Cross-post from North East Shop Stewards Network, http://nessn.org.uk/
Saturday 16 April, 10.30am-4.00pm, Working Class Movement Library Annexe, 51 Crescent, Salford M5 4WX
10.00 Doors open
10.30 Welcome – Kate Richardson (Manchester Trades Union Council)
10.45 Site conditions and the lump: why we went on strike in 1972, and how the state framed 32 North Wales flying pickets, including 24 at Shrewsbury – Dave Ayre (veteran flying picket)
11.45 John Poulson and T. Dan Smith: My Part in Their Downfall – jerry-building and corruption, then and now – Sam Webb (architect)
12.45 Lunch
1.15 We Didn’t Vote to Die at Work – Hilda Palmer (Great Manchester Hazards)
2.15 Organising for Health and Safety – Peter Farrell (Construction Safety Campaign) and Colin Trousdale (Blacklist Campaign)
3.15 Rebuilding Trades Councils and a Safety Reps’ Network
4.00 Close
The ‘Sixty-Five’ was a dodgy 65-foot ladder that led to a worker’s death in Robert Tressell’s famous novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, written over a century ago.
How much has changed on building sites since then? Given employers’ greed and the public spending cuts to pay off the bankers’ gambling debts, many of the buildings we work in are likely to become less safe and healthy, unless we get organised.
This event is for established trade union safety reps in all industries and activists who are thinking about becoming safety reps. Its aims include:
* raising the profiles of health and safety campaigns and networks;
* encouraging workplace activists to become safety reps;
* raising the issue of political trade unionism;
* helping safety reps to build a self-organised network;
* helping to build or rebuild trades union councils;
* helping to build Workers’ Memorial Day events on 28 April; and
* helping to build the Hazards Conference at Keele in September;
The day will involve short presentations, including films, for 15 minutes in each session, followed by small group and general discussions.
This the second event in Manchester TUC’s Tressell Centenary Year, following the successful exhibition of The Robert Tressell Family Papers at the Working Class Movement Library, and we are very grateful to the staff, volunteers and trustees for their support and encouragement.
The event is free, but there will be a collection. To book places, contact mtuctressell@gmail.com or 0798 487 0602
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