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From The Socialist newspaper, 22 September 2009
Future Jobs Fund - massaging the figures
OUR UNION branch recently discussed the Future Jobs Fund. As a branch predominantly of youth workers, we are well aware of the disproportionate impact of this recession on young people.
We discussed and passed a motion from Youth Fight for Jobs, and agreed to affiliate and donate to the campaign. We will make organising the young people employed in our workplace under FJF, a priority.
Our workplace is having cuts by the backdoor - we have lost seven full time members of staff through posts being 'frozen'. And women on maternity leave are faced with coming back to work to find their projects fallen by the wayside as apparently we are told we can't afford cover for these staff.
We now have only 30 full-time members of staff who are overworked and stressed yet we are now told we have to manage between eight and 12 (it depends what manager is briefing!) employees of the FJF. This is likely to push some staff to breaking point.
We are all for properly resourced, sustainable job creation schemes for young people where they are paid the rate for the job, not undercutting existing pay rates, on the minimum wage (which is substantially below the wage rates of other staff on the same nationally agreed job descriptions in the case of youth work).
We are also told that these employees will be starting work in advance of their CRB [criminal record] disclosures being received possibly putting other young people at risk, all so that the government can massage the unemployment figures in advance of a general election.
Teresa Chalcroft, Chair Unite/CYWU, Warwickshire Branch
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Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 22 September 2009:
Prepare political challenge to cuts agenda
Education
Higher education - cuts cuts cuts!
Universities in crisis - Join Socialist Students
Defend education - stop the £2 billion cuts in spending
TUC
TUC congress: Anger on the fringes, inaction at the top
War and occupation
Afghanistan: An unwinnable war
Postal workers strike
Postal workers strike as national ballot continues
Vestas
Vestas workers determined to continue fight for jobs
Youth fight for jobs
Youth unemployment hits record level
Future Jobs Fund - massaging the figures
Socialist Party news and analysis
Campaign for a Salford workers' MP
International socialist news
Socialist Party MEP denounces "campaign of fear" on Lisbon Treaty
Workers' fightback grows in Italy
Socialist Party workplace news
Engineering construction: Stewards' forum recommends bosses' offer Workers should reject!
Portsmouth shipbuilders vote for strike
Bosses ask JCB workers for sacrifice
Battle over pensions means strike threat at Corus
Liverpool bin workers score victory
Socialist Party reviews
Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy
The Dirty Thirty - Heroes of the Miners' Strike
The Anti-Flag album 'The People or the Gun'
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