News updates - from the web

Our regular round up of relevant news items, by Steve Ion of NW ARMS. 

• Ros Altmann's resignation letter in full - here.
• Altmann: "I felt like I was in detention" - here.
• Annuity rates on pension investment drop by 37% - here.
• A new vaccine could reverse dementia - here.
• Perception of downgrading importance of pensions by government - here.

HMRC cleaners strike 25 & 26 July

A message from Phil Dickens, HMRC PCS Union Representative

Next Monday and Tuesday (25 & 26 July) PCS members working for ISS as cleaners in HMRC buildings in Liverpool and Bootle are taking part in a 48 hour strike, following a unilateral decision by management to cut the hours of cleaning staff.

PCS has called for the actual Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF), currently £8.25 per hour outside London, to be paid to the cleaners. ISS is accredited by the LWF and claims to be a Living Wage employer. Yet to pay for the government's much lower 'national living wage' (NLW) of £7.20, it is imposing the cuts to HMRC cleaners' hours.

We believe that ISS, having turned a £250 million profit in 2015, can more than afford the real Living Wage. We also believe that HMRC, as the department responsible for implementing the government's NLW, ought to save itself embarrassment by ensuring that it is properly applied without shortcuts on its own estate.

Cleaners are clear that they want a wage they can live on without cuts and are willing to fight in order to get that. If this initial strike doesn't move ISS, they are willing to escalate their action. Please support them in every way you can:

• Sign the on-line petition.
• Donate to the cleaners' strike fund on-line here.
• Send messages of support to NWRC@pcs.org.uk

Please attend picket lines (see below) if you can, and show your support for the lowest paid and most precarious section of the union's membership in HMRC.

More details about the campaign (including how you can support us through social media) can be found on-line here.

Support the pickets:

Bootle

• Litherland House, Litherland Road, Bootle (map) – 7am to 9.30am
• The Triad, Stanley Road, Bootle (map) – 7am to 12pm

Liverpool

• Graeme House and Regian House, Derby Square, Liverpool (map) – 3pm to 5pm
• Imperial Court, Exchange Street East, Liverpool (map) – 12.30pm to 2pm

News updates - from the web

ARMS NW committee member Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

• Adult social care faces 1billion shortfall - here.
• Joined-up health and social care - here.
• Funding concerns of defined benefit pensions schemes - here.
• Theresa May's husband works for investment firm whose major clients include Amazon and Starbucks - here.

Business Writer In Aspic

Tony McDonough writes what appears to be a 1980s composite editorial straight from the pages of the Murdoch Press, the Daily Mail, the Express and the then Liverpool Echo. He asserts Eagle can take Labour back to the fabled 'middle ground'; he doesn’t mention she and her allies lost Labour the last two elections and during the Blair years attracted the lowest ever turnout in a general election and bequeathed in Iraq the most toxic legacy since Ramsey MacDonald joined the Tories in 1931.

Aping the worst features of political analysis he dismisses Corbyn as being 'grumpy' and more of a comedian than a leader.

He then regurgitates the old false calumnies that Labour in the 1980s destroyed Liverpool's economic credibility. Is he not aware that under a Liberal/Tory coalition locally and Thatcher nationally 65% of Liverpool's economy had collapsed? These were the dark days the socialist council inherited. We refused to impose further suffering on the city. We cancelled redundancies, built houses, created jobs, opened nursery classes, etc.

Tony claims he mistakenly supported the left in the 80s. Is he suggesting that we should have implemented the draconic cuts demanded by Thatcher and worsened the plight of thousands of Liverpool’s citizens.

I look forward to his reply.

Tony Mulhearn.

Petition for a conference to defend Jeremy Corbyn

The nine month nascent civil war in the Labour Party has been escalated in earnest. The majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party has never accepted Jeremy Corbyn’s democratic election as leader and is now determined to get rid of him by any means necessary.

This is not, as they claim, because Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable but because they fear he could win a general election. Blair himself said that Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister would "be a very dangerous experiment"; an experiment his acolytes are determined to prevent. Jeremy Corbyn was thrust into power by an uprising against austerity. If he was to win a general election the 1% are terrified that the hopes of millions of working class people would be raised and, as a result, that government would be pressurised to take radical measures which would threaten their system and gargantuan profits.

Now that war has been declared by the PLP, the worst possible response would be to capitulate. It is much to Jeremy Corbyn’s credit that he has so far stood firm. Now the labour movement, together with all those who are opposed to austerity, needs to mobilise to support Jeremy against the Blairite onslaught.

Petition here.

Witch hunting by our 'free' press

The spectacle of a media pack in full blood-thirsty pursuit of Jeremy Corbyn has provoked the question, particularly from younger observers of the current events, why does the media behave in this crazed, irrational, fashion?

Against Corbyn are Rupert Murdoch (The Scum), Paul Dacre (Daily Mail), Daily Express, The Telegraph, The Times, The Observer, even the so-called Labour paper the Mirror, with Kevin Maguire the ‘radical’ journalist joining the chorus against JC. All of these papers, like Corbyn’s would be assassins, have belched out the lying narrative since day one of the crisis that 'austerity is necessary'. That is austerity for the poor, and increasing wealth for the financial spivs who created the crisis. ITV, Sky news and BBC’s 'Flagship' programmes like Newsnight, and their number one Torquemada Laura Kuenssberg attempt to give some 'intellectual' heft to the hysteria. The component parts of this congealed instrument of hatred far from being irrational are bent on destroying JC politically and socially because he represents a challenge to their wealth and privilege. Jeremy must trust the massive support he enjoys, make no more concessions to the closet Tories and stand firm for a socialist future.

Tony Mulhearn

NW ARMS  

committee member

News updates - from the web

ARMS North West Committee member Steve Ion's regular round-up of relevant news items.

• Pensions timebomb faced by UK firms is frightening - here.
• Media turns Nazi after EU vote: "stop older people voting" - here.
• WASPI update - here.
• 9 things you might not know about older people in the UK - here.
• Why it’s lazy, misleading and wrong to blame older people for Brexit - here.
• Sign of the times: people have to work longer - here.

Fight austerity, not Corbyn

Corbyn: under siege from his own side

The Blairites are enticed out of the woodwork by what they believe is the scent of Jeremy Corbyn's blood. Instead of mobilising to defeat the Tories the same old Progress members, 4.5 per centres, and closet Tories are ignoring the successes in elections under Corbyn's leadership and instead are creating a smokescreen behind which they can politically assassinate him.

Let us welcome Benn's sacking and the resignation of the rest and develop an irresistible force in support of JC and the policies of anti-austerity and socialism. If members of the PLP have no stomach for the fight they can resign and fight an election on their right wing, pro-austerity, pro-EU programme under which ever banner they can find to back them.

Tony Mulhearn

ARMS North West

Committee Member

EU vote: what next?

North West ARMS committee member Tony Mulhearn proposes the Labour Movement's response to the referendum result.

The result shows a clear majority rejecting a system which has seen inequality reaching the highest levels in modern history. Endless austerity and attacks on workers' rights has been rejected. The Tories have been given their marching orders and are in complete disarray. Jeremy Corbyn and the TU leaders should demand a general election now.

Farage’s temporary triumphalism, which can only flourish in times of shortage, can be crushed by a confident Labour Movement mobilising all anti-austerity forces to finish the job off by throwing the Tories into the dustbin of history and returning a Corbyn-led Labour government committed to rolling back the cuts and bringing our utilities and the NHS back into public ownership. We can reach out to the European Labour and anti-austerity movement to join us in this objective.

Support sacked union activist

Leicestershire-based food manufacturer, Samworth Brothers, which supplies baked goods and other products to major UK retailers, responded to the introduction of the National Living Wage in April by eliminating paid breaks, premium pay and overtime rates, measures which can reduce workers’ pay by thousands of pounds per year. When hundreds of workers responded to these attacks by joining the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, Samworth Brothers bosses responded by harassing Kumaran Bose, a leading union organiser who spoke out against the attack on pay and conditions, and then sacking him from his job at Samworth’s Kettleby Foods on 3 June.

Kumaran’s only offence was to convince over 50% of the workers at his factory to join the union; he has worked there for 12 years with a spotless record. Samworth Brothers, who last year recorded profits of over £41 million, refuse to recognise the bakers union at this site, despite the union’s majority membership. The union is energetically defending Kumaran and is appealing against the company’s refusal of voluntary recognition.

Send a message to Samworth Brothers telling them to reinstate Kumaran Bose, recognise the BFAWU and stop attacking workers’ pay and conditions!

The petition is here.

Info: Samworth Brothers own Cornish pasty maker Ginsters, and are the largest maker of certified Melton Mowbray pork pies. It is listed at number four in The Times Top Track 250.