This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/oct/17/tuc-march-for-the-future-york-remploy-council
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| TUC March: 4. Back in business | TUC March: 4. Back in business |
| (25 days later) | |
| Brian Clark, UCATT representative and vice president of York & District Trade Union Council is cheerful: | Brian Clark, UCATT representative and vice president of York & District Trade Union Council is cheerful: |
| The York & District TUC is back with a vengeance. We've had 15 000 leaflets printed for Saturday. We're putting on rail and coach travel from York. No mean feat for an organisation that was looking at closure earlier in the year. It's full steam ahead. Unions and grassroots organisations in York are working well together since people got stuck in to get stuff done, get things moving. People are prepared to do that now. | The York & District TUC is back with a vengeance. We've had 15 000 leaflets printed for Saturday. We're putting on rail and coach travel from York. No mean feat for an organisation that was looking at closure earlier in the year. It's full steam ahead. Unions and grassroots organisations in York are working well together since people got stuck in to get stuff done, get things moving. People are prepared to do that now. |
| We've got more active , and its probably a natural reaction. Where else is there to go as a defence mechanism ? We're the only hope. People have to try and defend themselves. | We've got more active , and its probably a natural reaction. Where else is there to go as a defence mechanism ? We're the only hope. People have to try and defend themselves. |
| Clark works for York city council and the coalition Government's austerity programme has hit hard. He says: | Clark works for York city council and the coalition Government's austerity programme has hit hard. He says: |
| With tightening of budgets, they want you to do more with less, they're trying to take certain conditions off you. The cost of living has increased and there's nothing left in our house. You're always skint now when you've got two kiddies. | With tightening of budgets, they want you to do more with less, they're trying to take certain conditions off you. The cost of living has increased and there's nothing left in our house. You're always skint now when you've got two kiddies. |
By contrast, the Trade Union movement for Clark has: | By contrast, the Trade Union movement for Clark has: |
| got a good positive feel to it, I feel really optimistic in a historical sense. | got a good positive feel to it, I feel really optimistic in a historical sense. |
| The feeling is shared by colleagues Reece Gascinski (USDAW) and John Wilson (York Disabled Workers Co-Operative). Wilson is a disabled worker who, after the closing of Remploy, was assisted by the GMB to create a workers co-operative. Across the trade union movement, there is disgust at the treatment of the disabled by the current government and every activist I speak to raises the issue of Remploy closures. Wilson says: | The feeling is shared by colleagues Reece Gascinski (USDAW) and John Wilson (York Disabled Workers Co-Operative). Wilson is a disabled worker who, after the closing of Remploy, was assisted by the GMB to create a workers co-operative. Across the trade union movement, there is disgust at the treatment of the disabled by the current government and every activist I speak to raises the issue of Remploy closures. Wilson says: |
| We thought it was wrong. We fought a number of campaigns and marches to try and get the factory saved because we thought York was a unique case with higher numbers of acutely disabled employed. | We thought it was wrong. We fought a number of campaigns and marches to try and get the factory saved because we thought York was a unique case with higher numbers of acutely disabled employed. |
| Nobody listened so Wilson thought he'd try and do something about it. He describes how the GMB and UNITE unions raised £60,000 and says: | Nobody listened so Wilson thought he'd try and do something about it. He describes how the GMB and UNITE unions raised £60,000 and says: |
| We did a feasibility study on screen printing and woodwork. One of the union guys said: 'I can get some surplus wood.' If timber is a bit warped the companies throw it out so we got about £10,000 of wood given and started from there. The co-operative redeployed 10% of the 53 Remploy workforce who have since been laid off. | We did a feasibility study on screen printing and woodwork. One of the union guys said: 'I can get some surplus wood.' If timber is a bit warped the companies throw it out so we got about £10,000 of wood given and started from there. The co-operative redeployed 10% of the 53 Remploy workforce who have since been laid off. |
| Wilson says: | Wilson says: |
| The thing about Remploy was that people were treated just exactly as if they were in a factory – with decent wages, pensions, holidays, everything. The factory wasn't just where we worked, it was our whole social life. It was somewhere with people to talk to. We felt that there was somebody that could help and that we were part of a group. We weren't just ignored. That's the saddest part about what is happening now. Some of the ones with learning difficulties are easily isolated from other people. In Remploy they could help do something and feel as though they were important. When Remploy closed they said they would organise meetings and stuff but it didn't happen. | The thing about Remploy was that people were treated just exactly as if they were in a factory – with decent wages, pensions, holidays, everything. The factory wasn't just where we worked, it was our whole social life. It was somewhere with people to talk to. We felt that there was somebody that could help and that we were part of a group. We weren't just ignored. That's the saddest part about what is happening now. Some of the ones with learning difficulties are easily isolated from other people. In Remploy they could help do something and feel as though they were important. When Remploy closed they said they would organise meetings and stuff but it didn't happen. |
Youth Fight For Jobs, who are represented on York and District TUC, went to the Remploy factory in Leeds, Wilson said. They found | Youth Fight For Jobs, who are represented on York and District TUC, went to the Remploy factory in Leeds, Wilson said. They found |
| a worker there who'd come along to support a Youth Fight For Jobs event previously. He broke down crying because he was so upset that he could lose his job, and that was his life. What are they going to do? They're going to put these people on disability benefit. | a worker there who'd come along to support a Youth Fight For Jobs event previously. He broke down crying because he was so upset that he could lose his job, and that was his life. What are they going to do? They're going to put these people on disability benefit. |
| Wilson is a self-confessed member of the 'old guard' and says: | Wilson is a self-confessed member of the 'old guard' and says: |
| I don't think that people understand that every basic right that people have at work – from clean running water, to canteens to sick pay to maternity benefits to unfair dismissals - was fought for by working people. It wasn't given to them. When I started work 40 years ago, we didn't have proper doors on the toilets, we didn't have clean running water, we had no masks, no health and safety and people died. I used to work in a foundry where things were swinging around above you. People seem to forget that we didn't even have clean running water to go and drink. I think people sometimes think: what do the unions do for me? But we've helped them every step of the way. | I don't think that people understand that every basic right that people have at work – from clean running water, to canteens to sick pay to maternity benefits to unfair dismissals - was fought for by working people. It wasn't given to them. When I started work 40 years ago, we didn't have proper doors on the toilets, we didn't have clean running water, we had no masks, no health and safety and people died. I used to work in a foundry where things were swinging around above you. People seem to forget that we didn't even have clean running water to go and drink. I think people sometimes think: what do the unions do for me? But we've helped them every step of the way. |
Reece Gascinski is 20 and a newly-appointed USDAW workplace rep. He came into trade unionism when he realised that students like him who depend on part-time employment to keep their heads above water are: | Reece Gascinski is 20 and a newly-appointed USDAW workplace rep. He came into trade unionism when he realised that students like him who depend on part-time employment to keep their heads above water are: |
| part of a precarious economic group in unstable forms of employment. When I started my job, at the place where I work, me and a number of students were facing the same disciplinary procedures and we didn't know what our rights were. I became a trade unionist to try and encourage younger people to get involved. One of the campaigns that we are running in York is a workers' rights awareness in the student unions to encourage younger people. There is an alternative and there is someone who is standing up for you whether you think you're alone or not. | part of a precarious economic group in unstable forms of employment. When I started my job, at the place where I work, me and a number of students were facing the same disciplinary procedures and we didn't know what our rights were. I became a trade unionist to try and encourage younger people to get involved. One of the campaigns that we are running in York is a workers' rights awareness in the student unions to encourage younger people. There is an alternative and there is someone who is standing up for you whether you think you're alone or not. |
| Like every trade unionist, Gascinski has an acute awareness of the impact upon community that austerity is having. He's angry at the effects on his grandmother: | Like every trade unionist, Gascinski has an acute awareness of the impact upon community that austerity is having. He's angry at the effects on his grandmother: |
| Nana's worked her whole life. The pensions she's got is appalling. Since austerity came in she had to choose if she would have the heating on or if she would eat. When you've worked your whole life you deserve better. This is a global crisis and we need a different response. | Nana's worked her whole life. The pensions she's got is appalling. Since austerity came in she had to choose if she would have the heating on or if she would eat. When you've worked your whole life you deserve better. This is a global crisis and we need a different response. |
He thinks it important that young people take part in the march and stand beside lifelong members like Wilson. Despite his youth, Gascinski believes: | He thinks it important that young people take part in the march and stand beside lifelong members like Wilson. Despite his youth, Gascinski believes: |
| If the TUC can get public opinion against austerity we can better the system. Its not just about my generation, it's for generations to come. | If the TUC can get public opinion against austerity we can better the system. Its not just about my generation, it's for generations to come. |
| What do you think? Will Saturday's march help recovery and bring the north more sustainable jobs? | What do you think? Will Saturday's march help recovery and bring the north more sustainable jobs? |
| The other three pieces in the series are here, here and here. | The other three pieces in the series are here, here and here. |
| Ann Czernik is a freelance photojournalist specialising in activism in the north of England. All photographs within the text are hers. | Ann Czernik is a freelance photojournalist specialising in activism in the north of England. All photographs within the text are hers. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. | |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Enter your email address to subscribe. |