Thursday 23rd January – UNITE Mass picket Veolia Lumley St Depot
05.30hrs onwards outside Veolia Lumley St depot. UNITE members are on strike for union recognition.
Postponed: Thursday 23rd January China and Sustainability MS public meeting
7–9pm Central United Reformed Church, Norfolk Street
Speaker Carlos Martinez on China and the Environment
Discussion. Organised by Morning Star S Yorks Owing to a family emergency this event has been postponed
Friday 24th January Friday night rally for Palestine
5pm to 6pm outside Sheffield Rail Station. Our regular Friday night rally for Palestine. Organised by Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
Saturday 25th January Sheffield Palestine demonstration
12 noon for a rally outside Sheffield Town hall
For us, [the ceasefire} is nothing more than an intermission in an endless tragedy……..and the silence that follows is not peace – it is the deafening quiet of lives left in limbo, waiting for the next round of violence to begin*. Roo Shamallakh, Gaza. Our task now is to raise our voices louder than ever: to escalate our campaigns for justice for Palestine! Join us!
*Stand with Palestine – end Apartheid: end Complicity*
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/01/the-gaza-ceasefire-will-not-cure-the-wounds-of-genocide/
Saturday 25th January TUC Yorks & Humber Trades Councils AGM
1pm (with a buffet lunch from 12pm), at Unite office, 55 Call Lane, Leeds, LS1 7BW.
Each trades council is entitled to 2 delegates (1 of which must be a woman) to attend the meeting and have voting rights. Please complete the registration form if you will be attending and indicate on there if you will be attending as a delegate from your trades council.
Elections for the TUC Executive Committee 2025-2027, and TUC Executive Committee Vice Chair will also take place at the meeting.
Saturday 25th January PSC Meeting, The Atrium London E2 6EJ
The Palestine Coalition has called an emergency public meeting, following the violent arrest of our chief steward Chris Nineham at London’s national Palestine protest, and the charges brought against Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were also called in for police questioning.
The rally will take place at The Atrium, London E2 6EJ from 2-4pm. The meeting will address the concerns about the police crackdowns on the right to protest. The increasing use of the law against peaceful demonstrators poses a serious threat to civil liberties, and we must take urgent action to defend our rights.
Speakers include Khalid Abdalla, Ben Jamal, Chris Nineham, Leanne Mohamad and many more to be announced.
We urge you to attend this important and timely rally as it will shape our collective response to the Met police’s clampdown and ensure that our right to protest and speak out is protected, especially in times of growing repression.
10 & 11 Feb – Hearts Union week. We will be running stalls @ Uni campi=uses – between 12 and 2pm.
Tuesday 28th January Sheffield Trade Union Council delegate meeting
7pm Trades and Labour Club, Dule Street S2 5QQ
Open to non-delegates who are trade union members. Not a delegate? Ask your branch to affiliate to Sheffield TUC and nominate you as a delegate!
Saturday 1st February Sheffield Council Budget NO CUTS meeting
2pm to 5pm Broomhall Centre Broomspring Lane, Sheffield S10 2FD. Speaker: Onay Kasab, UNITE National Lead officer, plus speakers from UNISON, UCU and Peoples Assembly
Organised by Sheffield Trade Union Council
Saturday 1st February – demo in London against the Far Right
Coach from Sheffield organised by Stand Up To Racism. coach tickets can be booked on the attached link. https://buytickets.at/sheffieldstanduptoracism/1508545
Thanks to everyone who came to our organising meeting on Wednesday 8th January which ended being online because of the sub-zero temperatures. At that meeting we outlined our priorities which are both confronting Tommy Robinsons supporters and promoting the coach to London on 1st Feb.
This takes on even greater urgency following Trumps inauguration at which his right hand man – billionaire #ElonMusk – has given what appears to be a Nazi salute twice in a row during his speech.
The reprieve of the proud boys for their role in the attempted coup at Capitol Hill, the state of emergency declared on the border with Mexico, Trumps statement that her will deport all “criminal” illegal immigrants and a raft of other authoritarian policies tells us we are in the battle of our lives.
We must stop these far right figures giving confidence to every fascist – including the likes of Tommy Robinson here in Britain. We need a mass movement to shut them down.
Join us on the streets on 1 Feb
Wednesday 5th February Aleida Guevara March, daughter of Che
Doors open at 6.30pm meeting commences at 7pm The Central United Reformed Church Norfolk Street, Sheffield S1 2JB
Cuba Solidarity Campaign is delighted to host Aleida Guevara March, daughter of Che, in Sheffield to talk about the current situation in Cuba
Monday 10th February Better Buses S Yorks Campaign Meeting
Our next meeting will be on at 2pm on the usual Zoom link:
Meeting ID: 842 3669 8968 Passcode: 698590
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84236698968?pwd=R3NsbzFpVDAwY29hd2NKYnl2QlF1QT09
10th & 11th February TUC Hearts Union week.
Sheffield TUC will be running stalls @ Uni campuses – between 12 and 2pm.
This annual TUC event is intended to raise awareness of trade unions and the positive work they do. Trades Councils and union branches around the country will be out engaging with their local communities with information about trade unions
The number one reason people give for not joining a union is that they’ve never been asked. Can you be the person to ask? This Heart Unions week, people around the country will take to the streets to spread the word about why unions are vital for everyone at work, and encourage others to join a union. To grow our movement, we need more union members, more reps, and more people to know about the power of being in a union!
Wednesday 12th February SSONHS Zoom Meeting
07:00 PM Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 894 2284 8574 Passcode: 113510 ALL WELCOME
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89422848574?pwd=JtFnMIH6IoxxwkHKzj4Zyw0VW9eHua.1
PROPOSED AGENDA
Apologies
Minutes of last meeting – (Attached)
ROTHERHAM HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN UPDATE
SSONHS NEXT STEPS – WINTER CRISIS & PRIORITIES (MODEL LETTER TO MP- LIST OF PRIORITIES ETC)
STALLS & ACTIVITIES
KONP UPDATE
HEALTH SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
ICB – SOUTH YORKSHIRE UPDATE
MEDIA UPDATE
Any Other Business
Mick Suter, Chair SSONHS 07380139142
Thursday 13th February Workplace Day of Action for Palestine
Please organise for the next workplace day of action. Despite the temporary ceasefire, the horrors in Palestine and across the middle east make it necessary for the trade union movement to do all it can to call on the UK government to end its support for Israel and end the arms trade to Israel and to oppose the criminalisation of the Palestine movement.
Please take pictures and tag us in social media pics and videos on the day. The hashtag is #Workplaces4Palestine
Ideas for actions include:
- Wearing a badge, something in the colours of the Palestinian flag or a keffiyeh,
- Organising a two minute silence at work for Palestine,
- Calling a walkout and a rally at lunchtime with speakers,
- Organising a stall outside work as people come in,
- Urging people to email/tweet their MP demanding an end to UK complicity with the genocide.
- Inviting everyone to a Palestinian lunch or a bake sale,
- Doing a collection and a petition for the movement around work,
- Getting everyone to change their zoom background to the Palestinian flag.
Friday 14th February Sheffield-Nablus Fund-raising meal with live music
6 – 9.30pm Nether Edge S11 9DY. To register, email sheffieldnablus@gmail.com Sheffield Nablus Twinning Association The aims are to bring groups of Palestinians on regular visits to England and Wales to speak about their experience to reach new people to spread awareness of human rights in Palestine to encourage people to become active Raising funds for 3 activists from Nablus, West Bank, Palestine to visit as part of a Sheffield friendship exchange 17th – 21st February 2025 flyer
Sunday, 16th February Medical Aid For Cuba Appeal fundraising meal
5.30pm Maveli’s, 223 Glossop Road, Sheffield S10 2GW (“the home of south Indian cuisine”)
Organised by Cuba Solidarity Campaign to raise funds for Medical Aid For Cuba Appeal.
The cost would be £28 per person and that includes a donation. There will also be a raffle. You are welcome to bring friends and relatives of course, in fact we hope that you will!
As a first step please email me Sheff CSC <sheffieldcsc1959@gmail.com> with the number of seats required but please note that any queries will not be dealt with until Friday 24th January. This will be an excellent opportunity to support Cuba and to meet other members so we hope you can join us for a fun night out.
Tuesday 18th February Sheffield Nablus Twinning Assoc AGM Public meeting
Downstairs room, Central United Reform Church Norfolk Street Sheffield S1 2BJ
Sheffield Nablus Twinning Association AGM 6.30pm Public meeting 7pm
Friendship Agreement between Sheffield City Council and Nablus Municipality
Agree draft Constitution
Election of Officers / Executive Committee
Agree membership system
Public meeting 7pm all welcome
Welcome our Palestinian visitors: Keynote speech from Amjad Refaie, leader of New Askar Camp (Nablus) refugee committee. Hear reports about the reality of living under Israeli occupation, the
frequent military incursions by the IDF and the increasing violence from the Israeli settlers
Visiting speakers from Nablus – 3 activists from Nablus, West Bank, Palestine are visiting Sheffield as part of a Sheffield friendship exchange 17th – 21st February 2025 Our visitors will be speaking about the current realities of living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank
Tuesday 25th February Sheffield Trade Union Council AGM
7pm Trades and Labour Club, Dule Street S2 5QQ
It’s time for your branch to reaffiliate to Sheffield TUC for 2025. Isn’t your union branch affiliated? If not, please contact tucsheffield@gmail.com
Agenda will include keynote speaker, officers’ reports and elections for officers and executive committee
Open to non-delegates who are trade union members. Not a delegate? Ask your branch to affiliate to Sheffield TUC and nominate you as a delegate!
Tuesday 18th March Better Buses S Yorks celebratory rally
(time not yet known) Outside S Yorks Mayoral Authority office, 11 Broad Street West S1 2BQ
Better Buses S Yorks is to hold a celebratory rally outside the SYMCA office when the decision to move to public control is on the agenda of a SYMCA Board meeting.
Our campaign argued strongly throughout the consultation for 4 key principles:
- support for public control with ownership of depots and fleets (this was the option put forward in the business case)
- support for full public ownership through a municipal bus company (and the Bus Bill currently going through parliament will lift the ban on councils owning their own bus companies)
- good pay and conditions for workers in the industry
- full public participation/public voice in decision making.
We will continue to argue for these principles – plus we know that during the transition period we may well face more cuts in routes and/or services from the bus companies.
Friday 11th April installation and Saturday 12th April unveiling
“Boy With a Dove” sculpture by Anthony Padgett will finally be installed in Weston Park to commemorate Pablo Picasso’s historic visit to Sheffield for the World Peace Conference in 1951. This project has been spearheaded by the International brigades memorial Trust with the support of Sheffield TUC
Monday 28th April International Workers Memorial Day
Sheffield TUC will hold a wreath laying ceremony with speeches outside Sheffield Town Hall by the Memorial Tree. Branches and other organisation are invited to lay a wreath. This is an international trade union event to mark the importance of health and safety at work. Remember the Dead – Fight for the Living!