The IWW is backing the public meeting on the financial crisis in Maryhill (North West Glasgow):-

Maryhill Burgh Meeting: The financial crisis – how’s it going to affect us in Maryhill

A public meeting for Maryhill and beyond: Woodside Halls, 7:30PM, Wednesday the 26th of November

Tenants, Homeowners, Ratespayers, Claimants, Refugees, Migrants: ALL WELCOME
PUBLIC MEETING: for the whole community

The financial crisis is likely to lead a loss of a number of jobs across the whole of the financial sector, across the retail industry lots of people risk losing their jobs, throughout the public sector the government will be looking to slash jobs to pay for the bailout of the banks, as well as to attack and privatise public services all the quicker as the government tries to subsidise failing investment firms through ever growing marketisation and privatisation of health, local government and education services. We need to begin to look at ways working people can stand up and challenge these attacks on our living and working standards. In the past working people fought back against an economic depression and won the national health service.

Today if we stand together we can resist further attacks and begin to better our lot. But we need to make changes to how we have fought back against the Thatcherite consensus through our trade union fights and in our communities if we are to hope to achieve all the good things in life, and the world we want our children to inhabit.

This meeting is going to be looking at these problems and this discussion, so we in the IWW support and encourage you to come along.

Clydeside GMB

The Clydeside General Membership Branch will be holding their next monthly meeting on Wednesday 17th September, 7pm in the Electron Club Room at the CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD.  If you need help finding the Electron Club room please ask at the front desk or at the bar.

Edinburgh GMB

The Edinburgh General Membership Branch will be holding their next monthly meeting on Monday 8th September, 7.30pm (7pm to pay dues) at the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh 17 West Mongomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA.

Dumfries GMB

The Dumfries General Membership Branch will be holding their next monthly meeting on Monday 15th September, 7.30pm at The Tam O’Shanter, 113-117 Queensbury Street, Dumfries DG1 1BH (opposite a car park). Arrive early to get a seat.

All are welcome to come along to branch meetings to find out more about the union, sign up and/or pay dues.  Branches will also be discussing important industrial activity in the area of which all are welcome to contribute.

To get occasional emails about upcoming IWW activity please join our announcement list :

https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/iwwscotlandannounce

or email iwwscotlandannounce-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The next Scottish Assembly is on Sunday, March 23rd from 1:15pm to 6:30 at the Friend’s Meeting House in Glasgow.

The Summer Assembly is an all-scotland IWW dayschool and organising event, open to both IWW members and non-members. This year we have workshops on:

* Organsing your workplace
* Getting the message out
* Problems and solutions at work
* The National Blood Service and what you can do to save it

There will also be an introductory session on what the IWW is, and a discussion session on what our tactics should be for IWW growth within Scotland. A late lunch will be provided, and a social is planned for afterwards.

If you have any questions either leave them as a comment here, or email iwwscotland@gmail.com

From the Greenock Telegraph: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=1&id=16826

Hospital Workers Back IRH Strike

by Lorraine Tinney

HOSPITAL workers at Inverclyde Royal have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action over car parking charges.

A staggering 87 per cent of staff across Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board said they would walk out if tolls aren’t scrapped. Unison held a postal ballot to crank up pressure on health secretary Nicola Sturgeon to reverse her decision to charge staff up to £7 a day for using hospital car parks.

The strike vote means that up to 1,000 union members at Inverclyde Royal including nurses, porters and lab technicians could bring the hospital to a standstill.

Raymond O’Donoghue, unison divisional convener in Inverclyde, said: “This shows the strength of opinion over charges that so many workers would go on strike.

“Staff do not want this and the public certainly don’t want it.

“It is very hard to get people to vote in postal ballots and there was a 40 per cent turnout which means around 6,000 voted which is phenomenal.”

But he stressed that patients wouldn’t suffer if staff did walk out.

He said: “We would take sensible action – we are not in the business of hurting patients. Strike action is always a last resort.”

Unison bosses also collected 1,000 printed letters signed by staff and the public in Inverclyde objecting to proposals and took them through to Edinburgh yesterday to hand over in person to the health secretary.

A spokesperson for Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “It is disappointing that Unison would threaten patient care by balloting for strike action.

“Unison nationally is already part of a Government and NHS led review of hospital car parking across Scotland and it therefore seems inappropriate timing to ballot for local strike action. This however, is a matter for the local branch of Unison.

“It would be interesting to find out exactly who has been balloted in this case as it appears that many staff, based on sites where parking charges are already in effect, have not been balloted.

“Our primary objective is to ensure that patients, visitors and staff who need a car to carry out vital NHS duties can park at our hospitals when they need to. As an employer we have no obligation to offer all staff free parking without any constriction.

“NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is fully complying with national Scottish guidance to NHS Boards on car parking charges and we are doing nothing different from other NHS organisations faced with the same problems on their busy hospital sites.”

Clydeside GMB has began distributing the following posters to raise attention to the ongoing struggles of hospital staff who are being charged extortionate fees as a result of a swingeing decision by Greater Glasgow Healthboard to charge hospital staff and patients alike for parking at hospitals. The money being earned from the parking charges is not going into funding better public transport to hospitals or supporting staff to get to and from work, and is not specially earmarked for a specific purpose or for investment. The Healthboard has been open about the fact that it sees this as just another source of revenue. Despite a government review being ordered into the decision and a consultative ballot on the issue the Healthboard has stated it has no intention of dropping the charges. This is a tax on hospital workers, and the IWW aims to support workers fighting the charges by highlighting the issue and trying to bring others to register their support and get involved. We all benefit from the NHS. Attacks on hard working healthcare workers are attacks on the NHS itself. They must be stopped, for all of our benefit. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Healthcare Workers (IU 610 workers), Clydeside GMB.

car-bank2.pdf

parking-tax2.pdf

>> Printable fliers in a pdf <<

 V – I – C – T – O – R – Y- ! – ! – !

Posted [on Herald forum] by: Jim McFarlane, Glasgow on 12:21pm today…

The Scottish Exec may take the credit but it was the grassroots campaign of students & workers at Crichton backed up by the UCU and IWW (industrial Workers of the World) which kept the issue alive and refused to accept Muir Russell’s plans, which created the possibility of this decision being reversed

The Scottish Exec may take the credit but it was the grassroots campaign of students & workers at Crichton backed up by the UCU and IWW (industrial Workers of the World) which kept the issue alive and refused to accept Muir Russell’s plans, which created the possibility of this decision being reversed

THOUSANDS of Glasgow postal workers walked out of delivery offices today in a dramatic escalation of industrial action.

Strike-hit Royal Mail was plunged into deeper chaos after 13 workers who had refused to cross a picket line were sent home and union officials claim up to 5000 colleagues walked out in support of them.

Around 1100 staff at the Glasgow Mail Centre in Springburn were already on official strike today and the wildcat action added to the disruption.

The Communications Workers Union claims a deal was offered to bosses which would have averted the unofficial action but it was rejected.

Local Glasgow public sector disputes intensify…The Glasgow Evening Times reports:-

SOCIAL workers could join an indefinite strike affecting some of Glasgow’s most vulnerable children and adults.

Unison has begun the process of balloting 1000 social workers about a mid-August stoppage which would hit frontline services hard.

The move comes as an indefinite strike by 600 social care workers over new pay and gradings enters its second week.

Social workers are being asked to absorb some of the workload but many are thought to back their colleagues’ plight.

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Unqualified social care workers manage cases for children at risk, prisoners, methadone users and the homeless.

Services have been plunged into chaos and the situation is only likely to worsen. Brian Smith, Unison social work secretary said: “The ballot process is under way and it will close in about ten days’ time.

“A strike by social workers would be planned for the middle of August.”

Speaking at an unofficial rally in George Square yesterday Mr Smith added: “This would have the effect of closing down all the services which are being hit by the strike at the moment.”

Social care worker Tricia Billsland, from Baillieston, said: “I have worked in social work for 30 years. I’m disgusted by what’s happening.

“I’m losing about £1000 a year. It’s a breach of promise.”

Crisis talks between Unison and Glasgow City Council took place yesterday but so far there is no sign of a breakthough.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said today: “A meeting took place yesterday between the chief executive and depute director of social work and representatives of the union. A further meeting is scheduled for tomorrow and both sides are committed to finding a solution.”

Publication date 31/07/07