Midlands News 36

From the Regional Secretary

Welcome to our May Day newsletter, published today on International Workers Day. It is right and proper that we should commemorate and celebrate all the work done by trade union members and activists today. Much of your work goes unreported, the members you support through grievances and disciplinary's, the health and safety inspections, the negotiating committees, representing the union - indeed being the union - in your workplace. Today, we salute you all.

Rob Johnston

MidlandsTUC Regional Secretary

Welcome to Rosa and Zoe

We have been joined in the office by our two local organisers, Rosa Crawford and Zoe Parish. Rosa and Zoe are with us for a year and are concentrating on campaigning in the Black Country constituencies of Halesowen and Rowley Regis, Wolverhampton South West, Dudley South and Stourbridge.

Rosa and Zoe have quickly made their mark by appearing in several shopping areas campaigning against the governments Pasty Tax and by engaging Wolverhampton University students around issues of youth unemployment.

Rosa Crawford, local organiser, with Bakers Union General Secretary Ronnie Draper, above, leafleting against the Pasty Tax in Dudley.

Women Chainmakers 2012

Plans are well underway for the Women Chainmakers festival which this year has been moved earlier in the year and will coincide with the unveiling of a monument to the Women Chainmakers. The monument is to be erected at the Mary Macarthur Gardens, Lower High Street, Cradley Heath, with the ceremony starting at 11.30 am. The Midlands TUC is supporting the unveiling as part of the festival day.

The festival will take place on Saturday 9^th June at Bearmore Park, Cradley Heath, starting at 11.00 am. This year's entertainment will be headlined by Grace Petrie, fresh from last years' performances at Glastonbury and Tolpuddle. Grace will be joined by Stacey Blythe (pictured, below) who will sing the Chainmakers song, together with a host of local Black Country artists performing on several stages around the site.

This year will see an expanded family marquee and unions will also be holding taster sessions for adult learning. The Leftfield tent returns with trade union exhibitions and live music.

Unionlearn are liaising with trade union learning specialists and Sandwell Council Adult Learning colleagues to bring taster sessions for adults into the festival for the first time in its' new home.

This year will see a larger funfair and Sandwell Leisure Trust will be organising sports taster sessions - and hopefully we shall have a climbing wall for all aspiring mountain climbers!

There are statistics, and there are statistics.....

Every now and again we check to see how our blog is being accessed and from where in the world. It is always interesting to see which new country appears on the list, normally from the southern hemisphere these days and that is great. We have recently had hits from Columbia, Brazil and Egypt and we hope that new readers from the south will continue to revisit.

The graph above shows the peak of interest around the Pensions strike of November 30^th last year, following which we have seen the number of hits plateau at around 3,000 per month. This is a useful way of geting the TUC message out and we are cleary hitting audiences we would otherwise not reach.

And we are very pleased to see people are accessing this site from IPods, and Ipads and Android phones and the rest - but from a Playstation 3?

Have Your Say on HighPay

Have Your Say on HighPay, a campaign tackling excessive boardroom pay has been launched this week and we are encouraging you to get involved.

We all know that the chief executives of Britain's biggest companies have enjoyed staggering pay rises in recent years while average wages have stagnated. Clearly rewards for failure at the top simply must be stopped.

Most people believe that we are powerless to do anything about it...but that simply isn't the case!

Your pensions fund is a shareholder in Britain's biggest companies and gets a vote on their pay packages.

FairPensions have developed an online action tool which allows you to contact your pension fund manager directly to tell them enough is enough.

Take Action now www.fairpensions.org.uk/highpay

If you have pension savings or an ISA* then you have a stake in Britain's biggest companies and you can take action today to help change the way companies reward their top earners.

This is a unique opportunity to break down the barriers to the boardroom and make your voice heard!

*Stocks and shares ISA only

Dates for your diary

10^th May Industrial action being taken by Unite, UCU and PCS

9^th June Women Chainmakers Festival, Bearmore Park, Bearmore Road, Cradley Heath.

And don't forget the Blog......

We are publishing all our media releases on our blog: http://midlandstucmedia.blogspot.com/

This includes links to the False Economy website where cuts information is added on a daily basis:

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/

You can also follow us on Twitter @MidlandsTUC

Contact the Midlands TUC:

E: midlands@tuc.org.uk T: 0121 262 6383

Published by TUC Midlands Region, 24 Livery Street, Birmingham B3 2PA

Copyright in this publication is held by the TUC unless otherwise stated. For more copies of this newsletter contact Michelle Kesterton on tel: 0121 262 6383 or mkesterton@tuc.org.uk.

This text may also be made available, on request, in accessible formats such as Braille, audiotape and large print, at no extra cost.