SHEFFIELD TRADE UNION COUNCIL est.1858
The progressive voice of Sheffield’s trade union movement
tucsheffield@gmail.com tel: 0747 616 4537 www.sheffieldtuc.co.uk
Delegate Meeting
Tuesday 27th November 2018
7pm Trades and Labour Club, 200 Duke Street Sheffield S2 5QQ
A G E N D A
1) President’s welcome and Apologies
2) In memory of Bill Ronksley. Minute’s silence and tribute. Please come and show your respect for Bill Ronksley- trade unionist, communist and internationalist – who served as Sheffield TUC Secretary for nearly 30 years. Aged 94 and in failing health, he passed away earlier this month. His funeral is on 5th December.
3) Speaker: Gareth Lewis Yorks and Humber TUC on Norway’s “Summer Patrol”. Can we try it here? UK trade unionists have visited Norway and come back impressed with this successful initiative that involves young trade unionists visiting workplaces on fact finding missions to find out what workers think about their conditions – and introduce them to trade union ideas….
4) Speaker: Abdul Shaiff, Yemeni Community in Sheffield. An appalling humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Yemen as a result of the aerial bombardment unleashed by Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States with the backing of UK and USA.
5) Emergency Motion on Yemen – proposed by Executive Committee
“Sheffield Trade Union Council notes with alarm the terrifying death toll, rampant hunger and disease as a result of the hideous and senseless war in Yemen.
Yemen faces one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes of recent times. The UN estimates that 22 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and that 14 million people are at risk of starvation. At least ten thousand people have been killed in the fighting since 2015, a fifth of whom have been children. Disease is rampant in Yemen, which is suffering from the worst outbreak of cholera in modern times. We welcome the UN call for the cessation of hostilities and urge all parties engaged in this conflict to immediately stop the fighting and sit around a negotiating table to chart out a peace process. We welcome the efforts of the special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, and urge the envoy and the UN to maximise their efforts to find an immediate solution to prevent this looming humanitarian catastrophe.
We believe that;
1. Maximum pressure should be exerted on the warring parties to abide by international law and that the UN itself, for the purposes of legitimacy, should open up with immediate effect the peace process to all the parties concerned in the conflict without exception, namely all the Gulf states participating in the war, the Houthis, the legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
2. A lasting peace agreement can only be achieved if it addresses the issues affecting all of the people of Yemen.
3. In view of the apparently dismal presence of lawmakers at the recent parliamentary session, a parliamentary debate on the Yemen crisis should be reconvened as a matter of urgency. At such a session the government should be prevailed upon to endorse a UN sponsored ceasefire unreservedly, given its enormous influence, and to open direct UK level talks with the warring parties named above for the purposes of achieving peace in Yemen.
We further resolve to use whatever channels are open to us to press for the above to be instituted as a matter of extreme urgency.”
6) Minutes of Delegate Meeting held 23rd October 2018
a) True record
b) matters arising – see proposed revised text for Nicaragua motion item 19)
7) Minutes of Exec Committee held on 20th November 2018
Matters arising not already on the agenda
8) Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise – Living Wage Campaign
9) Sheffield Area Union Organiser- progress report
10) Sheffield People’s Assembly.
11) Sheffield Stand Up to Racism
12) Universal Credit – protesting the roll-out in Sheffield this November. UNITE Community Day of Action planned for 1st December
13) RMT/Northern strikes every Saturday. Building solidarity
14) Planning for May Day 2019.
15) Planning for STUC AGM February. Proposals from the Executive Committee. (see Executive Committee minutes)
16) Outreach to branches– future plans to speak to branches about the work of Sheffield TUC and seek greater participation and involvement. Can we get more branches interested?
17) Motion South Yorkshire NUJ branch 1.
“Sheffield Trades Council welcomes the forthcoming publication of book You Can’t Kill the Spirit by members of Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures, charting the 1992-3 campaign against the closure of 31 pits, including the setting up of a women’s pit camp at Houghton Main.
The inspiring, lively and imaginative campaign, bringing solidarity to the mining communities from trade unionists, socialists and feminists, has some important lessons for fightbacks today.
Sheffield Trades Council agrees to circulate details of the book to affiliates, to donate £100 towards the cost of printing and to invite speakers to talk about the book at a future meeting.”
Executive Committee recommends support and donation of £100
18) Proposed revised text of Nicaragua motion
“This Sheffield Trades Council wishes to send our support to our brothers and sisters within the trade union movement in Nicaragua at this difficult time.
We will always denounce the attempts by the right wing opposition forces and the USA to use violence and other forms of destabilisation to bring down democratically elected governments of the left in Central and South America
Whilst it is clear that outside forces are involved in the internal affairs of Nicaragua in aiding the opposition to President Ortega, we urge the Sandinista Government not to resort to repression and violence to suppress genuine dissent in the country, and to ensure that the principles of democracy, free speech and the law are upheld.
We will of course always support socialist regimes fighting for improvements in the lives of the people but we cannot ignore the consistent stories of violent state repression coming out of Nicaragua now, which does give rise to genuine concern”
19) Correspondence: Freedom Riders Campaign appeal (see appendix). Executive Committee recommend £100.
20) Registrars report
21) Any other business