almost every ticket office in our stations.   The response has been overwhelming. We’ve seen a massive groundswell of public opinion that’s taken the government and the companies by surprise, forcing them to extend the consultation period.   370,000 responses have been sent to the official consultation; The Tories are in disarray with ministers criticising their own government’s plans; The campaign has made headline news repeatedly.   These plans are wildly unpopular because people understand that ticket offices are part of a public service that serves our people.   They serve the needs of older passengers and the digitally excluded. Station staff help passengers every day with the crazy mass of tickets, saving them hundreds of pounds in fares. And of course, they’re an absolute necessity for disabled people, who rely on staff to travel at all.   But the government and the train companies are determined to push their plans through and cut thousands of jobs from the railway. If they get their way, a quarter of our station staff face losing their jobs.   Behind the weasel words about ‘modernisation’ and ‘getting people from behind the glass’, this is about saving government money and feed corporate profits. It’s as simple as that.   We can still stop this.   If you haven’t already done so, please take a minute to respond to the consultation.    Every voice raised through this consultation will make it harder for the companies and the government to get their way.    On 31st August, my union will be marching on Downing Street and we’d love to see you there and you can find details below.   But the most important thing now is to register your objection, so please do that now.

Find out more about the march

Respond to the consultation

Thanks for your support.   Your sincerely,

Mick Lynch General Secretary, RMT

Sign the petition - give St Mungos workers a fair pay rise here

 St Mungos indefinite strike

Sign the petition - give St Mungos workers a fair pay rise here

St Mungos do have the money! See here.

News about St Mungo's here

See St Mungos online hub here

Strike fund

Unite members at St Mungo's are striking for a 10% pay rise after our pay has been cut in real terms by 25% since 2010. At the same time, the salary of our CEO has increased by 77% since 2013, from £107k to £189,418.

St Mungo's is a leading UK homelessness charity in the UK, with many workers supporting homeless people on the frontline. We've been expected to take larger and increasingly complex caseloads over the past decade, with homelessness and rough sleeping increasing drastically and services cut, whilst our pay has been slashed year- on-year.

Now we're saying enough is enough. We've made it clear to senior management that we cannot continue to support vulnerable people in our services when many of us are struggling to afford our own bills.

93% of members that voted in our strike ballot voted to strike and we are planning to strike for 4 weeks to begin with to make our message heard.

Please contribute to our hardship fund to ensure we have the leverage we need to get the pay rise St Mungo's workers on the frontline need and deserve.

Just giving account here.

You can find out more about why we're striking here.

Write to your local councillor - see here

At the end of this industrial action, should there be a surplus of funds, the Branch will redirect those funds into similar hardship funds in the future.

Bank details:

Please use reference St Mungos Hardship fund

Account number: 20040626

Sort code: 608301

Account: Unite Housing Workers LE/1111 Branch

Cheques payable to Unite Houisng Workers LE 1111 Branch

St Mungo's workers have now voted for indefinite strike action. They are appealing for finainial support.

Just giving account here.

Bank details:

Please use reference St Mungos Hardship fund

Account number: 20040626

Sort code: 608301

Account: Unite Housing Workers LE/1111 Branch

Cheques payable to Unite Houisng Workers LE 1111 Branch

Strike fund

Unite members at St Mungo's are striking for a 10% pay rise after our pay has been cut in real terms by 25% since 2010. At the same time, the salary of our CEO has increased by 77% since 2013, from £107k to £189,418.

St Mungo's is a leading UK homelessness charity in the UK, with many workers supporting homeless people on the frontline. We've been expected to take larger and increasingly complex caseloads over the past decade, with homelessness and rough sleeping increasing drastically and services cut, whilst our pay has been slashed year- on-year.

Now we're saying enough is enough. We've made it clear to senior management that we cannot continue to support vulnerable people in our services when many of us are struggling to afford our own bills.

93% of members that voted in our strike ballot voted to strike and we are planning to strike for 4 weeks to begin with to make our message heard.

Please contribute to our hardship fund to ensure we have the leverage we need to get the pay rise St Mungo's workers on the frontline need and deserve.

Just giving account here.

You can find out more about why we're striking here.

Write to your local councillor - see here

At the end of this industrial action, should there be a surplus of funds, the Branch will redirect those funds into similar hardship funds in the future.

Bank details:

Please use reference St Mungos Hardship fund

Account number: 20040626

Sort code: 608301

Account: Unite Housing Workers LE/1111 Branch

Cheques payable to Unite Houisng Workers LE 1111 Branch

Better Buses national week of action, 1st to 8th October

 

Better Buses national week of action, 1st to 8th October, calling for an end to cuts and fair funding for bus services. Events/campaign stalls/meetings and rallies will be taking place across England and Scotland.

The national Better Buses campaign was launched at the national hybrid conference in June which attracted well over 100 people from across England and Scotland. Supporters included a wide range of unions (national, regional and local) as well as pensioners/disability groups and transport campaigners.The conference agreed to establish a national campaign group and to call the week of action. Agreed campaign name: "Better buses - Good for People, Good for the Planet".

Contact the campaign for information, a draft leaflet for the week of action and a full report of the conference or join our google group by emailing betterbusesnational@gmail.com

WE STAND WITH AMAZON WORKERS!

 

WE STAND WITH AMAZON WORKERS!

Workers demand dignity

£15 per hour now!

Thousands of Amazon workers in Coventry, the UK and internationally have been joining trade unions to demand fair pay and dignity at work, in a massive mobilisation of the trade union movement.

The first strike by hundreds of workers took place at Coventry Amazon in January following earlier wild cat action across the country by Amazon workers following an insulting rise of 50p an hour.

Subsequent industrial action and pickets resulted in workers flooding into the GMB trade union. On Saturday 5^th August a massive rally will take place.

Workers recognised that if they were going to get anything better than the derisory 50p pay rise offered by Amazon they would need to join a trade union and fight.

Many of the workers are young, women and come from different ethnic communities in Coventry. Care has been taken to ensure all workers feel part of the struggle.

INDUSTRIAL ACTION BUILDS THE UNION

Amazon is renowned as being anti trade unions and has been trying desperately to flood the plant with new workers to stop the GMB reaching the 50% of workers to gain formal union recognition at the site. Unfortunately for the Amazon bosses many of these workers are joining the GMB as well. They can fiddle as much as they like but the GMB will win!

WORKERS DEMAND THAT AMAZON RECOGNISE OUR UNION

Trade unionists and members of the community in Coventry & Warwickshire know this will be a big fight but it is fair to say Coventry remains a relatively strong trade union city with good links and a history of solidarity. Support groups will be formed across the country following on from the initiative in Coventry.

Messages of support and donations have already been received from local, regional, national, and international workers including Amazon workers in trade unions fighting the same struggle. Please send support and join the protests in Coventry and at other sites that will be taking action in the future.

THIS STRUGGLE HAS BEEN A REAL INSIGHT INTO HOW THE

 WORKERS MOVEMENT CAN BE BUILT

It has been brilliant to see these workers leading this strike and the trade unions across the city and beyond giving solidarity. I am proud that both Green Left and the Green Party Trade Union Group has sent support.

As Green trade unionists and Ecosocialists we recognise the absolute right for workers to be represented by a trade union, that the Tory anti Trade Union laws must be removed and that workers just transition rights must include a right to decent pay and conditions.

Roy Sandison Member of the Coventry Amazon Support Workers Group (Personal Capacity). Green Party Trade Union Group Member and Green Left member.