Hooray for Birmingham Against The Cuts

Last night we have our roughly fortnightly organising meeting of Birmingham Against The Cuts, the first since the Great Pensions Strike of 2011 !

We started with a discussion on Workfare - the compulsory work to get your benefits, which is forcing unemployed people to work without pay for an effective rate of £2.25 an hour. Some of our activists are planning a boycott and protest campaign in mid-Feb to mid March outside some of the retail outlets who are exploiting Workfare. Poundland is an example. The irony is that many of the exploited unemployed people would struggle to be able to buy a lot in the very shop which has exploited them.

And there is growing evidence that the public sector is eying up the opportunities presented by workfare. Newark council replacing an admin worker with a workfare person. 800 London Underground staff made redundant and 200 workfare people taken on. We'll be discussing the issue at our branch committee next week.

Red Pepper magazine has an excellent article on workfare in this month's edition, introduced with this harrowing quote.

'She found another placement for me at Primark. I worked from 10am to 4.30pm or 5pm with a half-hour break. They didn’t pay any money. It was nearly six months – January to June. When I finished the volunteer work I went to the manager: "Do you have any vacancies?" They said "We’ll call you when we do." I haven’t had a call.'
Karina, jobseeker placed at Primark under the Flexible New Deal







Then we moved on to the campaign against Academy Schools. Local campaign groups have had at least a partial victory in delaying the adoption of Academy status by Bournville School. Now three unions are taking strike action at Montgomery School. Again BATC is supporting the campaign.

The main discussion of the evening was over budget cuts in the council. BATC has performed brilliantly in opposing the cuts at the public consultation meetings held in each constituency. Several meetings have voted overwhelmingly for reversing the £212m cuts this year and re-instating the pay cuts under the Martini Contract. They also voted to reduce the pay of chief officers and cabinet members by the same proportion that they cut council services. More consultation meetings have been added and more BATC supporters are being mobilised.

Libraries in the city are a major focus for ourselves and BATC. The Central Library in Birmingham has this week reduced its opening hours by 25%, losing 3 hours a day. They say it is because staff need time to work on preparing to move to the new super library being built in Centenary Square. But the truth is that staffing levels have been reduced so low that basic services are being hit. Handsworth Library has reduced opening days. The local BATC group have collected 800 signatures on a petition against this. Balsall Heath Library also faces cuts in hours and a local BATC is campaigning against this.

We agreed to call a lobby of the next full council meeting on January 10th to highlight the library cuts.

Another major struggle supported by BATC is over the proposed closure of 5 Childrens Homes. Two of these are respite unites for disabled children, Charles House and Cambourne House. Charles House parents and families group has run a huge and effective campaign to save their home. The Chief Officer for Childrens Services and the Cabinet Member have had to face dozens of angry parents. Management say they have not decided yet which services will close but we now expect the announcement on January 10th, just days after the closure of the public consultation exercise. The Charles House group has been strongly supported by BATC's Stirchley and Cotteridge group - an amazing example of active local campaigning. The parents even asked for a collection for the local BATC group. There are tremendous reports on these meetings and activities on the BATC website.

We will be lobbing the council on 10th January to Save the Childrens' Homes too.

Then we discussed the closure of Shelforce, a council run factory/workshop for disabled workers. Our UNISON steward and the members there are organising the Save Shelforce campaign. BATC will be publicising their new ePetition.

Next we moved on to a couple of social events
Stirchley and Cotteridge Against The Cuts Thursday 15th December - with comedian, band, music
Birmingham Uncut Saturday 17 December.
Details on the BATC website

BATC is part of a network of anti-cuts groups in the Midlands. They meet regularly and are working on a regional conference on campaign organising skills in March 2012.

Finally, the date for the next meeting - Monday 9 January 6.30pm at the UNISON Birmingham Branch Office.

These meetings are open to anyone and if you want to become involved you would be very welcome. As you can see, UNISON is deeply involved with and strongly supported by anti-cuts campaigners throughout the city.

Graeme Horn, Joint Branch Secretary