June 30th Leaflet

Strikes - Pickets and Rally report!

RAC activist turned out to pickets at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology (RCAT) as well as the Rotherham Jobcentre.

A fine morning saw RAC activists join the UCU/NUT/PCS/ATL pickets in Rotherham town centre from 7- 9. Although mainly at th RCAT site, activists visit Rotherham Job Centre to lend support and show solidarity.

After the pickets (and a brief coffee break) activists handed out literature and helped gather numbers for the Rally in All Saints Square at 11am.

Around 50 people turned out to the rally, where speakers addressed the crowd standing proudly between Union banners. Messages of determined solidarity and commitment were well recieved before many of the assembled continued over to Sheffield to join the demonstrations there.

Another positive and encouraging turn out for RAC, the unions and all Rotherham folk show that the fight back is growing and solidarity and resistance is growing!

Further reports and pictures to follow!!!

Meeting Report: 21/06/2011

Rotherham Against the Cuts Meeting:
Tuesday, 21th June 2011, 7:00pm. Bridge Inn.
Chair: Jill Adams

Draft constitutions were distributed for perusal and further discussion.

A rally for the 30th June was set for 11am in All Saints Square - speakers to be confirmed.

A post-Strike Public meeting was set for Thursday 14th July - details to be confirmed.

The next RAC meeting was set for Tuesday 5th July at the Bridge In at 7:30pm.

Martin Hickman  was accepted as RAC Secretary, and Mick Duggan  was accepted as RAC Vice-Chair.

RAC logos are to be circulated by Ralph Dyson and an RAC vinyl banner will be produced, pending agreement of the logo.

Defend Rotherham Central Library.

Rotherham Borough Council's Cabinet Members have quietly made plans to destroy Rotherham Central Library.

On a recent visit to the Central Library, I asked library staff if they had any information regarding the cuts they would be facing. Although there was general awareness that cuts would come, they had very little detail of any cuts. The only concrete news they had was that the library itself was being demolished and being relocated to the new government building opposite the police station.

According to staff, there had been plans to build a new library, but these had been abandoned in the light of massive council budget cuts.

I was unaware of these plans and did a little research to see if I had missed any announcements.

There was an article from August 2010 on the council website which, obviously, gave an upbeat account of the council plans. Written, typically enough, as straight propaganda it gave no indication of any public concern that the plans would not be welcome by the community. (Click here to read the article).

No article relating to this news appears on the Rotherham Advertiser search engine (which covers the Advertiser, Record and the Dearne Valley Weekender).

- Chris Bingham

-----Supplementary (02/08/2011) -----

Article from BBC I just exhumed... "Town library to have new location in Rotherham"

Campaign Stall Report

Activists continue the campaign!

Hundreds of leaflets were handed out last Saturday publicising the forthcoming RAC meeting on the 21st June, to join the Facebook group and to follow the blog, and calling on members of the public to get involved and help build numbers for the demonstrations that will be held on the 30th June.

Civil servants vote for strike over cuts to pensions, jobs and pay

"More than a quarter of a million civil and public servants today joined teachers in voting for a strike over cuts to their pensions, as well as jobs and pay." Expect to see RAC activists on the pickets. This article appears on the PCS website.

In a national ballot 61.1% of PCS's quarter of a million civil and public service members voted for a strike and 83.6% voted for other forms of industrial action, on a 32.4% turnout.

Meeting this afternoon, PCS's national executive committee confirmed the union will prepare for a strike on Thursday 30 June and will work with the National Union of Teachers, Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the University and College Union to co-ordinate any action. This will be followed by a month-long ban on overtime.

Unless the government does an about-turn on its plans to force public sector workers to work longer and pay more for much less pension in retirement, this first joint strike will include 750,000 public servants. And there is also a very real prospect of hundreds of thousands more workers joining the dispute later in the year.

The union says the government's slash and burn approach to tackling the budget deficit will mean vital public services are axed, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers will be thrown out of work, and those that remain will have their pay and pensions cut.

Ministers have fixed the terms of negotiations over public sector pensions to seriously undermine the possibility of an agreement being reached. They also admit that money cut from pensions will go to the Treasury to help pay off the deficit, not into pension schemes, which the union says amounts to a tax on working in the public sector.

They have accepted Lord Hutton's proposals - which mean members of civil service pension schemes face a doubling or tripling of their contributions as well as having to work longer for less pension - and have ruled out any negotiations on their decision to use the CPI measure of inflation to uprate pensions instead of RPI.

The government is sticking to its proposals despite the National Audit Office, Lord Hutton himself and most recently the Commons public accounts committee confirming public sector pensions are affordable now and sustainable in future.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This result shows that public servants, who provide vital services from the cradle to the grave, will not stand back while everything they have ever worked for is taken from them.

"The government admits that money cut from pensions will go straight to the Treasury to help pay off the deficit in what is nothing more than a tax on working in the public sector. The very modest pay and pensions of public servants did not cause the recession, so they should not be blamed or punished for it.

"Unless ministers abandon their ideological plans to hollow out the public sector, they will face industrial action on a mass scale on 30 June and beyond."

Failure in bid to save cashier service

RAC were present at the lobby of the Council Cabinet. This article from The Rotherham Advertiser describes the protest and demonstration, and the implications of the council's failure to listen to the demands of the people.

PLANS to shake up council payment services have been given the green light despite protests from thousands of people.

Almost 4,000 people signed a petition in objection to sweeping changes which union bosses claim will see the loss of two thirds of all cashiers’ jobs at Rotherham Borough Council’s neighbourhoods offices.

UNISON have warned that removing the option to pay council bills at the district offices would also make life harder for service users.

 But councillors approved the scrapping of the cashier service at Wath, Greasbrough, Rawmarsh and Kimberworth Park despite the petition and lobbying ahead of Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting at the Town Hall.

A council spokesman denied union claims that the move would lead to up to 17 job losses, adding: “We will, as much as possible, try to implement the improved services to customers without the need to look at losing staff on a compulsory basis.”

The spokesman said that a number of staff had already enquired about voluntary redundancy and others could be redeployed.

Val Broomhead, convenor at UNISON Rotherham, said the union was disappointed by the move.

“This service is a lifeline for many people as a source of advice and support and two thirds of staff are now threatened with losing their jobs,” she said.

Mrs Broomhead said that the proposed changes to the cashier service had been approved despite limited consultation with staff, service users and trade unions, adding: “We will be looking at the legal implications of that.”

Householders will be asked to make payments at PayPoints, online, or by travelling to other council offices.

The council is working with its IT partner RBT and council housing firm 2010 Rotherham Ltd to introduce payment facilities at more than 140 new outlets across Rotherham—and more beyond—using customer service centres, post offices and PayPoint locations.