Monday 10th February – Saturday 15th February TUC Hearts Union Week
Sheffield TUC will be supporting this National TUC week of activities to promote trade unions. Please come and join us. We’ll be meeting the public to promote the importance of trade unions and why people at work should join one! Leafleters and organisers needed!! See attached for more information
Tuesday 11th February 11am till 1pm outside Sheffield Town Hall on Pinstone Street. We’ll have a stall with union literature and promotional items. We’ll be handing out leaflets about trade unions and what we do, talking to members of the public about why you should join a union, and the fight back against low pay and exploitation in our city. We’ll be telling them about our new union organiser and the importance of our Sheffield Needs a Pay rise campaign. Volunteers needed. Can you help?
Saturday 15th February 11am till 1pm outside Sheffield Town Hall on Pinstone Street. This day we’ll be joining Sheffield People’s Assembly stall for our second day of action. We will be highlighting the other TUC theme for the week – sexual harassment at work. We’ll be asking people to sign our petition for stronger legislation to protect workers. Our Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise campaign has discovered shocking evidence of widespread sexual harassment of low paid women workers in Sheffield. Another good reason why women and men should join a union. Volunteers needed. Can you help?
STOP PRESS: We’ll be joined by “Know the Line” and other women’s campaign groups. They will be doing their “One Billion Rising!” Flash Dance on City Hall steps, Barkers Pool from 1230 till 1.30pm to stop violence against women. Come and support them please!
Friday 14th February #YouthStrike4Climate
Next national date for school students strikes to save our planet. Assemble at Devonshire Green from 11am till 11.30am, then set off on their march through the city centre. The route of the march is as follows:
Fitzwilliam Street to the bottom of the Moor
Up to the top of the Moor
Along Pinstone Street to the Town Hall
There will be a rally at the Town Hall which is scheduled to start at 12.30pm and will finish by 2pm at the latest.
Friday 14th February DELIVEROO tasking action – supporters needed!
6pm-9pm in the Fargate/Leopold Street area. Food couriers organised in the IWGB union will be taking action against one of Deliveroo’s big national partners (who reported making £1m in delivery sales in ONE WEEK in 2019). We will need volunteers to come support the Valentine’s Day drivers’ stoppage by leafleting around Fargate from 6pm-9pm on Valentine’s Day – contact Ed on 07775 763 750 if you want to help
Tuesday 18th February South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
7pm at The Sanctuary, Chapel Walk, Sheffield. Planning meeting – all welcome
Tuesday 18th February Solidarnosc: The Workers’ Movement and the Rebirth of Poland 1980-81
6:.30pm University Arms (Darts Room)
https://www.facebook.com/events/2037386583073134/
With activist and author Mark Osborn
2020 is the fortieth anniversary of the explosive birth of the Polish independent workers’ movement, Solidarność (Solidarity).
The Polish workers’ struggle of 1980-81, from the creation of Solidarność in the mass strikes of August 1980 to the military coup of 1981, shook the so-called “socialist” ruling classes of Eastern Europe. The history of the movement is also full of lessons for the genuine socialist left of 2020. The story of Solidarność is a history of working-class courage, creativity, self-organisation and mass militancy against a despotic, bureaucratic Stalinist ruling class.
Wednesday 19th February Sheffield Need a Pay Rise!
6pm Room upstairs, United Reform Church Norfolk Street N.B. Note new date – 3rd Wednesday in the month
We are looking to relaunch our Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise Campaign with our new Sheffield union organiser Rohan Kon calling the shots! Come and meet her – and find out what you can do to help organise Sheffield’s low wage exploited workers
Tuesday 25th February Sheffield Trades Council AGM. Speaker: Jo Grady UCU Gen.Sec.
7pm Trades and Labour Club, 200 Duke Street, Sheffield S2 5QQ. Is your union affiliated? Please do so in time for delegate cards to be issued. Voting takes place for Sheffield TUC Officers and Exec Committee (only accredited delegates may vote). Non delegates who are trade union members are welcome to attend as non-voting visitors, but please register on the door. See website www.shefffieldtuc.co.uk for more details
Doors open at 6.30pm. Please come early so we can start at 7pm
Sunday 1st March “THE PLAN that came from the bottom up” film
1pm Sheffield Showroom
Part film essay, part documentary THE PLAN tells the story of how a group of unknown British engineers came to be nominated for the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize when they decided to make wind turbines & hybrid engines instead of bombs. A group of eco-pioneering aerospace workers took control for the sake of the planet. Their heroism has been forgotten but as constant wars and the climate crisis proliferate there’s vital lessons to be learnt from their story.
Plus, a post-screening Q&A at Sheffield Showroom, with director Steve Sprung and one of the workers who devised ‘The Lucas Aerospace workers Alternative Plan’, Sheffield resident Brian Salisbury.
THE PLAN Part 1: 1pm – 3pm, Interval: 3pm – 3:30pm, Part 2: 3:30pm – 5pm, Q&A: 5pm
Saturday 21 March UN Anti-Racism Day
Stand Up to Racism is organising major marches in London and Glasgow as part of a global #WorldAgainstRacism coordination where demonstrations will take place all over the world, including across the US and Europe where the far right is on the rise. Sheffield SUtR will be organising coaches
Saturday 4th April and Sunday 5th April “Striking Feet” play about Shoemakers Strike
7.30pm Eyam Mechanics Institute
The play by Leslie Oldfield is about the two yearlong Eyam and Stoney Middleton Shoe workers strike of 1918-1920. The strike was probably the longest strike in British trade union history involving a group of women and I point out in the play the role by Sheffield trade unionists in supporting the strike.
Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April 2020 Young Workers Organising Weekend
Doubletree Hilton, Hull HU2
Yorks and Humber Regional TUC: If you’re a young trade union activist (35 and under) we’d like to invite you to our Young Workers Organising Weekend, which will run in parallel with our Regional AGM, and want you to be part of it!
The weekend is dedicated to developing the organising potential of our young trade union activists through workshops and training sessions, delivered by some of the best practitioners in trade union and community organising.
✔ Join dozens of young activists who want to be on the front lines in our workplaces and communities, organising new workers and agitating together.
✔ Meet some of the best practitioners in organising from across the country and around the world.
✔ Take part in workshops including creative organising tactics, beating apathy, running a campaign, and training in digital organising.
✔ Organise with others in your union, industry, or campaign.
Face-to-face meetings to share tactics and swap notes are what this weekend is all about.
You are invited to attend the daytime training on Saturday 4 April and also stay for dinner and overnight to participate in a panel debate on young workers in the trade union movement during the Sunday session of the TUC’s Regional Conference.
We want to upskill our young activists and empower them to go out and start building their union! 💪
**Please note there is no charge for the Saturday and Sunday sessions however if you would like to stay for the dinner and overnight there will be a charge for this**
To find out more and to register your interest, click on the link below https://www.tuc.org.uk/events/young-workers-organising-weekend-organising-power
20 & 21 April; 18 & 19 May; and 1 & 2 July 2020 Stepping up – Women in Leadership course
PCS Offices, Leeds city centre
Back by popular demand, Yorks and Humber TUC are offering this very interesting and worthwhile course again to our women trade union reps in the region. The course is designed for those who want to develop their leadership position within the trade union movement or build their CV skills to advance into leadership roles within their organisation or community.
The course will aim to help you understand:
✔ what leadership is
✔ leadership skills
✔ leadership styles
✔ public speaking
✔ organising skills
✔ media skills
If this is something that excites you and you’d like to find out more, click on the link below! https://www.tuceducation.org.uk/findacourse/courses/102
Saturday 25th April Conference to launch YHPC Transport Manifesto
Venue in Leeds tbc.
Yorks and Humber Pensioners Convention has published their Transport Manifesto on better bus services. Privatisation and deregulation of our local bus services has been a failure and led to huge cuts in services, appalling reliability and fares people cannot afford. With the climate emergency we need an affordable high quality public transport system like never before. Bringing buses back into public ownership would ensure the service is planned to benefit the passengers rather than the private companies!
Tuesday 28th April International Workers Memorial Day ceremony
1230 till 1.15 Outside Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield
Wreath laying ceremony with speakers from the Labour and Trade Union Movement. On this day we mourn for the dead and fight for the living. Health and Safety at work is a basic right but too many employers put profit before safety. Bring your banners and if possible a wreath to lay beside the Memorial Tree.
Sunday 3rd May Sheffield May day parade and rally
Assemble Devonshire Green. Parade via city centre. Rally outside City Hall in Barkers Pool. Speakers, times and more details to be announced in due course
Saturday 16th May With Banners Held High festival in Wakefield
“The past we inherit – a green future we build” All day event including evening social. 6 workshops. Them is trade unions and climate change. More details to follow