BTUC Meeting on Climate Emergency and Birmingham’s response held on 7 pm Thursday 12th November 2020
Nov 13
Following is the recording of the delegates meeting took place on the 5th November 2020.
Invited speakers included:
- Dr Melany Cruz of the University of Birmingham and UCU will be speaking on our behalf. The speaker will be talking about the current corona virus crisis and its impact on the university sectors and on the university communities.
- Richie Venton of USDAW talking about the campaign to reinstate him after he was sacked by IKEA during the corona crisis while fighting cuts in working conditions.
- Alex Marshall from IWGB organizing couriers in Wolverhampton
- Ali Moosa from Communications Workers Union
The meeting also received nominations for the executive and officer positions for 2021. The nomination papers will be sent to delegates who have provided their email addresses. If you think you are a delegate to the BTUC and would like to forward a nomination for any of the posts or the executive positions please email the secretary btucsec@hotmail.com Please include your branch and union and in the subject of the email use Nominations. Include your name and the person nominated togather with their email union and branch. Nominations can be emailed during the meeting of the 7th November. Nominations will end by the end of the meeting. Where positions are contested ballots will be issued for the contested posts as per the constitution that is available on this link here. The elections for contested positions will take place in January 2021. http://btuc.org/wordpress2/?cat=33 If you have any questions on the process please email the secretary btucsec@hotmail.com
The positions available for nominations are:
Following positions are available for nomination.
- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Equal Opportunities Officer
- Anti-Racist Officer
- Assistant Secretary
- 10 members to the Executive Committee.
Duties of the officers and the executive members are defined in the constitution available on thise website.
Zoom Details for the meeting are:
Topic: BTUC Delegate Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89550888818?pwd=S2o3SWdhekxrRGc3WjMydit0Q3JoUT09
Meeting ID: 895 5088 8818
Passcode: 027430
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Time: Nov 12, 2020 07:00 PM to join the meeting follow the link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83565647323?pwd=Wms3ZXV2OXRxb2xVSnFQd0cvdnBDQT09
You can also register your interest by visiting this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/birminghams-climate-emergency-for-climate-justice-for-workers-and-communi-tickets-124112462717
Meeting ID: 835 6564 7323
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Meeting ID: 835 6564 7323
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October delegates meeting took place over zoom on Thursday the 1st October 7 pm. Following is the recording of the proceedings.
Waseem Zafar cabinet member of the Birmingham City Council responsible for the Environment and Transport was unable to attend. We are hoping to invite him again very soon to discuss Birmingham City’s response to the Climate Emergency.
Jules Todd, from Climate Action Network West Midlands made the presentation expanding on the the challenges Birmingham and region faces on Climate Emergency. He also elucidated the what is required of our city’s governing group to meet the challenges and the consequences of their failure.
Trade Union and other activists also talked about the corona crisis and how it impacts their members in the region.
Please join us using the zoom details below.
Topic: BTUC Delegate Meeting
Time: Thursday the 1st of October 7 pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89550888818?pwd=S2o3SWdhekxrRGc3WjMydit0Q3JoUT09
Meeting ID: 895 5088 8818
Passcode: 027430
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+442034815240,,89550888818#,,,,,,0#,,027430# United Kingdom
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+44 203 481 5237 United Kingdom
+44 203 481 5240 United Kingdom
+44 203 901 7895 United Kingdom
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Meeting ID: 895 5088 8818
Passcode: 027430
At our most recent delegate meeting on 3rd September 2020, Birmingham Trades Union Council delegates unanimously passed a motion in support of refugees and asylum seekers. Delegates also resolutely condemned the actions of far-right groups like Britain First, who are targeting hotels housing refugees and asylum seekers in the West Midlands and videoing themselves doing so. At a time when the far right continue to cause those in need to fear for their safety, delegates lent their resolved solidarity.
It’s important to stress the following points:
• Anti-racism and solidarity must be at the heart of our trade unionism and the labour movement as a whole. Refugees and asylum seekers flee persecution, war, poverty and devastation to seek safety and refuge in the UK, as is their right.
• The labour movement must be at the forefront of challenging that hate and hysteria. Birmingham Trade Union Council stand ready to work with all allies in that effort. We will seek to support organisations on the frontline of support, as far as we are able
• Britain First are not acting in a vacuum. A climate of hate and hysteria has been created against refugees, asylum seekers and indeed migrants as a whole cohort by the politicians pursuing a hostile environment and the media.
• In only focusing on a need to harden its borders, Britain has failed to take account of its moral and legal obligations to support and house refugees and asylum seekers.
• The labour movement must be at the forefront of challenging that hate and hysteria. Birmingham Trade Union Council stand ready to work with all allies in that effort.
• The housing of refugees is currently contracted to Serco in the West Midlands, who have a track record of winning huge outsourced contracts and failing to deliver them properly. The stories of refugees being treated appallingly at their hands are long standing. Such terrible conditions illustrate again the failure of the neoliberal outsourcing model, with basic respect for dignity and humanity has been lost in the pursuits of profit.
• Birmingham City Council have suffered savage cuts to their funding since 2010 and the pressures have only increased during the pandemic. However, we must ensure that BCC does not downgrade or reduce its support to the most systematically marginalised people in our community. Central government must provide BCC with sufficient resources to house and support refugees. BCC ought to seek these additional resources but also campaign to end the involvement of outsourced providers such as Serco, instead calling for a devolution of this responsibility to local authorities. We will be writing to Councillor Ian Ward, the leader of BCC, to request the same.
We’ll also be writing to all of our branches with a copy of the motion and a copy of this statement. We will additionally request branches join us in supporting relief efforts on the ground, in the form of donations (both in kind and financial) and volunteer support, where possible. We will endeavour to keep in close contact with frontline organisations and continue sharing information on how to support refugees and asylum seekers.
In solidarity,
Birmingham Trade Union Council
The next delegate meeting of the Birmingham Trades Council will take place over the zoom on Thursday the 3rd of September 7 pm.
The meeting is being held under exceptional circumstances where many of our affiliates are busy protecting jobs that are under threat as a consequence of the Corona crisis. If any of the delegates or their unions are engaged in a dispute please let us know and we will try and make roon on the agenda to discuss the dispute.
We have an impressive list of speakers and they include:
- Jess Phillips Member of Parliament for Yardley will be speaking Covid-19 and Domestic violence
- Councillor Waseem Zafar speaking on environment and clean air zone.
- Howard Beckett from UNIITE will be speaking on the BA dispute.
The meeting is being held over the zoom because of Covid-19 restrictions on public gatherings.
You can join the meeting using the following credentials.
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Meeting ID: 895 5088 8818
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“At an extraordinary delegates meeting on the 6th August, Birmingham TUC discussed and unanimously passed a motion in solidarity with Enrico La Rocca, recently dismissed by the Department of Work and Pensions after 27 years of service.
Enrico has been dismissed for exposing “shocking ineptitude” (the words of the Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, not ours) at the DWP in relation to their treatment of recipients of the Carers Allowance.
We offer Enrico and all workers facing punishment for whistleblowing and doing the right thing our solidarity and we hope we will be joined in doing so by the whole labour movement.
Enrico has been punished for doing the right thing and that is a disgrace.
You can read more here: https://www.pcs.org.uk/department-for-work-and-pensions/news/whistleblower-dismissed-by-dwp
In Solidarity
The Officers of Birmingham Trades Council”
Tim Martin
Singer/song writer available to perform songs at political events &
protests as well as private bookings (MU Rates)
Facebook please search for Tim’s Protest Songs
Email: timpletimbo@gmail.com
Tel: 07941141428
Birmingham Trades Union Council is holding an extraordinary delegates meeting on the 6th August. The meeting is being held over the zoom. Under normal circumstances BTUC does not meet in August. However, because of unprecedented circumstances the Labour movement and the Trade Unionists face we have decided to hold the extra ordinary delegates meeting in August.
The meeting will be hearing from Trade Unionists who are currently engaged in disputes with their employers either to protect their jobs or protecting their conditions of employment. These include UNISON representatives from Tower Hamlets, PCS member talking about the victimisation of one of its members. Also, there will local trade unionists talking about what our affiliates and their members might soon face in Birmingham as Birmingham Council grapples with the deficit caused by the Corona virus and years of austerity. Joanne Shemmans who is actively engaged on the homeless issues will be talking about the housing situation in Birmingham and how it effects some of the most vulnerable families and individuals in the city.
Tower Hamlets UNISON assistant branch secretary Kerie Anne said: “It’s shocking that a Labour council would resort to sacking and re-engaging staff in order to force through unpopular and unfair contract changes.
“It beggars belief that workers who’ve put their health on the line to deliver critical services throughout the pandemic are being treated in this way.”
Trade unionists are being urged to send solidarity messages to a PCS rep dismissed after whistleblowing at the Department of Work and Pensions.
Enrico La Rocca, who had worked for the DWP for more than 27 years, lost his job in May after highlighting serious concerns with management over a number of years. His complaints resulted in questions being asked about the department’s handling of Carer’s Allowance overpayments by the National Audit Office (NAO) and raised by in a Work and Pensions Select Committee report.
Join Zoom Meeting by following the link below
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Meeting ID: 895 5088 8818
Password: 027430