No to cuts to school playing fields!

 

Yesterday my son came home from school  with the news that I've been fearing since the Council budget at the start of the year - our Labour council plans to take away a large part of his school's playing fields.

Plans to make money from selling off/developing several schools' playing fields were outlined in the papers sent out for the budget-setting meeting. But Labour councillors going in to vote for cuts obviously hadn't studied the 200+ pages of papers because several I challenged on this issue denied there were any plans to take away school playing fields. So either they were ignorant of the cuts they later voted for or they were being dishonest. I think councillors paid to put up their hands for £45 million of cuts (a figure that's risen substantially in the months since) have a duty to know what they're voting for!

Having safe areas in schools for our children to play and take part in sports contribute significantly to their health and well-being. The Council will not get away with this without a fight. I will be writing to the school governors offering my support as a parent, to their resistance to the Council's plans.

School governors in the affected schools, school students and their families and education trade unions need to link up with the local community to fight for the health, well-being and safety of our children and the local environment.

I'm standing for election in the Uplands by-election on Thursday as a TUSC Against Cuts candidate to offer an alternative to the cuts agenda which puts saving money above even our children's health and well-being.

For fighting trade unions

 

I've just voted yes in my union's political fund ballot. It's important trade unionists have a voice of their own, speaking for them in politics.

Unfortunately the party that trade unions set up to represent themselves, the Labour Party, has given up all rights to be considered the workers' party by tying themselves in to Con-Dem cuts and refusing to support workers' struggles to defend their jobs and conditions.

That's why the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition supporters argue for the democratisation of the political funds so that union members can vote for their unions to back candidates who defend their interests and who support union policies!

The by-election in Swansea illustrates the point. My union, UNISON, has given around £6 million to Labour since 2010 when the Con-Dems were elected. In that time we've got precious little for our money. Labour's pledged to continue Con-Dem cuts, said they'll be tougher on those needing benefits to get by and refused to back nationalisation of the railways and royal mail (despite overwhelming conference votes at party conference) and failed to support any workers' struggles.

In Swansea we have a Labour council which isn't a Living Wage employer, has employed workers on zero hours contracts and outsourced services to firms who use even worse employment practices. Contracts have been awarded to companies who've been named as blacklist users and, of course, they're passing on Con-Dem cuts. Council Leader Rob Stewart is predicting £70-100 million to be cut from jobs and services, of which the £26 million cut this year is only the start. Cuts at this level mean the end of council services as we know them.

TUSC was set up by the RMT union, with the late Bob Crow being an enthusiastic supporter. It was set up to provide trade unionists with a voice in politics, the voice that Labour is failing to provide.

Vote to retain the political fund where your union has one; argue for setting one up if they don't.
If you're in an affiliated union, support calls for a break with Labour and for funds  to be used to support candidates who back members' struggles and support union policies on pay, jobs, cuts, etc.
If you're in UNISON you can back that demand up by transferring from the affiliated to the general political fund to stop funding Labour.

Trade unionists in Uplands can vote for a socialist and trade unionist committed to voting against and campaigning against all cuts next Thursday in the Council by-election.

Vote Ronnie Job, TUSC Against Cuts.

Swansea's Labour Council is not a Living Wage Employer!

A fighting socialist and trade unionists platform includes Ian Hodson, Bakers' Union President (on right) at Socialism 2014

And neither are 21 out of 22 local authorities in Wales!

An aspiring Labour politician has sent me a link to the GMB website in an attempt to prove that City and County of Swansea is a Living Wage employer.

The story on the site, which is over a year old, uncritically repeats claims by the then Labour leader, David Phillips, that Swansea's Labour councillors had agreed to pay the Living Wage. What it fails to mention is that, by the time that most of the lowest paid workers received it, the level the Council were paying was already out-of-date - 20p less an hour than the Living Wage Foundation said workers needed to get by on at the time.

Councillor Phillips also failed to mention that the payment of a "living wage" (at less than the Living Wage rate) was partially paid for by cuts to other payments to council workers and charging them for the privilege of going to work, through car parking charges. These cuts left some workers facing a 10% drop in wages and when some protested they were told to "sign (new contracts) or be sacked"!

It gets worse though. The Council made it crystal clear that this was a one-off and that there was no commitment to increase council workers' pay in line with the Living Wage. This was reinforced when then council cabinet financial spokesman, now Council Leader, Rob Stewart, moved this year's cuts budget. In the papers accompanying the budget, it states plainly that the Council is not committed to becoming a Living Wage employer and has not budgeted for the increase in the Living Wage that has just taken place.

I decided to double-check just in case, with uncharacteristic modesty, Labour councillors had decided to increase the wages of their poorest workers without making a song and dance about it. On the Living Wage Foundation website you can get lists of Living Wage employers in each region. There are 33 in Wales and only one of them is a local authority. It isn't City and County of Swansea! Labour leads half the local authorities in Wales and yet 21 out of 22 are paying poverty wages! No wonder nearly a quarter of workers in Wales earn less than the Living Wage.

Was the GMB's enthusiasm to promote Labour councillors' unsubstantiated claims to be a Living Wage employer a result of their long outdated link with Labour?

Even the Living Wage, although it would represent an increase for tens of thousands of Welsh workers, isn't enough. The GMB at this year's TUC seconded the motion moved by the Bakers' Union, BFAWU, that the TUC demand the minimum wage be raised to £10 an hour.

This weekend, at the Socialist Party's annual education event, I heard Ian Hodson, President of the Bakers' Union explain why. Anything less than £10 leaves low paid workers needing their wages to be topped up by means-tested benefits in order to get by. This is state subsidising of employers who pay poverty wages.

£10 an hour was overwhelmingly carried at the TUC but TUSC candidates will be the only ones demanding immediate implementation of TUC policy on pay now and at the general election. After all, if the minimum wage had kept pace with bosses' sky-rocketing pay, the minimum wage would be worth £19/hour now. We call on all trade unionists to support us in demanding £10 now, with no exceptions on age or other grounds. If you're in an affiliated union ask why your union's finances go to support a Labour Party whose policy is for £8 an hour (15p more than the current Living Wage) in 5/6 years' time and not TUC policy.

Labour has given up all rights to be considered the workers' party

Leaflets for Swansea West Labour MP, Geraint Davies, have been dropping through doors this week in the start of what clearly will be a long campaign for the General Election. Perhaps Labour in Swansea West have started early because they fear the challenge from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)?

On the back of the leaflet is the headline "Swansea needs a fairer future not more Zero Hours contracts says Geraint Davies MP"

We completely agree Geraint. We therefore invite you to condemn your Labour colleagues running the Council for their use of zero hours contracts and for outsourcing council services to companies and other organisations that do.

Every promise Labour makes about what they will do in Government  - and there's precious few of them (they have only said they'll regulate, not scrap zero hours contracts by the way) - is undermined by the actions of Labour councils.

Labour-led councils have cut, outsourced and axed council services as much as those led by other parties and Welsh Labour has been no better than their colleagues in England. The way they've treated their workforces is reprehensible.

On the same day that I got my leaflet from Geraint promising a rosy Welsh Labour future, Merthyr's Labour Council was threatening to dismiss it's entire workforce and re-employ them in worse conditions. It's a repeat of the threat made by Swansea's Labour Council to its own workers protesting against cuts in income: "sign or be sacked"!

Sorry Geraint but actions like these mean that Labour has given up all rights to be considered the workers' party. That's why TUSC supporters in Swansea West plan on being part of the biggest ever left challenge to Labour when we stand 100 candidates in the General Election.

Building a socialist no-cuts alternative

I see Nigel Farage is charging £25/head for people to meet and talk with him next month in Port Talbot. You couldn't pay me enough to talk with that privileged, Thatcherite phoney. UKIP pose as anti-establishment but like ex stock broker, Farage, it's all an act. He's no man of the people, no matter how many pints or bacon butties he poses with for the cameras.

For £25 this weekend it's possible to meet and discuss with genuine, working class, anti-cuts fighters who're overcoming all odds to defeat the establishment, at the Socialist Party's annual education event, Socialism. 

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate, Ronnie Job, and fellow  TUSC supporters have been out campaigning on a Saturday around Uplands Shops but this weekend we'll be attending Socialism 2014.

There we'll get to hear and learn from co-thinkers around the world, like Kshama Sawant, who's election as a council member in Seattle with well over 90,000 votes, was pivotal in winning a $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle.

Other socialist elected representatives speaking will include Ruth Coppinger TD (MP) who, following the recent election of Paul Murphy, is now one of three TDs in Dublin who are members of the Socialist Party in Ireland.

Around the world mainstream parties are disintegrating. People are crying out for an alternative and where socialists have been able to challenge with a clear anti-cuts platform they've had some spectacular successes.

That is what we are building towards with TUSC. There are already a handful of TUSC councillors, committed to voting and fighting all cuts. To date, they're disillusioned former Labour Party members unwilling to vote for Labour cuts and driven out of their own party. In May of next year, TUSC aims to stand a 1,000 council candidates in England (there are no elections in Wales) and contest 100 MPs positions.

The Uplands by-election is a small part in building TUSC as a real socialist alternative, based on basic trade union principles of struggle, solidarity and socialism. If you live in Uplands, vote Ronnie Job, TUSC Against Cuts on November 20. Wherever you live, consider how you could help to ensure that there is socialist, no-cuts, TUSC candidate to vote for in the General Election in May.

Uplands shoppers - we'll see you again on the 15th for the final weekend of campaigning before the by-election.

Swansea's Labour Council pays poverty wages

The Living Wage was increased today to £7.85. The Living Wage Foundation, the body that sets the level of the Living Wage, says that they have now accredited over 1,000 Living Wage employers.. Swansea's Labour Council isn't one of them!

While the Council seems to be very generous in paying councillors - the basic wage is £13,000+, over £1,000 month for what for many is only a top-up for their day job - they're not so generous with their workers.

Last year, the Council claimed to have paid the 'Living Wage' but at a level which was already out of date (£7.45 when it has already been increased to £7.65). And, as the papers for the council meeting that set this year's 'cuts' budget make clear, councillors saw it as a one-off and definitely were not committing to future increases in line with a rising Living Wage. The increase for some workers was also offset against huge cuts in incomes for others as the Council threatened workers to "sign (new contracts) or be sacked".

The Living Wage Foundation sets the Living Wage at the level they say workers need to get by. By paying less, Swansea's Labour Council is paying poverty wages.

The Labour Party have made a big fuss over Ed Miliband's pledge to raise the Minimum Wage to £8/hour.. in 2020! In 5/6 years' time workers can look forward to earning 15p more an hour than what the Living Wage Foundation says you need today.

In fact, even the Living Wage is only enough to get by on when topped up with benefits - a case of the state subsidising low paying employers. That's why the Bakers' Union, BFAWU, moved the motion, overwhelmingly carried, at this year's TUC, to demand the Minimum Wage be raised to £10/hour. TUSC campaigns for TUC policy; if you're in an affiliated union, ask why you're union is funding the Labour Party when they promise nowhere near it.

Of course, it's no good having even a good hourly rate if you're not sure to get enough hours' work in the week to put food on the table.. Like the workers Swansea's Labour Council employs on zero hours contracts.

The Labour Party promises to regulate zero hours contracts but that's not good enough. Zero hours contracts have played a big part in the increase in poverty for many workers and they should be scrapped.

Labour has been in power in Swansea for 2 and a half years and still the Council pays workers less than the Living Wage and uses zero hours contracts.

They're also outsourcing services and jobs to low-paying employers who use zero hours contracts and other forms of casualisation, to drive down wages.

The Labour Party won't support TUC policy to end poverty wages or commit to scrapping zero hours contracts. Isn't time Labour stopped posing as a workers' party and taking votes off genuine workers' representatives?

If you're a low-paid worker living in the Uplands then vote, Ronnie Job, TUSC Against Cuts on November 20. Wherever you live, help us build the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) as the no-cuts alternative for the General Election and beyond.

The choice for Uplands voters: vote for cuts or vote TUSC Against Cuts

The graphic for the next leaflet the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) will be using in our campaign to get Ronnie Job elected as Councillor in the Uplands by-election on November 20, sums up why TUSC is standing.

The choice is simple, you can vote for cuts or you can vote TUSC Against Cuts, the only way to get a councillor committed to voting against and fighting all cuts to jobs and services.

We all know the Tories are vicious. They've forced the very poorest into dependence on food banks and pay day loans. We've all suffered to protect profits of their friends.

The Liberals think they're progressive but in government, they allowed the Tories to attack us. The last Liberal administration in Swansea, outsourced and cut services.

The Liberals lost control of the Council because of their enthusiasm for making Con-Dem cuts but anybody expecting a change of direction from Labour will have been disappointed.

We've heard the claim more than once in this campaign, "our cuts are better than their cuts". But we're still waiting for a convincing explanation of why it's better Labour councillors get paid to cut services for the rest of us.

Plaid Cymru helped the previous Liberal-led administration into power in Swansea and they've offered to help Labour in neighbouring Carmarthenshire to identify cuts to jobs and services. Last years' Welsh Government Budget was passed with support from Plaid Cymru, in alliance with the Lib Dems. We can't accept that Welsh cuts are in any way better than English cuts.

People may be tempted to see the Green Party as an alternative but when given a chance, Greens have voted for cuts as well. In Brighton, the Green-led council has cut £60 million from jobs, services and council workers' wages, while the leader of the council has had a pay rise!

The central commitment that every TUSC candidate makes is to vote against all cuts. We are trade unionists and campaigners with basic trade union principles of socialism and solidarity who fight cuts daily in our workplaces and communities.

So, if you're opposed to council cuts and live in the Uplands, there is only one choice on November 20:

Vote Ronnie Job, TUSC Against Cuts