Blog Posts - Unite Clerkenwell & St Pancras Branch

Solidarity Greetings

3/1/2019

To Melanie Strickland and All the Stansted 15

OVERTURN THE VERDICT

Dear Friends

It was with anger and disbelief that we received the news about the guilty verdict in your trial. We send the utmost Solidarity from all our UNITE members.

It will be a very distressing time for you all – a situation that you don’t deserve for the brave actions that you took for simple humanitarian reasons. However, please be assured, we are determined to do all we can to get these unjust charges overturned.
It is true that in today’s climate of 10 years austerity the rich and powerful want to keep the rest of us silent and intimidated. This Tory government has introduced more draconian legal restrictions on trade unions, the worst in Western Europe, aiming to stop workers fighting for better pay and conditions. We have seen the law used against people trying to stop trees being chopped down on the highways in Sheffield because the private contractor estimated they were too expensive to maintain. The anti-fracking lads were initially jailed for just protesting on the top of lorries. And now we have your case. This cannot go on.

The real criminals are those who cause tragedies like Grenfell; who devise a welfare system (Universal Credit) that sends people to food banks; who get away with paying slave wages to young people; and who are allowed to charge sky-rocket rents that put poor workers on the streets.

And judges are tied by a million threads to those at the top. It’s time for a change.
We will do all we can to get this verdict overturned and stop you all going to prison.Please let us know what we can usefully do to support you

Solidarity

Monica Gort (UNITE Branch Secretary Clerkenwell and St Pancras branch)

March on 15 Dec 2018 in support of Camden traffic wardens

19/12/2018

Clerkenwell branch members showing support in Camden

Protest outside Hamilton House on Thursday 19th July

17/7/2018

The ATL Section UNITE and GMB members of the new National Education Union (NEU) are striking this coming Thursday. Proposed changes will cause job losses, increases in workload, changes to contracts, downgrading of posts, and cuts in pay.

Please come along and show your support anytime between 8a.m and 11.30a.m outside Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD (just off the Euston Road between Kings X and Euston, this Thursday 19th July.

What you can do to help:

attend the protest outside Hamilton House on Thursday 19th July
send messages of support to atlunite@gmail.com
email and/or Tweet the NEU Joint General Secretaries, Kevin Courtney and Mary Bousted - Kevin.Courtney@neu.org.uk and Mary.Bousted@neu.org.uk and @cyclingkev and @MaryBoustedNEU and tell them you support us
ask others to email and tweet too!

Fujistsu Fight back - stop victimisation of union reps

23/4/2018

On 12 January Fujitsu dismissed Ian Allinson, chair of Unite in Fujitsu UK, under the pretext of redundancy. Ian was part of a tiny fake redundancy pool where the company said all the jobs would go. This is not the first time Fujitsu has tried to victimise Ian, and Ian is not the only rep they have targeted. Victimisation of any union activist is an attack on the movement as a whole.

How you can help

Write to Duncan.tait@uk.fujitsu.com (Head of Fujitsu) with a copy to support@ourunion.org.uk

Sign the 'Reinstate Ian Allinson' statement and ask others to, including your MP http://tiny.cc/reinstateian

Reinstate Ian Allinson - stop victimisation of union reps

Branch support for Fair Pay @ TGI Fridays

23/4/2018

Pictures from the branch supporting our UNITE colleagues at TGI Fridays in their dispute for fair pay and for the right to be treated fairly and equitably

The successful McStrike workers were also here, showing solidarity.

Fair Pay @ Fridays

12/4/2018

The branch is supporting our UNITE colleagues at TGI Fridays in their dispute for fair pay and for the right to be treated fairly and equitably.

There is a protest tomorrow and they need people to go along - even if you can't do the whole hour go along for whatever time you can

TGI Fridays have adopted an exploitative low pay business model!

They have diverted 40% of waiting staff tips to subsidise low pay in the kitchen
They have refused to hear a collective grievance on this issue
They have been named as the UK 3rd worst Minimum Wage Offender in the Government name and shame list
They have been challenged in a 2nd collective grievance to address a long list of other potential minimum wage abuses

Our members have had enough! They have decided to ballot for strike action in a rolling series of ballots – Two restaurants each week will be balloted commencing this week.
Show your Support
Join our Fair Pay @ Fridays Protest
Friday 13th April
6:30pm to 7:30pm
London Covent Garden
6 Bedford Street
London
WC2E 9HZ
Brings Banner, Placards etc.

UNITE pay negotiating 27th February 2018

6/3/2018

Chris White from UNITE introduced branch reps to the following

Why do we need training on Pay?
Where have we come from? – what has happen in the past 5 years
Where are we now? – What challenges are we facing in 2018?
Where do we want to be? – What should our aspirations be for our workplace / organisation?

if you are a UNITE rep and interested in arranging pay negotiating training specific to your workplace get in touch via the Contact Us tab on this website!

NHS in Crisis - Emergency Demonstration

22/1/2018

Thanks to everyone who joined us on Saturday's mass march for the NHS! See you at the branch AGM on Wed 14th February, 6.30pm at UNITE House in Holborn.

NHS in Crisis - Emergency Demonstration: Saturday 3 February, 12pm, Gower Street London WC1

Check out the demonstration Facebook Event. Share widely and invite your friends.

Please donate to the crowdfunding appeal we've launched to help fund the demonstration.

Health Campaigns Together & The People's Assembly have called an emergency demonstration, in response to the #NHSWinterCrisis. This is a crisis that has brought staff to their knees and patients languishing and even dying in overcrowded waiting rooms and hospital corridors. The government has to act now. To make this happen we need your help. Donate to fund the NHS Emergency Demonstration today. Check out the video appeal here: click to watch the video

DONATE TO THE CROWDFUNDER HERE

We need your help:
We're aiming to raise £10,000, to ensure the demonstration gets the largest mobilisation possible and the maximum impact through publicly, press and to go towards covering the costs of organising an event of this scale.

NHS in Crisis
People are dying, ambulances are queuing outside A&Es, 50,000 operations have been cancelled, hospitals have lost 14,000 beds and are all full. NHS staff are in tears of despair. The Government is responsible for the ‘Winter Crisis’. The crisis is all-year round after 8 years of austerity. Mental health cuts are causing deaths of children and adults.

Our Emergency Demonstration challenges the Government to fund the NHS fully immediately.
Organised by The People’s Assembly and Health Campaigns Together, we're demanding:

An end to the winter crisis with a cash injection to restore the NHS budget to health
Commit to increased funding each year
End the cap on NHS pay
End cuts, stop the closures, halt privatisation

Check out the website for more information about the demonstration.

Donate to fund the NHS Emergency Day demonstration today. We need as much help as we can get to send the clearest message we can, #FundOurNHS end the #NHSWinterCrisis and also let's get the #ToriesOut.
Staging these big events costs a huge amount of money, we need your help.

Support the Fujitsu Fightback

6/11/2017

Next Wednesday (8 November) is going to be an important day for our campaign. Fujitsu bosses Tatsuya Tanaka and Duncan Tait will be addressing the Fujitsu Forum trade fair in Munich, which attracts over 12,000 people. Meanwhile Ian Allinson, chair of Unite at Fujitsu, will be having the final hearing over his fake redundancy at Fujitsu’s London HQ.

We are asking all supporters who have Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr accounts to sign up now to our social media “Thunderclap”. If you have more than one account you can sign up once with each. The Thunderclap will send out a message from all participants at 10am on 8 November, so it is vital people sign up before then. The message calls on Fujitsu to recognise unions and stop victimising reps. You can sign up here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/63944-fujitsu-fightback

For those of you who can get to London, there will also be a protest before Ian’s hearing and our bosses’ speeches:

8:30 – 10am, Wednesday 8 November
Fujitsu, 22 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BW

There’s a Facebook event for the protest which you can use to invite people and publicise the protest. As most Fujitsu staff will be working at this time, we will be heavily reliant on supporters for this protest.

We’ve updated the dispute page on our web site with all this information, and an updated Appeal For Support leaflet: https://ouruniontest.wordpress.com/fujitsu-national-dispute/

Solidarity

Unite @ Fujitsu

Clerkenwell Branch in action

5/5/2017

May Day and Workers Memorial Day

How many pictures show the branch banner?

Rebels, Strikers and Anti-Fascists

Clerkenwell members bravely followed The East End Combo Walk! - a guided walk led by David Rosenberg of East End Walks