Hitting the phones at Jack Jones House

If the 1% pay cap had been imposed on MPs,
they would receive £6832 less now.

Merseyside ARMS members, myself, Steve Ion and Steve Hughes hit the phones recently reminding members to vote in the strike ballot.

Based on the responses of the members we spoke to, we can report overwhelming support for the proposed action and, where members declined to say which way the voted, they had returned their ballot paper.

Encouraging, but no time for complacency. As many members as possible should hit the phones and speak to the shop floor. The members appreciate the time given to contact them.

Tony Mulhearn

ARMS Mersey

_____________________________

P.S. A message received today from the PCS NWRC in Liverpool:

Firstly thanks to all of you who have volunteered to participate in phone banking thus far. This is just a brief reminder that we are still looking for volunteers to participate in phone banking for the forthcoming weekend and week.

Phone banking will take place this weekend, Saturday 14h July from 10:00am and the office will be open until 2:00pm. If you can spare some time to help please contact NW Regional Office as soon as possible via e-mail: NWRC@pcs.org.uk and let us know what time you are available to come in to help.

Phone banking is also continuing on weekdays up to 7:00pm each evening until Wednesday 18th July inclusive. At this stage in the ballot we need to make all efforts to contact as many members as possible, so if you are able to give some time to help the campaign, please email the NW Regional Office.

The more reps and members help with the campaign, the greater the likelihood of our success, so please consider sparing an hour or so to assist.

Full instructions, together with a script will be provided and a full time officer will be on hand to assist you with any questions you have. Reasonable travel costs will also be met.

Thank you in anticipation of your support.

PCS North West Regional Centre

Public meeting: lessons from the sacked 47

The 47 councillors gave Liverpool an alternative to Thatcher's austerity. 

Labour in 2018 can oppose the Cameron/May austerity - if they dare.

Liverpool 47 website here.

PCS court victory - the General Secretary's view

PCS has won a highly significant judicial review ruling that our exclusion from the negotiations over the civil service redundancy scheme was "unlawful". 

Last year the government proposed to cut redundancy pay by around 30%. With thousands of civil service jobs under threat, PCS campaigned against the cuts to these payments. Before negotiations started, the Cabinet Office took the unprecedented step of asking all unions to agree, in advance, that these cuts would form the basis of the final agreement. By far the largest civil service union, PCS refused to agree these preconditions, and was excluded from the talks.

A number of smaller civil service unions agreed to the preconditions and talks went ahead. In September 2016, the Cabinet Office made an offer, which PCS members voted by 96% to reject. The government imposed the new terms in November 2016.

On Tuesday 18 July the court ruled that our exclusion from the negotiations was "unlawful". Further details of the case are reported on our website. The Court is expected to rule this week on the remedy of the case, which will determine whether the current scheme will stand or will be quashed.

Mark Serwotka
General Secretary

Salford benefits take-up campaign

RMT - DOO trains talks collapse

Talks aimed at ending the Merseyrail guards' dispute collapsed yesterday when the company flatly refused to discuss the RMT's compromise solution to the issue of Driver Only Operation (DOO) trains.

Arguments that DOO trains are just as safe simply do not stand up to scrutiny. Figures from RAIB (the Rail Accident Investigation Branch) show that 80% of the deaths and the most serious injuries in the last six years occurred on DOO trains, even though such trains account for only 30% of all trains in the UK. If technology such as CCTV is beneficial, it should be operated by a crew member who can give it their full attention, not someone who needs to concentrate on staying on the correct side of a red signal.

Roger Bannister, TUSC Liverpool region mayoral candidate, condemns Labour councillors for their complicity in the cavalier attitude of the company. He is also appalled by Steve Rotheram's failure to intervene to support the RMT in their objective of ensuring the safety of the travelling public. This can only be seen as a clear sign that he will preside over guards being withdrawn. Roger calls for continuing support for the rail union’s determination to protect all passengers.

Roger will be addressing a pre-election public meeting on Tuesday 2 May at 7.30 pm in the Liverpool pub, James Street, Liverpool, L2 7NS.

MPA calls for a socialist Labour manifesto

The following statement was agreed by the Merseyside Pensioners' Association (MPA) at its meeting on Wednesday 19 April 2017.

This MPA regards the general election called for June 8 2017 as an opportunity to get rid of the Tory government once and for all. We call on Jeremy Corbyn to fight the election on the policies which propelled him to the leadership.

We call on him to continue to fight for

a) The complete public ownership of the NHS

b) The nationalisation of rail, energy, the Post Office as the first step of moving toward socialism

c) Support for a crash council house building programme

d) The repeal of the Tory anti-trade union legislation

e) The retention of the triple lock to protect pensions

We call for the organisation of mass rallies throughout the country, beginning in Liverpool, to mobilise maximum support for a Corbyn victory. This will be essential to combat the poisonous anti-Corbyn media campaign which will take place.

We also declare that those Blairite MPs who continue to undermine Jeremy's leadership will be acting as agents of the Tory government and will be guilty of treachery to the working class.

We resolve to apply all our energies to ensure a Corbyn victory.

Lancashire anti-fracking campaigners lose High Court action

In recent months, the Lancashire anti-fracking campaign has been actively supported by PCS ARMS members from our Manchester group, while our Mersey group listened in shock last month to local anti-fracking campaigners who were guest speakers at their AGM. The meeting passed a motion of opposition to fracking.

Today, campaigners fighting a Government decision to give the go-ahead for a fracking site at Preston New Road in Lancashire have lost their High Court action. This had followed the secretary of state's overturning of Lancashire County Council's refusal to grant permission to extract shale gas at the site in 2015 on the grounds of noise and traffic impact. Developer Cuadrilla appealed to the secretary of state who subsequently ruled in their favour.

In response to the court ruling, the Preston New Road Action Group said it would seek further legal advice on its options and was determined not to give up. Claire Stephenson, a member of the group, said: "Justice and democracy have not been observed in Lancashire. We are truly dismayed at this decision."

Elisabeth Whitebread, Greenpeace UK Energy Campaigner, said: "Lancashire said No to fracking from the start but the government overruled local people and the local council. In this legal challenge Preston New Road Action Group has represented thousands of people. Ordinary members of the community have been peacefully opposing fracking for six years and they won't stop now.

"Lancashire needs clean, reliable energy, innovation and job creation, not disruptive drilling, noise, air and light pollution. Our government should listen to the public, stop prioritising fracking, and instead support cutting edge renewables and battery storage, which can meet our energy needs."

Fracking caused two minor earthquakes in the Fylde coast area in 2011, and local residents and campaigners believe there is much worse environmental damage to come. They feel that the decision to overrule the council's refusal of planning permission is an affront to local democracy. The government talks of handing power back from the centre, but retains its right of veto when local decisions stand in the way of big profits.

The frack-free Lancs website is here.

Fracking Day of Action - 25 February

NW ARMS is looking into the possibility of coordinated action involving PCS branches and ARMS in the National Day of Action against fracking on Saturday 25 February at Preston New Road near Little Plumpton in Lancashire.

The fracking fight is now moving into a new phase where causing physical delays and ramping up costs will hold the key to deterring future investment in the industry. There is a rolling blockade at Preston New Road (9am-3pm weekdays) when work is happening.

For more details of the Day of Action, and other information about fracking and the campaign against it, please see the Frack Off Newsletter for February and March - click here.

Demand an inquiry into the Trident misfire

A Trident missile (picture
'borrowed' from Greenpeace)

News continues to emerge about the Trident Missile crisis, with a missile self-destructing after going drastically off course and heading towards the United States. The misfire took place just weeks before the parliamentary debate and vote on government plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system; knowledge of this malfunction may have affected the vote.

MPs questioned Defence Secretary Michael Fallon in parliament, but he failed to answer a single question, choosing instead to continue the cover-up. At the same time the US administration was briefing CNN with details of the misfire.

The decision not to make details of the test public is in contrast to other tests, where dignitaries have been invited to observe and video footage has been released. Government embarrassment, not national security, is therefore clearly the reason for the cover-up.

Now May has been forced top acknowledge the misfire, but simply declares that she has "faith" in our nuclear weapons. This is not good enough.

Caroline Lucas MP has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for an inquiry. You can ask your MP to sign EDM 877 on the Trident missile test - click here.

NHS: Victory for Opponents of STPs

TUSC recognises that organisations campaigning against attacks on the NHS can celebrate an important success in preventing almost £1billion of cuts to the NHS on Merseyside under the grotesque Tory misnomer of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs).

Several hundred NHS supporters lobbied the Health and Wellbeing Board on Thursday 1 December at which Chairman Joe Anderson declared the Liverpool City Council’s total opposition to this plan of the Tories to dismantle the NHS in the region and to hand out more contracts to their friends in the private sector.

Mayor Anderson was also asked to give a commitment to oppose the closure of the Women’s Hospital which he did. There was also a call for the Mayor to organise a national assembly of councils to collectively oppose the latest Tory plans to wreck the NHS. This decision represents a step forward by the campaigns to Keep Our NHS Public and to oppose the closure of the Women’s Hospital.

But everybody campaigning against the Tories are fully aware that this fat cats’ government will press on with their attacks on the NHS and on the poor and needy. That’s why TUSC supports the Liverpool TUC in calling on all organisations defending the NHS and opposing Austerity to come together to discuss the next stage of the struggle.

Tony Mulhearn

ARMS NW

Victory for Land Registry Office workers - video

This was a tremendous campaign. A tribute to the fortitude and determination of workers fighting for a worthy cause. The TUC needs to emulate the campaigning activity of these PCS members and of the PCS leadership. Then the Tories could be swept into the dustbin of history.

Click here for a short video about their campaign and how they defeated privatisation.

Tony Mulhearn
ARMS NW

Hospitals and rail safety face the axe

Merseyside TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) metro-mayoral spokesperson Roger Bannister is writing to Steve Rotheram, Labour's metro-mayoral candidate, to propose a joint campaign to save threatened hospitals on Merseyside and to support the RMT transport union against Merseytravel bosses.

Roger Bannister says:

"Leaked plans show hospitals face merger and closure across Liverpool, and across the Merseyside and Cheshire region. I have been actively campaigning against the closure of Liverpool Women’s Hospital. We need a massive campaign of action to defend our National Health Service starting right now, or there could be little left by the time of the next general election.

"I was outraged to learn that Merseytravel is ignoring the questions by transport union RMT over their intended removal of guards from trains. Repeated questions from an RMT union official to Merseytravel chair Liverpool Labour councillor Liam Robinson have gone unanswered. I and Merseyside TUSC will continue giving our full support to the RMT’s campaign against cutbacks on Merseytravel.

"I believe that key elements in the metro-mayoral position, and the election campaigns leading up to it, should include defending our hospitals, defending our Merseyrail guards, and opposing cutbacks to both.

"I will be writing to Steve to propose we take on the cutters together."

For more info, contact Roger Bannister on 07954 376 096 or r.bannister@blueyonder.co.uk.

Sign Up To Stop CETA

When EU member states vote on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on October 18, all it takes is one "No" vote to derail the whole deal. The CETA trade deal is less famous than TTIP, but just as dangerous - this EU-Canada pact provides big business with the same toolbox to bully governments into doing what they want.

We’ve been doing all we can to shore up Austria’s opposition to CETA, but now it looks like there’s another opposition voice that needs our support - Belgium’s regional governments.

We should use all avenues possible to block this hideous piece of neo-liberal oligarchical legislation.

• Here is a petition to your MEPs asking them to stop CETA. 
• Here is a typical MEP's reply annotated with responses debunking the points made.

Tony Mulhearn

NW ARMS

Stop the pensioner bedroom tax

Pensioners could be hit by a new "bedroom tax". The government wants to cut housing benefit for elderly people who have a spare room. But experts say there aren’t enough smaller homes to move into, particularly for pensioners who need ground floor flats.

Some people will lose up to £34 a week if this cut goes ahead. If you’re on a state pension, it could mean choosing between turning on the heating or paying your rent.

Back in 2012, the government protected pensioners from the original bedroom tax. They knew then that it would be too controversial to turf elderly people out of their homes. A huge petition right now will show the government this is still hugely unpopular - we know it's just the bedroom tax by the back door. It could convince them to let pensioners stay in their homes.

The original bedroom tax was controversial. It hit some of the most vulnerable people in our society, such as parents with disabled children. And to make matters worse, experts say it’s been completely ineffective because there aren’t smaller homes to move into.

Theresa May’s new government won’t want to be tarnished with the scandal of forcing pensioners out of their homes. If enough of us get behind the huge petition we could convince them to scrap their new bedroom tax on the elderly.

If you think no pensioner should have to face the choice between heating their home or paying their rent, please sign the petition now - here.

Short URL for petition: tiny.cc/ebstfy

Save Chorley A&E campaign on TV

Greater Manchester ARMS members have been involved in the "No Cuts To Chorley A&E" campaign. Recently cameras from ITV rolled up and took 35 minutes of footage for the Tonight programme which will go out on Thursday 13 October at 7.30pm (its viewing figures are 3 million). Be sure to tune in.

The next step in the campaign will be a walk on Saturday 22 October from Royal Preston Hospital to Chorley & South Ribble Hospital as a symbol of bringing Chorley A&E home. To find out more and how you can help, click here.

Black History Month

Black History Month begins today, 1 October: let it inspire you to get involved and support PCS by saying no to racism, challenging stereotypes and promoting equality today. At times it can be easier to say nothing than to challenge racism and prejudice. Staying silent can be seen as acceptance.

Black History Month, which runs until 31 October, is an opportunity to be seen and to be heard in an open, inclusive and positive way. Working collectively, supporting each other and embracing our differences can form bonds of understanding. BHM website.

BHM is also an opportunity to focus on the achievements of black people past and present and reflect on the path to race equality. It started in the USA with a holiday that coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederic Douglass. In the US, BHM is celebrated in February but in the UK it takes place in October each year. Since the first UK celebration in 1987 the event has expanded and now encompasses the history of Africa, Caribbean and Asian people who have a direct link with the UK through slavery, colonialism and migration.

Past
Our shared histories and cultures feature many black people of whom we can be proud: Mary Seacole, nurse Crimean War; Ignatious Sancho, writer, musician and businessman; Olaudah Equiano, political activist, Sophia Duleep Singh, suffragette.

Present
Current history makers: Lord William [Bill] Morris, TGWU first black general secretary; Diane Abbott, first black woman MP; Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London; Ken Olisa, OBE, Lord lieutenant Greater London; Munroe Bergdorf, trans model and feminist; Zita Holbourne, poet, activist; Rikki Beadle-Blair, writer and film-maker.

Future?
Our history tells a story of overcoming hardship. Forging new lives. Creating communities, challenging racism, speaking up and speaking out. Who are the new history makers? It is ready to be written.

How can you celebrate BHM?

• Organise an event at your workplace or branch. These can provide an informative and interesting experience for all PCS members.
• Highlight and celebrate black achievement - perhaps a quiz, sharing of cultural foods, speakers.
• Create your own poster using one of our photo opportunity cards, with the themes: 

#BlackLivesMatter

Say No To Racism

Challenging Stereotypes

Equality Freedom and Justice.

Please send a report and photographs of your event to: equality@pcs.org.uk
Whatever you do, be inspired to achieve higher.
Find out more about PCS equality work.

This article originally appeared on the PCS website.

PCS Bulletin - help & support requested

The help of ARMS members is asked for the following campaigns:

• Protect Chorley and South Ribble Hospital from Cuts and Privatisation

WE NEED YOUR HELP to demonstrate outside these hospitals for 1 hour from 10.00 a.m. on Saturday 17th September to protect your local A&E:
Preston, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, Blackpool, Lancaster.

Our campaign was given the bad news that Chorley and South Ribble Accident and Emergency department will be closed until April 2017; we believe this is a move to close it indefinitely. The effect of this is rippling out to A&Es in other areas. This isn't good for other A&Es and the people they are intended to serve. It is having a negative effect on the North West Ambulance Service, some ambulances are queuing for hours to hand over sick or injured people.

Ask yourself these questions: If not me then who? If not now, then when? The NHS will survive as long as there are people willing to protect it. We are those people.

To help contact: Andrew Birchall on andrewbirchall3@gmail.com or mobile 0784 0202 084.

• March for the Liverpool Women’s Hospital 

25th September 2016 – Assemble at the Women’s Hospital at midday and walk to the water front.

The Liverpool Women’s hospital is a 20 year old world class hospital on a good site. It’s the largest maternity hospital in Europe and cares for more than 50,000 patients a year. Its future is under threat because of inadequate maternity funding, lack of investment, funding problems for all the NHS and the rampant privatisation and market focus of the NHS.

Follow ‘Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital’ on Facebook, Save-Liverpool-Womens-Hospital or email SaveLWH@outlook.com.

• Conservative Party Conference Demonstration 

Sunday, 2nd October 2016 – Assemble in Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BD at 11.30 a.m.

Austerity has failed! Join the Midlands TUC’s march and rally to tell the Government that austerity isn’t working. Please let PCS NW know if you wish to attend. Please email: nwrc@pcs.org.uk

EU Ballot - D-Day Minus One

By Tony Mulhearn, ARMS NW committee member.

When you cast your vote remember this:

1. The institutions of the EU are controlled by unelected people with extremely dodgy political connections. EU President Junker, for instance, presided over Luxembourg which was a haven for every tax-dodging fat cat on the planet.
2. He was the bloke who patted Tsipras and Varoufakis on the head, ignored their pleas for a more caring capitalism, and chased them back to Greece to inflict the most appalling cuts in working class living standards in Greece’s history while that country’s fat cats who caused the crisis continue to live in opulent splendour and plunder state-owned institutions.
3. The EU blocked Portugal from implementing a no-cuts budget
4. It was the EU that ordered an increase in women’s retirement age from 60 to 65.
5. EU treaties protect freedoms for Business to move labour from member state to another and to ensure there is ‘no distortion of competition’. That means freedom for unscrupulous employers to pay the lowest rate of any EU country.
6. A condition of receiving EU ‘bale-outs’ is also that the recipient countries degrade the ability of trade unions to defend their members. National wage bargaining in Greece has all but disappeared.
7. Remaining will ensure that a more confident EU will act as an obstacle to a future Labour government from bringing back into public ownership the NHS, Rail, and the other public utilities that have been flogged off with the poisoned brew of TTIP as an additional weapon in their hands.
8. Unity of the international working class will not be achieved via this reactionary institution but via the struggle against austerity organised on a European basis. 

The clock is ticking on UK steel – help save it now

A message from Unite:

This week Britain’s steel industry was dealt another devastating blow as a further 1,050 job losses were announced by Tata Steel and 100 losses at Sheffield Forgemasters taking the toll of job losses in recent months to over 5,000.

Port Talbot, Llanwern, Trostre, Corby, Hartlepool and Sheffield have become the latest communities to be hit by the crisis engulfing the industry, while steel workers from Motherwell to Redcar and Rotherham to Scunthorpe are counting the cost of closures and job losses.

Unite is pulling out all the stops, pressing the government to put words into action and to step up to the plate to save our steel. They stepped in to bail out the banks, now minsters must put words into action and support our steel industry.

We need your help to spread the word and keep the pressure up to save our steel. As our latest animated film ‘The clock is ticking’ shows, losing our steel industry will have a devastating effect on jobs, our communities and our future.

Please watch the film, share it on social media and sign and share The Mirror’s petition.

Together we can save our steel!

Thank you

Tony Burke
Unite assistant general secretary

2016 - time to fight back

Let’s make 2016 the year the fight back gains momentum:

1. To work to force this government of the super-rich elected by just 24% of the electorate to retreat on its attack on the working class. A key factor will be building on Jeremy Corbyn’s magnificent anti-austerity victory.
2. For Labour spokespeople to remember the Party was formed out of the struggle to defend the trade union movement from financial destruction by the capitalists.
3. For the TUC to recognise that this government acts with impunity because they can. Cameron and Co know that, apart from some verbal opposition, active industrial opposition to their policies from the tops of the Labour Movement is none existent. The TUC should give decisive leadership to the six million affiliated workers and the wider working class in a programme of industrial action to force this illegitimate government to back down on its assault on all the working class have fought for over decades.
4. To continue to hold up the PCS as an example to the trade union movement of how to fight back against a crazed, ultra reactionary cabal masquerading as the governance of this country.
5. To demand that Labour councils accept their responsibilities which is to defend workers and not to attack them.

Tony Mulhearn