June 21st;
Protest Picnic at HackneyCommunityCollege-On Monday 21st June students and staff at HackneyCommunityCollege join workplaces around the country in a protest against public sector cuts. University Colleges Union (UCU) and Unison invite all members to stand against the education cuts and come cross their picnic line!
There... will be banner making, giant games, budget themed twister, tug of war, food and discussion from 12 pm to 1pm in the college grounds.
This event is part of a series of actions staff at the college have been taking to oppose the cuts and compulsory redundancies. In February over £1million in cuts were announced at the college, affecting 68 staff with either redundancy or a reduction in hours. After staff took 2 days of strike action, and following a lot of negotiation, there has been a reduction in the number of compulsory redundancies. However there are still jobs to win back.
Both unions stand strong against any compulsory redundancies and will continue to fight to defend and improve Hackney Community College for the students, staff and whole community.
Rose Veitch, ESOL teacher and UCU activist said, “We are proud of the two days of strike action that staff has already taken. We want to send a message to management that the unions will work together to ensure that no jobs or courses are lost. The protest picnic is a celebration of our work already and a continuation of action.”
At 2pm the banners made at the protest picnic will be put to use. Wait and see what will happen…
(Ends)
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Notes for editors
1. The day of action has been called by a coalition of unions, under the banner United for education. Education is under attack.
• Over £1bn has been cut from higher education budgets over the next three years.
• Thousands of jobs already gone.
• Thousands more at risk.
• For the first time in decades our education system is shrinking and the barriers to access are rising.
• Current and future generations are at risk of being locked out of our education system.
Staff and students have united in an unprecedented sector-wide coalition
to oppose the cuts.
ATL, GMB, EIS, NUS, UCU, UNITE and UNISON have joined forces to defend education.
http://unitedforeducation.org.uk/
2. The first strike day was on the 5th May. 11 colleges and 3 universities took part in this day of action. The second strike day was taken by Hackney Community College on the 18th May.
3. If press wish to attend the picnic, for photographs and interviews please contact: Rebecca Galbraith or Rose Veitch. 07971 719797 or 0790 361 6260 or rgalbraith@hackney.ac.uk
June 21st;
The Clapton Conference
An opportunity to contribute to the future of Clapton
Working with Hackney Council to build a better future for Clapton
Monday, June 21, 7-9pm
St John Ambulance Hall, Mildenhall Road, E5
· What actually constitutes the characteristics of Clapton?
· Clapton’s heritage is fast disappearing - the area is under threat from developers, from being close to the Olympics – what can we do?
· Its local economy is also struggling.
· Is there a ‘civic centre’ for the area?
These questions and issues, and many more, are the kind that will need to be addressed to build the partnerships and plan for the area’s future. CPNAG and Leabridge Ward councillors are jointly hosting this conference, as part of an ongoing process, to address these issues and many more.
Senior Council officers from Planning and Regeneration, including Graham Loveland, Assistant Director of Planning, will be present to discuss the scoping of such a plan, let us know what they are already doing, and look with us at what the possibilities are. We very much want to hear your views and comments on this.
It will be a representative meeting of Clapton’s many community groups, agencies and institutions. We are inviting one representative from each group or organisation with further work planned down the road, including at least one meeting for the general public later in the year.
Please rsvp, stating who from your group or organisation will be attending, with contact details, to:
Ian Rathbone, Chair, Clapton Pond Neighbourhood Action Group [CPNAG]
Contact:Mobile: 07890 654 068
e-mail: Ian.Rathbone@Hackney.gov.uk
Also, if you know of a group or organisation within Clapton, who you feel should be invited to this event, please notify us, so that if we haven’t already done so, we can invite them.
June 29th; LCAP HOUSING ACTION TRAINING DAY; The next housing group training will be 29th June 11 AM - 14.30 PM inStamford Hill. This will be on how to build a housing group and how to support peopleas part of a group. It will include legal training (knowing yourrights), group facilitation (so we can all have confidence tofacilit...ate meetings that have regular new people attending andnon-native English speakers), how to support people as a group and howto take direct action together. We will work through examples of casesand work out the legal situation and what to do next. .... more details and Please confirm by email to lcap@gmail.com if you are coming to the training. LCAP
June 30th; Call for a
Hackney Alliance to defend our public services
Meeting Wednesday 30 June 7pm Trinity Centre, Dalston, Beechwood Road
E8 3DY
...
Massive cuts on the way for Hackney people
Following the general election in May we now have a
Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. Thirteen years of high public spending and undertaxing has left a legacy of a massive national debt that some calculate will be £1.4 trillion by 2014.
This new government has announced their priority will be to cut this deficit. The cuts to public spending being suggested for the next few years may total over £100 billion, while it is thought some I million public sector jobs will be lost. These cuts will affect all public services from hospitals to social care, from education to transport. We already know Homerton Hospital is facing major cuts in
spending.
While the first £6 billion of 'taster cuts' which was announced on May 24 will be painful, a much worse prospect is promised from the emergency '50 days [after the election] budget', on June 22.
Whether the cuts are needed or right is highly debatable but they are coming, unless we stop them, and they will affect us all, dramatically. And we, as trade unionists want to be prepared for this massive attack on our public services and to help fight and to beat it.
Hackney Trades Council is calling for an alliance to save our
services Hackney Trade Union Council is calling a meeting for the week after the 50 day budget, for all those involved in the public sector, both as workers and as users, While HTUC job is primarily to work with Hackney trade unions, HTUC sees the community as a key area of support
for union struggles. So while we need all those involved with organising as trade unionists in the public sector, we also want all those involved with the 'user' side of services, those fighting for those services, to attend.
We need union reps from all unions in the public sector to get involved including Unison branches across the borough, the NUT, GMB, the RCN, the RMT, UCU, Unite and the CWU.
We also need those who represent services such as Friends of Hackney Nurseries, the Hackney Unemployed Workers Group, parents from the school PTAs, tenants from tenants' associations, patient groups, Keep Our NHS Public and many others. As well as the vast array of community groups, like DayMer and Gik Der that represent people in Hackney who will be directly affected by these cuts.
Come to the meeting on Wednesday June 30
We urge all, trade unionists and service users reps to attend this meeting, which will be held from 7pm till 9pm on Wednesday 30 June at The Trinity Centre, Beechwood Road London E8 3DY. The meeting is intended to create an alliance of all of us who work in and use the public
services in Hackney to unite us to oppose and stop this planned onslaught.
Hopefully you will come with the full and agreed support of your branch committee or community or campaign group and with a commitment that your and your group will play a full and active role in supporting this new initiative. If you or a colleague cannot attend this meeting please send apologies and messages of support and your branch committee or group to support this alliance in the future.
And if you can and cannot come, start talking to and convincing your colleagues, committee and friends that we need to fight this attack and that we can beat it and we can save and better the services we all need.
Together we can stop the cuts. Together we can make a better Hackney.
Secretary: Jane Holgate,
Hackney Trades Union Council,
PO Box 44656, London N16 5YX
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