Organise to #KilltheBill Monday 10 May 7pm BTUC Zoom meeting

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is an attack on all of our freedoms. Birmingham Trades Union Council are hosting a Zoom meeting on Monday 10th May and want to get the largest number of activists, organisations and more to oppose it. We have seen some really good actions so far in the city to oppose it. Now let’s see if we can get more trade unionists, more campaigners, more organisations coming together to make this movement as broad as possible.

The unions need to defend the jobs we have AND work together to launch a joint Birmingham Plan of Action for new jobs

To tackle the jobs emergency in Birmingham we need a two-pronged strategy: a defensive strategy to protect existing jobs and a forward-looking proactive strategy to reshape the local economy to create good new jobs.

We have to fight against ‘fire and rehire’ and other attacks on workers, but that’s not enough – it doesn’t create the new jobs that are needed by the thousands of unemployed in Birmingham. So we also need a coordinated campaign to create more good new jobs.

May Day #KillTheBill 11am Victoria Sq

Trades Council May Day event 1pm-3pm Saturday 1st May

Speakers include

• Radha D’Sdouza, Lawyer and Social Justice activist working in India and internationally
• Missh Rahman, Labour’s NEC member and Walsall activist
• Chris Crean, Friends of the Earth
• Steve Turner, Asst General Secretary UNITE the Union

Birmingham Workers Memorial Day “Remember the Dead and fight for the living” Wed 28 Apr 12.30 on Zoom

Zoom meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86931911126?pwd=MnVVaUdrWE1yZVFLMUt2RTlTcGhQUT09

Zoom Meeting ID 869 3191 1126

Passcode: 567742

Alternatively dial 0203 901 7895

When prompted enter meeting ID 869 3191 1126 & Passcode 567742

Speakers, including bereaved relatives:

Tracy Edwards, National Health & Safety Officer PCS

Su Lowe, Unite the Union, West Mids lead officer for Health

Ravi Subramanian, West Mids UNISON Regional Secretary

Lee Barron, Midlands TUC Regional Secretary

John Blunt, trustee Asbestos Support Central England

Kathy Gaffney, Sec West Midlands Hazards Trust

Ian Scott, President Birmingham Trades Union Council

Neil Bishop, manager Asbestos Support Central England

For full union and community involvement in the Council’s East Birmingham Inclusive Growth strategy

Summary

 Birmingham Council has launched an East Birmingham Inclusive Growth plan. It includes creating thousands of jobs.

• It has a new governance structure comprising the East Birmingham Board and also a Ward Members’ Forum, comprising all 26 Councillors who represent the wards in East Birmingham.
• But the Board has no representation either from residents or from trade unions. They should be directly represented on it by their own representatives.
• The East Birmingham Inclusive Growth plan is an exceptional opportunity for the unions to work together to develop their own vision and policies for East Birmingham, to work on them with the local community, and to campaign for them with the Board and the Members’ Forum, while contributing to the Board as union representative members of it.

Combat climate breakdown in school and beyond

Here is the resolution passed overwhelmingly at NEU Conference. Below it are some suggestions on implementing it from Schools’ Climate Education South Yorkshire (supported by Sheffield NEU) which we could make use of in Birmingham. 

A Plan For Jobs In UK Manufacturing West Midlands – Monday 26 April 11am on Zoom

You are invited to attend the launch event for “A Plan For Jobs In UK Manufacturing” in the West Midlands. Launched by Unite the Union Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner and Unite West Midlands Regional Secretary Annmarie Kilcline. The launch event will be followed by a Q&A segment where you can put your questions forward.

A Birmingham Jobs Emergency Task Force could create hundreds of new green jobs retrofitting homes

Delegates to the Trades Council voted at its meeting on 1 April to call for the Council to set up a Jobs Emergency Task Force to drive and coordinate the post-Covid jobs recovery – not just leave it to the market. Astonishingly, the resolution was opposed, though unsuccessfully, by a majority of the officers and members of the new BTUC Executive Committee. (See BATC 8 April.)

Here we provide a practical example of what the Task Force could achieve – a programme for retrofitting homes, involving unions and local communities, creating hundreds of new green jobs. This is exactly what Leeds TUC is calling for in its excellent report ‘Retrofit Leeds homes with high-quality insulation and heat pumps:  a plan and call to action!’. [1] Here are some extracts from it:

The resolution on the Jobs Emergency Task Force at Birmingham Trades Council 1 April 2021: two opposed positions and their theoretical bases

At the Trades Council open monthly meeting on 1 April delegates passed a resolution from Birmingham NEU on the jobs crisis which is hitting tens of thousands of workers and job seekers in the city. The resolution calls on Birmingham City Council “to establish a Jobs Emergency Task Force as a matter of priority, bringing together representatives of unions, schools and colleges, training providers, employers and job-seekers, to develop a strategic coordinated response and support system”.