Codsall School Staff Strike

"Have our responsibilities changed? No! Are we being asked to do less work? No! Are we having to come in one day less? No!"

Support staff at Codsall Multi Academy Trust organised by the National Education Union took their first day's strike action against fire and rehire plans which could see them lose up to 22% off their pay.

Meanwhile the group of schools with less than 1000 students having to fund the budget of both a CEO and deputy CEO!

The fact that this Labour government has allowed both fire and rehire tactics and the chronic underfunding of schools to continue alone should be enough to make the argument for unions to launch a party that stands for working class communities, not the bond traders!

Orchard School Strike For Safe Staffing

Teachers and support staff at The Orchard School in Oldbury took strike action on Tuesday 2nd June. We heard how the primary school for students with complex needs has seen class sizes grow by up to 50% in recent months to the point where there is no longer enough room to fit them in the classrooms. 

This is placing the safety of staff and students at severe risk, and leading to burnout. All five teachers who started in September are due to leave by the summer break! 

The action by NASUWT and GMB members was rock solid, closing the school for the day. Dozens of workers gathered outside the Sandwell Council HQ, with plans to return if management don't engage. 

Leisure Centre Privatisation Suffers Knockout Blow

Tory proposals to privatise leisure centre services in Dudley suffered a knockout blow following a vote on 3rd March to retain management of these centres within council control.


The Batman gothic styled council chambers in Dudley town centre was the location of a protest against plans from the conservative-controlled council to outsource leisure centre management. Black Country Socialist Party activists attended the demonstration alongside union members and councillors opposed to the plans.


This followed a long running campaign supported by opposition councillors, local labour MPs and Unison with support from the local Trades Council and a petition of 5,000 signatures submitted in February.


The clear message is that privatisation would inevitably erode the scope of public services in a drive toward profit and that continued public control ensures provision based on need and overall benefit for the community. After investment of over £25 million from public funds in the newly built Duncan Edwards sports centre near Dudley town centre along with regeneration of Halesowen leisure centre the idea to hand over control of these public assets to private company for private profit seems perverse.

This type of public provision is the reason we have local councils in the fist place. Rather than diminish services in a bid to balance budgets councils should be fighting harder to attain better funding and protecting such provision.

With neighbouring Labour-run Sandwell council having previously spun off leisure centres to a trust, leading to worse pay and conditions for staff, and now proposing closure of two venues, it's clear that a party that consistently fights the corner of publicly run, fully funded services is needed.


Congratulations to everyone who worked hard and contributed to the fight against this privatisation in this victory against the capitalist sharks that were encircling Dudley leisure centres, it seems that the shark repellent spray came in handy again.

Walsall Anger At Gaza Attrocities

In Walsall on the 20th October, dozens marched in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Following the marking of one year of Israel's genocidal attack against the Gaza strip earlier this month. There was an impressive amount of attendees considering the bad weather conditions.

The demonstration began outside Walsall art gallery, where they were joined by Socialist Party members.

The speakers came from many different backgrounds. Many spoke of how the war has impacted them personally, and some gave harrowing accounts from family and friends who have lived in Palestine or Lebanon.

The march had an undeniable feeling of shared grief and anger at the long list of atrocities committed in Gaza over the past year. And unsurprisingly, many speakers and marchers felt frustrated and overall disillusioned with the new Labour government, and called for revolutionary change in order to being about peace. This was reflected in the speeches from two of the six independent councillors in Walsall who resigned from Labour over its support for the war on Gaza, with Aftab Nawaz coming second behind his former party in the general election with over 7600 votes.

What's The Point of Another Labour Councillor?

Over the last 14 years, Tories and Labour politicians in Dudley have taken it in turns to cut £96m from local services. Meanwhile our high streets struggle as shops close and jobs have been sucked out of the borough over decades.

That's why we've been out campaigning to put a socialist councillor in place to stand up for working class communities rather than just manage their decline.

You can vote Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition on Thursday 2nd May if you live in the following wards in Dudley Council:

Brierley Hill and Wordesley South - Kevin Carnall

Cradley North and Wollescote - Siobhan Friel

St Thomas's - David Reynolds

We're also standing in six wards in this year's election to Sandwell council - details here.

But don't just leave it at that! Come to our open branch meeting to find out how you can get involved in fighting for socialist change in the Black Country - all are welcome to attend! It's taking place at

7pm, Thursday 25th April

Saturday Books

61 Tower Street

Dudley

DY1 1ND

Promoted by Richard Gingell at 13 Hill Top Avenue, Halesowen B62 9EH on behalf of Dudley TUSC candidates

Dudley Health Workers Say: Pay Up Mitie!

Outsourced caterers, cleaners and maintenance staff at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley have resumed their campaign of strike action.

Despite working alongside directly employed NHS workers all through the pandemic, tight-fisted bosses at Mitie are refusing to give them the £1,655 Covid bonus.

This comes on top of years of payroll problems, with some of the lowest-paid workers in the hospital not receiving their correct wages from month to month, or their long-service payments.

And this from a company set to make £190 million profits this financial year by leeching off the NHS and other contracts for public (and formerly public) services!

In a sign of how vital these Unite members are to keeping the hospital running, in catering it’s taken two managers or other Mitie employees to fill in for each striking worker! Meanwhile, 16-year-old apprentices have been left to cover maintenance duties they have not yet been trained for, potentially putting patients and co-workers at risk.

Time for these workers to be paid what they’re owed, as a step towards a real living wage for all NHS staff and an end to cowboy companies profiting out of healthcare!

Support The Sandwell Bin Strike!

Bin workers at Sandwell Council in the Black Country are back on strike! After a successful
strike two years ago and a further ballot for action last summer, multinational company Serco
are once again trying to get away with imposing a below-inflation pay increase of 7% on a
workforce that already receive substantially less in pay and pensions than bin workers
directly employed by councils elsewhere in the region.


It's not lost on the workers there that Serco has made £542m profits over the last three
years, earned among other things from mismanaging the Covid test and trace scheme and
outsourced services for councils, prisons, the NHS and military. With this money burning a
hole in the company’s back pocket, Serco senior management has increased dividends to
shareholders, bought back £90m of its own stock and given chief executive Rupert Soames
a yearly pay packet worth up to £4.2m.


Meanwhile chronically-underpaid workers on the refuse contract in Sandwell are driving
around in barely-roadworthy bin lorries. To add insult to injury, workers report that the
company is threatening to introduce bank holiday working and take away task-and-finish
working practices, lengthening the working day.


Despite management’s attempts to break the strike with agency staff on several pounds
more per hour than the regular workforce, GMB members have stayed solid in their support
for the strike, with a mass turnout on the pickets each day. This was despite the area
manager of Serco attempting to intimidate the picket line by driving directly at it. He then got
treated to a loud chorus of Driving In My Car and Greased Lighting outside his office
window!


A loud and lively lobby was also conducted of last Tuesday's council meeting. Sandwell’s
Labour councillors, who voted to hand over local services to cowboy companies like Serco
have washed their hands of the dispute.


Bin workers have made plans to strike indefinitely until their demand of 15% and no
worsening of working conditions is achieved. As one picket summed it up "the cost of living
crisis only exists for working people – and we’ve had enough!"

Vote For A Socialist Councillor May 4th!

Come to our public meeting on Tuesday 25th April to find out how a socialist councillor could be a voice for working class people to take on the political establishment.

This May, voters in multiple parts of Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton will have the chance to vote for a fighting, socialist alternative in the council elections on Thursday 4th.

The Black Country has weathered 13 years of austerity under Tory governments, with this latest cost of living emergency threatening to push even more working class people under. But Labour have done little to defend our region.

When in control of local councils, Labour councillors choose to implement cuts demanded by the Tories in London, rather than standing with local people and fighting to win the funding needed for jobs, homes and public services.

Working class people need a new workers' party that stands up for us. And a new way of running the economy to benefit the millions, not the millionaires.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition was set up to enable trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists to stand together at the ballot box against the pro-austerity establishment parties. It is a beginning - a step towards the kind of party we need to deliver a socialist alternative to austerity.

Come to our public meetings to discuss how we can build this on the ground here in the Black Country, what a socialist councillor could do for our communities, and how you can get involved - all welcome!

Bearwood

7pm, Monday 24th April
Upstairs function room,
The Bear Tavern
500 Bearwood Road
B66 4BX

Dudley

7pm, Tuesday 25th April

Castlegate Church Cafe

Birdcage Walk (next to Farmfoods)

Dudley Town Centre

DY2 7AE

And on Thursday 4th May, vote for a socialist councillor who will give us a voice:

Sandwell

Abbey - Bob Severn

Charlemont with Grove Vale - Owen Lees

Oldbury - Richard Gingell

Wednesbury North - Gareth Knox

Wednesbury South - U'semu Makaya

Dudley

Castle and Priory - Nicola Fisher

Cradley and Wollescote - Siobhan Friel

St Thomas's - Lee Robertson

Wolverhampton

Oxley - Joshua Allerton

Promoted by Nick Hart at 342 Highfield Lane, Birmingham B32 1SD

National Express Workers Win!

After just six days of strike action, National Express West Midlands bus drivers have won a 16.2% pay rise. This begins to reverse years of declining real wages.

The deal also includes an improvement to overtime rates being made permanent, an increase in the length of accident pay and improved rates for some public holiday working.

The way in which Unite members showed rock solid support for the strike in the face of management pressure and at some garages having the police called on the picket line is a credit to the workforce at NXWM.

As one driver at West Brom told us, "management never thought we'd go on strike - they got a nasty surprise".

The success of the strike in winning a pay rise well beyond what the company were originally willing to give puts down a platform to win future improvements to pay, working conditions and rostering agreements.The momentum from the current dispute can’t be lost as a chance to strengthen the union.

A renewed committee of garage and route reps to talk through the shared issues across the company, along with regular meetings in the garages to hear from and feed back to the membership is the best way to hold management to any commitments made.

By taking one week of action, bus drivers have succeeded in emptying out a number of town and city centres around the region, showing their vital role in keeping the local services and businesses running. The fact that National Express alone has lost millions in revenue per strike day shows the money that drivers generate for the company every time they show up for work.

The victory of bus drivers will be an inspiration to workers across the West Midlands currently struggling for a living pay rise. Commenting on the number of beeping horns from posties and bin workers on the picket at Yardley Wood, one driver put it best: “everyone’s feeling the pinch – everyone should go on strike!”

National Express Workers Vote To Strike

The West Midlands is set for a historic bus strike after drivers and mechanics at National Express West Midlands voted by a massive 96% to take all-out continuous strike action, starting on 16 March.

Thanks to the virtual monopoly held by the company over bus services in Birmingham, the Black Country and Coventry, services are set to grind to a halt when the 3,300 Unite members covered by the ballot walk out.

The same day that the ballot result was announced, the National Express parent company made an announcement of its own – of underlying profits during 2022 of £197.3 million. While profits have doubled, National Express bosses can only find the funds to offer a below-inflation increase of 8% to the workforce, claiming there’s no more money available.

To add insult to injury, following the ballot result, a management communication suggested that workers should “look at their payslip” – as if they needed reminding how little they earn – and referred them to online counselling!

Speaking to workers on the garage gates, it’s clear that there is a strong mood to strike among workers who have had many years of declining pay and conditions, as the job becomes ever more stressful. Socialist Party members will be right behind them in their fight for a living pay rise, as we are with all workers.