[IER] Ricky Tomlinson to address rally on Saturday

[Sarah Glenister]

 <http://www.tradeunionfreedom.co.uk/> cid:image001.jpg at 01CE2623.094FD220

LAUNCH RALLY: SATURDAY 23 MARCH 

1.30pm at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London NW1.


The Campaign for Trade Union Freedom (CTUF), supported by the Institute of
Employment Rights, is excited to reveal that Ricky Tomlinson will be
addressing what promises to be a large and enthusiastic crowd at this
weekend's rally.

 

Join us, Ricky, RMT General Secretary and President of CTUF Bob Crow, Unite
General Secretary Len McCluskey, CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes, IER
Chair John Hendy QC, IER President Keith Ewing, IER Director Carolyn Jones,
TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes, NUJ General Secretary Michelle
Stanistreet, NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney, Aslef
Vice-President Tosh MacDonald, Unison Assistant General Secretary Roger
McKenzie and TUC Head of Equality and Employment Rights Department Sarah
Veale at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London from 13:30 this
Saturday.

"The Labour movement needs to come together now to campaign for trade union
rights. We need to protect trade union members when they take industrial
action, to prevent them from being criminalised by the State. Without rights
at work, they will continue to imprison trade unionists, just as they did
the Shrewsbury Pickets forty years ago."

Ricky Tomlinson, actor and jailed Shrewsbury Picket


 

 

This weekend, 25 national trade unions will unite to launch a new
organisation -THE CAMPAIGN FOR TRADE UNION FREEDOM - which will bring
together workers from across all services and industries in both a head-on
challenge to those politicians advocating further legal restrictions on
union rights and in a mobilisation to roll back the anti-union laws that
have attempted to shackle working people in Britain since the 1980's.

 

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow, President of the CTUF, said:

"After 30 years of Labour, Tory and Liberal Governments taking the axe to
trade union rights, and using mass unemployment as a weapon to shackle
working people, the CTUF is about turning the tide and putting the right to
take solidarity action back on the agenda.

 

"The CTUF, already supported by over 200 local trade union organisations,
will take our movement onto the front foot against those right-wing
politicians agitating for more anti-union laws and will drive the fight to
restore the workplace rights already snatched away."

 

Sarah Veale, Head of TUC Equality and Employment Rights Department, said:

"The TUC wants to see a bonfire of the red tape that so often prevents
unions from being able to take industrial action when their members have
voted for it." 

 

Len McCluskey, UNITE General Secretary, said:

"For more than three decades our trade union rights have been cut away by
successive governments determined to silence the voice of ordinary workers.
The result has been a growing gap between rich and poor and a dramatic
decline in the wealth that goes into the pockets of working people. 

 

"The right to organise, strike and take solidarity action are fundamental
tools needed for working people to attain a fair portion of the wealth they
create.  Only by winning back our freedoms can we win a fair settlement for
working people. We support this important and timely campaign. "

 

John Hendy QC, leading advocate for workers' rights, said:

"As the government slashes and burns everything that makes Britain a
civilised country the trade unions have a vital role to play in Britain's
resistance. But legislation has tied them in red tape. The founding of the
CTUF marks the next phase in the struggle to restore trade union rights and
their freedom to lead the fight for working class people. "

 

Carolyn Jones, Director of the Institute of Employment Rights, said:

"Without free trade unions, employment rights are almost useless - difficult
to protect and increasingly expensive to enforce. Free unions protect and
promote fair rights at work."

 

Sarah Glenister

IT Development and Communications Assistant

Institute of Employment Rights

4th Floor, Jack Jones House, 1 Islington, Liverpool, L3 8EG

0151 207 5265

 

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