Reading Trades Union Council Affiliated Trades Unions, 2016

We are pleased to report that, in 2016, the following trades unions are affiliates of the Reading Trades Union Council:

 

 

Associated Society of Locomotive

Engineers and Firemen

 

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Communication Workers' Union

 

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Fire Brigades' Union

 

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National Union of Rail, Maritime

and Transport Workers

 

*****

 

 

 

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association

 

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University and College Union

 

 

Items of Interest for Activists, Socialists and Trade Unionists!

The Reading Trades Union Council has the following items of merchandise available, related to Reading's socialist and trade union activities, past and present!

Reading Trades Union Council: In Solidarity t-shirts. Available in the following sizes: Small, Medium, Large, X-large, XX-Large. £10 (including postage).

 

*****

Lorenzo Quelch, An Old-fashioned Socialist: An Autobiography (Reading: Lorenzo Quelch Memorial Group, 1992). 117 pages. ISBN 9780951969809. £5.00 (including postage).

“But the chairman was too quick for them. He slid the Red Flag off the staff, putting it in his pocket, whilst the staff he threw in the cab stand. The fight for the stick was terrific.”

“The wages of the agricultural workers at this time were from nine shillings to ten shillings per week with no specified hours per day. The Union succeeded in getting two shillings increase of wages, the hours remaining as they were.”

Len (Lorenzo) Quelch was born into poverty in rural West Berkshire in 1862. He started work at 8, eventually becoming a skilled iron foundry worker. In the early 1880s he discovered Socialism and remained a committed Socialist until his death in 1937. This is his fascinating story of his adventures as a Socialist.

 *****

Mike Cooper and Ray Parkes, We Cannot Park on Both Sides: Reading volunteers in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 (Reading: Reading International Brigades Memorial Committee, 2000). 140 pages. ISBN 9780953544806. £9.95 – SPECIAL PRICE £6.00 (including postage).

“This was the finest and best and most important decision I’ve made in my life.” Thora Silverthorne, 1984

“I didn’t realise how close the bullets were ... they were cracking ... I remember looking up at a bush and all the leaves were falling off.” Jimmy Moon, 1996

Thora Silverthorne and Jimmy Moon were two of a small number of Reading people who volunteered to serve in the Spanish Civil War. Three Reading men died fighting in Spain, and are commemorated on the memorial which stands in the town’s Forbury Gardens.

We cannot park on both sides is the story of these volunteers and of the remarkable campaign at home to support Republican Spain. Most of this story has never been told before, and it appears here in their own words, in their letters home and in contemporary newspaper coverage.

Well illustrated with rare photographs, this is a book for anyone with an interest in Reading’s history, or in the Spanish Civil War.

***** 

Other items for sale:

• David Marshall, The Tilting Planet: Poems (London: London Voices and the International Brigade Memorial Trust, 2005), £3 (including postage).
• Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge (London:: Harper Perennial, 2006), £3 (including postage).
• Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), £3 (including postage).
• Richard Baxell, Angela Jackson and Jim Jump, Antifascistas: British and Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War in Words and Pictures (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2010), £5 (including postage).

For purchases of more than one item (or several copies of individual items), please deduct £2.00 from the price.

Please make cheques payable to the Reading Trades Union Council and send them to:

John Partington

Publicity Officer, Reading Trades Union Council

6 Jeffrey Place

Caversham Road

Reading RG1 7AY

If you have any queries, please email readingtradesunioncouncil@gmail.com.

Reading Trades Union Council and Local Unions Celebrate Diversity at Reading Pride



Cllr Sarah Hacker, Patron of Reading Pride,
Unite member and delegate to the RTUC

The Reading Trades Union Council made a presence at the Thirteenth Reading Pride festival at Kings Meadow on 3 September, joining the stalls of local unions: Unite, Unison, GMB and NASUWT. RTUC delegates, Cllr Sarah Hacker (Unite member and Patron of Reading Pride), Jan Bastable (Unite and President of RTUC) and John Partington (TSSA and RTUC Communications Officer) took pride in showing solidarity with the LGBT+ community, celebrating diversity and promoting equality.

John Partington (TSSA) and Jan Bastable (Unite) of RTUC
and Mike Dyer (Unite) at the Unite stand

The event had a party atmosphere, with music and other entertainment emanating from the Main Stage, face painting for kids and adults alike, a ‘diverse’ bar and stalls selling party attire. Alongside the fun, however, were educational and informational stands, with the NHS having strong representation covering such areas as sexual health, mental health and ambulance services.



John Partington of RTUC and TSSA at the GMB stand



The trade union presence concentrated on publicising equality and diversity in the workplace, but also addressed broader issues. The Unite stand highlighted the recent derecognition of the union by First Direct and encouraged their visitors to sign a petition of protest. Unison, GMB and NASUWT, as well as Unite, explained to enquirers the role of trade unions in bargaining collectively for improved terms and conditions of employment and setting up transparent processes around recruitment and performance reviewing. Even in workplaces which do not officially recognise trade unions for collective bargaining purposes, the ability of trade unions to represent workers in grievance procedures, covering such issues as unfair treatment, discrimination and bullying, was highlighted – issues which affect virtually all members of staff at some stage during their careers. Especially vulnerable, of course, are marginalised groups fighting against discrimination such as LGBT+ persons, minority ethnic groups, older workers, disabled persons and workers from socially disadvantaged communities. 

John Partington of RTUC and TSSA at the NASUWT stand

Other organisations attended Reading Pride, promoting their messages, such as the University of Reading, the Liberal Democrats and Thames Valley Police. Despite overcast skies and rain during periods of the day – Reading Pride 2016 was a great success and an event RTUC will happily engage with in the years ahead.



John Partington of RTUC and TSSA at the Unison stand

Joining Oxford Trades Union Council for a Public Meeting of Support for Jeremy Corbyn

Organiser: Oxford & District Trades Union Council

Venue & Date/Time: Wesley Memorial Church Hall, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford; 25 August 2015, 19.00-21.00

 

Panelists at the Pro-Corbyn Public Meeting

Speakers:

• Barry Faulkner (UNITE Political Education Coordinator)
• Caroline Glendenning (UNISON Oxford City Branch Secretary)
• Cllr Claudia Webbe (Islington councillor & Labour Party NEC member)

In the immediate aftermath of the mass shadow cabinet resignations in June 2016, the Oxford & District Trades Union Council decided to organise a public meeting of support for Jeremy Corbyn MP – an event which gained greater importance following Owen Smith MP’s challenge to Jeremy’s Labour Party leadership. On this day that ballot papers for the leadership contest arrived in the post of Labour Party members, a strong endorsement for Jeremy was offered by the Oxford Labour movement. John Partington of the Reading Trades Union Council and TSSA attended the event, bringing fraternal greetings up the Thames Valley from the Reading trade union movement.

Barry Faulkner of UNITE

The first podium speaker was Barry Faulkner of UNITE. Barry focussed on the return of the Labour Party under Jeremy to the kind of politics which drew him into the party in 1978; a grassroots movement which promotes socialism and offers an alternative to Conservative cuts. In place of austerity, Jeremy is proposing the government invest to prosper. In place of privatised railways and a creeping privatisation of the NHS, Jeremy proposes nationalisations and a health service and railway industry as public services. Richard Branson’s recent attacks on Jeremy following the latter’s exposé of overfull Virgin trains at exorbitant prices has received a backlash from disgruntled passengers across the rail network who suffer such journeys on a daily basis. Far from challenging Jeremy’s claim, Branson simply revealed his own fear of nationalisation and a loss of his cash-cow: privatised rail.

Caroline Glendenning of UNISON

The second speaker was Caroline Glendenning of UNISON. Caroline recounted her journey from workplace operative with the Royal Mail to union membership and activism to – most recently – Labour Party membership. While Conservative attacks on workers drew her into the trade union movement, it was Jeremy’s breath of fresh air as newly elected party leader in 2015 which encouraged her to become active in the Labour Party. Caroline gave voice to those on zero hours contracts, such as care assistants, who travel long spells of time between clients, pay for their own travel and only get paid per home visit. A five or six hour shift might only result in two hours’ payment. She also highlighted the wait for council housing in Oxford, the cuts to maintenance allowances for disabled persons and their carers and the outsourcing of services by local authorities. Jeremy is railing against these moves and Caroline is working for Jeremy to save public services and ensure affordable councils houses are once again built.

Cllr Claudia Webbe of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee

 

The last speaker was Islington councillor, Claudia Webbe, a newly-elected member of Labour’s governing NEC. Claudia expressed concern at the amount of suspended or excluded Labour Party members, some prevented from joining the party for Tweets or other comments – largely innocuous – which they made years before when the Labour Party did not represent their views, and others suspended from the party from as long ago as 2008! She promised a transparent process for reviewing membership applications and offered a welcoming party which thrives on grassroots activism. Claudia thanked the hundreds of thousands of new Labour Party members for joining – making Labour the largest political party in Europe – but appealed to party members to get and remain active.

Following the speakers, forty-five minutes of questions and comments were taken from the floor. The evening could have gone on beyond the 21.00 closure – and indeed it did overrun by about ten minutes – but in fairness to the venue’s staff, the evening was drawn to a close. In an expression of fraternal solidarity from the Reading Trades Union Council, John Partington invited Labour and trade union supporters in Oxford to join the pro-Jeremy ‘barnstorming’ event on 31 August at the Reading International Solidarity Centre, London Street, Reading, from 20.00-22.00.

John Partington of Reading Trades Union Council and TSSA