Trades Council AGM: March 17th

The AGM of the Eastbourne Trades Council will be at 7.30pm, Tuesday 17th March 2015, at the View Hotel  (formerly T&G/Unite Centre) , Grand Parade, Eastbourne.

All local trade unionists (including retired trade unionists) are invited, although only delegates from affiliated unions may stand as officers or vote on financial or policy matters.

A G E N D A

1. Introductions and apologies for absence
2. Minutes of the AGM from 2014
3. Adoption of Rules for 2015 (proposal is same as for 2014) and new affiliates.
4. Officers' Reports and Accounts
5. Election of Officers for 2015

a) Chair
b) Vice Chair
c) Secretary
d) Treasurer
e) Additional non-officer members of the Executive Committee, if required

6. Campaign Updates- including local and national Union campaigns, Save the DGH and the CAB survey on zero hours. This item will include update and proposal regarding joining East Sussex County Association of trades councils. 

7. Pattern of meetings for 2015
8. Campaign Contacts for 2015

9. Presentation of the Len Caine Award

Fair Pay Fortnight- Well Done Eastbourne

Eastbourne Trades Council is proud to have supported the TUC's Fair Pay Fortnight, campaigning for a Living Wage and against exploitative zero-hours contracts in Eastbourne and across the country !


Our dedicated Fair Pay for Eastbourne website has carried information about the Living Wage, advice on Zero Hours contracts, and how and which Union to join.

We have published a list of known Living Wage employers operating or employing staff living in Eastbourne.

We literally kicked off the fortnight by mobilising football fans in Eastbourne to join the 38 Degrees campaign for Fair Pay for ordinary staff such as ground staff and cleaners in Premiership football clubs. Only one team (Chelsea) is currently a Living Wage employer.  We promoted the excellent 38 Degrees petitions- one for each team in the Premier League. These are still open, and you can find your team and sign here.

We have helped the local Citizens Advice Bureau promote their survey into zero-hours or variable hours contracts in Eastbourne, and have circulated important campaigning information around combatting zero-hours contracts to union activists across the town.

We were proud to promote the work of the Citizens UK I Care about Care campaign, which is calling for a charter of rights for staff working in the social care sector. This affects many working people in Eastbourne, many of whom are not just paid under the Living Wage, but many have contracts that mean, in practice, they are being paid less than the National Minimum Wage.  We promoted Unisons' petition calling for this exploitation to end.

Stephen Lloyd MP is a vocal champion of the Apprenticeship scheme, but also a conspicuous defender of the disgraceful £2.73 per hour minimum wage for apprentices. The excellent report from the National Union of Students- entitled Forget Me Not blows apart some of the myths around the Apprenticeship scheme, and we proudly promoted this.

We have encouraged local trade unionists to support a range of national Fair Pay campaigns, including:-

• Living Wage and BECTU  union recognition for Picturehouse Cinema workers- including at the Duke of York's in Brighton.
• Amazon- Pay your staff and Pay Your Taxes- a campaign run by the GMB
• Church of England- practice what you preach- after the letter from Bishops about the Living Wage exposed failings in a number of C of E employers !

The fortnight may be over, but the campaign goes on.  We will continue to update our Fair Pay for Eastbourne site, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.

It's FAIR PAY Fortnight !

Working people in the UK are seeing their living standards squeezed harder and harder every year. The cost of energy, food and housing is soaring but wages aren’t keeping up.

6.1 MILLION people in working households are living in poverty. This means that (excluding pensioners) there are more working households in poverty than there are workless households !

Full time workers have lost on average over £4,000 in wages since 2009 and while jobs may be returning to the economy, they’re increasingly low paid, low hours and low security.

Eastbourne has many workers who are employed in low-wage and zero-hours contracts. Eastbourne definitely needs a pay rise !
 

Eastbourne has many workers employed in the social care sector.  According to Unison, there are 220,000 care workers paid less than the minimum wage (usually through employer fiddles that falsely calculate 'working' hours)  Find out more about their campaign, and sign the petition here.

Watch the TUC's animation highlighting the every day challenges faced by millions of people hit by the cost of living crisis below.

 

 

Trades Council Meeting: Tuesday January 13th

The next meeting of Eastbourne Trades Council will be on Tuesday 13th January, 7.30pm at the View Hotel (formerly known as the Unite/T&G Eastbourne Centre, Grand Parade, Eastbourne. 

All local trade union members, including retired trade unionists, are welcome to attend the meeting.

THE AGENDA WILL BE:

1. Introductions and apologies for absence

2. Approval of new affiliations.

3. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

4. Treasurer's Report- Gordon Dyer

5. TUC Plan of Work for Trades Councils: including what we prioritise in the General Election period, and links with other Trades Councils in East Sussex. Dave Brinson to lead on this item

6. Health Campaigns update- following on from item 5. Save the DGH, GMB campaign and others.

7.  Arrangements for the AGM, including speaker, and nominations for the Len Caine Award

8. Any other Campaigns: Colleagues invited to provide information on their Unions’ local and national campaigns, and any support that the Trades Council could give.

9. Any other business.

The bar will be open afterwards !

MARCH ON SATURDAY 29TH- SAVE OUR DGH

Eastbourne Trades Council is proud to be supporting the march and rally led by the GMB union but not just for GMB members: every member of the public, every patient and every member of staff should really be involved in fighting back to Protect our Hospital, to protect East Sussex community health services being lost during any forthcoming tendering process, and to protect the under-resourced and over-worked healthcare professionals who despite being treated appallingly never fail to provide the very best patient service delivery they possibly can.

There is now a real and present threat that the Accident and Emergency Department could be downgraded to a cottage hospital-style Minor Injury unit, and not available at night.



COME AND MARCH FOR OUR DGH- SATURDAY 29th NOVEMBER

The march will set off from Eastbourne Pier at 10.30am for a march through the town centre, followed by a rally at the Wish Tower green.  

Tell Stephen Lloyd to oppose NHS Privatisation this Friday

An important campaign from 38 Degrees:

Urgent: on Friday, MPs will vote on a new law to rein in NHS privatisation. If it passes, it would scrap the worst parts of the Health and Social Care Act - the terrible law which is forcing the steady privatisation and break-up of our health service.

The new law will also keep the NHS out of TTIP - the US-EU trade agreement that threatens to lock privatisation into public services. It’s simple: this new law would be great for our NHS.

Can you sign a petition to your MP asking them to turn up and vote the right way on Friday? MPs aren’t used to being the target of petitions: the last thing they want is hundreds of their constituents banding together. So the bigger this petition is, the more likely your MP is to listen.

Click here to tell Stephen LloydMP to vote to save our NHS on Friday:

Since the Health and Social Care Act passed in 2012, 38 Degrees members have watched in horror as health privatisation has gathered pace. In just one year, over £10bn of NHS funding ended up in the hands of profit-hungry companies. Our health service is under threat.

And now, with the government refusing to keep the NHS out of TTIP, it’s in even more danger. If TTIP goes through, and the NHS stays in the deal, it’ll be open season for private healthcare companies.

It’ll be a hard vote to win. But our NHS is worth fighting for even when the odds are against us. And win or not, politicians need to know that 38 Degrees members haven’t given up or gone away - we’re still here, we still care, and we’ll take every opportunity to get rid of privatisation in our NHS.

So let's send each and every one of our MPs a clear message: we believe in a public NHS that provides decent care for everyone, whenever we need it. We will never sit back while our health service is under threat - and we will take every chance we have to try and save it.

Please click here to sign the petition to your MP now, calling on them to turn up this Friday and vote to save the NHS


Thanks for being involved,

Susannah, Elizabeth, Rachel, Blanche and the 38 Degrees team


PS: This Friday's vote is on a "Private Members' Bill" - a law proposed by a backbench MP. In this case, it's proposed by a backbench Labour MP called Clive Efford. That means it will be particularly hard to get enough Lib Dem or Conservative MPs to vote for it! But public pressure has persuaded MPs to break ranks with their own party before, so let’s give it a go. Please sign the petition to your MP now:

March for our NHS- 29th November

There is a GMB-organised march against cuts at Eastbourne DGH, on Saturday 29th November at 10.30am. Help them send a clear message that we want to protect services at Eastbourne DGH. Please share.  Meet at the pier.

Gary Palmer, GMB Organiser, said

“Union members and staff are worried about the Trusts on-going program to remove beds from the EDGH. There is concern that if the Trust removes a further 20 or more beds the numbers will fall to below 400. That is the point that the Trust could be allowed to look to downgrade A&E from the current 24/7 provision, to minor injury or cottage hospital status.Downgrading this hospital’s A&E services would be an absolute disaster for the people of Eastbourne and East Sussex. It could possibly be the real beginning of the end for EDGH."

"Only the Trust and it’s Chief Executive know for sure if the concerns of staff are founded in truth and whether any further cuts in beds could potentially lead to the trust being able to change the hospital’s status in Eastbourne"

Read the GMB Press Release here: 

Next Trades Council Meeting: November 2014

The next meeting of Eastbourne Trades Council will be on Tuesday 18th November, 7.30pm at the View Hotel (formerly known as the Unite/T&G Eastbourne Centre, Grand Parade, Eastbourne. 

All local trade union members, including retired trade unionists, are welcome to attend the meeting.

THE AGENDA WILL BE:

1. Introductions and apologies for absence

2. Approval of new affiliations.

3. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

4. Treasurer's Report- Gordon Dyer

5. CAMPAIGNS FOR 2015- what issues should the Trades Council be pushing locally during the General and Local elections ?  (to include introductory comments from Jake Lambert, NUT delegate and Eastbourne's Labour Parliamentary candidate)

6. GMB Hospital march, 29th November- arrangements and publicity

7. Any other Campaigns: Colleagues invited to provide information on their Unions’ local and national campaigns, and any support that the Trades Council could give.

9. Any other business.

The bar will be open afterwards !

We Marched !

Eastbourne Trades Council were very proud to be well represented at the TUC's Britain Needs A Pay Rise demonstration in London on 18th October.

The trades council once again funded train tickets for local trade unionists (with special thanks to the NUT for their sponsorship) , and others made their way there with their own unions' transport. Eastbourne trade unionists were well represented from Unite the Union (a superb turnout), NUT, Unison, Equity, CWU and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists amongst others.

Tens of thousands of trade unionists joined from all over the country to march through central London, and to hear from a range of speakers, compered by comedians Andy Parsons and Amy Lamé.

TUC General Secretary, Frances O'Grady said:

"Our message is that after the longest and deepest pay squeeze in recorded history, it’s time to end the lock-out that has kept the vast majority from sharing in the economic recovery.  The average worker is £50 a week worse off than in 2007 and five million earn less than the living wage. Meanwhile, top directors now earn 175 times more than the average worker.  

“If politicians wonder why so many feel excluded from the democratic process, they should start with bread and butter living standards.  

“An economy that finds money for tax cuts for the rich and boardroom greed, while the rest face a pay squeeze and big cuts to the welfare system –that any of us might need – is no longer working for the many.”  

Remembering the Dock Strike of 1889- Hastings Event

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the London Dock Labourer's strike,

Hastings District Branch of Unite the Union SE/6253  is holding a meeting to celebrate the strike which along with the Matchwomen and Gas Workers strikes launched the New Union movement.

Speakers include:
 

Louise Raw:  Author of the ground breaking book  Striking a Light which gives a detailed account of the 1888 strike at Bryant and Mays and the working women who led and took part in it.
 

Terry McCarthy: Author of Dock Strike 1889  Terry is also the former Director of the National Museum of Labour History.

 

The meeting is to be held at the White Rock Hotel Hastings in the Sea Front Lounge 2.30pm till 6.00pm on Saturday  the 25th of October. The White Rock Hotel is on the Seafront  opposite the Pier, the Postcode is TN34 1JU.

There will be plenty of time for debate. Anyone who can sing can contribute ! This is an open meeting all are welcome

Contact 'hastings@unitetheunion.org' for further details