Tag: TUC

Travel industry workers’ plea for help to rescue industry and save jobs

The trade union, UNITE, staged a day of action yesterday at Manchester Airport in support of the hard-hit travel industry.

The union is calling for tailored support for the industry brought to its knees by the Covid 19 pandemic and is demanding greater transparency in the government’s traffic lights travel restriction scheme.

Unite also wants the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to be extended for the aviation sector beyond the current cut-off date of September, while government restrictions are preventing travel, to protect jobs, routes and airports and to ensure that the UK still has a viable industry when travel can safely return to normality.

Unite members and their supporters also took part, with other unions and the TUC, in a lobby of parliament organised by trade association Airlines UK, and the travel industry.

The protest was backed by Wythenshawe MP Mike Kane, Labour’s spokesperson for aviation. He said: “1.6 million jobs depend on the UK’s aviation sector which contributes Ā£22 billion to the UK economy. This is why I am supporting #traveldayofaction.”

Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: ā€œIt is totally unprecedented for all areas of the aviation sector and the travel industry to come together with a joint call of action for the government.

ā€œHopes of a gradual recovery in the aviation sector have been placed in the deep freeze as a direct result of government policies. Therefore the government has a moral duty to act and act swiftly.

ā€œAviation is essential to the long-term success of the UK’s economy, and to keeping people connected. If a meaningful, sustainable and resilient industry is going to be in place when travel can return, then the government must provide immediate support for the workers who will make this happen.ā€

TUC in Manchester: delegates back calls for “people’s vote” on Brexit

Trades unionists meeting in Manchester this week have backed a “people’s vote” on Brexit if the Government fails to negotiate a good deal.

Some trade union leaders oppose a second referendum on whether to leave the European Union.

But the TUC’s Europe spokesman, Steve Turner, called on delegates at the annual congress to “rise like lions” if the deal is bad for British workers.

He told the conference: “This is not a call for a second referendum, a place some outside our movement want to push, but a vote on the terms of our departure if parliament fails us.”

Mr Turner, Unite’s Assistant General Secretary described the attempts by the government to negotiate a Brexit deal as shambolic.

But he warned that the Labour and trade movement must work to heal divisions left by Brexit to avoid the rise of the far right in communities that feel abandoned by the political elite.

He said: “A betrayal of the Brexit vote without answers will only add to a crisis of belonging and identity that could find its way onto our streets with a rapid and dangerous rise of the far right.

ā€œIt demands we rise like lions to the challenges for our class, to the threat of a hard-right Tory attack on working people as well as the threats from bosses who think they can use Brexit to shed jobs, relocate and off-shore our work or put a match to hard won terms and conditions, rights and protections.

ā€œIt demands MPs reject a disastrous no deal and send a defeated, broken government back to the country in a general election.Ā It demands we extend Article 50 to give an incoming Labour government time and opportunity to negotiate a deal for the many, not the few.Ā And if the politicians can’t do that, then we demand we go back to the people so they can vote on the deal on offer.

ā€œIt’s our deal, our future, not theirs.

Congress we need a better, fairer Britain. We need to heal the wounds. Only our movement is capable of doing that.ā€œ

Read Steve Turner’s speech in full,Ā here

So, if Dominic Raab returns from Brussels with no deal, or with a deal that’

Labour’s John McDonnell launches May Day celebrations and declares: “We are going into government”

Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell launched Manchester’s May Day celebrations declaring Labour is ready for government.

Mr McDonnell spoke at the beginning of a week of events aimed at marking the 150th anniversary of the Trades Union Congress which began in Manchester.

He said he didn’t know when it would come, believing the government will attempt to cling on to power for as long as possible, but is confident Labour will win the general election whenever it happens.

The left-winger promised Labour would bring in a fair taxation system, a crackdown on tax evasion, the introduction of a “real living wage of Ā£10 an hour” and the repeal of anti-trade union union laws.

 

Sunday’s May Day events also included talks onĀ The Original Gig Economy – A Musician’s Perspective on the Challenges of FreelancingĀ hosted by theĀ Musicians Union,Ā and the forthcomingĀ McStrikeĀ when workers at McDonalds on Oxford Road will join with stores across the country in a strike against low pay.

On Saturday 5th May at the Mechanics Institute there’s also a performance ofĀ  We Are the Lions, Mr Manager, a play about the the 1976 GrunwickĀ  strike (click here for tickets and further details).

On Monday 7th May Manchester TUC will be joining with Salford Trades Council for a May Day march.

Manchester unions urge support for striking junior doctors

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Pic: Mark Bellingham cc licence

Junior doctors at Wythenshawe Hospital will be on strike again tomorrow as Manchester unions urge local people to rally in support of the medics.

The doctors will walk out at 8am in a 48 hour strike in protest at the government imposing a new contract which is claimed will put patient safety at risk.

And Manchester Trades Union Council, which represents unions throughout the city, Ā invites everyone who wants to support the junior doctors to a meeting at the Mechanics Institute on Princess Street on Thursday April 7 at 6.30pm.

The meeting has been called toĀ discuss the setting up support groups of trade unionists, patients and local residents fromĀ communities around all the Manchester and Trafford hospitals. Continue reading “Manchester unions urge support for striking junior doctors”