Build partnership in action against austerity


Alec McFadden, NW TUC JCC Rep

The TUC Congress of 2012 agreed to look seriously at the feasibility of the organisation of a one-day general strike, so Merseyside TUC started work mobilising and organising both within Merseyside and speaking out to our sister county TUCs across the North West.

The feedback was so strong that we were encouraged to organise a mobilising and feasibility planning conference which took place at the end of January 2013.

So by 26 January, Merseyside TUC was prepared to support the full implementation of TUC congress policy.

By May it became clear that the general council were going for an “awareness raising” bus tour across Britain which would also discover the social and economic effect the Tory/Lib Dems’ austerity policy was having on communities and the working class.

An emergency motion was drafted, agreed and submitted to the National Trades Union Council conference.

The motion called for a lobby of TUC Congress in 2013 to uphold the policy of 2012.

In spite of some bureaucratic initial objection, the motion was unanimously agreed by conference and therefore became Trades Union Council policy.

Before the Trades Union Council and the TUC Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) had introduced an action plan to organise the lobby of the TUC 2013 congress, the National Shop Stewards Network took the initiative and publicised this event.

The majority of regional elected TUC JCC reps welcomed this and agreed to join and carry out our National Trades Union Council policy.

At Congress, the lobby will set the political tone.

The unions need to enter talks to not only support the teaching unions’ national strike in November but they need to ensure that because of all the current disputes, the bulk of trade union members are on strike or taking part in a day of action on the day named by the two teaching unions, NUT and NASUWT.