Youth Fight for Jobs Launch Conference

Somewhere between 100 and 150 (the room made it a bit awkward to tell, plus people who were there either only in the morning or afternoon) attended the launch conference of the Youth Fight for Jobs. After some good opening speeches by Alex Gordon from the RMT executive (speaking in place of Bob Crow), Tracy Edwards from the PCS, James Kerr and a Belgian CWI member, the timing of the rest of the opening session clearly went awry as they jammed in a few short contributions from a Tamil student, a member of the SP from South Wales speaking about the sacking of Linamar (ex-Visteon) convenor, Rob Williams and a hip-hop group At Risk of Offending. There simply was too much stuff attempted to be fitted in which meant that the plan of having contributions from the floor didn’t really work.
After a short lunch break the conference split up into workshops. I had been asked to chair the session on ‘What Is The Cause of Unemployment?’ Given it was only a small session (I think the debate on the European elections attracted the most attention), we were able to get into a bit of depth on Marxist economics and also able to discuss the working conditions of those who do have jobs too.
The next session took motions to the congress, all those submitted (which can be found on the Youth Fight for Jobs website) were passed, although a few of them were amended slightly, whilst the age limit for the campaign was remitted to the newly elected steering committee to discuss.
The Conference concluded with a closing rally with a speaker from the CWI in France, a Lindsey Oil Refinery worker and Sean Figg, the newly elected National Organiser for the campaign.
Speaking with comrades after the conference, we were a little disappointed with the attendance, but this is partially due to a number of reasons. In North Wales, it was a combination of lack of money to pay for people getting to London as well as several college students who have been grounded until their exams are over.
Yet the composition of the conference was fairly good. There were a sizeable number of young PCS members there, indeed the PCS Young Members Committee had submitted several motions to the conference as well as the East Midlands PCS NOMS branch and the Student organiser for UNITE was in attendance. In contrast to what a certain ex-member of the Socialist Party has been repeatedly stating online, whilst including university students in the campaign, it isn’t dominated by them as the presence of a substantial number of young workers at the conference showed. Indeed, the delegation from North Wales consisted of a college student and a shop steward.
The conference also received greetings from the workers who occupied the Prisme factory and featured sessions with speakers from the Lindsey Refinery dispute and one of the Visteon Conveners. From a shaky start with the morning session, the conference finished on a good note, despite me missing the last train back to Bangor.

DWP Strike Reports

On Monday and Tuesday this week, civil servants in the dwp have been taking strike action against their appallingly low pay offer - below are some reports from wales

Merthyr Tydfil

Dave Reid spoke to Aidan Price, secretary of the Eastern Valley DWP branch PCS:

People are really angry about this; it’s not a fair pay deal. I think we have over three quarters of union members backing this strike today and in other offices in the branch about 90%. 40% of our members in DWP would get 1% this year and effectively nothing for two years of this three year pay deal and that’s not acceptable. I think we have got to get over the message that public sector workers should be paid fairly.

The government has also decided that they are going to go 5% above the recommended civil service cuts for the next three years so we’re looking at 12,000 further redundancies within DWP and that is bound to increase the workload on people who are already coping with very high workloads.

We also have a problem with the attendance management policy, a lot of people are being sacked because of sickness, that’s a real area of concern for the union and we have the issue of progression within pay bands. There is also the issue of national pay. We want parity between the different departments so that the same grade in all departments gets the same level of pay.

“PCS is part of the wider trade union movement and we are always looking to put forward the case of hard working public sector people. It’s very important that we are paid fairly and that our pay keeps in line with inflation. Across the board we do very important jobs for the public and I think it should be recognised and we should be paid fairly. You only need to come and see the work that we do to realise how important it is. We’re not pen pushers and we work very hard for our money.”

Swansea - Pension Centre picket line,
Roger Langley, DWP Branch Organiser for the Swansea Pension Centre gave the following angry but determined report to Swansea Socialist Party members:

“We’re out again because the latest is that we forced management back round the table to talk because we’d rather be talking than out. But when we did get back round the table there was no further offer, it was just a smoke screen, but we were willing to talk and enter meaningful negotiations. But they’ve forced us into taking another 2 days of action on Monday which is the busiest day of the week and the Tuesday following.
What is really biting in the department is that the 30,00 job cuts that Gordon Brown previously announced has meant a huge extra workload for the staff remaining. So, with all the extra workload and then being told there’s no pay increase for 25% of our staff this year because of this imposed three year pay deal, we had no option but to go on strike.
Bangor

Iain Dalton, Bangor Socialist Party reports:

Six members and reps picketed outside Bangor Contact Centre, with some new members joining on the day and some also being turned back too. Anger was very high at the low pay these workers have to accept, with several either working or looking to work two jobs at once to afford to live. .

More News From Bangor

Sorry for being posted a day late, but was rather busy yesterday. Anyway, as promised is reports from Wales on the PCS strike from last week, as well as a report of the climate change day of action in Bangor (to coincide with the world-wide protests on 8th December)

PCS Strike

In Swansea, Roger Langley, branch organiser, Swansea Pension Centre, spoke to Alec Thraves.“The mood is actually better than we had ever thought. We’ve had previous strikes in the dwp but the imposition of this pay deal has incensed the workers. When people have seen how little they are getting from 5 months back pay it has just fuelled their anger and made them come out and fight.There are more out than before and of the hundreds of union members only 8 have crossed the picket line”. “We mean business this time and we will be stepping up the action and withdrawing good will. PCS is recruiting more members because of the dispute and the branch is really looking healthy. We are encouraging new faces to get involved and recently had vacancies for 3 people on our Branch Executive Committee and received 10 nominations which is extremely encouraging”.
In Bangor, Socialist Party members visited strikers at the Job Centre Plus Call Centre on Parc Menai.. Despite the driving wind and rain soaking everything, stewards maintained the picket line.We discussed the poor working conditions in call centres, including a new system brought in by DWP which tries to regulate everything they do in the workplace. Even so, this and other call centres around Bangor are seen as the better workplaces, a condemnation of just how little the current system has to offer workers in North West Wales.Steven Jones, a PCS rep reported that the majority of the workforce had stayed out, with an increased number picketing that day and several new union members had joined..

Climate Change Day of Action

Bangor Socialist Party and Socialist Students took part in a day of action in solidarity with others including members of the student unions climate change society. We organised a stall campaigning for the re-nationalisation of public transport, a step that could make a big impact to tackle climate change, as it would allow for transport to be planned to meet people's needs and tackle the ever increasing use of cars which is contributing to CO2 emissions. We sold several copies of the Socialist, a Socialism Today and some books, as well as meeting several people who were interested in finding out more about the socialist party.
Bangor Socialist Party reporters