BRIDGWATER TRADES UNION COUNCIL
“Linking your Trade Union Branch with local campaigns and communities throughout Bridgwater, Highbridge and mid-Somerset.”

Secretary:Dave Chapple E-Mail: davechapple@btinternet.com

Affiliations invited from local Trade Union Branches @ 10p per member Per year. Why not invite a speaker from Bridgwater TUC to your next Branch or Branch Committee meeting, to talk about our work, and answer any questions your members may have?



28.4.08

PRESS RELEASE:


Delegates to the South West Region TUC Annual Conference at the weekend overwhelmingly backed a call to support the re-admission of local Trades Councils into the Trades Union Congress, with only one large union voting against.

The motion, moved by Dave Chapple for Bridgwater Trades Council, noted that

“In Wales and Scotland local trades councils have the right to elect delegates and submit motions to their respective national TUC’s. We therefore agree that trades councils should now also have the right to elect delegates and submit motions to the Trades Union Congress, via their own Trades Councils’ Annual Conference, the details to be decided by the TUC General Council once the principle has been established.”

Seconder Vicky Nash from the NUT, spoke of the invaluable support trades councils had given to her union, not just in the current dispute, but against Academies and other Private Finance Initiatives.

Andy Robertson, Trades Councils’ National Joint Consultative Committee, effectively dismissed objections from UNISON delegates, that trades union delegations accountability could be compromised if trades councils delegates and motions were allowed at Congress.

Significant support came from other unions including Rowena Hayward from the GMB, Phil Bialyk, RMT; Kev Beazer, CWU; UNITE /AMICUS and UNITE/TGWU.

With only one large union voting against, this vote should increase the chances of the RMT rule change to this year’s TUC, which would re-enfranchise trades councils, being carried.

ENDS



From: Gollings, JennSent: 24 April 2008 17:23To: Everyone in South West RegionSubject: FW: UNISON South West Press Release: UNISON calls for halt to dangerous drive to end on-site hospital sterilisation .

The BBC is breaking a story today about decontamination services (an issue which Graham has been leading on the SW). They are interviewing a woman in Leeds whose operation was cancelled twice – when she was about to go into theatre for a hip op - because the equipment wasn’t available.

Jenn Gollings Communications Co-ordinator UNISON South West UNISON South West Press Release Regional Secretary: Ian Ducat . Tel: 01823 288031 . Fax: 01823 336013 Embargo: 17:00 hrs, Thursday 24 April 2008 UNISON CALLS FOR HALT TO DANGEROUS DRIVE TO END ON-SITE HOSPITAL STERILISATION UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union, is today calling for a halt to a dangerous drive to end in-house sterilisation of hospital operating theatre equipment.In the South West Trusts in Devon, Dorset Somerset are facing the prospect of having their services outsourced.

The Department of Health is backing big private decontamination supercentres, which are replacing on-site sterilisation, threatening patient safety and leading to cancelled operations. Mike Jackson, UNISON Senior National Officer said: “Sadly this isn’t the first operation that has had to be cancelled because of incomplete packs or broken and dirty instruments and it won’t be the last.UNISON has warned time and time again that taking sterilisation services out of hospitals and replacing them with supercentres - which are often miles away - is a recipe for disaster. “No one should have to go through the pain and distress of having their operation cancelled at the last minute because equipment is not in place. Patient safety is paramount - the Government must call a halt to this dangerous drive to close down in-house sterilisation services before more patients are made to suffer.

Mike Jackson added: “Packs can only be opened in the sterile environment of the operating theatre. There is a real danger that a patient may be on the operating table, with their lives on the line only for theatre staff to find that sterile packs are broken, incomplete or dirty.”UNISON believes that the whole programme setting up these supercentres was flawed from the start with highly questionable financial incentives from the Department of Health involved. Trusts are being seduced with £1m promises to buy new equipment if they sign up with the private projects.

Graham Parish, UNISON South West regional Organiser said: “This ‘financial incentive’ is not being offered directly to Trusts to improve existing services; it is only being offered where Trusts outsource their sterile services work to private profit making companies. Instead the DoH should be investing that same public funding into improving NHS in-house services.All that money for new equipment comes to nothing if the instruments are returned broken or with damaged and dirty packs.” In response to a recent Downing Street on-line petition calling upon the Government to “cease the National Decontamination Project immediately in order to preserve the existing high standards of service provided by accredited NHS Hospital Sterile Services”, the Prime Minister's Office responded: “Participation in the National Decontamination Project (NDP) is voluntary.

Other options, including sterile services in a larger Private Finance Initiative or undertaking a conventional outsourcing procurement, are still available to NHS Trusts.”Graham added: “It is quite clear from this response that the DoH wants to outsource Sterile Services, even where cases have been made showing that keeping services in-house is more practicable, more cost effective and most importantly much safer for the patient. That same incentive being made available the DoH should be made available to the Trusts being asked to sign up with these private companies.

The project in the South West has taken more almost three years to put together a business case to try and justify taking on the decontamination and each time the case deadline is pushed back. It begs the question, how long will surgeons and patients have to wait for their instrutments to arrive?”Graham further added: “In the South West units in seven general hospitals faced closure, including seven general hospitals in Barnstaple, Torbay, Taunton, Yeovil, Dorchester, Poole and Bournemouth.

The proposals are that two supercentres would replace existing units, one in Poole covering Dorset and the other in Taunton covering the other areas. Staff face losing their jobs as travelling from their existing workplace to the new supercentres is impractical. It will create a significant financial burden on the NHS due to potential redundancy costs.If experienced staff are lost then the service cannot be guarantee.” Earlier this month Torbay Hospital NHS Trust decided to withdraw from the project. “We have been working closely with Unite and other medical professional bodies to campaign in the South West and we delighted when Torbay announced their decision.

We know other Trusts have real reservations about the serious risks with this project and we call upon them to follow Torbay’s lead and to pull out of the project now. Staff have had months of insecurity about whether they will have a job and whether they will be forced to leave the NHS. We have argued strongly that this project made no sense because of the risks to the delivery of properly decontaminated surgical equipment to Hospitals and the financial risks to the NHS. UNISON in conjunction with Unite has prepared a detailed case to each Trust arguing the case for retaining services in house.”The supercentres mean that highly specialised instruments will be travelling long distances and be vulnerable to hold-ups because of bad weather, road works, congestion and traffic accidents.

In addition packs contain delicate equipment easily damaged in transit. This could be exacerbated in the South West by the very nature of it’s rural infrastructure. ENDS Notes to Editor · UNISON is the UK’s largest dedicated public sector union with 1.3 million members working in the public services. It is the union for all NHS staff, local government staff, police support, education staff, and those working for the utilities and transport. It negotiates their pay and conditions and champions the public services that its members deliver.

Cartoon by Tim Sanders. UNISON copyright website: http://www.timonline.info/ e-mail: tim sanders [tims@commonknowledge.org.uk For further information contact: Graham Parish, Regional Organiser – UNISON South West 07903 807641 Pay Matters - UNISON campaigning for a fair deal for public service workers www.unison.org.uk/paymatters The views expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily the views of UNISON. Registration Number 736T VAT Reference 626 3908 29 UNISON has taken steps to ensure that any attachments are free from viruses. You should, however, carry out your own virus check before opening any attachment. UNISON accepts no liability for loss or damage caused by software viruses. ****************************************************************

Labels: press releases

The Yeovil & Sherborne Stop the War Coalition will be holding a public meeting, Ghada Razuki from the National Steering Commitee will be giving a report on Iran. On Thursday 15th of May 2008 at Unity Hall (opposite the bus station), Central Road, Yeovil.

Stop the war Coalition is supported by Communication Workers Union - CWU; National Union of Journalists - NUS; National Union of Students; Rail, Maritine, Transport -RMT; Transport Saleried Staff Association - TSSA; Unison and Unite/TGWU.

Copies of the flyer are available in PDF or XPS formats.

Labels: meetings

The minutes for the last meeting our now available for download.

Word (Open XML)

Word (binary)

PDF

XPS

Labels: meetings

The European Court of Justice has struck down a law in the German state of Lower Saxony, which states that public contracts can only be awarded to companies which pay their employees the minimum wage as agreed in a regional collective agreement.

The law also encompasses sub-contractors. The case was brought before the ECJ because a Polish company had paid according to their national minimum wage, which amounted to 46.5% of the wage prescribed by Lower Saxony. The ECJ ruled that the law imposed restrictions on free movement.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called the ruling "another destructive judgement" and, bizarrely, called on the EU to confirm that it "is not just an economic project."

PA reports that Unite general secretary Derek Simpson called the judgement "by far the most damaging" of a series of ECJ rulings seemingly undermining the unions. He said, "This decision effectively means that foreign companies working here in the UK, or in any other European country, can flout domestic laws and collective agreements with regard to pay. This is a recipe for disaster and, if applied in the UK, will cause massive industrial unrest and threaten the delivery of major infrastructure projects including the Olympics site."

The case follows the recent ruling in the similar Laval case, which ruled against a Swedish union that tried to hold a Latvian construction company to a voluntary collective agreement. The court has also found against the Finnish seafarers' union for trying to prevent ship-owners displacing Finnish shippers with lower paid Estonian crews. British Airways has also threatened their pilots with a similar court case if their union took strike action against the company employing lower paid staff to replace them.

Comment: TUAEUC has long warned that the renamed EU Constitution would give huge powers to the European Court of Justice, which is designed to promote 'ever closer union' within the EU and complete the single market. This court views trade unions and collective bargaining agreements as a barrier to the 'free movement' of goods, services, capital and people (meaning labour).

This latest ECJ judgment reveals once more that this court, which is an EU institution, operates in the interests of the architects of the eurofederalist project, big business and the most powerful corporations in Europe. The EU has also revealed it no longer requires the support of the ETUC to implement its authoritarian, neo-liberal and anti-working class project enshrined within the Lisbon Treaty.

Although British MPs have ensured that there will be no referendum in the UK by refusing to stick to an election manifesto to hold such a vote, Irish trade unionists should understand that the renamed constitution is a threat to their pay and conditions at work when they vote on the issue on June 12.

Labels: campaigns

We should be saying "Don't kill our shop". In many villages in Somerset, and further west, the village shop depends on the income brought in via the post office. Most customers are elderly and collect their pension, and spend it, in the shop. It's estimated that 60% in the village of Mudford and the surrounding villages are retired. Many have no transport and are unable to walk any distance.

The bus service is sparse and in some cases (Chilton Cantelo village, for example) only two buses a week. The bus service does not go directly to the alternatives the Post office has given. One of those alternatives is Tesco in Lyde Road - a half mile walk from the nearest bus stop, with no footpath. The roads from Mudford to Yeovil, as in many villages in Somerset, have no footpath.

The Post Office recommends that 90% of the population should be within 2 miles of a Post office. For someone with a car this not a great hardship, but without one it is a nightmare. Most people living in Yeovil have at one time lived in a village and must know that the village shop is at the heart of that village. Along with the pub and the church, all three are slowly disappearing.

So why is this happening? Privatisation. By 2011 postal services will be opened up to full competition as directed by the EU under Postal Directive 2002/39/EC, which amends the initial Postal Directive (97/67/EC) by defining further steps in the process of gradual and controlled market opening and further limiting the service sectors that can be reserved to the universal service provider. The Directive sets 1 January 2009 as a possible date for the full accomplishment of the Internal Market for postal services.

Private companies will pick off the profitable and leave the rest for the government to pick up. Gone are the days of public service. Profit is now God and the poorest in rural areas will bear the burden. We have just witnessed the attack on the postal workers, their pensions and working conditions, and the attempted sacking and suspension of their trade union shop stewards.

Don't let it happen. Sign the petition at your local Post Office.

Write to your M.P. David Laws, House of Commons, London S1A 0AA or e-mail lawsd@parliament.uk

MEPs: Glyn Ford, Labour: glyn.ford@europarl.europa.eu

Graham Watson: graham.watson@europarl.europa.eu

Here is a copy of the letter we sent to the Network development Manager, C/O National Consultation team, Post Office Limited:

Submissions to be sent in no later than March 8th 2008.

Dear Sir

At the March meeting of the Yeovil and District Trades Union Council, your proposal to close 7 Post Office branches in our district was discussed.

Following on from that discussion, it was unanimously agreed, that I register with you our strongest objection to the closure proposals.

We wish to make you aware that your closure proposals will cause huge inconvenience for many of our members. For most of our retired and disabled colleagues it will be nothing short of disastrous.

You need to be made aware that for many of our members and the general public, these local Post Offices and the shops that they help to support, are an absolute life-line for them, and their communities.

We would also refute your claims of "convenient alternatives" to the proposed branch closures. They are neither convenient or realistic alternatives. In fact, in some instances, e.g. Mudford, they are extremely hazardous and downright dangerous.

Therefore, during this consultation process, we would appeal to you to take heed of these objections, and allow these branches to continue to provide the wonderful service to their communities, that we have become accustomed to.

Yours faithfully, Viv Willis, secretary.

Labels: campaigns

The government has a policy for pay in the public sector: pay is to be reduced, in real terms, over the next three years, by imposing pay increases which fall below the rate of inflation. I am writing on behalf of the Yeovil and District Trades Union Council to express our firm opposition to this policy and our solidarity with the working people who are affected.

On Thursday 24th April many workers in the public sector will be taking industrial action in opposition to this disgraceful and totally unjustifiable policy. Teachers, college and university lecturers, staff in job centres and benefit offices, and other civil servants, will be stopping work. We express our solidarity also with local authority workers, postal workers, prison officers and the police. We protest against the government's flagrant breach of long-standing arrangements for deciding pay by independent bodies, arrangements that were intended precisely to avoid such disputes as this.

The pay reduction policy comes in an EU Directive which the government and two main opposition parties fully supports. We reject the argument that an increase in public sector pay would be a cause of inflation. We believe that the current dire economic situation requires an increase in pay for all workers in order to stimulate sales, reduce inequality and fight poverty. The vast amount being spent on bailing out the banks proves that the money is available and why is this not cited as a cause of inflation? If, however, the Treasury is lacking in money then the remedy is to close the well-known tax loopholes and exemptions which are available to the extremely rich, the phoney 'non-domiciled' super-rich and the giant companies which are making huge profits whilst working people, and those on pensions and benefits, face soaring prices. We also consider higher pay in the public services to be necessary for raising standards of service and performance.

Britain, with the fourth largest economy in the world, is awash with money. This is not the way for Labour to win votes and keep the Tories out.

Labels: press releases