ARMS Mersey - change of date of next meeting

 

The next meeting of the ARMS Mersey group has been postponed to:

► Friday 8 September.
► 11.00am to 1.00pm.
► UNITE building, Jack Jones House, Liverpool.

This is a committee meeting but all members are welcome to attend, with the proviso that if there's a vote, only committee members can participate.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Renewed Attacks on the Triple Lock

Update on the recent Change.org petition about the triple lock: 
"We are preparing for fresh attacks on the Triple Lock in the autumn".
This petition was signed by 329,834 people; see the full update here.

What opponents of the triple lock fail to understand is that it is applied to one of the lowest retirement pensions of countries with economies comparable to the UK. Left alone, the lock would very slowly compensate for that discrepancy. However, if you're a rich Tory, you'll think why waste money on people who are economically inactive anyway?

'Economically inactive', except for the money pensioners spend in shops, pubs (especially me!) and other hospitality outlets, holidays when they can be afforded, and even bestowed upon children and grandchildren to spend. Such recycling of money is essential to a successful economy and across the whole country adds up a huge amount being invested by pensioners in goods and services. But Tories are so blinkered that all they can see is the bill to the Treasury, while conveniently forgetting that the pensioners paid into that self-same Treasury throughout their entire working lives, and continue to contribute through income tax and, where applicable, VAT and duty on all taxable purchases that they make.

The people who ARE a drain on the economy are the billionaires and multimillionaires who salt away fortunes abroad in shady tax havens, with many shielding behind the legalised tax fraud of non-dom status,

Next ARMS Mersey Meeting 21.7.23

To all PCS ARMS members in the Merseyside and Halton area:

you are cordially invited to the next PCS Merseyside ARMS meeting.

•  Friday 21st July.

•  11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.

•  PCS office, 3rd floor, Jack Jones House (UNITE building), Islington, Liverpool city centre.

YOUR VOICE ~ YOUR UNION

Zero hours contracts - a personal view

My grandfather was gassed aged 15 or 16 in the trenches during the First World War. The lifelong ill-health that resulted made finding work hard but he never gave up trying. He'd go from his Kirkdale home to the Liverpool docks every day to try to get a single day's work. He never managed to because he refused to pay the foreman a bribe from the meagre wages that were on offer, partly on the principle that a man shouldn’t have to pay to get a day’s work, and partly because he had a family to keep. He died in his 40s during the Second World War from an illness related to his First World War injuries.

What a way to treat an old soldier who had ruined his health for his country - and what a way to treat a worker. That's the world the Tories want to take us back to with their attacks on employment rights, with "no fault dismissals"; we have them already in the form of redundancy, but they actually want a US-style "hire and fire" regime because that’s a lot cheaper. Zero hours contracts take us precisely to what my grandfather had to face in his struggle to get just a single day’s work. This is even further than Mrs Thatcher dared go.

We can't allow this.

(I first posted this on Facebook eight years ago today)

Hancock: the normalisation of hypocrisy

I was listening to the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 yesterday and, while there were callers demanding that Hancock should resign, others were saying that it is a private matter so leave him alone. They were completely missing the point. If Hancock had been having an affair with someone who had no connection whatsoever with his department, then the worst he would have done is ignore his own distancing guidelines.

But even that is not a simple matter: apart from breaking the rules he helped draw up and which he exhorted us to obey, which is hypocritical enough, last year he said he was “left speechless” after the government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson allowed his lover to visit his home, in breach of social distancing rules at the time, declaring that Ferguson consequently had no option but to resign. The fact that he thought an apology for doing the same thing would be enough to save his ministerial career compounds the hypocrisy of both him and this government with their blatant “one rule for you and none for us” attitudes. It's another Barnard Castle, and Johnson – an utter weakling with no leadership skills – was yet again letting a mate get away with actions for which ordinary people have been punished.

But it goes further than that. Ms Coladangelo was on the DHSC (Department for Health & Social Care) Board, whose job is to oversee the running of the department right to the very top. How intensely would she scrutinise his actions while she was his lover? How far has her input into the board compromised their work? How far has she influenced their deliberations because of her relationship with the boss? The other question remaining is how she, an old friend of Hancock from university, got her DHSC job in the first place? Claims that her recruitment was all above board are looking increasingly threadbare.

As a former trade unionist in the civil service, I know that if people had conducted an affair actually in the workplace, they would probably be spoken to very firmly and if they persisted, would almost certainly face disciplinary action, possibly leading to dismissal. That's not to say you couldn't have relationships with colleagues, but you had to keep your activities off the premises and in your own time – which is perfectly reasonable.

If DHSC employees had behaved in the same way as their boss, they wouldn't have got off so lightly. Yes, he has resigned as a minister, but he is still an MP on £81,932 a year, with an “all you can claim” expenses regime and a pension scheme generous beyond the wildest dreams of most of us. Despite his resignation, he won't be queueing at the Jobcentre.

I'm hoping that this resignation, which Johnson thought he had prevented by firmly announcing that the matter was closed, is the first sign that the British people are getting sick the corruption, cronyism and double standards that are the hallmarks of this thoroughly incompetent and self-serving government.

► Here is a post on the Rhymes & Routes blog which approaches the issue from another angle.

Neville Grundy
ARMS Mersey

ARMS Merseyside Group - AGM 2021

To all ARMS members in Merseyside and Halton:
You are invited to participate in our 2021 Annual General Meeting as follows:

• Date: Thursday 11th March 2021.

• Time: 10.00 a.m. to midday.

• Place: by zoom. The link will be e-mailed to you closer to the time.

Nominations and motions
Nominations are called for:

Chair

Vice Chair

Secretary

Organiser

Treasurer

Committee (4)

Auditors (2)

Please send nominations and motions to the secretary, Dave Owens, (davegowens@hotmail.com) by Monday 22nd February.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Grenfell - a victim of official policies

We'd only previously seen sights like this in disaster movies, not in our capital city 

When I got up on 14th June 2017, I was as usual listening to Radio 4 and heard a mention of a tower block fire in West London. As ordinary fires don't usually make the national news, I thought this must of a different order; switching on the BBC TV News channel, I was shocked to see the unfolding of the Grenfell disaster which claimed the lives of 72 people who could reasonably have expected to be safe in their own homes. It's not an exaggeration to say that I spent most of that day watching the news in horror and disbelief.

In the aftermath, politicians and civic leaders said all the right things and various pledges were made by the Tory government of Theresa May. Sympathy was expressed, promises of a full investigation were made and the standard, but almost meaningless, pledge that lessons would be learnt was trotted out.

Regrettably, once the immediate shock had died down and the attention of the news media had moved onto other issues, the official response slipped into a lower gear and now, more than three and a half years later, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in unsafe homes. Patrols were introduced in buildings with unsafe cladding to give advance warning of fires breaking out, and the government asserts that this has cost leaseholders on average £137 per month, although one woman in Bromley told the BBC they'd cost her more than £300 a month - £11,700 so far over the last three years - which she can't afford to pay much longer.

Another effect on leaseholders has been that their flats have become unsellable, which is a major problem for those who want to move out - unsurprisingly, under the circumstances - and those who need to move, perhaps for employment or family reasons. This must be a major blight on their lives.

However, a vital concern is the continuing danger. The government has announced a new £30 million fund "to fund fire alarms for private and social sector buildings over 18 metres with unsafe cladding and with a Waking Watch", but what they haven't said, but which is nonetheless essential, is that this can only be a stop-gap measure prior to the total removal of all dangerous cladding.

A Labour proposal will, if passed, force the government to establish the extent of the cladding scandal and ensure that those responsible pay for rectifying it, not the leaseholders, and a number of frustrated Tories have declared that they intend to support it.

How did an advanced country with a stable, long-established system of government end up in the situation that contractors could with impunity use materials that some of them have admitted they knew were unsafe?

I blame "the bonfire of the regulations", a particularly telling phrase in this context. I can recall that Tory governments ever since the time of Thatcher were reluctant to introduce any new regulations on the grounds that they - allegedly - stifled business, initiative and innovation. There was a requirement on any minister who introduced a new regulation to find two to abolish.

I believe this created a culture of disdain for regulations in general that empowered some companies and contractors to cut costs by circumventing them. After all, if the government views them as obstacles, why should anyone else take them seriously? Consequently, lip service was paid to them and false claims were made about the safety of construction materials based on rigged tests. This much has become apparent during the course of the Grenfell enquiry.

I'd like to hope that the folly of indiscriminately scrapping regulations and rubbishing those that remain would, after such a horrendous disaster, be consigned to the past as a criminal lapse of judgement. The routine response about learning lessons is nothing less than an insult to those who died, were injured or were rendered homeless having lost all their possessions - unless it is followed by decisive action. So far, what we have seen is far too little, far too late.

If there were a scintilla of real humanity and empathy among those charged with dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy, I'd expect them to be hanging their heads in shame at the complete inadequacy to date of the official response at every level. Contrast the £30 million fund with the billions that have been squandered during the pandemic giving contracts to government cronies for work they have proved wholly incapable of carrying out and you will understand how utterly shameless and pathologically uncaring this shower that we call a government really is.

Neville Grundy
ARMS Mersey

Is it last orders for our environment?

 A personal reflection

When I was a child in the 1960s, I asked my parents what happened to the rubbish after the binmen had collected it. They explained landfill to me, so I then asked what happened when they ran out space. They told me it would never happen, but I do remember that I wasn't entirely convinced by their answer. In my teens, I became concerned about how we were using plastic, especially when I learnt how long it would take to break down. Even then I envisaged landfill sites being filled for centuries to come with a material that had perhaps been used just once.

As a student in the mid-1970s, I remember reading in a science magazine about the how the greenhouse gases we were mass-producing would, if unchecked, lead to a general warming of the atmosphere with severe consequences for all life on Earth, humans, animals and plants alike. My first awareness of the Greenhouse Effect was thus around 45 years ago.

I am not claiming any special gift of prescience. On the contrary, I am simply stating that knowledge of the situation into which we are being inexorably sucked is not new. If a child could surmise that profligate disposal of unrecyclable rubbish was not permanently sustainable, although those were not the terms I used at the time, I can see no sensible reason for the apparent ignorance or indifference of national leaders all over the world. If scientists' warnings about global warming were available to everyone nearly half a century ago, there really is no good reason why the world didn't begin to act decades before now.

I do understand that many politicians are either incapable or unwilling to take the long-term view, perhaps for electoral reasons, or because it doesn't fit in with their own agendas, which can be self-aggrandisement as with Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro or Lukashenko, or cost-cutting, even though the costs of tackling pollution and climate change become hugely more expensive the longer you leave it. Unless we get our act together, at some point the question will be whether action on climate change is unaffordable or - perhaps worse - pointless because we're too late and it has become irreversible. It's my opinion that the human race may face that dilemma within the lifetime of our current younger generations.

Another obstacle is the problem that too many people have only a basic understanding of what constitutes a fact. Early in the Trump presidency, when faced with information the administration didn't accept, a government spokesperson responded, “We have alternative facts.” This is a ridiculous statement because, logically, something is either a fact or it isn't, but it seems to me that people increasingly decide what they want to believe in and then seek out anything that seems to corroborate their chosen preconception, a mindset that has been greatly enabled by the internet. This has led to the erroneous conclusion that climate change is a matter of opinion even though the scientific conclusions are undeniable: there is always some populist chancer on the internet who will propound a wholly unsubstantiated alternative view, often plausibly presented but wholly lacking in any real evidential rigour.

Trump's approach to climate change is a dangerous example of such thinking, which is partly determined by a reluctance to commit time, energy and money to actions that would not bear fruit until long after his presidency would have ended, even if he had won a second term, and partly by the fact that he is an unintelligent, vain man who sees himself as a genius and values his own gut reactions and guesses accordingly, such as disinfectant as a treatment for COVID-19.

Anyone who is aged in their 50s upwards will have noticed the effects of global warning. To give just one example: as a child and young adult, I can remember standing by bonfires on 5th November with my front warm as toast and my back freezing. Nowadays, the month of November is never that cold and I rarely have to wrap up in the way I used to.

In the 1980s, I decided to subscribe to Greenpeace, my longest continuous subscription after my trade union and CND, but sometimes it feels no more than a gesture, probably because like a lot of people I find the challenges that we face daunting. It is dispiriting to realise that there has never been anything to stop the human race collectively taking action much sooner: the information has been out there for a long time and arguments of cost fail because they will multiply massively the longer we leave it.

To make a comparison to a house: a few tiles slipping on your roof can be fixed without too much expense, but the longer you leave it, the hole gets bigger, the damage spreads to the beams underneath and then the ceilings until finally the whole roof caves in. The Earth is way past the few tiles stage but we are not at the total collapse stage – not just yet anyway.

Neville Grundy
ARMS Mersey

Veganism

My name is Lynn and I identify myself as an activist and a vegan, who is politically aware and a strong supporter of the trade union movement. What is an activist? Well I believe an activist is someone who actively wants to stimulate a change in the world. We all know that pointing fingers and trying to change others is an endless job. We create the world we live in. If we want to change what we don’t like in the world, we must start by changing what we don’t like about ourselves. 

We are in the midst of a global crisis, most people still don’t realise this, and that we are causing the crisis. Many of us who are aware that we are causing the crisis don’t know what to do about it. I believe we have to strive to live harmoniously with the earth and, with this shift in consciousness we have the potential to save our planet.

In my childhood like so many others I lived at home with my family and ate what was put in front of me. When I became active in my first trade union branch I realised that I couldn’t strive to improve the lot of just humans because other living sentient beings were also being abused.

I loved animals and I was against animal cruelty yet on the other hand I paid to have animals mutilated, tortured and killed. I was told and thought that I needed meat for protein and cow’s milk for calcium. I had even been taken in by the marketing material that animals were treated “humanely” before they became a neatly wrapped package on the supermarket shelf. I wondered what was cruel about eating dairy or eggs.

After reading a lot about the subject and talking to other animal rights activists I went vegetarian, I was 18 and I couldn’t justify killing and eating animals for health reasons. I wondered why we allowed this to happen as a society and when I couldn’t find a better reason than taste, I knew I could never go back to contributing to such unnecessary violence against innocent beings. Then I learned that there was at least as much cruelty in dairy, eggs and other animal products. I knew being vegetarian wasn’t enough and I needed to be vegan. 

You probably think vegans are extreme. Yet when you discover, as I did, that we can be far healthier and are likely to live longer lives without eating animal products you realise it’s not the truth that we need to eat animals and animal products to survive.

Billions of animals are killed every year for human consumption after living confined in horrible conditions on farms and factory farms and enduring untold extremes of suffering. This fact alone is good reason for any compassionate person to become a vegan. Meanwhile , from the individual health perspective, a vegan diet has been proven to prevent serious illnesses. Also the terrible toll that eating meat, fish and dairy takes on our planet’s air, water, soil and whole ecosystem is another very good reason to be vegan.

I now look at an animal and see a person, a non-human person, who has their own life, desires, thoughts and feelings, just like I do. It has enriched my view of life on this world.

I also feel much healthier, and have more energy than I did before. I have perfect blood test results, and haven't even had as much as a sore throat in four years. I feel better every day knowing I am walking a far more peaceful path than the one I was on before. But I wanted to do more than just change my own life – I wanted to raise awareness of animal rights and lead others towards their own vegan journey. I have learned a lot during my vegan life, firstly that animals aren’t voiceless. They scream and cry, but most people don’t listen. We live in a world that has conditioned us to only care about a few species, while ignoring, or even worse, justifying and contributing to the suffering of others.

Animals are not ours to use for food, clothing, laboratory experimentation, entertainment, or any other exploitative purpose. Some may say a vegan diet is difficult to follow. What does difficult mean?

How difficult is it to suffer and die from heart disease caused by a diet of high unsaturated fats and cholesterol? Still, many people would choose to go through invasive bypass surgery or have a breast, colon, or rectum removed and take powerful pharmaceutical drugs for the rest of their lives rather than change their diets because they think veganism is drastic and extreme.

How difficult is it for the beings who suffer degrading confinement and cruel slaughter, dying for our dining convenience? How difficult is it for all of us to be confronted with the effects of global warming, deforestation, species extinction, water, soil, and air pollution that are a direct result of raising confined animals for food.

How difficult is it for us to endure being hurt and abused, being lied to, worrying about money and security, experiencing mental and physical illnesses and not knowing what is in store for us next?

We are disconnected from war, destruction of the environment, extinction of species, global warming, and even domestic violence. You can only abuse and exploit others if you feel disconnected from them and have no idea about the potency inherent in your own actions. If you feel connected, you know that it’s you, as well as other living things, who will suffer from the suffering you inflict.

The choices we make about what to eat are political and economic decisions that affect our mental and physical health. It is an indisputable fact that a vegan diet causes less harm to ourselves, to animals, to plants, and to the earth. To say that what you choose to eat is nobody else’s business is to belittle yourself and deny the impact that your actions have upon the lives of others.

The biggest consumer of fresh water is the meat and dairy industry. It is also responsible for most of the water pollution. The livestock industry is the single biggest contributor to global warming, as it creates far more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. There are more cows, most hidden from our view, in the United States than there are human beings. By enslaving these animals and abusing them through lifelong torture and degradation, we deprive them of their freedom and happiness.

How can we ourselves hope to be free or happy when our own lives are rooted in depriving others of the very thing we value most in life - the freedom to pursue happiness? If you want to bring more peace and happiness into your own life, the way to do so is to stop causing violence and unhappiness in the lives of others. All life is scared, all life is connected, how we behave towards others and our environment reveals more than anything else our inner state of mind.

Would you say you harbour destructive emotions like hate, anger or the desire to do violence - no - so do you cultivate the opposite state of mind? In that case you will want to stop the abuse and as you now realise the truth and the reality of the choices you make. I hope you feel compassion and the willingness to change for all our sakes.

I end with a quote which I love:

The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. Humans have it within their means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter. Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of conscience, thus helping to bring the collective consciousness to life.

Norman Cousins, journalist and peace activist.

Lynn Killoran
ARMS Mersey

Liverpool City Region COVID-19 rules 14.10.20

For convenience, I have reproduced the new rules that apply to all of Merseyside and Halton from tomorrow, 14th October 2020. From the BBC news website.

Our brand new banner!

 The new ARMS Mersey banner has arrived at last. Now all we need is a demo, rally or picket line for its public debut. (Click on picture to see a larger version)

Solidarity with HMRC cleaners

HMRC must take urgent action to resolve the dispute between PCS members employed as cleaners at HM Revenue and Custom’s Birmingham and Merseyside sites and their employer, ISS. Send a message to HMRC’s CEO so they know how many of us are behind these workers.

Please sign this petition.

TV licences: ask your MP to support the Early Day Motion

3.7 million UK pensioners over 75 will have to pay for their TV licence from 1st August as the BBC’s decision to means-test this benefit is enacted, meaning that only over 75s who are on Pension Credit will get the free TV licence.

This decision will push more than 50,000 people into direct poverty and mean that hundreds of thousands more will have to choose between their only source of information and contact with the outside world or food, heating and other essentials.

The National Pensioners Convention would encourage you to write to your MP encouraging them to support the Early Day Motion #747.

You can find your local MP's details on this link.

EDM #747 in full
That this House supports the urgent reversal of the decision to make over-75s pay for TV licences during the covid-19 outbreak; notes with concern that licenses will have to be paid for from August 2020; believes that responsibility for funding free TV licences should not have been handed over by the Government to the BBC; highlights that loneliness amongst the over 75s has worsened as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; further highlights that stripping the over-75s of their free TV licenses will exacerbate loneliness; and calls on the Government to reconsider the issue as a matter of urgency.

PCS Pay 2020

ARMS Mersey members, like ARMS members all over the country, have helped previous PCS campaigns to encourage our working fellow members to take part in union ballots. Here's a brief update about this year's pay claim:

► Last month the government announced a disgraceful pay remit for 2020. PCS members have kept the country running during the pandemic and they deserve a fair pay rise. On 30 June the union will step up the pay campaign by launching a petition on the government website. To find out more, join the Facebook Live event on 2 July.
(From the PCS website)

► There is a short video on PCS pay here by General Secretary Mark Serwotka. The PCS pay page on the national website is here.

An example of how civil service pay has fallen behind

I've done some calculations to show how badly working PCS members have fallen behind the cost of living. I've based it on my own grade (EO), my salary when I left (£24,000 in 2008) and my department (DWP), but it will be very similar in other grades and departments.

How DWP EO pay has fallen behind inflation 2008-2019

DWP EO max 2008	£24,000.00
DWP EO max 2019	£26,892.00
DWP EO max adjusted for inflation 2008-2019 (according to the Bank of England inflation calculator).	£32,263.36
Difference	- £5,371.36

• In this example, EO spending power has shrunk by £5,371.36 (16.64%) in relation to inflation.
• As a comparison, I decided to check how MPs have fared over the same period.

MP's pay 2008-2019

MP pay 2008	£61,820.00
MP pay 2019	£79,468.00
MP hypothetical pay 2019 with same % rise as EOs since 2008	£69,276.37

• This shows that if MPs had been awarded the same percentage increases as a DWP EO, they would be £10,191.63 per year worse off (£195.99 per week).
• To put it the other way round, if EOs in this example had received the same percentage pay rise as MPs, they would be £3,959.37 better off (£76.14 per week).

MPs usually argue that they have no say over their pay as it is determined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). While this is true, it is disingenuous because the existence and remit of IPSA was created by the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, voted for by ... MPs.

 All in this together? 

ARMS Mersey first social

Earlier this year on the 16th January, ARMS Mersey held its first social event in the Lion Tavern, Moorfields, Liverpool. It was an opportunity for members to socialise and to listen to a varied selection of songs, some political and social, performed by Helen Armstrong, Jane Kearley and Neville Grundy.
We had a good time and hope to do something similar again when lockdown rules permit.

♦ For interest: the Lion Tavern is CAMRA Liverpool & Districts Pub of the Year 2020.

Tell the Attorney General to act on arms trade corruption

After two years of inaction from the previous Attorney General, the Government's new chief legal advisor has the chance to act on corruption charges linked to an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Here's your chance to demand a prosecution goes ahead.

In 2010 a British company called "GPT Special Project Management", a subsidiary of Airbus, agreed a £2 billion deal to supply communications equipment to the Saudi Arabian military. A whistle-blower at GPT uncovered evidence that the company used tens of millions of pounds of illicit payments and gifts to secure the deal.

In 2018 the UK's Serious Fraud Office requested a prosecution, yet nearly two years on, it is still waiting for approval from the Attorney General to move forward with the case.

A new Attorney General was appointed this month. Will you call on her to give consent for a prosecution?

In 2006, Tony Blair blocked a corruption investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into BAE’s corrupt multi-billion pound arms deals with Saudi Arabia out of the interests of 'national security' (read: trading interests). Your action will make it harder for them to sweep this one under the carpet.

Ask the Attorney General to prioritise the rule of law and the UK's international obligations over arms company interests.

From CAAT (Campaign Against Arms Trade)

PCS FCO dispute - show your support

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell on the FCO Interserve picket line

Steve Ion has sent a message of support for the PCS FCO Interserve 4-week strike action on behalf the ARMS Mersey group via Helen Flanagan, PCS industrial officer. More details of the dispute are here.

In response, Helen has asked ARMS (and other) members to sign the e-action here, to ask their MPs sign this EDM here and write to the Foreign Secretary about the issues.

International solidarity: support sacked Indonesian workers

In May 2016, the agrofood conglomerate Gunung Sewu Group announced the immediate closure of its tapioca-based starch factory in Lampung, Indonesia, with no prior notice and without any negotiations with the union, SBMUJA. Four years on, Gunung Sewu still refuses to negotiate with the union to remedy these violations of fundamental rights: the withdrawal of union recognition and the workers' right to freedom of association which accompanied the overnight closure.

In response to the union’s ongoing campaign for negotiation and recognition of their rights, the company is now vindictively demanding that workers repay outstanding loans to the company, despite the fact that when the factory closed Umas Jaya Agrotama did not pay their final month’s salary! Many workers occasionally relied for survival on soft loans from the company due to the low wages.

Umas Jaya Agrotama is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gunung Sewu Group's Great Giant Pineapple. Great Giant Pineapple is one of the world's largest pineapple producers, whose canned products are exported worldwide. Despite its international reputation and its claim to be working for "individual and collective empowerment" ("That's why we still have employees who have been with us for 20 and 30 years"), Gunung Sewu Group ruined the lives of hundreds of families in a rural community in Lampung when it ordered the immediate closure of the factory. The casual workers on precarious contracts exploited for years were abruptly terminated and tossed on the scrapheap.

With the support of the IUF, SBMUJA continues to fight for their rights. Click here to send a message to top management of the parent company insisting that it remedy these violations of fundamental rights by entering into good faith negotiations with the union.

Civil Service Compensation scheme age discrimination

A message from the AGS:

PCS is looking for ordinary and associate and retired members willing to bring cases following an employment tribunal ruling that the 6 months cap on compensation for redundancy for those over their civil service pension age within the Civil Service Compensation Scheme is not proportionate and is therefore direct age discrimination.

If you think you may have been affected please click on the following link for more information here.

Please continue to check the ‘News’ page of the PCS website for updates.

John Moloney

Assistant General Secretary

Campaign: January edition

Campaign is CND's national journal.

The UK government has announced today it is formally reporting Iran for not abiding by its commitments to the nuclear deal it signed in 2015, while the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would support a 'Trump deal' instead. The crisis is certainly deepening; read more in this month's magazine. But we don't just have bad news for you! Read as well about progress on the international treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Read Campaign: January edition
Download Campaign: January edition

In peace,
Sara Medi Jones
Campaign editor