Before Christmas, when Unilever workers were deciding on strike action, some Unilever bosses were gloating that workers at their Burton-on-Trent factory would not go on strike. Even the Unite union steward agreed. But they certainly got that wrong!

That steward has been replaced by one who is prepared to fight to defend pensions, they took strike action on 9^th December with all the other Unilever factories and they were out again yesterday.

And when I visited their picket line at 6am they were looking well organised for workers who ‘wouldn’t strike’. Even in the darkness and a long way off I could see a long line of Unite flags and placards decorating the factory entrance. There were table and chairs, two patio heaters ‘on the go’ to stave off the cold, a gazebo in case of rain and a roadside cafe providing coffee, tea and food.

I passed on a message of support from Socialist Party Staffordshire to pickets which was well received. All workers I spoke to were angry about how they were being treated by a global firm who made £5.2 billion pre tax profits in 2011. Some workers have done 20, 30 and more years service for Unilever and now they want to cut their pensions.

The picket line received fantastic support from passing motorists who hooted their horns in support of their action. Burton-on-Trent teacher and Socialist Party member, Chris Parton handed over £40 he had collected from other teachers at his school to pickets for their strike fund. A complete stranger also stopped to hand over a cheque.

Unilever bosses, like CEO Paul Polman who has awarded himself £1 million in company shares, have badly misjudged the willingness and ability of Unilever workers to struggle. None of those on the picket line want to be on strike but they are determined to fight to defend their pensions.

Staffordshire Socialist Party
Stoke  -  Newcastle  -  Stafford    Thousands of University Hospital North Staffs NHS workers march into Hanley in 2006

Public Meeting
Wed 1st February 2012 – 7.30pm
Wolstanton Social Club
Pitgreen Lane, Wolstanton ST5 0DQ
All Welcome

The Con-Dem government told us that the NHS would be safe from their spending cuts. That was a lie! £20 billion is being cut from the NHS over the next few years disguised as ‘efficiency savings’.

They told us that ‘frontline’ services would not be affected by these ‘savings’. That was another lie! There are already staff shortages, delays to operations, inadequate stocks of medicines and the loss of jobs, beds, closures of entire wards and services.

The RCN nurses’ organisation say that 50,000 NHS jobs have either already gone or are at risk of being cut. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Con-Dems are hell bent on dismantling the NHS so that their big business mates can profit from the £100 billion plus of public health spending every year.

£1.7 billion of our money is being spent ‘restructuring’ the NHS to make it easier for big business to pick apart in the future. ‘Any willing provider’ will be allowed to step in to run services. This will lead to a for-profit health service run by big business in the interests of shareholders not patients and staff.

Nobody but big business supports these changes. When they were in power, the Labour Party introduced many of these changes that the Con-Dems are now accelerating. Labour increased the involvement of the private sector in the NHS and their PFI schemes have siphoned off £millions to big business.

Back to Socialist Principals for the NHS!

Socialist principals were at the core of the NHS when it was set up after World War ll. Health care, available to all, free at the point of use was a massive victory for ordinary working class people. Socialists have continued to fight to defend the NHS from the attempts of successive governments to destroy these basic  principals. It was local Socialist Party members who played a key role in organising the North Staffs NHS SOS march of thousands of NHS workers from the Outpatients Department into Hanley in 2006 – against the threat to cut 1200 NHS jobs at the University Hospital of North Staffs. 

Socialists are not in favour of more money being wasted on ever more managers, consultancy firms and PFI rip-offs. The Socialist Party wants big business kicked out of the NHS, the pharmaceutical companies nationalised and health spending increased. Health workers, service users, and the communities they serve should have democratic control over how and where money is spent.

To achieve this we will need a massive campaign linking NHS workers with communities and service users and that means YOU! So get along to our public meeting to discuss what needs to be done and how we can do it.

• No to Health & Social Care Bill – it means the end of the NHS!

• Get private profiteers out of our health service!

• Stop the £billions in cuts already taking place!

• Nationalise the banks and tax the super-rich to pay off the deficit!

To find out more about the Socialist Party locally please call/text us on 07845893607

Rob Windsor

On 14 January Rob Windsor, born in North Staffs, socialist fighter and previous Socialist Party councillor in Coventry, lost his long struggle against liver disease and died at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital. More…

The fight for real Socialist fighters like Rob Winsor continues – he would expect nothing less!

By clicking on ‘More’ above and reading about Rob Windsor you will have realised how important it is that we maintain a Socialist presence on Coventry City Council. If Rob was still with us this is exactly what he would have been doing up to the local elections in May.

Rob’s freind and comrade, Dave Nellist, will be fighting to retain his seat as a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry. If we can ensure that Dave is successful then that would be a fitting tribute to Rob Winsor.

It will need a lot of hard work but YOU can help!

We will be taking teams down to Coventry from our area to help with the campaigning work on the following Sundays;

• 29th January
• 19th February
• 18th March
• 1st April
• 15th April
• 29th April
• And election day itself Thursday 3rd of May

If you would like to help get a real Socialist relected and think you can help in any way then give us a call today on 07845893607

Organising to step up the pensions struggle!

Mark Serwotka at the PCS Left Unity open meeting in defence of pensions 7 Jan 2012

“PCS Left Unity have called this emergency meeting because this is an emergency” PCS president Janice Godrich said as she welcomed 600-plus union activists to an open organising meeting yesterday in Friends Meeting House in London.

The turnout was remarkable considering the event had been called with three weeks notice and took place just after Christmas and New Year.
All the left union organisations in PCS, Unison, NUT, Unite and UCU were present and agreed to take part in a Temporary Coordinating Committee to work across the unions to ensure that the government’s pensions deal is rejected and a new strike date is set.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka asked the meeting: How can union leaders like Dave Prentis and Brendan Barber consider wasting the momentum of the 30th November strike action when what’s been offered by the government was largely on the table before the strike?

The NUT deputy general secretary welcomed the intiative from PCS Left Unity and told the audience that the NUT and NASUWT have joined PCS in rejecting the deal on offer.
Many speakers who are in Unison, in a personal capacity condemned the hypocrisy of Unison’s leadership – leader Dave Prentis said in the summer that it would take more than one strike to defeat the Con-Dems’ pension attacks yet the health national officer Christina McAnea commented after Unison signed the ‘heads of agreement’ before Christmas that the strike had only been a “damage limitation exercise”.

Unison activists announced that they will be lobbying the Unison health and local government executives on Tuesday to convince delegates to overturn the decision of the leaders.
Alex Gordon, president of the RMT, gave the support of his union and he and Mark Serwotka called for all future action to be coordinated with private sector workers like those defending their pensions at Unilever and the electricians in the construction industry fighting a 35% pay cut.

A number of speakers welcomed the unity of the meeting, which also saw Mark Campbell from UCU speak. Everyone felt that the event galvanised the forces needed to put pressure on Unison and the TUC when it meets on Thursday, which will also be lobbied.

Name the day for the next coordinated strike in January

30 June pensions strike: London demo, photo Senan   (Click to enlarge)

On 15 December the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group (PSLG) met for the first time since the magnificent 30 November public sector strike.

Disgracefully, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, argued that all of the trade unions should sign up to the government’s latest ‘heads of agreement’ on pensions, which would then allow Francis Maude to announce before Christmas that the dispute has been settled. This was met with outrage by many of the public sector trade unions present.

Not one of the central demands of public sector workers has been met. All public sector workers are still being told to work longer, pay more and get less.

The teaching unions NUT and NASUWT reported that they had been offered no serious concessions by the government, as did the civil servants’ union PCS, the Fire Brigades Union and representatives of workers in the NHS.

In local government the only concession is to delay the attacks on pensions until 2014, provided that local government unions promise to accept the pain without a fight when it comes.

Yet Dave Prentis – general secretary for Unison – the biggest union in health and local government – argued for accepting this rotten deal. Hundreds of thousands of Unison members who struck on 30 November will not agree.

30 November showed the potential power of the working class in Britain. We can force this weak, divided government to retreat, but only if the action is stepped up.

The leadership of the TUC and Unison were only forced to support N30 because of the pressure of rank and file trade unionists – now we need to do the same again.

At the PSLG, PCS demanded that the meeting name the day for the next day of national coordinated strike action.

In Scotland, Unison delegates have already unanimously proposed 25 January as the day of the next strike.

National Shop Stewards Network supporters need to pile on the pressure for the date of the next strike to be set before Christmas, and to take place in January.

We immediately need to:

• Flood the TUC and Unison leaderships with letters, resolutions and petitions of protest demanding that they do not sell out the pensions struggle and immediately set the date for a strike in January in coordination with the other public sector unions.
• Members of all other public sector unions to send letters, resolutions and petitions to their National Executives demanding that they set the date for a strike in January in coordination with the other unions.
• Organise a mass lobby of the next meeting of the TUC, which is taking place in early January.

We will post more information as soon as possible.

Sign the on-line petition:

www.ipetitions.com/petition/pensions_strike_january/