Amicus

Large engineering and general union

Defend Antony Czubkowski

Shop steward and long-standing union activist Antony Czubkowski has been sacked by energy firm E.ON, in reaction to his complaint about being subjected to a verbal attack by his boss. Antony has for the last 18 years been a leading Amicus activist, and in July 2006 convened a meeting for the five unions operating in E.ON. The manager, with a long record of anti-union and bullying behaviour, tried to sneak into the back of the meeting — Antony politely asked him to leave. Three months later, whilst representing an Amicus member at a meeting, the manager made a totally unprovoked attack, a...

The TGWU-Amicus merger: two views

On the TGWU-Amicus merger, by Tom Rigby Critical comments, by Martin Thomas On the TGWU-Amicus merger , by Tom Rigby A year ago we produced this draft of an article/statement of position on the issue of the then TGWU/GMB/AMICUS merger. In drawing up this document I consulted widely including with Jim D and especially with Tom C. The text represented our agreed position. Here are a few points from the statement of position followed by an assessment of where we now stand on the issues. The assessment is in bold. The assessment is agreed by myself and Jim. 1) This first extract deals with the...

UK trade unionists rally to support Australian workers

From Amicus: Hundreds of UK trade unionists are to protest outside the Australian Embassy this week (Thursday 30th November) at anti-worker and anti-trade union labour laws introduced by the Australian government. Nearly a year after the introduction of some of the most draconian employment legislation ever seen in the industrialised world, UK trade union members are to protest outside the Australian Embassy on the Aldwych. Amicus’ General Secretary is also writing to Australian Prime Minister, John Howard and Amicus’ activists will write to their Australian counterparts to pledge their...

NHS Pensions: Vote No to the proposals!

Pensions, Pay and Privatisation Why healthworkers should reject the NHS Pension proposals With accusations still flying around that it was overly generous pay deals that led to the current financial crisis in the NHS it might seem a little selfish for staff to be worrying about their pensions when the future of the NHS itself now seems to be at stake. But the issues of pensions and pay for NHS staff are closely tied to the privatisation agenda. One thing the big corporations are fearful off when taking on NHS staff is liability for ongoing terms and conditions, wages and pension payments...

NHS Pensions: Reject the proposals! Fight for our pension rights!

Crucial proposals affecting all NHS workers have once again appeared during the summer holidays, and once again the NHS unions have signed up to give away some of our rights, on proposals that are still only half-written. This time it is pensions. The “final proposals” for the NHS pension scheme have appeared this month, and they spell bad news for both current and future NHS workers. Most current health workers will be forced to pay an additional half percent of their wages into the scheme in order to safeguard our right to retire on a full pension at 60 – a flagrant breach of UNISON's policy...

John McDonnell campaign: Hackney, Amicus, model motion

Packed meeting in Hackney The Hackney Empire’s Marie Lloyd room was packed to capacity on Wednesday 18 October with over 100 people turning up to hear John McDonnell make his case to be leader of the Labour party. The left-wing backbencher was joined on the platform by a host of trade union leaders. Former Hackney firefighter Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, pledged his union’s support for McDonnell’s campaign for a real Labour government and condemned the neo-liberal consensus in British politics. Maria Exall of the Communication Workers Union executive described a...

Amicus left caves in

By an Amicus member The first issue of the Amicus Unity Gazette to appear since its takeover by the supporters of Amicus General Secretary Derek Simpson was published in April. Amicus Unity Gazette (AUG) is simultaneously the name of the “Broad Left” in Amicus and also its (electronic and hard-copy) publication. At the AGM of the AUG, held in February of this year, Simpson’s supporters narrowly won the contested leading positions in the AUG. In 2002 the AUG had campaigned in support of Simpson for the position of Amicus General Secretary. His defeat of the right-wing incumbent Sir Ken Jackson...

Defend the Amicus 3!

Some 30 Amicus members lobbied the March meeting of the Amicus National Executive Council (NEC) in protest at the sacking of three Amicus employees: Des Heemskerk, Jimmy Warne and Cathie Willis. The three were suspended from their jobs in Amicus in mid-September of last year. All three are leading members of “Amicus Unity Gazette”, the broad left grouping in Amicus. Des Heemskerk is a former Deputy Convenor at Fords. Until recently he was the Amicus Unity Gazette editor. Jimmy Warne is a former shop steward at Swan Hunter. He was a prominent member of the Gazette group on the Executive of the...

Merger

By a TGWU member The TGWU Broad Left met on 2 April and discussed the proposed “super-union” amalgamation between the TGWU, AMICUS and the GMB. Unfortunately the discussion was not very satisfactory, with several people arguing almost that the rule book / structure doesn’t matter, so long as the left is in control.Others were arguing that there should be no ballot on the merger without a finalised rule-book in place. This, it was argued by others, would, in practice, make the merger of the three unions impossible as the “window of opportunity” would only last for so long. The way forward is...

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