wake up! wake up! it’s yer Lovin’ it, avin’ it Weekly SchNEWS Friday 17th July 1998 www.cbuzz.co.uk/SchNEWS Issue 176 Free/Donation Crap Arrest of the Week Red eyed cops ploughing through 500 hours of video spotted one of their own apparently trip up and fall down an embankment during OLD MONEY a demonstration against Consort Beagles 14 Making money out of caring for the eld- “YOU SAID YOU WERE NOT JUST months ago. Even though the red faced plod erly - The Lord Mayors’ wife out on strike FIGHTING THE COUNCIL, BUT got up and sheepishly wandered off, the video - A dodgy Labour Council that’s been ALSO THE LOCAL LABOUR PARTY- voyeurs decided a nearby activist had assaulted ruled by the same man for 16 years - Un- CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT MORE?” him. So after spending months tracking him down two of West Mercia’s finest raided the ion officials who advise striking workers For the past 16 years the leader of Tameside has man’s home and 6 am and arrested him. He is to cross picket lines! been Roy Oldham and he has got a finger in every now due to appear in Hereford Court on July Welcome to another British trade union dispute pie. We had a public meeting last week and invited 31st even though the alleged victim has never of the nineties. all the Labour Councillors but not one turned up. made a complaint or ever been identified. Three and a half months ago 250 care They put off sacking us until after the May local workers from Tameside near Manchester went elections, where only one in five of Tameside voted, If you’re unhappy at being forced into a crap- on strike- a few months later they were sacked. which I think tells you something about what peo- low-pay-New-Deal-job, spare a thought for those SchNEWS listened to their story. ple think of their local council!” struggling to make ends meet elsewhere. The poor old executives at The Bank of England “TELL US WHY YOU ARE ON “WHAT ABOUT YOUR UNION?” (who’ve been complaining that they had to re- STRIKE” “If our union had spoken to the company earlier cently raise interest rates because greedy work- “In 1989, the Labour Council of Tameside de- we could have avoided this dispute. Instead, after ers are demanding inflationary pay rise) gave cided to put 12 of its old peoples’ homes into Trusts, five weeks on strike we were instructed to cross picket themselves pay increases of up 67%!. Meanwhile promising staff better working conditions and refur- lines, go back in and negotiate from the inside. But poor ‘ole Jan Leschly of SmithKline Beecham bishment. They also promised if things didn’t work we just couldn’t understand why a union was telling struggles on with £2.4 million a year, while those out with the Trusts, then the homes would revert us to cross a picket line when the majority of us in charge of BP, ASDA, Rank, Alliance & Leices- back to the Council. But in 1992/3, Tameside Care were out and we all believed in the same thing. We ter, only got pay rises of just 20% last year . Group hit financial problems, resulting in the even had one union convenor, a Councillor, who workforce having to take massive pay cuts- we lost 19 actually turned up on our picket line with transport GANDALF UPDATE terms of conditions, all our weekend enhancements, to take us to a meeting set up to persuade us to go The date for the Gandalf Three Appeal has some of our sick pay and some of our holidays. Five back to work!” been moved forward and is now set for next years along the line, and we’ve never had a pay rise. So “WHAT OTHER THINGS HAVE Tuesday and Wednesday 21st and 22nd of in ‘97 our union approached the company to ask for YOU BEEN UP TO?” July. Three editors of Green Anarchist were a pay rise as the company was now making a profit. sentenced to three years each for simply re- “We’ve been storming every council meeting that’s porting on direct action, but in a surprise deci- The company said ‘Sorry- the Council have reduced going- we are giving those councillors an absolute the funding and we need to make further cuts.’ sion, were let out on bail (see SchNEWS 161). dogs’ life. It’s in today’s’ Manchester Evening News The appeal will decide whether they’ll be put These ‘ cuts’ were up to £2.04 an hour in some that the council are stepping up security tomorrow cases, a weeks’ holiday and an end to the sick scheme. back into prison or get their charges dropped. night ready for us. They only allowed 15 of us in at One reason for them being let out before their We said ‘No, we’re not accepting this’ and voted for the last meeting, this time they are saying that they strike action. Since we’ve been on strike, we’ve found appeal was public outrage (or semi-public, if will only allow 10 in- but we’ve got about 110 that you want) about the sentence. It’s not over that we’re not only fighting the company but also are gonna go in there!” the Labour Council, who have a ‘golden share’ in yet- so be there: Court 6 of The Royal Courts the company, with one of the trustees a Labour “IS THIS DISPUTE JUST ABOUT of Justice, The Strand, London at 10.30am MP and two others prominent Labour figures”. TAMESIDE OR DOES IT HAVE WIDER IMPLICATIONS?” “WHY DID THE COMPANY HIT FI- “We realised in the first few weeks of the strike CRAP JOB OF THE WEEK NANCIAL CRISIS?” as we travelled round the country that this wasn’t “When we were first transferred to the Trust, all *Pet Shop Assistant - ‘feeding and just happening to us, it’s happening everywhere. It’s cleaning out cages and making sure animals the Councillors who lost their seats in the local unbelievable what’s happening in this country, and elections were given jobs within the Trust, and com- are healthy, spot illness or other problems. it’s about time people got up and fought back. Eve- Previous experience preferred. May be pany cars. The bosses and ex-councillors were giving rywhere you go it’s privatisation and slashing wages. trained to serve and advice customers in themselves massive pay awards while the workforce We’re not just fighting for Tameside workers, we’re shop.’ £2 an hour were taking cuts”. fighting for low pay workers everywhere..” *Factory worker- full time, stitching “HOW CAN YOU MAKE MONEY OUT shoes £1.88 an hour! OF LOOKING AFTER OLD PEOPLE?” *Donations and solidarity messages to Both of these spotted in Blackburn Job “Exactly- but last year Tameside Care Group Tameside UNISON, 29 Booth St., Ashton- Centres. *Or what about a job at the Keyhinge Toys Co. Factory in Vietnam, which made £750,000. During this dispute we’ve picketed under-Lyne, OL6 7LB. Phone the strike com- makes Disney characters for McDonalds agencies who’ve been recruiting scabs to do our old mittee on 0161 308 2452 ‘happy’ meals. The women who work there jobs. We’ve been training for years, training’s ongo- get $0.06 an hour! They work a 70 hour ing, and you never stop learning, yet one scab agency *Messages of protest to Roy Oldham, week and in February 200 fell ill, 25 col- said they would train people for four days- and charge Leader of the Council, Tameside MBC, Coun- lapsed and 3 were hospitalised as a result of them £86! After just four days training you would cil Offices, Wellington Rd, Ashton Under chemical exposure. Another reason not to then be allowed to work in any home in Tameside! Lyne, Lancs OL6 6DL eat at McDogshits, if you really needed one. @anti-COPYRIGHT - INFORMATION FOR ACTION HILLGROVE ARTICLE SchNEWS in brief MANCHESTER “It was amazing to see such diverse people working The Obsever pulled a swiftie on gene kings The new camp set up urgently needs support . together towards a common goal” said one activist.”There Monsanto on Sunday. A full page advert by the The Arthur’s woods apparently obstructs the satel- was a balaclava youth talking to 60-year old women company, was followed by two pages devoted to lite and radar reception of the expanding Manches- from the RSPCA about the best way to break through those destroying genetically engineered sites around ter Airports. The police are currently nicking the the police lines”. the country! Meanwhile George Monbiot was on key players, then bailing them off site. Directions - Things are hotting up down at t’farm- Hillgrove Channel 4 news ripping apart a Biotechnology find Styal on a road atlas. Ask any local in Styal Farm, that is, the cat breeders run by Farmer Brown spokesperson last week. However, he told us, C4 where Arthur’s Wood is. “They all love us here and loads in Witney, Oxon which has supplied the vivisec- originally intended to put him opposite a Monsanto of them are involved.” Camp mobile 0777 5602954. tion industry for 27 years- including, according to man but the company said , “You are never getting us * Following on from last weeks story about leaked info, the horrific military research establish- into a studio with him”. So much for their open debate Faslane peace camp outside the Trident nuclear ment at Porton Down.