July 2018

Secretary’s Report for JULY 2018
Wolverhampton, Bilston & District TUC www.wolvestuc.org.uk info@wolvestuc.org.uk

 

Taxi drivers protest at Wolverhampton council over Uber licensing
Thursday 28 June 2018 -UNITE Taxi drivers from Coventry caused disruption in the centre of Wolverhampton to protest over the council’s issuing of Uber licences. The drivers are alarmed that Wolverhampton council has issued thousands of licences to Uber drivers, allowing them to operate in Coventry, bypassing that council’s rules and licensing regime.

Firefighters in the West Midlands have called off planned strike action after the fire service employer agreed to halt the introduction of controversial contracts for new entrants, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has said. However, the union said the development did not mean that the industrial dispute was over but that progress in negotiations had been made.
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, said: “The recent dialogue between the union and West Midlands Fire Service has been fruitful but there are still many issues to deal with in order to bring this dispute to a close. The union only considers strike action in the most serious of cases. There is a huge strength of feeling among firefighters and emergency control operators that these contracts would have done huge damage to the service.”

The contracts would have meant new entrants into the service would have had to take on work outside the agreed role of a firefighter. It would have allowed the employer to unilaterally change the work of firefighters at any time, thereby breaching nationally negotiated agreements with the union.
Strike action would have been taken between 30 June and 4 July. Earlier this year a ballot saw 90% of firefighters and emergency control operators agree to strike action on an 82% turnout.

We had a stall at Chainmakers in Cradley Heath and made some sales of our merchandise.

About 45 people attended the annual Palestine Solidarity Campaign garden party and raised £485.02 – both figures up by nearly half from previous years.

TUC courses sign up now.…
Union Reps Stage 1 ten Mondays; Health & Safety Stage 1 ten Tuesdays
from Sept 2018 @Shrewsbury College & GMB Offices, Hanley, Stoke on Trent