Wolverhampton Bilston & District Trades Union Council est.1865 www.wolvestuc.org.uk

next WB&DTUC meeting

online Zoom delegate meeting

Thursday 17th September 2020 (no August Delegate meeting)

starts 7.15pm

speaker at 8-15pm

#BLM: Would mandatory use of body cams make the police more likely to treat the public decently and equitably?

speaker Simon Foster Police & Crime Commissioner candidate

all welcome

Black Lives Matter

The TUC have launched a new report about racism at work, called Dying on the job . This reflects the real life experience of Black workers during the pandemic.

national Trades Union Councils meeting 2020

report of 28/7/20 national Trades Union Councils meeting

Wolverhampton Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Annexation - The Israeli governments threat to Annex 30% of the West Bank planned for July is on hold. The best explaination we have is that this is due to ongoing discussions with America and a new surge on covid cases in Israel. The Palestine solidarity movement is not expecting any announcement that the plans will be shelved.

A national protest social media event was held across the country on Saturday 4th July against annexation using the slogans: # Stop Annexation, # Sanctions Now, # End Apartheid. A group of 6 members of Wolverhampton PSC held a socially distant protest in Queen Square one of 50 similiar events around the country.

As many people will now PSC have renewed its campaign for divestment in local government pension funds. Thanks to those of you who are members of the local government fund who wrote to Cllr Jaspal urging WMPF to divest in an estimated £139m of investments in companies complicit with the Israel's illegal occupation. On June 17th the Pension Committee of West Midlands Pension Fund acknowedged the concerns raise by PSC and the fund members who wrote in to complain.

Wolverhampton PSC is calling on the Pension commmittee to divest in three companies of partcular interest who have also been placed on the United Nations Human Rights list of complicit companies

Is your workplace COVID-Secure? Help test a new TUC risk assessment website

Can you help us test and develop a new TUC website to keep workers safe as our workplaces start up again after lockdown?

Union campaigning won a new government duty on employers to conduct Covid-Secure risk assessments if they have more than 5 staff. The guidance says they should also publish these on their websites if they have 50 staff.

But as there’s no central directory reporting on them, very few employers so far are publishing them, and we fear many are ignoring their duties altogether.

Your legal right to a safe place of work

Your employer is obliged under the law to provide you with a safe place of work.

Trade union courses locally 2020

online courses at https://www.tuceducation.org.uk/findacourse/

TUC courses sign up now....for September 2020 start

Trade Union Studies Representatives’ Programme at Shrewsbury College & GMB Offices, Hanley, Stoke on Trent

Union Reps Stage 1 10 x Mondays 9 am – 4 pm

Health & Safety Stage 1 ten Tuesdays

Construction Safety Campaign

A crane collapse at a construction site in Bow, East London (July 2020) has led to the death of a women 85-year-old woman, June Harvey, with a construction worker remaining critically ill in hospital. The victim was described as a "very caring woman" who was "loyal to her family" by her great nephew, Sam Atkinson, 28, who lived with her, alongside his mother. Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected by this tragic accident.

Construction Safety campaign demands an urgent, full, and complete investigation into the circumstances that led to this accident without there being any delay. The CSC calls for the lessons to be learned and followed up by changes in health and safety law to ensure that similar accidents don’t take place in the future.

Over 75s free TV licence campaign

from 1^st August 4 million older people are set to lose their free TV Licence.

Lee Barron, TUC Midlands Regional Secretary and Yvonne Washbourne, Chair of the TUC Midlands Pensioners Network have sent a joint letter to Midlands MPs, urging them to make TV licences free for over 75s.

National Minimum Wage rates increase

currently:

adult hourly rate of the national minimum wage 25 years+ is £8.72 from 1 April 2020
adult hourly rate of the national minimum wage 21-24 years is £8.20 from 1 April 2020
development rate (which covers workers aged 18-20 years) is £6.45 from 1 April 2020
rate for 16 to 17-year-olds is £4.55 frrom 1 April 2020
for apprentices under the age of 19 and those aged 19 and over in the first 12 months of their apprenticeship, the apprentice minimum wage rate is £4.15 from 1 April 2020

The real Living Wage is £9.30/hour outside London, next to be updated November 2020.

Wolves TUC featured in Art in Lockdown exhibition

Art in Lockdown invite inspires hundreds of creations

TUC - no return until safe

TUC - No one should have to return to work without “tough new measures” on safety

TUC demands that all employers produce risk assessments before lockdown is eased
New measures needed to give workers confidence as polling shows 2 in 5 workers are concerned about returning to work
“Too many workers have already been forced to put their health on the line,” says union boss
Read more: TUC - no return until safe

Advice for Employees re Covid-19

dated 7 April

affiliating to Wolverhampton TUC 2020

We've had some good attendances at meetings and participation in our events this year. However many who are involved are not delegates from their branches. Several branches failed to affiliate his year and several have been active with us for some years without their branches affiliating.

Please ask your branch to affiliate and to elect delegates this year or just promote our meetings to other trades unionists, better still bring someone along.

Our meetings are on the third Thursday of the month at the very accessible UNITE office in Wolverhampton and we have interesting guest speakers most months.

TUC plan to work our way out of recession

TUC report A Better Recovery sets out plan to invest to grow – and rejects failed prescriptions of austerity, tax cuts and deregulation
Call to emulate the post-war recovery which achieved stronger growth and lower national debt – TUC analysis
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds to speak at today’s report launch (10am) The TUC has today (Wednesday) set out how the UK can recover from the coronavirus economic crisis, stop the despair of mass unemployment and set working families on a path to prosperity.
Read more: TUC plan to work our way out of recession

The poor will suffer the most in this epidemic

The new class divide – how Covid-19 exposed and exacerbated workplace inequality in the UK