£18 million Cuts in Southwark! – demonstrate 6 pm on Wed 29 February at Peckham Town Hall

Next Wednesday, 29 February, Southwark Council meet to vote through £18million-worth of cuts to council services and jobs. These cuts will hit the poorest and the most vulnerable in our community.

We are calling for a mass demonstration from 6 pm onwards to demonstrate our opposition, assembling outside Peckham Town Hall, Peckham Road SE5 8UB. See the poster and leaflet attached. See the Facebook Event for ‘Southwark F29 against the Cuts’, or join Twitter @southwarkSOS for updates.

Come yourself and bring everyone you can with you!

Can you help distribute leaflets? We can provide them. Ring John on 07519 811657 or email us at southwarksos@gmail.com.

SOUTHWARK COUNCIL SET TO CUT £18 million FROM VITAL SERVICES

Cuts will affect the most vulnerable. These are just some:

Nearly  £1m  to  be  cut  from  Early  Years  Education  and  Children‘s  Centres.  Loss  of  childcare   from  the  Bishop’s  House  and  South  Bermondsey  Children’s  Centres.  24  Nursery  Officers  &   6 domestic staff CUT.

Total cut of most of the 10 open access youth clubs (20% of Southwark population are under 15). 60% reduction in staffing.

50%  cut  to  ‘Connexions’  careers  service  which  helps  single  parents,  young  offenders  and   other young people find jobs. 20 people chase every job vacancy in Southwark.

Closure of either Fred Francis Day Centre or Southwark Park Day Centre - which look after older people with mental health conditions.

45% funding cut to Maroons - a centre which caters for BME mental health patients

Councillors – you should stand with the people, not the government.

The  Council  dress  cuts  up  as  ‘targeting’,  ‘restructuring’,  or  ‘redesigning’  services.  But  they  will   cut deep into services needed by the vulnerable. Cuts mean job losses, increased workloads, and  pay  cuts.  Councillors  claim  they  don’t  like  cuts  but  they  are  making  them  anyway.  It’s  like   being mugged for £100 and the thief throws back £10, expecting you to be thankful!

Bad – yes, and even worse to come

We saw how cuts last year slashed council jobs and increased workloads to impossible levels. This will continue unless we stop the cuts going through. Service users and council employees must stand side by side to stop the government cutting our precious services to shreds. George Osborne has promised another 3 YEARS of cuts after this. His agenda is clear:

Increase privatisation profit-hungry companies taking over health, education and environ- mental services.

Cuts in pay year-on-year, in public and private sectors - unless you are a leader of one of the UK’s  top  100  companies,  whose  pay  increased  by  47%  last  year.

Attacking pensions (work longer, pay more, die younger). The Government could wipe out the deficit by preventing £120 billion in tax avoidance by companies like Vodafone.

THERE IS A FIGHTBACK

Last week, 8 Labour councillors resigned rather than make cuts in Glasgow. Councillors should act on principles, not party allegiances condemning us to years of austerity.

Over 2 million trade unionists went on strike in November for decent pensions and against a government  of  millionaires  who  are  making  us  pay  for  a  crisis  we  didn’t  create.

Demonstrate LOUDLY this Wed 29 Feb, 6 pm at Peckham Town Hall. Tell everyone.
Get your trade union branch, campaign group, residents association, service-user group etc.
to  back  the  demonstration;  (see  Facebook  event  ‘Southwark  F29  against  the  Cuts’)

Support Southwark strikers

PCS members have picket lines in Southwark and at four other locations this morning as they strike against cuts to the Equality and Human Rights commission that will roll the clock back 40 years.

 

Please rush messages of support to savetheehrc@gmail.com - they make a real difference to morale

 

For more info see:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/id/6CB426D3-95DA-4319-B8D0CA63DA53F26B

Cuts – Local and national

CUTS TO COUNCIL SERVICES
We are receiving reports about cuts to local services, many of which will hurt the most vulnerable, and job losses that will add significantly to the numbers already out of work in Southwark. To stop this happening, we need a concerted campaign of action. Please let us know either by email or by coming to our meeting on 15th February (see below) what you can do to help stop these cuts.


PENSIONS DISPUTE - UPDATE
Unions which have refused to sign up to the government’s proposed pensions “deal” are planning further action in March. So far the executives of the UCU lecturers’ union and the NUT teachers’ union have agreed to set a date for further strike action in March and the civil service union PCS has also agreed to further action.
New events may be organised at short notice. Please check our website, Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @southwarkSOS for updates on this issue.

Follow us!
http://southwarksaveourservices.blogspot.com/
Twitter @southwarkSOS
Facebook: Southwark SSOS

Are you part of a community group or campaign? We’d like to hear from you. Tell us what you’re doing and we can advertise your anti-cuts campaign activities. Email us at southwarksos@gmail.com 

Pensions: On-going action for all

You will have seen on the news that some unions have signed an agreement with the government on pensions. This has been presented as a final agreement, a done deal, but it is not. Campaigners from three south London boroughs met on Tuesday and agreed to circulate this advice to trade unionists.  Please consider what you can do. We also welcome your feedback on these action points.

Deal or No deal?

Most unions have not signed up to any agreement in the public service sectors although Unison and GMB have both signed "heads of agreement" in local government and health. Although it is not a final agreement it does mean any final deal will mean workers in those two sectors

·       will work longer

·       pay more

·       receive less in pensions

The only concession from the government is that some workers will not have to pay more towards their pensions for two years. After that pension contributions will increase. The agreement also mean those unions have agreed not to call any more strikes while they are negotiating.

Even if there are further negotiations this agreement will leave us with a terrible deal on pensions.

Members of Unison and GMB should tell their national union leaders that the agreement is no good and they should tell the government – No deal!

Most unions have not signed up to any agreement in the other public service sectors. The PCS and most of the civil service unions have rejected the agreement. So far the NUT, NAS/UWT and UCU have said they will not sign the agreement on the Teacher’s Pension Scheme.

                                                                                                                                                                                    

If you a member of NUT, NAS/UWT and UCU:

Members of these unions should call on their leaders to call more strike action as soon as possible. If your union is still in dispute get your union branch to send in resolutions calling for more action now.

We should make it clear – there is no deal and we continue to fight against the government’s attack on our pensions.

If you a member of UNISON or the GMB:

Send individual messages and motions from branches/branch officers telling the union leaders to call off the agreement with the government. Please sign the petitions against the agreement (see links below) and support the lobbies of the Unison and GMB national executives.  Here are the details for the Unison lobby this coming Tuesday:

Lobby of the Unison Service Group Executives

Tuesday 10 January

12 noon until 2.00pm

Unison national HQ, 130 Euston Road, London, NW1

Called by Camden, Lambeth and London Met University Unison branches

For all trade unionists:

Lobby the TUC

Thursday 12 January, 2pm

Congress House, Great Russell Street

London WC1B 3LS

(Nearest underground station Tottenham Court Road)

Sign the petitions

For Unison members: Why we say ‘no deal’ on pensions

For all unions:  Don't give up the pensions fight

Unite the Resistance emergency national meeting

Saturday 14 January, 12 noon - 4pm

Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London.

Go to http://uniteresist.org/

ACTION ALERT on PENSIONS

Many people who participated in the recent public sector strike over pensions, and others who oppose the Government’s cuts agenda, are angry with the way an ‘agreement’ has been reached between some trade union leaders and Government ministers, and the terms of that that agreement. Many unions however have not ‘signed up’. What do you think? We are keen to hear your views about the ‘Heads of Agreement’ deal announced a few days ago, and whether you think more industrial action is needed. Please email us here .

Several lobbies and protest events have already been called over this latest development in the pensions dispute. Please attend if you can, and make your views known to those who have been negotiating on behalf of millions of public sector workers.

This is the wording of a petition that is being circulated amongst trade unionists and anti-cuts campaigners. You can sign it here .

“We the undersigned: Recognise that the magnificent N30 strike showed the potential power of public sector workers to defeat the government. We reject Maude's latest pensions proposals which will mean all public sector workers having to work longer, pay more, and get less. We say no to secret deals by union leaders over the heads of the membership. We demand democratic control of the negotiations. We demand that the date is set for the next co-ordinated public sector strike early in the New Year. UNISON Scotland has already proposed 25 January as the date of the next strike.”

Please forward the following link to those with whom you are in contact, especially campaign networks and trade union branch members. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pensions_strike_january/

New events may be organised at short notice. Please check our website, Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @southwarkSOS for updates on this issue.

After millions of public sector workers strike – what’s comes next?

Since last week’s strike of over two million trade unionists against pensions ‘reform’ when half-a-million took to the streets in towns and cities across the country, opposition to government cuts is on a scale not seen for generations. In Southwark, the strike involved picket lines across the borough and a rally and demonstration at the Elephant & Castle.

Why not organise a meeting at work?

Perhaps you could show people the photos and movies from the strike day, distribute the Rally statement (below) which was agreed by 200 people at the rally on 30 November, and discuss with your workmates what should be the next steps in the campaign.

Statement

Trade unionists and their supporters from across Southwark are today showing their determination to fight against the government’s attack on public sector pensions. The strength of support for our action today is fuelled by the lies pedalled by ministers trying to convince people that their offer is a ‘fair’ one. There is nothing ‘fair’ about:

•    using our increased pension contributions to pay for an economic crisis we did not create.
•    an ‘offer’ that would result in a typical public sector worker having to work three lifetimes to earn the same pension as Tory minister Francis Maude.
•    allowing the leaders of the top 100 FTSE companies to get  a 49% pay rise last year while our pay is frozen, or falling.
•    attempting to cut public sector workers’ pensions in the pretence that it will somehow improve the private pensions schemes that have been systematically devalued or abandoned by employers in past years.

Thousands of local people are taking action today in the context of government policies that have systematically attacked the welfare state, that threaten impoverishment for millions on low incomes, created mass unemployment, and imprison people who protest against these measures. Just as the student movement last year, the recent Occupy movement, and action by workers across Europe, America and the Middle East have each inspired new groups to challenge their Governments’ priorities, we do not see today’s strike as the  end – but as the beginning.

We declare our intention to go back to our workplaces to:

-    Discuss with our fellow trade union members what is action is needed by ourselves and our union leaders to ensure we defend our pensions and our living standards. We need a national timetable for concerted action across the whole trade union movement that beginning within days or weeks, not months.

-    Argue with non-union members why they should join a trade union, and ensure every section of the workplace has an elected representative; unions should aim to collaborate and meet together both within every workplace and at borough-level to maximise the impact of our collective action.

-    Make links with people in our local communities, with groups that are campaigning against cuts and austerity and with workers in the private sector to ensure we are not ‘divided-and-ruled’ by the government or the media.