After the summer - Lobby the TUC for joint action !

If you're a teacher looking at this post over the summer break, first of all make sure you've sent off your ballot paper with a YES YES vote for strike and non-strike action next term!

If you have lost your ballot paper or have not received one, please call the ballot hotline on 020 7380 6300 (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm) which will stay open until Friday 31 August. Returned ballot papers must be received by Electoral Reform Ballot Services by 2pm on Thursday 6 September.

The NUT Executive meets just before the TUC Congress on September 7th to hear the result and, hopefully, to put plans in place for joint action with the NASUWT. But it's not just the teaching unions that need to be taking action together! 

Since the tremendous united strike back on November 30 2011, some of the big unions meeting in Brighton for Congress have stepped back from the action needed to defend jobs, services and pensions. There will, rightly, be a lot of talk about building the national demonstration in London on October 20, but a demo alone is not enough. We don't just need to march together, we need to strike together!

That's why the  National Shop Stewards Network have called a Lobby of the TUC on Sunday 9 September, with a march to the Congress assembling at 1pm at the Level park, Union Road, Brighton BN2. It will conclude with a rally where speakers will include Bob Crow, RMT general secretary  and Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary.

For updates and transport information (including train tickets from London) go to www.shopstewards.net . 

Sign the petition calling on the TUC to take action on: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/trades-union-congress-support-the-nssn-lobby-of-the-tuc-conference-9-september-1pm-brighton#
 
Download a leaflet from http://www.shopstewards.net/PDFs/NSSN_lobbyTUC_9Sept.pdf

“We are in the fight of our lives. The shocking Beecroft report shows just how much further the bosses and the Tories want to go, with the right to hire and fire at will. We need to mobilise for the TUC demonstration on 20 October to ensure it becomes the springboard for the mass movement that can end the brutal austerity drive.” Bob Crow, RMT general secretary