Workplace news in brief



NSSN conference

National Shop Stewards Network
6th annual conference:
Saturday 9 June 11am – 4pm
Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ
Speakers include:
  • Bob Crow, transport union RMT general secretary
  • Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary
  • A leading Rank and File member of the construction workers’ campaign
  • Kevin Courtney, NUT deputy general secretary
For more information see:

www.shopstewards.net

Contact the NSSN at: info @shopstewards.net or PO Box 54498, London, E10 9DE


TUSC

Mick Dooley, a prominent activist in the battle to stop the big building companies imposing a 35% pay cut, has been confirmed as a candidate for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the London Assembly elections.

Mick described in a recent interview for the Socialist, that he has been a campaigner for construction workers’ pay and conditions for many years.

He has also campaigned for building workers’ union Ucatt to become a fighting trade union. An employment tribunal recently found that the right-wing leadership of Ucatt had acted unjustifiably in banning Mick from standing in the union’s general secretary election. This follows an exposé of financial malpractice in the union and an illegal election.

Mick was even expelled from the union earlier this year.

Mick said about TUSC: “We are the serious alternative voice for the people of London. We are not controlled by establishment politicians, we are trade unionists who know what the real world is because, like you, we work in it, we live in your streets and our kids go to your schools. Our presence in City Hall will ensure that mainstream politicians will not lead us by the nose to suit their own agendas, that’s why I am standing, it is our city not theirs.”


Gove puts the boot in

Education Secretary Michael Gove has sacked the governing body of a “failing” school at the centre of a row over attempts to make it an academy. The education department rang the interim headteacher and the chair of governors of Downhills Primary School in Haringey, north London before 8am to tell them that the governors have been replaced with a high-profile “interim executive board”. At the same time Gove has issued an Academy Order, naming the Harris Federation as the preferred sponsor.

Parents have been campaigning against the academy and recently voted against it. There are no parents on the new unelected board and none of them even live in the Tottenham area, where the school is. The chair and others on the board are connected to the Harris Federation. Harris has donated millions to the Tory party over the years.

Where’s the government’s ‘localism’ and ‘parental choice’ here?