Workers' Memorial Day 28th April 2008
Oldham TUC is recognising the efforts made to address serious concerns about health and safety in the semiconductor industry, by awarding the Andrew Herbertson Memorial Award to PHASE Two.
People for Health And Safety in Electronics (PHASE Two) was created in 1998, comprising workers at the National Semiconductor plant in Greenock, Scotland. This US company has denied its workers union recognition since setting up business in Scotland, so it was necessary to set up an organisation in the community with the help of Greenock Trades Union Council.
The group was worried about the high numbers of cancer diagnoses anong the workforce, and suspected that working at the plant had something to do with it. The HSE was sufficiently concerned to order an investigation, which led to recommendations for research into the Nat Semi plant specifically, and an industry-wide study.
The suspicions were fuelled by reports from the USA, where similar anecdotal evidence was to some extent backed up by a scientific study. This was unable to conclusively identify a link, because of the limited scope of the research, and because of a refusal to co-operate by the company concerned.
In the UK, the HSE used its enforcement powers and funds to initiate the study into Nat Semi. However, since 2001 there has been no progress on the industry-wide study, because the employer association the National Microelectronics Institute has refused to acknowledge the case for doing the research, and the HSE has refused to fund it.
The semiconductor industry came to Oldham in the late 1960's at the Ferranti Electronics site at Gem Mill. In the 1980's, the business expanded to sites at Hollinwood and Lansdowne Road. The business continued through takeovers, management buyout, and mergers to become the current Zetex Semiconductors. Zetex employs 450 workers at the Lansdowne Road site, but up to 3,000 worker profiles are available to form part of the industry-wide study.
PHASE Two fought basically alone until matters came to a ahead in 2007 when the long-suppressed USA research findings were published. Unite took up the issue on behalf of its members in the industry, and a delegation lobbied the health and safety minister, Lord Mackenzie to find a way forward.
The view of PHASE Two and Unite is that the HSE should fund the study, and the research team commissioned should be verifiably independent of the industry. The HSE accepts the independence question, but has so far been reluctant to use its enforcement powers to demand the co-operation of the employers, and still offers no funding.
Zetex Semiconductors has indicated that it supports the study, and disagrees with the NMI's stance. Lobbying is now under way to encourage other NMI members to follow suit, however a lot more work needs to be done to generate the critical mass needed to force progress on the issue.
Two members from PHASE Two - former Nat Semi worker and cancer victim Grace Morrison, and Greenock TUC officer Jim McCourt - will be in Oldham on Monday 28th April to participate in Oldham TUC's Workers Memorial Day events.
They will receive the Andrew Herbertson Memorial Award on behalf of PHASE Two at a ceremony in George Square Gardens in Oldham Town Centre at 5:30pm. The Mayor of Oldham will be in attendance, and we will have speakers from Families Against Corporate Killers and the Greater Manchester Hazards Campaign.
The ceremony represents the "Remembering the Dead" part of WMD. Later in the evening we will explore the "Fighting for the Living" aspect when Grace will address current and former semiconductor workers at a Solidarity Social. This takes place at 7:30pm in the Chadderton Reform Club, Middleton Road, and all trade unionists are invited to attend.
We have set up a dedicated page on the website to monitor progress on the cancer study campaign - see the Cancer Study page.
Posted 27th April 2008
Here are some photos from the Workers Memorial Day events on 28th April 2008:
Remembering the dead...
Speakers at the ceremony were Grace Morrison (second left) from PHASE Two - seen receiving the Andrew Herbertson Memorial Award from Linzi Herbertson, The Mayor of Oldham, Cllr Ann Wingate JP, and Hilda Palmer of Greater Manchester Hazards Campaign.
Fighting for the Living...
Past and present Zetex employees meet with Grace and Jim at the Solidarity Social
Government Acts to give Temprorary and Agency Workers Equal Rights
Oldham TUC welcomes the decision of the government to bestow equal employment rights to temprary and agency workers. However, there are strings attached which will ensure problems remain.
Firstly, the rights will only become an entitlement after 12 weeks service with an employer - not from day one as the TUC wanted. This means that unscrupulous employers can still fire workers the day before the 12 week deadline is passed with complete impunity.
Secondly, not all terms and conditions of employment will be covered by the legislation: most significantly sick pay and pension entitlements.
Nevertheless, this move represents a big improvement on the previous position, whereby the government was proposing a commission to consider the issues. This would have allowed the business lobby to wreck or water down significantly the proposals put forward by the TUC.
The outcome should be that the opportunities for employers to use mainly foreign agency workers to undercut the local market rate for wages will be massively reduced. This removes one of the lines of attack used by the far right in Oldham to demonise foreign workers, and to blame them for the economic problems in the town.
The challenge for our movement now is to convince those same workers that they need the protection of a union to ensure these new rights are enforced and improved upon.
Posted 27th May 2008
Oldham Campaign Against Academies
Parents and residents are now taking the lead in the campaign to fight Oldham Council's misguided plans to impose three new Academy schools on Oldham. Two meetings of residents in the Waterhead area, where the proposed Academy which will replace Counthill and Breeze Hill schools is to be sited, have drawn attendances of over 100 people. It was decided to hold a public protest at the site on the 14th May (see picture below) and again over 100 demonstrators turned out. Many drivers sounded their horns in support, and passers by joined in as well.
The next public demonstration was to lobby the new Council as they arrived for the first Council meeting since the elections. It is to be hoped that the new Liberal Democrat - led administration will accept the OCAA arguments that Academies are not necessary to qualify for BSF money, and that Academies are highly unlikely to improve our children's education.
Oldham Campaign Against Academies builds up a head of steam!
At a packed public meeting on Friday 29th February, the audience heard powerful speeches from children's author Alan Gibbons and academic Terry Wrigley telling us horror stories from around the country about the failures and mis-representations of existing Academy schools.
Oldham NUT Joint Secretary Bryan Beckingham told the audience that the local teaching unions (NUT, ATL, NASUWT and support staff union UNISON) were proud to have launched OCAA, but now was the time for the reins to be handed over to the people who can have most impact on the secretive cabal of council officers and cabinet members driving through the Academy project - parents and governors.
Oldham TUC beloieves that the struggle can be broader still. There are a range of activities which trade unionists who are not involved in the teaching profession, and who are not parents, can particpate in. These are:
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Contact your local councillor to find ouit what is happening (if he or she is not a cabinet member it is highly likely they will not know very much!)
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spread the word or offer to help out with the local action groups which are being set up in schools (mainly in junior schools as these children will be affected first)
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write open letters to the local authority for publication in the local press expressing your concerns
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attend further public meetings organised by OCAA
Oldham TUC is delighted that the people of Oldham have once again responded to the information put out by Oldham United Against Racism, and have decisively rejected the politics of hate.
This year, our enemies have resorted to desperate tactics in order to cultivate votes from people with legitimate concerns about immigration. Most appalling was this quote from BNP candidate Roy Goodwin's election leaflet in Chadderton Central:
"I am tired of seeing our pensioners treated like second class citizens and forced to survive on an extremely low income, while asylum seekers, many of them bogus, come here and get everything they want."
Elsewhere in the leaflet, the BNP states: "From free TV's to cheques for cars they get it all - at your expense."
There is only one problem with these statements: and that is that they are complete lies. Had Goodwin succeeded in winning the seat, OUAR and others would have lodged an immediate complaint with the Standards Board, on the basis that somebody with enough intelligence to stand for office would certainly know that these ridiculous assertions are not true.
Fortunately, the vast majority of Chadderton electors saw through this unashamedly racist campaign and rejected Goodwin. We are concerned, however, that 660 voters were taken in by Goodwin, and we will begin work immediately to address the concerns of these people.
We don't believe that the majority of these voters are rednecked fascists - although a small proportion certainly will be. As we said above, people have real concerns about immigration and its effect on the community, but these can be addressed by rational debate and understanding of the dynamics of globalisation. Setting one group of working class people against another weakens us all. Rather, we need to unite with all newcomers to counter the common enemy - unrestrained capitalism.
Here are the election results for the Oldham wards which had far right candidates (underlined) this year:
Chadderton Central
Hudson Con 966
Brownridge Lab 866
Goodwin BNP 660
Lord Lib-Dem 212
Chadderton South
Hibbert Lab 959
Berry Con 735
Brierley EFP 425
Dawson Lib-Dem 236
Royton North
Judge Lab 1093
Farquar Con 811
Raja Lib-Dem 742
Corbett Ind 376
Shaw
Sykes Lib-Dem 1496
Canning Con 422
Stott BNP 391
Fletcher Lab 303
St James
Stanton Lib-Dem 968
Fitzpatrick Lab 476
Atherton Con 392
Clayton EFP 327
See the Oldham Voice 2008 here
See how the far right fared elsewhere at:
Holocaust remembered at SaddleworthVigil
The Square, Uppermill was once again the venue for the Saddleworth Peace Group's annual Holocaust Day Vigil on Sunday 27th January 2008. This has now become the principal event which commemorates the Holocaust in the Borough of Oldham, and Oldham TUC is proud to support it.
Around 50 participants stood in silent vigil, and them listened to a talk by Bill Williams, one of the initiators of the Manchester Jewish Museum, historian and author of “The Making of Manchester Jewry”. The talk was well received, focusing on positive responses we can make today to what happened to Jewish people in the Holocaust, rather than purely dwelling on the atrocities of the past. Bill drew a parallel with the failure of the British state to offer a safe haven to refugees from the Nazis when it was possible to save many lives before the Final Solution went into operation. Today, it is asylum seekers who are being denied their human rights by an unnecessarily draconian immigration policy driven by right wing influences.
A Saddleworth Peace Group speaker endorsed this point by linking the anti-fascist response proposed by Bill to the immediate threat to equality of treatment in Oldham from the BNP and EFP at this year's local elections.
The proceedings concluded with a communal reading and signing of a pledge to stand up against actions by governments around the world which could lead to genocide.
Posted 27th January 2008
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Having a dedicated hotline addresses the complaints about the telephone for non-emergencies at Oldham police stations not being answered;
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The hotline will be manned by advisors who are trained in dealing with the different forms of hate crime, working for the Stop Hate UK organisation which is independent of the police. This independence means that witnesses and victims can get help without necessarily involving the police if they so wish. This will encourage more reporting of hate crimes, and will enable related statistics to be more reliable;
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The scope of hate crimes has been extended to cover any crime involving illegal discrimination, i.e gender, age, disability and sexual orientation as well as race and religion. The agencies involved are well aware that in Oldham there are many assaults on white victims by Asian perpetrators as well as vice versa. This facility is designed to address all hate crimes with no emphasis on particular groups.
For more information visit http://www.stophateuk.org/
The hotline number is:
0800 138 1625
Greater Manchester Trades Councils Back Future Transport Proposals
The Greater Manchester Association of Trades Union Councils resolved to back the GMPTE bid for funding for an integrated transport strategy for the region. This includes qualified support for the controversial congestion charging proposals.
The GMATUC press statement is reporduced below:
The Greater Manchester Association of Trades Union Councils (GMATUC) has given its broad support to the objectives of the GM Future Transport strategy put forward for consultation by the GMPTA.
GMATUC believes that the GMPTA proposals are a step in the right direction towards a publicly owned and democratically controlled integrated transport system, which the region badly needs both from the point of view of environmental benefits and the need to attract capital investment to its deprived areas.
Our support is conditional on the promised improvements to public transport in advance of the introduction of congestion charging actually materialising. The GMPTE is confident that this will be the case, however we remain sceptical that this will be delivered as long as the buses and trains are operated by private sector companies. For the strategy to succeed, the GMPTA must be in a position to resolve the disparities in transport choices which currently exist within the region, and the shortfalls in capacity, reliability and safety which have been highlighted by many working people during the consultation must be addressed.
GMATUC recognises that the congestion charge proposal is controversial when considered in isolation. However we believe that the GMPTA - with the right kind of support from central government - is capable of resolving the anomalies which would unfairly penalise workers and businesses.
We therefore urge the local authorities and the general public to support the GMPTE's proposed bid for investment funds for the Future Transport strategy.
18.07.07
Statement from Roger Jones, Chairman of the GMPTA, in response to the Greater Manchester Association of Trades Union Councils (GMATUC) support for the TIF proposals
"We welcome the GMATUC's contribution to the TIF bid debate and their support for our proposals in principle.
I would like to assure the GMATUC that an improved public transport system is one of the key requirements set out by AGMA before any congestion charging system is implemented.
We fully recognise the concerns of the Trade Unions with regard to the current imbalance between private sector objectives and the wider public interest in public transport provision.
One of the key components of the TIF bid is that the GMPTA would assume an appropriate level of control of the public transport network, resulting in joined up journey times between trains, buses and trams and an integrated ticketing system for all modes of transport across Greater Manchester."
BNP defeated again!Continuing the trend established in recent Council elections, Oldham BNP leader Martin Brierley was comprehensively rejected by the voters in the Saddleworth West and Lees bye-election on July 5th.
We would hope that Brierley's miserable showing - barely scraping 200 votes together and finishing bottom of the poll - will make him and his ever dwindling bunch of associates realise that there is no way back for the BNP in Oldham.
We note with satisfaction the whinging on the Oldham BNP blog about our contribution to their demise with our Voice leaflets.
It is also interesting that Brierley is appealing for BNP organisers in several areas including Royton. Nowhere in the blog is there any mention of erstwhile leader and candidate in Royton North in May, Anita Corbett. We already knew the BNP had split into Royton and Oldham sections - thanks to Mick Treacy's public outburst in January - but we didn't know Anita had been air-brushed out of history in Stalinesque fashion.
Or does Anita Corbett still lead the "official" BNP in Royton, and Brierley is the renegade? We should be told.
Results of Saddleworth West and Lees Bye-election 5th July 2007
Beeley (Lib-Dem) 908
Exton (Lab) 416
Lord (Con) 243
Brierley (BNP) 202
Turnout 22%
Lees & Hey Voice can be viewed here
Unite urged to support 3rd party campaigns against the BNP
The Unite (Amicus Section) policy conference took place in Bournemouth (18-20th June 2007). Delegate Martin Gleeson - secretary of Oldham TUC - challenged the statement in the NEC report which asserted that Labour supported by the trade unions is the only way to beat the BNP.
Gleeson pointed out that all union members should be encouraged to participate in community-based campaigns against the BNP, regardless of whether or not they are in the Labour Party. He cited Oldham as an example of where the BNP stands candidates in wards where the Lib-Dems hold a big advantage over Labour. Union members need to campaign in these wards as well; and the way to defeat the BNP is to encourage voters to vote tactically to keep them out. Only a third party campaign - independent of the Labour Party - can do this.
It is to be hoped that the Unite political department takes note of this concern, and gives its full support to Unite members involved in campaigns like Oldham United Against Racism. Informal discussions outside the conference indicated that the point had been taken.
Gleeson also urged the union to encourage its members to be active in Trades Union Councils, which should play a prominent role in any community-based organisation which campaigns against the BNP.
BNP fail miserably in Oldham Council Elections 2007
The inexorable slide of the BNP into eventual oblivion (we hope) continued with this year's election results on May 3rd. It was no surprise that the four BNP candidates failed to win a seat: we had already seen the drop in their vote last year, so we hoped for the trend to continue.
Sure enough it did - and how! Not only was each candidate soundly beaten into third place, but none managed to muster more than 500 votes or the psychological 20% of the vote.
With hindsight, this shouldn't have been a surprise after the BNP ran its most disorganised and incompetent campaign since they appeared on the electoral scene in 2001. The split between the Royton and Oldham wings was obvious for all to see, and the failure to stand a candidate in their Royton South stronghold must have alienated a large section of their established support.
The BNP also committed the cardinal sin of spitting their dummy out with the local press - notably the Oldham Chronicle, and failed to take advantage of the free publicity offered by both Chronicle and Advertiser in their election specials.
So the BNP didn't help themselves this time; but Oldham United Against Racism's comprehensive leafleting of the four wards surely played its part in this devastating blow to far right ambitions in Oldham. How the mighty have fallen since Nick Griffin came scurrying to our town in the wake of the disturbances of 2001 and stood for the BNP in the general election. Plans were well advanced for the party's headquarters to be established in Oldham; so convinced was Griffin that the race war had started with Oldham at its epicentre.
Thanks to the good sense and basic decency of the vast majority of Oldhamers, the electoral threat - for now - seems to have receded. Oldham TUC intends to play its part in the community to ensure that the conditions for a resurgence of the far right do not materialise. This site will outline how we are doing this over the next weeks and months.
View the Oldham United Against Racism election leaflet Oldham Voice here
See the election results for the BNP- contested wards on the Campaigns page
Posted by Oldham TUC 4th May 2007
See OUAR's earlier leaflet which went out in targeted areas of Royton between January and March:
Check out the Greater Manchester Anti-Fascist website http://www.gmantifa.net/
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council Elections 2007
Seats contested by the BNP:
Chadderton South
D Jones (Labour) 1,080
M Brierley (BNP) 483
P Lord (Lib-Dem) 270
J Berry (Con) 602
Royton North
T Larkin (Labour) 1,207
J Farquar (Con) 905
A Corbett (BNP) 486
P Renold (Lib-Dem) 268
T Hilton (UKIP) 126
Shaw
M Alcock (Lib-Dem) 1,472
D Fletcher (Labour) 350
A Stott (BNP) 343
K Howard (Con) 337
D Bentley (Ind) 131
St James
J McArdle (Lib-Dem) 1,114
A Alexander (Labour) 636
C Lawton (BNP) 371
Workers' Memorial Day 2007
Andrew Herbertson Memorial Award goes to Families Against Corporate Killers (fack)
This year's WMD ceremony will take place on Saturday 28th April at 10am at the Memorial Bench in George Square Gardens
In past years we have invited Linzi Herbertson - widow of Andrew who was killed in a workplace accident caused by a negligent employer in 1998 - to present the award. This year, however, Oldham TUC decided that Linzi should receive the award for her efforts to improve the Corporate Killing and Homicide Bill through the new campaigning organisation Families Against Corporate Killers (fack).
Linzi has spoken on behalf of fack at the conference of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, and at a lobby of the House of Commons. Although the government still will not concede over the need for individual company directors to be liable for prison sentences when workers are killed through negligence, the message from those with personal experience of the effects on families of corporate killing is much more powerful than any cold statistical analysis - however shocking the figures are.
On Saturday the Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Bernard Judge, will present the award to Linzi on our behalf. We hope as many trade unionists as possible will join us at 10am for the short ceremony.
Linzi will also be appearing at the Manchester WMD events on Saturday. The Joint Union Rally starts at 11am at the Peace Gardens, Albert Square.
Later in the day fack are holding a public meeting from 4 - 6pm at the Friends Meeting House, Mount Street. This will include a film and theatre performance about deaths caused by work.
Oldham Campaign Against Academies
Oldham NUT and the other teaching unions will be asking members of the public to sign a petition to Oldham MBC on Saturday 28th April asking for the Academy school proposals to be dropped.
Visit their stall after the WMD event from 11am outside Burger King.
For more on the OCAA and other activities see the Oldham NUT newsletter on the Affiliates Noticeboard page.
The controversy around the comments by Jack Straw and other politicians about the desirability or otherwise of Muslim women being allowed to exercise a choice about how they dress in public, was the subject of a debate in our October Trades Council meeting. A range of points were made, and the consensus was that we deplore the grandstanding and bandwagon-jumping of politicians such as Straw and Oldham's MP Phil Woolas. There are serious issues to be made regarding better relations within the different faith groups in our community, but the main issues are being bypassed by focusing on the softest targets in the community, i.e. the few Muslim women who choose to dress defensively. If we are to have a debate on integration - and we believe we should - it would be much more productive to tackle the root causes of what makes people want to reinforce their separation. In Oldham's case this means addressing the alienation of many people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage from mainstream employment. Unless Muslim and other minority groups in our community feel that the disadvantages that they face on a daily basis are being addressed, there will be no incentive to engage.
In this context Oldham TUC is wondering why Oldham Council has withdrawn funding for Oldham Race Equality Partnership's projects to improve young Asian people's prospects of entering more diverse types of employment than they feel is available to them at present. At the same time, Oldham's private sector businesses continue to benefit from their association with the Oldham Economic Partnership - funded by Oldham MBC - but have delivered nothing of note on the community cohesion agenda. Seems to us that Oldham MBC need to review their priorities within the Oldham Partnership.