Southwark Trades Council is setting up a steering group which will form the core of a new unemployed workers group for the borough. The group will have these main aims:
1) To engage with unemployed people locally, find out what their needs and concerns are, and encourage them to get involved in a campaigning group to tackle the issues raised
2) To use the information and people gathered as the basis for a submission to the Local Authority and other grant-giving bodies for a premises and other resources to support unemployed people with their problems and campaigns
3) To seek office space/facilities to serve as interim meeting place for the group, from which basic activities (e.g. giving impartial benefits advice) and campaigns can begin.
The group would form the basis of a TUC-sponsored Unemployed Workers Centre. The TUC sponsored many such centres in London in the 1980s and there are still many such centres thriving in the North. Local authorities and GLC funding dried up for the London-based centres a long time ago. The TUC now recognises that in the current economic climate it has a renewed responsibility towards unemployed people everywhere and is urging local trades councils to take the lead in this matter.
That is why we are now appealing for volunteers to work on the steering group, whether you are employed or unemployed, to do however much or little you can to help.
If you are interested then please contact Nick Phillips, Vice-chair, at np@southwarkunison.co.uk
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