Thursday 23rd July Sheffield TUC CV19 Council of Action – International
Topic: Coronavirus, Black Lives Matters and Union Action in the United States
Here is the zoom link:
Topic: CV19 Council of Action
Time: Jul 23, 2020 07:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83704340820
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US trade union movement has seen a wave of activism. At Amazon warehouses around the country, where workers have long been engaged in a struggle for union recognition, workers have organised wildcat strikes and other job actions in response to a dangerous lack of protections. At the same time, trade union activists have played an important role in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement through a series of actions both big and small, including a shutdown of the 29 ports on the West Coast of the United States.
STOP PRESS: Also speaking is Aya, Sheffield McDonalds worker and member of BFAWU McStrike BAME Committee!
Gabriel Prawl, past President of ILWU Local 52, President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, co-chair of the Puget Sound Million Workers March Movement, coastwide Executive Co-Chair of the African-American Longshore Coalition and Vice-President of the Washington State Labor Council. 38,000 ILWU members shut down all 29 Pacific Coast ports for 8 hours on June 19 or Juneteenth to protest the death of George Floyd and others in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to celebrate the anniversary of the end of slavery.
https://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/22602/juneteenth-ilwu-dockworkers-strike-ports-black-lives-matter-george-floyd
Peter Olney is the retired Director of Organizing for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Olney has been part of the labor movement for almost 50 years. He has worked for numerous labor unions as an organizer and negotiator. Since coming to California in 1983 he has focused his work on building organization in the immigrant working class. From 2001 until 2004 Olney was the Associate Director of the University of California’s Institute for Labor and Employment (ILE). Olney has a Masters in Business Administration from UCLA. He resides in San Francisco, California.
Saturday 25th July “Build Back Better” Youth Strike for Climate Protest
1pm Outside Town Hall, Pinstone Street. @YS4CSHEFFIELD #CLIMATEJUSTICE
click here for flyer: Build Back Better YS4C 25th July
The Youth Strike for Climate protestors have staged impressive school strikes, rallies and protests since last summer, raising awareness about climate change and demanding action to green our planet. Today they are calling for a better deal for everyone after COVID with a green, carbon-free economy creating good quality (trade unionised) jobs. They are appealing for young people especially to join them for this socially-distance protest.
STOP PRESS: YS4C have asked Sheffield TUC for stewards for this event. Can you help? If so please email lmbwakefield@yahoo.co.uk Bring a high viz and a mask if you’ve got them
Saturday 25th July Protest outside Fast Food outlet over unpaid wages
SHEFFIELD NEEDS A PAY RISE! Campaign is standing by these low paid workers who have had their wages stolen. Some workers are owed up to £2000. Meet 5pm at M&S car park on Ecclesall Road*, S11 8JD. Come and show these young workers that they have the support of the trade union movement in Sheffield
Monday 27th July Green New Deal South Yorkshire Hub zoom meeting
6pm to 8pm. We need to work together to build back better with a Green New Deal. Hosted by Green New Deal UK, UKSCN, South Yorkshire Trade Union Councils and Sheffield Climate Campaign Umbrella Group
To register for this event please click:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-new-deal-south-yorkshire-lets-get-organised-tickets-112969689382
Schedule for the evening
6.00 enter zoom informal introductions/ chat
6.05 Joan welcome
Harry principles of GND principle
Patrick, Youth Climate Strikers
Heather hand signals and warm up
6.25 Workshop of choice (5 workshops to choose)
Icebreaker question in chat at start of workshop for 5 mins
7.00 10 min break
7.10 second workshop of choice
7.45 Helen next steps
7.55 Martin Mayer closing remarks
8.00 End
The time has never been more right for the Green New Deal. Before Covid we were already facing the crisis of inequality and an economy that works for too few; we were facing the destruction of our ecological life support systems through climate chaos and we were facing institutional rot that threatens black and brown bodies disproportionately. Covid has brought out the interconnections between all these crises, and the Green New Deal recognises that all the pieces matter. We cannot have climate justice without economic justice and racial justice.
To that end, we at Green New Deal UK (GND UK) South Yorkshire are co-hosting an envisioning event for all organisations and individuals working towards climate, economic and racial justice. We are collaborating with the Youth Climate Strikers, the TUC and other organisations, and they’ll be helping us deliver workshops on themes relevant to a local Green New Deal.
We need to ensure that the government will Build Back Better from the Covid crisis. We can’t go back to ‘normal’, because normal was a death sentence for our people and planet.
Read more about Green New Deal UK’s principles here:
https://www.greennewdealuk.org/about-us/our-principles/
In South Yorkshire we can join up the struggles for living wages, decent public transport, decent housing, a decolonised curriculum, criminal justice reform, clean air, sustainable food, insulated homes, restored ecosystems and net zero emissions to build a Green New Deal for our neighbourhoods and communities. We need to share strategies and resources because there is too much at stake and so much to win.
(The schedule for the day and workshop titles will be added closer to the time)
Workshops include:
“1 Million Climate Jobs and a Just Transition” Martin Mayer Sheffield TUC
“Better Bus Services: Good for People, Good for the Planet” Fran Postlethwaite YHPC and Barnsley TUC
Tuesday 28th July National Trades Councils online meeting
6pm to 7.30pm. If trades council delegates would like to participate please email tradescouncils@tuc.org.uk by no later than noon on Friday 24th of July
Keynote speaker: Steve Turner UNITE AGS.
Includes presentation by Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise Union Organiser Rohan Kon.
Also debates on how Trades Councils can support workers during the pandemic. Trades Council delegates from across the country are invited to register to take part in a National Trades Councils online meeting. In the absence of the 2020 Annual Conference, the TUCJCC is organising a Zoom event for all trades councils and county associations, where we can discuss the campaigning work of trades councils that has taken place this year and look ahead to the economic, social and political challenges in front of us. We will be circulating the annual report ahead of this event.
Wednesday 29th July “Precarity is the Pandemic: The Lessons from Sheffield”
7pm Launch of SHEFFIELD NEEDS A PAY RISE! Campaign Research Project
We would like to invite you to the launch event and discussion of our major new report on low paid and precarious work, trade unionism and the impact of the Covid pandemic on workers in Sheffield. Please see details below.
A major new research report, Tackling labour market injustice and organising workers: The view from a Northern Heartland by Peter Thomas, Sheffield Hallam University, David Etherington Staffordshire University, Bob Jeffery, Sheffield Hallam University, Ruth Beresford, Sheffield Hallam University, David Beel, Manchester Metropolitan University, Martin Jones, Staffordshire University focused on Sheffield – the UK’s low pay capital – shows how the same factors that expose workers to harm in ‘normal’ times, has also exposed them to the worst effects of the Covid Pandemic.
The report comes about from research undertaken to support the Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise Campaign (SNAP) by academic researchers working in collaboration with Sheffield TUC.
This Zoom event will present the key findings from the research on the drivers behind low pay and precarity across different employment sectors in Sheffield. The research describes the kinds of exploitative work situations that that low pay and precarity create and the research postscript explores how the harms of pandemic map on to these existing conditions. The ways workers and unions are contesting this situation on the ground and the challenges and prospects for trade union renewal are also examined.
The research presentation will be followed by labour rights experts who speak on what lessons we can draw from the research for both political and industrial attempts to “Build Back Better” work.
Chair: Rohan Kon – Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union Organiser
Researcher: Bob Jeffery – Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield TUC
Speakers:
Owen Espley, Senior Economic Justice Campaigner – War on Want
Carolyn Jones, Director – Institute of Employment Rights
Further speakers to be confirmed
Register to attend at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ufuqrrjkrGd0p2h8sQhPpYoDWmghP96ma
Organised by Sheffield TUC and War on Want
Monday 3rd August “Better Bus Services: Good for People, Good for the Planet” 2pm to 3.30pm on Zoom. Hosted by Yorkshire and the Humber Pensioners Convention
ID: 890 6033 1757 Password: 577251
“We had planned a conference at the end of April to launch its manifesto for better bus services and bring together groups interested in campaigning around its ideas. Obviously, we had to cancel this due to the Covid lockdown. We have agreed to invite other groups to join our next meeting with a view to sharing ideas and experiences and hopefully moving towards creating a coordinated national campaign for better bus services. I hope people from your organisation will be able to join the discussion.” Fran Postlethwaite, Secretary.