“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
In an astonishing and genuinely sad day for the trade uni0n movement, the TUC have teamed up with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to issue a statement supporting unpaid work.
The TUC have sided with the bosses to sing the praises of the Tory Traineeship programme. This unpaid scheme can involve up to five months full-time work, sometimes for giant profit making companies like BT or Virgin. The placements are used to ‘prepare’ young people to be Apprentices, although there is no guarantee that they will be offered even this at the end of the scheme.
Just like Margaret Thatcher’s despised YTS schemes, Traineeships represent a wealth grab by greedy employers. Once companies recognised they had to pay young people whilst they trained – now the tax payer will pick up the tab whilst the worker gets nothing. And just like the YTS programme was used as political cover to strip benefits from 16/17 year olds, Traineeships will be used to undermine social security payments for those under 25. George Osborne has already announced that under 22 year olds who refuse a Traineeship will soon face the prospect of six month’s workfare somewhere else instead.
Despite Osborne’s announcement, the TUC say in the statement that Traineeships should be voluntary. As claimants themselves know, very little is voluntary such is the current mass benefit sanctioning culture at the DWP. This doesn’t seem to bother the scabs running the TUC who seem to have decided that Traineeships aren’t workfare, and even if they would rather they were voluntary they appear to back them anyway. This is an appalling attack on not just young unemployed people, but all workers who will see their own wages and conditions undermined by an army of unpaid staff.
It is hardly surprising that the CBI are salivating at the prospect of this huge subsidy for business at the expense of the working class. Tory Skills Minister Nick Boles has joined them saying he is ‘delighted’ that the TUC support this scheme. They no doubt dream of a day when they don’t have to pay people under 25 at all. That day may not be far away and that the TUC are helping to bring it closer is as shocking as it is shameful.
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Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
Wouldn’t be so bad if there were genuine skills to be learned and a realjob at the end of it.
It would still be bad, because traineeships used to be paid for. We shouldn’t lower our expectations, giving up the hope of keeping established rights — even the minimal right to be paid — and accept the bad just because it’s not ‘so bad’. They want us to think that times have changed, we have to accept some austerity, workers’ rights are old-fashioned and no longer practical, etc. This is the road to ruin.
katherine
what’s that old series of words oh, yes trades union movement…now a symbolic non-movement excepting for chained to the movements of govts… and for a small fee we can join and get access to their debt management services, i lieu of higher benefits/wages and real rights …very progressive…and what jimmy reid called “alienation”, “what do you call that thing you used to get @ the end of the week, dad” “wages son, wages, you’ll get them soon, this yr, next yr, or perhaps even the yr after”…
“you’re on your own brothers and sisters, and don’t forget next weeks dues, solidarity comrades”…
Fuck em, OBD, up the ares. Dry.
Traditional trades unions aint worthy of our support, let alone dues any more
All the more reason to join non-traditional unions like the IWW or IWA/SolFed as they are unions run by workers for workers, so it is always the interests of the workers that are paramount.
Trade union movement?! … more like a bowel movement 🙂
“HS2, THE NEW RAILWAY OF DEATH”
FORGET THE OLD DEATH RAILWAY THAT RAN ON THE BURMA THAI SYSTEM AND CONCENTRATE ON THE LATEST CONTROVERSIAL MINDSET OF A GROUP OF HIGHLY PAID IDIOTS………………….
THEY USED TO RECKON THAT FOR EVERY SLEEPER LAID, IT REPRESENTED THE REMOVAL OF A PERSONS LIFE………………..
NOTHING HAS APPARENTLY CHANGED.
WHILE FAMILIES SEEK TO FIND CRUMBS HURRIEDLY SWEPT OFF THE TABLECLOTH OF THE ASHES OF THE WELFARE STATE, DISABLED AND THE POOR ARE SENT TO EARLY GRAVES AND THE LEVEL OF RICH / POOR DISCONTENT REACHES FEVER PITCH, ONLY THE MENTALLY INSANE DARE DREAM THIS UP……………………….
COUNTLESS BILLIONS SQUANDERED ON A ROAD TO NOWHERE?
“HOW MANY LIVES DOES IT TAKE TAKE TO KNOCK A FEW MINUTES OFF A TRAIN JOURNEY?”
“HOW MANY BENEFITS STOLEN FROM THOSE WHO ARE IN NEED, THE DISABLED AND POOR”
THE ABUSE OF WEALTH AND POWER HAS REACHED A SICKENING CRESCENDO………
OUR HALLS OF GOVERNMENT ARE FILLED, EVERY INCH, WITH THE INCREASING STENCH OF CORRUPTION.
WHO IS REALLY REPRESENTING THE VIEWS OF THE ELECTORATE AND WHO IS REALLY REPRESENTING THE VIEWS OF THE SECRET HANDSHAKE, UNDER THE TABLE, BIG BROWN ENVELOPE CONSORTIUMS?.
THEY ARE TAKING THE PISS, BIG TIME!
ANOTHER RAIL NETWORK WILL NOT BRING PROSPERITY TO ANYONE UP NORTH, MOST TRANSPORT IS DONE BY ROAD………………………
MY FAMILY AND I CANNOT HARDLY AFFORD TO GO ON THE EXISTING RAIL NETWORK, LET ALONE THE PROPOSED “GLITZY EXPRESS”
THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO STAND TO GAIN FROM THIS DISGRACEFUL SHOW OF OPULENCE ARE THE ONES PULLING THE STRINGS, THE LOBBYISTS WHO RUN RINGS ROUND OUR PARLIAMENTARIANS GREED.
AN INQUIRY SHOULD BE MADE IMMEDIATELY INTO WHO IS TO GAIN FROM THE CONTRACTS AND THE SLIMY LINKS THEY HAVE TO INFLUENTIAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEES.
GRANTED THERE ARE A FEW ON THE BENCHES WHO PURPORT TO CHAMPION THE OLD SOCIALIST VIEWS, BUT THIS IS A REHEARSED RHETORIC TO KEEP THEM AFLOAT OF THE PUBLIC THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT.
OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOTHING SHORT OF A GENTLEMENS CLUB OF SECRET HANDSHAKES TO ELEVATE PERSONAL FINANCES.
I HAVE SEEN IT AT LOCAL PLANNING LEVELS IN MY OWN TOWN OF LONELY SCARBOROUGH. BROWN ENVELOPES STUFFED WITH CASH TO BRING ABOUT FORTUNE TO THE INTERESTED PARTIES.
WESTMINSTER IS NO DIFFERENT, THE STAKES AND THE GAMBLE ARE MUCH HIGHER.
ASK THE TORY PARTY DONORS WHO ARE BEING REWARDED BY PEERAGES AS WE SPEAK?
“YOU CROSS MY PALM WITH SILVER AND I WILL CROSS YOURS”
THE FALLOUT FROM THIS HARE BRAINED RAILWAY FIASCO IS APPARENT ON EVERY MAIN STREET OF EVERY TOWN OR CITY IN THE UK……….POVERTY…..
IS A SHINY NEW RAILWAY THAT CUTS MINUTES OFF A JOURNEY TIME, PARAMOUNT TO PUTTING A MEAL ON A PLATE AND HAVING A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS?
THESE JOKERS SEEM TO THINK SO!
GIVE A WAVE FROM YOUR BEAUTIFUL NEW CARRIAGES TO THE REAL FACE OF THOSE AT THE SIDE OF THE TRACKS, THE UNDERPRIVILEGED, THE HOMELESS AND THE SICK……………………………
GREAT BRITAIN, WHAT A FUCKING HUGE JOKE, HELL ON A SHOESTRING……………
“YOU GO TO THE DINING CAR AND WE WILL GO TO THE FOOD BANKS”
Reply
As a registered disabled person & as an active retired Trade Unionist I felt somewhat confused by your blog. I intend to follow up the reality of your claims.
Please do, the joint statement can be read on the TUC website: http://www.tuc.org.uk/industrial-issues/skills-policy/tuc-and-cbi-agree-joint-statement-traineeships
Thanks for this johnny void , but I do not always blindly follow all that I see & hear on the internet. I have already made a copy of this TUC/CBI joint statement and after I have my questions answered by my T/U Unite , I shall get back to you.
I’ve followed them up and written to the TUC – guess what? no reply!!
Mark-My-Word:-. You must have a different method of communication to myself no doubt. I have posted the TUC reply that I received yesterday on this blog yesterday the 5th August. Strange world isn’t it !
Geoffrey .. Dig deep into the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (registered as an independent charity) and you will find that they too are a member of the same Atos family along with their partner the Royal College of Physicians of which the FOM is a faculty member of, and living rent free in the same accommodation.. By both groups distancing themselves and pertaining to be a different organisation from Atos/Unum they can gain additional seats on government advisory panels, give support to policies, and be additionally consulted on new legislation to give strength to the intended changes., all whilst being part of that same group.
In 2009 the FOM held their 30th Anniversary celebration at the House of Lords supported by their sponsors Serco and Atos Healthcare..
Occupational health services serving more than 1,000,000 Government and private employees had achieved SEQOHS accreditation by October 2012. this is managed by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) on behalf of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM). Staff working for some of the country’s biggest employers are receiving occupational health advice and support from accredited services; this includes 1,000,000 staff looked after by ATOS healthcare. A hint came from Cameron when he said “We are all in it together.”.
Reblogged this on Mentally Wealthy and commented:
Well well well….
Reblogged this on Owl's Blog.
Any bystander who witnessed the Edinburgh 2005 Make Poverty History Kronia will not be surprised at this act of betrayal. 🙂
the tuc is a waste of space and i am disgusted with them…
“WE ARE ALL AWARE THAT THE EBOLA VIRUS HAS TAKEN THE LIVES OF OVER 700 PEOPLE IN WEST AFRICA, BUT HOW MANY LIVES HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WORKS AND PENSIONS IN THE UK?”
WITHHOLDING THIS INFORMATION FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD IS NO MEAN FEAT.
THE CONSPIRACY TO HIDE THE SHOCKING REVELATIONS OF THE WAR AGAINST THE POOR AND DISABLED WILL MAKE THE EBOLA DEATH COUNT FIZZLE INTO OBSCURITY WHEN THE ACTUAL FIGURES FALL INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
MEANWHILE, THE JUDICIARY WILL BE TRYING TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM THE HORRORS THAT THEY HELPED PERPETRATE…………………
“we are all in this together, you certainly are”
Geoff Reynolds :- You make a very good point on which I agree. Their is a war against the impoverished and the disabled . This social war today is very different in its use of tactics & media propaganda than those used against working class people 40 years ago.
methusalada
i disagree @ core they are exactly the same tactics…starve crush,offer remedy, work energy for the rich, get wage…but now work for below subsistence income….a cycle of human misery, replicated through the ages…
their are plenty of ww1/2 vets to reference plus “the cheviot, the stag, and the black, black oil…on youtube
Cheers OBD, never heard of that play until now and loved it, despite stifling the urge to scream at the injustice once or twice… and a very early showing of Bill Paterson i noticed too
ulysses
fcukin good init…..
Definately worth sharing, and further confirms what i already knew of the landed Gentry and Capitalists view of us, has not changed one jot since the Norman Conquest, and the only reason our folk sign up for service is to escape crushing penury and fuck all to do with “patriotism”
ulysses
exactly, patriotism is a mask the downtrodden wear to please their stomachs…
ulysses
when i wrote the above post i nearly wrote ask harry patch what he thinks…this would have been some of his reply…
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/04/harry-patch#start-of-comments lest we forget….
JUST RECEIVED MY THIRTY FIRST LETTER FROM THE DWP REGARDING MY ESA THAT WAS REFUSED……………………
MOST PEOPLE WOULD HAVE GIVEN IN BY NOW, AND MOST PROBABLY HAVE, BUT I AM LIKE A DOG WITH A BONE…………………
“I JUST WON’T LET GO”
TO KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN CHEATED, LIED TO, SUBJECTED TO CRUELTY AND TORTURED, JUST TO SAVE THE TREASURY MONEY, IS THE LOWEST OF THE LOWEST.
OUR POLITICIANS DECIDED TO STEAL FROM THOSE LEAST LIKELY TO FIGHT BACK.
YOU THE DISABLED, AND THE POOREST IN SOCIETY.
BULLYING THOSE AT THE BOTTOM SEEMS TO BE THE NEW SPORT OF THE TOFFS.
TO STOP ME APPEALING TO THE UPPER TRIBUNAL I HAVE BEEN REBUFFED BY FOUR DIFFERENT JUDGES UP TO NOW,
JUDGES, WALL, CRACKNELL, McDONALD AND BIRD……………..
“EACH ONE HAS NOT ONE IOTA OF FEELING FOR THE CLAIMANT, OF THEIR PREDICAMENT, DISABILITIES OR LIFESTYLE”
THEY HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY CHOSEN TO UPHOLD THE DECISIONS OF CHARLATAN HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS, PLEASE STOP LAUGHING!!!!
JUSTICE AND LAW WENT OUT OF THE WINDOW YEARS AGO, THESE PEOPLE ARE NOTHING SHORT OF PARASITES WHO LEECH OFF THE MISERY THEY DOLE OUT EACH DAY.
EVERY TIME THEY PUT THEIR MONICKER ON A DWP STRUCTURED STATEMENT, THEIR POCKETS BULGE EVEN FURTHER.
YOU ARE SUPPOSED, IN UK LAW, TO BE HEARD BY YOUR PEERS.
LOOK UP THE DEFINITION OF PEER IN THE DICTIONARY. IT STATES “A PERSON OF EQUAL RANK OR MERIT”.
OUR JUDICIARY IS NOTHING OF THE SORT, STATE CONTROLLED YES MEN………………………..
ALL THE DECISIONS AGAINST THE POOR AND DISABLED ARE SO CLEARLY BIASED, AS TO BE BEYOND BELIEF………………………
…………………..EVEN YEARS AGO I WAS TALKING TO A LOCAL MAGISTRATE OVER A BEER.
I ASKED HIM IF THE JUDICIAL PROCESS AT A LOCAL LEVEL WAS INFLUENCED IN ANY WAY?
HE REPLIED THAT THE JOB OF A LOCAL MAGISTRATE WAS MORE OF A SHOW FOR THE ACCUSED, TO LET THEM THINK THAT THEY WERE SEEING JUSTICE IN ACTION.
HE SAID HIS JOB WAS EASY BECAUSE MOST DECISIONS WERE ALREADY PROMPTED BY THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE BEFOREHAND. HE JUST DID AS HE WAS INSTRUCTED.
TO THIS DAY I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN WHAT HE TOLD ME………………..
ODDLY, THE ZERO MARKS THAT I WAS AWARDED BY EMMA BRODRICK HCP, DO NOT ECHO THE EIGHT DOCTORS STATEMENTS THAT I UNCOVERED IN MY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST FOR ALL DOCUMENTS THAT THE DWP HELD ON ME………….
I WOULD URGE ANYONE AND EVERYONE WHO IS HAVING A DING DONG WITH THE DWP, TO REQUEST ALL INFORMATION THAT THEY HOLD.
IT COSTS NOTHING AND WILL GIVE YOU THAT VITAL BIT OF AMMUNITION TO FIGHT YOUR CORNER………………..
MY PERSONAL INFORMATION WAS OVER SEVEN INCHES DEEP AND CAME IN THREE GIANT ENVELOPES!
SO ONWARD I MARCH, CONFIDENT THAT I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG OTHER THAN CHALLENGING THE STATE SPONSORED THEFT OF MY BONAFIDE BENEFITS…………..
Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.
This is stunningly awful. They have betrayed us all. The only party that remains for me to vote for will be the greens.
There is the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
Its a shame the TUC are no longer true to their name, just like Labour I suppose.
To Johnny Void, thank you for bringing this traitorous action to our attention. How far have we fallen? Who we considered allies have turned and stabbed us in the back. The right wing has stolen one of our great organisations. United, we are no longer.
TUC Side With Bosses To Back Tory Workfare Scheme.
Ok we know how to deal with this:
Contacts:
TUC Media enquiries:
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 Email: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Tim Nichols T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07876 452902 Email: tnichols@tuc.org.uk
Trades Union Congress
Congress House, Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS
Tel: 020 7636 4030
Fax: 020 7636 0632
How to deal with them? Withold dues, starve the fat overfed fuckers of the revenue that is their only reason d’etre
… stop paying your subs. Fuck ’em!
On top of that, they want to make it impossible to win a legal strike ballot by changing the balloting rules.
Reblogged this on The Heckler and commented:
Why are we not in the least bit surprised by this? All we can say is that when the TUC stage their march/Labour election rally on October 18th, there are more than a few voices making themselves in protest at this…
… when the TUC stage their next bullshit A-B march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square they can take a flying fuck to themselves….
That the trade union movement still fund the Labour party, who have said they will continue Workfare with the minimum wage, which all know is not a living wage, that is forced labour and therefore slavery, is said.
The trade union movement are also their pensioners, which have been betrayed by all the current political class, leaving a great many women, and a lot of the poorest working men with no money in old age forever:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
A socialist manifesto from back in 1997 would help the economy and the pensioners that would save jobs on the high street:
– state pension for men and women at 55 at £320 per week
– 50 per cent increase in current state pension and pensioner benefits
– free heating (saving 30,000 lives each winter)
– free public sector housing (instead of pensioners short of a pension by raised retirement age being liable for the Bedroom Tax that kills)
As there were 12 million pensioners back in 1997 and obviously more now, and over 23 million over 50s in the UK today, and they vote the most, then they would bring any such party manifesto a landslide victory in 2015, and the rest of their socialist manifesto would help all ages.
Anybody?
Reblogged this on SMILING CARCASS'S TWO-PENNETH and commented:
The Trades Union Movement has become The Trader’s Union Movement.
The white collar unions that amalgamated the engineering unions were traditionally less confrontational, more apologetic while the engineering unions they swallowed up were traditionally confrontational and unforgiving.
Even the names of today’s unions, for me at least, are somewhat pathetic; ‘Unite’; Unison’; they just do not have the same ring as the union I was proud to be a member of for many years- The Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW), the mention of whose name had bosses quaking in their boots.
The Tories and their paymasters will be laughing all the way to the bank.
I remember as a kid when we used to do odd-jobs for neighbour and counting our bounty at the end of the day and then running off to the sweet-shop to spend it all. I remember back in the day reading ’em things called books in yon library with some bearded guy on the front talking about EXCHANGING you LABOUR for MONEY or capital or whatever he called it. I remember my first job and can still remember the excitement of ripping open my first pay-packet and the sight of all ’em notes stuffed in the brown envelope. I remember going to the pub with it, getting a young lady drunk and pumping her round back of yon chippy. And where am I now? Working for diddly-squat on some communing f-ing work programme with nothing just nothing to look forward to in return for my hard graft. How times change. I really pit the young ‘uns I really do.
The TUC and the CBI are in grand accord over the exploitation and betrayal of young people. This joint statement from them is basically one band of overly lunched fucks involved in a mass circle jerk with another band of overly lunched fucks.
It’s never mattered more to have a decent trade union movement in this country and we have this foul coupling instead.
Spot on. And may I ‘borrow’ the phrase ‘overly lunched fucks’ as it is just so precise?! I will credit you for it when I use it! Cheers, Jon!
Feel free Jonathan. It was my late Dad’s description of them, except in polite company, he used the term “overly lunched parasites”.
This came about on the only occasion Dad needed help from a union. A union he had paid into for many years. Not only weren’t they any help at all, they managed to spend more time at lunch with the bosses than anything else. This resulted in several workers being put at serious risk of radiation injury, because the union took the line that they knew more about radiation than those working with it and all was safe, because the bosses had told them it was.
Dad did the right thing, stood up to the bosses, told the union to carry on lunching themselves to an early grave and ultimately, him and his fellow workers walked out on unofficial strike. There were only five of them and not one of the other workers in the factory came out to join them, because they had been warned about it not being an official strike. This was in 1953. By the end of the week, the offending hazard was removed and the workshop took a month to decontaminate.
Not exactly a huge victory, but it kept Dad and his fellows out of the worst of the danger.
My experience of trade unions has not been that dissimilar. I think that unions are absolutely essential, but they need to remodel themselves for the present day. They have so little clout and seem desperate to stick their tongues firmly up the backsides of successive governments. Cynically, I don’t believe that they will survive much longer because their original remit has long been lost in the steam of a freshly served, hot lunch. Pity, because we need them now, more than ever.
That all chimes with me, too. My mum and dad came from South Wales as did most of my other relatives! Labour’s cartel hold there by the 1950s was a source of great disillusionment to people who had been born into a country basically under armed police and military occupation in the years running up to 1914 when other considerations took priority.
When Plaid became a lot more local and left-leaning in the South, several of my relatives who had been right through a 70 or 80 years involvement with the Labour movement jumped ship. Not because they were politically nationalist – even though many of them were more comfortable speaking Welsh – but because Plaid in the Valleys zone was keeping it real not playing ladidaLondon ‘overly lunched fucks’! (Than you, Lucy!)
The Trade Union Movement wants a metaphotical bomb putting under it to get back to what it should be doing. Shop stewards network are pretty good in my experience so maybe there is some hope. Maybe some direction!
Keep the Faith!
TUC – Total Utter C..ts and back stabbing bastards to boot.They have betrayed young people and all working people who they are supposed to stand for.
I wonder if the TUC members are in agreement with this – after all, the unions are there for the members and not the other way around. Without members in a union then it collapses – and lets hope that this happens!
Very Good point !
What did you not understand when they said ‘We’re All In This Together’? 🙂
Sickening. And here’s the kind of slippery stuff (from their statement) that they’ll use to wriggle out of it:
‘Traineeships must include good training and work experience and it is vital that trainees are fairly treated. They should also be voluntary – young people should not face sanctions if for some reason places are not taken up.
“The TUC encourages employers to pay travel and meal expenses, as well as providing financial support, where compatible with a young person’s benefit entitlement.’
Note the word ‘should’, the earlier word ‘must’, in regard to quality of the training, carefully abandoned when discussing the more crucial matters of freedom and money — ‘SHOULD also be voluntary’; ‘SHOULD NOT face sanctions’. So if the jobcentre imposes sanctions, it’s nothing to do with the TUC, is it? After all, they did say the young person shouldn’t face sanctions, didn’t they?
And the TUC ‘ENCOURAGES employers’ etc., instead of ‘demands’ anything. And the polite request for ‘financial support, where compatible with a young person’s benefit entitlement’ makes it clear that this is a work-for-benefits scheme, with anything in cash or kind as an optional extra.
Oh, the TUC are so very considerate of the employers; no nasty confrontationalism or burdensome demands. Well, no-one can call them ‘dinosaurs’ any more: they’re right up-to-date with the ruling-class agenda.
if employers gave them any money at all then they would almost certainly be liable to pay minimum wage as it would no longer be a ‘scheme’. so what the TUCthink should happen is impossible, and this also shows they are entirely ignorant of minimum wage legilsation.
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I have realized we need to start new unions. back to what they once stood for. I heard a group of workers, so fed up with the back room deals and sell outs by their union, they formed their own and are winning.
Karen ,I would welcome more info on this ,if & when possible .
Reached the same conclusion a while ago. Also, there needs to be a political grouping within that does effectively represent the unemployed, sick, disabled, marginalised, and anyone else who doesn’t ‘fit’. Collective bargaining is still just about the best tool in the box, in my opinion. The ‘Pigs’ photo and Animal Farm reference above is particularly apt.
Anyone remember the Claimants Union from the Thatcher years? What happened to them?
There is also the IWW which has been in existence since it’s formation in Chicago in 1905. The IWW has had a presence in the UK for many years and has, in recent years, started to grow in response to many workers’ concerns that the mainstream union movement does not serve the interests of working people sufficiently.
Setting up a branch of the IWW is quite a bit of work, but much easier than setting up an independent union, (and an individual IWW branch is pretty much an independent union in many respects) there is a lot of help available to do this from the IWW at a UK level.
Crucially for people here, the IWW encourages people like the unemployed, the retired and students to join and take a full and active part in running the union, which is fully democratic , unlike the mainstream trades unions that usually marginalise those who are not in paid employment.
Forget Unite Community and join a real union, the IWW!
https://www.iww.org.uk/
Reblogged this on Glasgow Anarchist Federation and commented:
The TUC back workfare. Its almost as if reformist unions are designed to function as a check on class struggle….
Im currently emailing the Manchester secretary for the IWW after Sibridion off here pointed em out….
The cynic in me shouts same old shite, but lets see
https://www.iww.org.uk/about/main
I met someone (& his dog) at the public sector workers day of action just now, who is a member of & said only good things about the IWW. In and among the various unions – i ended up being with GMB members/with some of the people I’ve been at work with who’ve been offered a 1 percent pay rise “and be grateful you still have jobs” etc. JCP’s union – PCS were in attendance too – tho’ in far smaller numbers than other nions – which was fairly surreal. Marching/hearing speeches against austerity/welfare ‘reforms’ in person (finally) was all very good – ‘courage of convictions’ was better than turning up at work (as a non-union member/temporary worker) on that day …
…. ‘Unemployed/Under-employed’ people did at least get a mention or even 2; the ‘S’ word was even used a few times (& cheered), BUT & it’s a big BUT … it’s still all a bit ‘us & them’ tho’ I’m sure at least some of the working people affected by welfare ‘reforms’ have been unemployed in the past (whether in the 80s or more recently) & there’s more that unites than divides etc.
Advice that Unison gave to me, pre-strike was: “Not really sure what to say to you if you’re not a member of our (or any other) union. If you go to your workplace on strike day & say you’re supporting those not goin in, you won’t be allowed to stand on any picket line … (H&S maybe ?!)” – which turned out not at all to be how workers outside felt – they were much less partisan).
Advice from ACAS was: “You can show solidarity by supporting the strike”.
The IWW are the only union I’m contemplating becoming a member of (haven’t done so as yet but it seems remiss not to).
I am a working lone parent, unite member,, politically active, ex. SWP, I’ve been invited in past onto picket. Lines, like when the post workers came out. Just go 4 it..
I understand your cynicism, as I have shared it and that is why I joined the IWW. If the IWW isn’t working for you then you can only really blame yourself as you, along with others, will be running the branch you are a member of.
Much of the stuff the IWW does is the usual union stuff, but the big difference with the IWW is that it is not hampered by bureaucracy or by a corrupt leadership and paid officials where they exist at all, have no influence on union policy at all – that’s all decided by the membership.
Prepare to be (at least slightly) amazed!
not unexpected though and after all it was the TUC leadership and Labour party leadership that destroyed the miners’ strike and with that every trade union in the country.
I have a desperate need to rip the throat out of the cunt known has David Cameron.
Yep, I have that same urge!
Join the queue!
In the days of Thatcher there was a joke about an assassination attempt on her. A comedy sketch show suggested that the police were looking at 60 million suspects!
If we all chant hard enough maybe he’ll be struck down by lightening?
Cheers for the info. ‘Jimmy’ Thomas stitched up the Mineworkers’ federations in 1926 and this just seems to be continuing in that ‘tradition’
in the late 70,s i was put on a YOP scheme at a garage,i was made to make tea sweep floors clean toilets i never saw a car or engine but i had the “right” to leave without penalty cause the garage was not treating me “right” so after 2 months i resigned on…i dont think under 22,s quite understand what is going to happen to them they now have no “rights” and the scam employers have every “right”
I was on a YOP gardening gang. It was a great gang, the other lads were a great bunch, the work was kind-of what I wanted to do then and the permanent staff were brilliant. No, really. The pay was shit, £23.50 per week, but there was no coercion. The whole ‘Work’ or rather,Sanctions programme is to coerce, hurt, humiliate and ultimately kill. Nothing more.
Yeah i did that too, i’d just returned North after a contract down the Smoke finished, no work up here, signed on and managed to blag my way on to the scheme without the prerequisite 6 month or so of being on the dole.
Great lads, great tutors, no coercion, and i still use the knowledge passed on to me.
In fact the tutors quickly noticed i was a sparks after noticing my work where i volunteered to do the odd electrical projects, and put my name forward to them in the know, and got me another contract down south installing computer networks, great times
Bill Skiffington- Crown green bowling pitch designer and landscape gardening font of all knowledge, if your looking down from whatever cloud you landed on, mate, you’ll see i’m still using your teachings to this day if you look at me veg plot and garden 😉
Very similar to my experience and my memory! ?~)
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Julie Webster of the Maryhill Foodbank quoted in the Evening Times on 28 June 2014:-
“I have worked in social work for 20 years, so I am pretty hardened but we had a family come in on a Tuesday at 3pm having not eaten since the previous Friday. There had been a problem with benefits and because it was a Bank Holiday weekend the mum had no money for her or her two children. I watched the mum pick and put down can after can, wondering what she was doing, before I realised she was looking for one with a ring pull. She ripped the top off and started eating the beans with her hands, she was so hungry. At that point I had to got to the toilets and have a cry.”
In Glasgow 2000 people are sanctioned EVERY week!
GAF, Scots have such a compulsive progressive worldview they neglect their own backyard.
g a f
this one with indycyclist, next day @ pacific quay bbc bias protest he was in tears coz people put so much money in his bucket, to feed people with..
What are you saying overburdenddonkey vote YES for Indy FOOD BANKS!
voidseeker
no of course not…but then again, as you raise the point where is your solution? people are being heavily sanctioned 900000 in scotland last year… £1.5bn+ has recently been torn out the scottish economy due to welfare “reforms”….people have got to eat….yes it’s poverty enabling… food banks as a proper normalized solution, no way… i was more interested in what the postie was saying in general about whats happening politically and that he was fully aware of that….what needs to be done is to re-establish a fit and proper welfare state…but if you can guarantee that before the next meal is due, then you’ve got my vote…
The social enterprise sector is large and politically well entrenched in Scotland taking on that sectors vested interests (in perpetuating poverty) could be as challenging as the fight for independence.
The Scots political cronies and social glitterati have thrived on Scots socioeconomic differentials there is no law to say their fiefdoms will not be supplemented post independence.
As the TUC funds a large part of the Labour Party and has influence on the same, may we now presume that Labour support for workfare will continual unabated if they win the next election? I may not know who I am voting for next May, but I have a pretty good idea who I will not be voting for – any party that supports workfare and the the rest of the thoroughly disgusting ‘welfare reforms’ of this government [aka as ‘attacks on the poor,sick and unemployed’] that have no place in a decent society. I shall be writing to my Labour MP about this as well .
OFF TOPIC
anyone appealing a jsa sanction should have a peep at this new site,
“We’re a small network of 3 disgruntled ex, Department of Work and Pensions civil servants who left the service for a variety of reasons, not least of which was our dissatisfaction with the pressures being placed on staff to achieve what many of us saw as targets, which were designed in our eyes, to punish people financially for the smallest error or indiscretion” “One thing we’re most certainly not, as is made clear throughout this site, is to have any connection whatsoever with any government agency, neither are we solicitors”
http://jobseekersanctionadvice.com/jobseeker-sanction-advice/
That link isn’t working ‘404 not found’
sib
it was working i bookmarked it this what i got just now…
http://jobseekersanctionadvice.com/cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi
Thanks OBD – I’ve never had that problem before, but then this machine hasn’t had the OS changed in quite a few years and I actually had to look up how to clear the DNS cache in Linux… installed a small utility and flushed the cache and 30 seconds later job done. Looks like a good and very useful website too.
I guess it goes to show, there are still some decent people working on the frontline of the DWP, (though of course the people behind the site are former staff – but there will be others)
Slowly things are being ramped up against these welfare reforms, and though it will take a bit of time yet we will win this war. Has anyone seen the recent Home Office anti-slavery ads on TV? Ripe for an adbusting campaign using some video editing to reposition that ad to fight our cause. The Home Office acts against slavery, whilst the DWP actively promotes it! You couldn’t make it up!
Yeah i saw that advert. What a joke! Talking about being against modern day slavery yet they’re forcing poor sods to work for nothing.
Hypocritical arseholes.
The site will be back by 12 Noon today. Wednesday 4th August.
I did wonder if the group who formed the site were going to be knobbled by something as they are so open about being ex JC= employees. I wouldn’t put anything past this lousy government.
They are back
http://jobseekersanctionadvice.com/
Disappointed in this article
The TUC said:
“Traineeships must include good training and work experience and it is vital that trainees are fairly treated. They should also be VOLUNTARY – young people should not face sanctions if for some reason places are not taken up. “(my emphasis)
That is not backing workfare and saying it does only reinforces Tory rhetoric and harms the Trade Union movement.
Problem is that Traineeships are workfare under a different name. If workfare hadn’t got such bad publicity 🙂 they’d never even have been invented in the first place.
This Traineeship opportunity is UNPAID Work Experience as part of an entry to work course.
As part of your work placement, you will work closely with a GLA Business Admin Apprentice who will provide ongoing support and enable you to learn more about their role.
So the workslave is supposed to get good quality training from an Apprentice!
apprenticeshipvacancymatchingservice.lsc.gov.uk
http://tinyurl.com/p3fb3c5
alan
these positions are NOT paid…jsa/esa is not supposed to provide WORK ENERGY/CALORIES…a wage is supposed to do that….
WHO WILL TAKE OVER THE HELM OF THE TOTALLY BIASED, MINISTRY OF DISINFORMATION, ALSO KNOWN AS THE BBC?
IT’S EASY TO ASSUME THE PERSON CHOSEN WILL BE A FOREGONE CONCLUSION, IT CERTAINLY WILL BE, BUT WHOEVER GETS THERE FIRST WILL HOLD THE POWER OF THE GREATEST PROPAGANDA MACHINE EVER INVENTED.
THEY GATHER THE HEADLINES FROM FAR AND WIDE AND THEN DISSECT IT AND REASSEMBLE IT TO FOCUS ON WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO HEAR.
A MODERN DAY SPIN DOCTOR, VERY SIMILAR TO MY ATOS EXAMINATION REPORT………
IN WHAT RESPECT YOU MAY ASK?
ATTENDING MY EXAMINATION I WAS COVERED IN CUTS AND BRUISES TO MY FOREHEAD MY ARMS AND HANDS……………
THE TRAINED,(PLEASE DON’T LAUGH) HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL, EMMA BRODRICK, ASKED ME WHY I WAS IN SUCH A STATE AND I TOLD HER I HAD FALLEN FROM A BUS IN YORK AFTER MY WALKING STICK GOT STUCK IN THE STEPS………………
LO AND BEHOLD, THE NEWS WAS TOTALLY REWRITTEN TO SAY THAT MR REYNOLDS COULD TRAVEL TO YORK ON A BUS UNAIDED…………………
“written three times on my reports”
NO MENTION OF THE CUTS AND BRUISES!
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE POLITICIANS DO WITH THE BBC, TWIST THE FACTS TO SUIT THE DIRECTION OF SPIN……………
“CANNED BULLSHIT”
The UnderDog Need’s a Voice Not to be Let Down
My Blood Boils with Rage
Johnny Void :- As promised I have done a little more research on this blog & have received an official reply & response from the TUC as below.
The TUC does not support Workfare and has previously published a charter on our opposition to workfare. There is nothing in the joint statement on Traineeships that suggests the TUC has changed its long standing position. The press release is clear that work-placements should “be voluntary – young people should not face sanctions if for some reason places are not taken up.
As I commented earlier, saying that it ‘should be voluntary’ and people ‘should not’ face sanctions, is not the same thing as saying it ‘must be voluntary’ … it’s a way for the TUC to wash its hands of what the jobcentre does. They know fine that if you turn down a ‘voluntary’ scheme you’ll almost certainly be put on a compulsory one or be sanctioned; or at least that the fear of such a reprisal will be enough to induce you to ‘volunteer’.
I also want to point out another propaganda ploy in the TUC report (and similar accounts promoting these schemes), namely the repeated references to ‘young people’. The subtle message is that these are really just older children, not competent enough to be considered entitled to a wage, and that we’re generously giving them the chance to acquire the necessary competence. Because of course, we’re to believe, it’s only young people’s lack of experience and training that is responsible for youth unemployment, nothing to do with lack of jobs.
(Funny, isn’t it, that in the past young people were capable of earning money, but now all of a sudden they’re not.)
If the people concerned were referred to less emotively as ‘workers’ or as ‘trainees’ or ‘trainee workers’, etc., rather than as ‘young people’, the reader might view it all in a somewhat different light.
The infantile claimant stripped of all adult credibility by the JCP work coach, a society of nothing more than juvenile delinquents too immature to navigate the World.
voidseeker
that neatly sums up the job of the work coach is to humiliate the claimant…
which of course also means that the work coach is even easier to manipulate, as they have to completely abandon common sense to believe/survive it, and so must suffer acute cognitive dissonance…to live in a very surreal world where, they actually have to believe the BS they preach, or they end up on the other side of the counter, a thought that must never be allowed to enter the work coaches head…well proves the truth of bullshit baffles brains!
fuller was spot on…link please a f m…
We occasionally mention work roaches on Ipswich UA, here’s 1 of mine, which is true btw!
Unfortunately my ‘work coach’ never goes beyond UJ and thinks ‘Company Confidential’ is the name of an agency!
I don’t agree with many of Buckminster Fuller’s quotes, just some of them.
A comment just posted in the guardian:
http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/39016287
This Bucky quote seems appropriate.
Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.
a f m
yeah i like that comment in the gu…it comes to something when we have to buy our stolen natural rights back, so blinded are we, that most accept this as natural?….but there was one quote of fuller that we agreed with…
voidseeker
are work roaches the new clergy?
a4e staff are so far gone they do not connect that all the motivational slogans pinned on the office walls are in fact reinforcing their brainwashed stupidity.
This is arguing about semantics, as the scheme that the TUC jointly supports with the CBI is Workfare by another name, and is aimed at achieving exactly the same, a malleable workforce that will accept poor pay and conditions.
The TUC may well have published a charter opposing Workfare, but it’s done bugger all else about it.
The way that the TUC has allied itself to the CBI, notwithstanding it’s financial and political support of the Labour Party, (which since Blair is a tory party – tory being derived from an Irish word for brigand for those who do not know) makes me think that the TUC’s position as a state sanctioned union movement isn’t far off gaining the official seal of approval from Cameron himself.
Pingback: TUC Side With Bosses To Back Tory Workfare Scheme | nearlydead
‘Revealed: Whitehall plans to share your private data’:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11009405/Revealed-Ministers-blueprint-to-share-private-data.html
But if they can’t get Universal Credit right, how are they ever going to manage this?
…….I have written previously that the PCS “union” should be expelled from the TUC.
But now I am of the opinion that it is the TUC that should be expelled from the international unions movement!
Between them, Labour…the party that used to be Labour that is, and the useless “unions” have been utterly disgraceful in their non defense of the poor. They will pay a heavy price. Labour is hoping the poor will vote for them as the lesser evil. But the poor are not that stupid these days. Neither are a lot of workers.
The present set of unions have to be reformed for what we have just now is absolute trash.
watch this disgraceful display of contempt for the voter, complete with bussed in rent a crowd and they want our votes…
apologies if this has already been posted re david clapson…
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/03/victims-britains-harsh-welfare-sanctions#start-of-comments
Tonights C4 Despatches The Real Price Of Cheap Food.
Included bits on NMW, working conditions H&S and Zero hours contracts.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches
Stuff Neo Nazism and Stuff Neo Liberalism
The Greed Vanity and Selfishness of the Rich
The Ostrich like Obliviousness of the I Am All Right Jacks
Decent People Only
Slightly off-topic –
My JCP no longer issues those job diary booklets to anyone as the clowns behind the desks where I go to weekly are now saying everyone signing on HAS to now give JCP access to their jobmatch accounts. I can’t use their own UJM toolkit guidelines any more against the petty, smug chimpanzees at my JCP and have now fallen as a victim of Hitler Smith’s potty pea-brain nonsense. I can’t no longer use printouts of any jobs applied for neither. Everything I do now on UFM could knacker my money for x amount of weeks. I can’t hide from my JCP no more. I’m well and truly fucked because of that bastard website.
On more happier news, I suppose. I am no longer having to see a nasty, vindictive JCP advisor weekly as I had to on and off for almost three years. I sent in a formal written request wanting to change my weekly advisor as I was seriously unhappy and pissed off of how she treated me and robbed my respect and dignity by insulting my rights. I’m now with a better advisor who actually treats me proper with full respect and dignity for once.
So, the best solution for having a cunt of a JCP advisor, do a formal written request stating you are unhappy, your advisor is not treating you fairly and intimidating you and with any luck if you get the formal letter worded just right (by also threatening a written complaint) you could be transferred to a better advisor, as in my case only today. The next time I see my ex-advisor I will simply stick my nose in the air as I walk past her to the desk of my new CWP job coach.
Fen Tiger :- I realise that not all JCP advisors are human beings ,but I am pleased to learn that from your own actions you now have one your side. I’ve been their done it and survived from 18 years ago . All the best Fen Tiger don’t let the buggers get you down !
There’s lots of evidence that you don’t have to give them access if you really want to be a nuisance.
http://refuted.org.uk/2014/08/01/universaljobmatchquestions/
If you do use it, keep complaining to them that it’s full of fake jobs, – and beware of friendly advisers.
Hi Fen,
I was only given the claimant commitment booklet last week and you now don’t have to use it. I have allowed UJM access on the days I have to attend the jobcentre. I wish I could stop using this booklet and it’s only my first week using it lol. I have been logging into my UJM account everyday and typing in websites that I have looked at or recording any jobs applied for. At least it’s dated and shows that i was online.
I’m hoping that if they have ended using the booklet with you then maybe that will spread around the country to all jobcentres.
Also, in the claimant commitment we have to tick a box about creating a UJM account which I have but it also says a public CV and I have always kept my CV on private so it looks like I will have to make my CV public and risk everyone being able to access my personal info.
rob
personally i can’t see how they can force one to make personal details public….ie home address, email, phone etc….
They told me to do it saying none of that info is visible, the employer can only send you a message. But given the JC’s expertise, I just ignored them.
Hi Rob,
I have never heard of the Claimant Commitment booklet. Are you sure it’s not the My Work Plan booklet. If it is then you don’t have to fill it in or sign it. My Work Plan booklet is not a condition of Jobseekers Allowance. My adviser tried to pressure me into filling out this booklet. I politely told it was not a condition of JSA and can be refused without sanctions. Check out this Freeedom Of Information request.
Click to access 2365%20Response.pdf
Click to access 4b.Annex%201.pdf
Hi Earl,
It is the My Work Plan booklet that I have to complete that has a box that I have to tick stating making my CV public on UJM. I was given the booklet just after I had to sign up to the Claimant Commitment that replaces my Jobseekers Agreement. My new advisor did mention contacting the Shaw Trust as I’m in my fifties and I’m not keen as it sounds like a way of getting me on some kind of volunteering or workfare. Everyone in the country will soon have to sign up to the claimant commitment.
Hey Rob,
I hope you looked at the second link: Annex1. It clearly states that the booklet is not manadatory. As for the CC, yeah, I know, they want everyone in the country to have one. They also want everyone to use the My Work Plan booklet. I’m still on the JSAg.
DON’T FILL IT IN AND DON’T SIGN IT. Once you do that you’ll be agreeing to all kinds of freaky shit; most of it designed to trip you up. They’ll have you jumping through so many hoops, you won’t know what fucking day it is. And before you know it, you’ll be so wound up, you won’t know whether to turn left or right. You’ll find yourself sleepwalking straight into a sanction.
Watch your back, mate!
Hi Earl,
The biggest problem is the fact that the advisor can suspend benefit entitlements with immediate effect and put the claimant in a dire situation in terms of paying bills and buying food. Even if we appeal and win it won’t take away the fact that we may have to suffer for quite a few weeks or even months waiting for a positive result to an appeal. They say that only 2% of people sanctioned appeal so it is beneficial to the government to sanction people as 98% don’t fight it and any upset or stress they cause will deter many from wanting to step inside a jobcentre and do anything to avoid claiming.
Although in law we can supply evidence in many forms we still can’t stop the advisor suspending benefits. The fairer system would be if an advisor put up a doubt and it was referred to a decision maker so that we could give our side of the case before a decision on a sanction was made.
I have seen many examples that say three efforts to find work is reasonable although many people are forced to make dozens of efforts and could be sanctioned even though a tribunal would say that a dozen efforts a week was excessive and most people in that situation would win their case.
We have people working as advisors in Jobcentres who just want to bully us into submission and many of them are fully aware that the demands on us in terms of jobsearch are excessive. They are not all ignorant of the facts and their jobs mean more to them than the welfare of ordinary people.
Not if we can hold out until the General Election (7/5/14) because chances are that Labour will win.
FT – you, and only you decides how you supply your jobsearch details. That hasn’t changed despite what they are trying to tell you. You can even supply your jobsearch information verbally if you want, and there is no rule that says you have to use the booklet that they supply – I use a sheet that I created myself on a computer that I type up as I do my jobsearch as I became fed up of my local Jobcentre running out of/not being able to find the Welsh language versions…
Take a look on the excellent Refuted site, or the Ipswitch Unemployed Group’s blog, or even the Edinburgh one. They are all pretty much up to date, and if you want confirmation, then the Refuted site will have links to the DWP site, so you can show your advisor that and they have to accept that, because as far as their job goes, that is the gospel.
Great that you complained, anecdotal evidence suggests to me that they tend to treat those of us who challenge them through the system with something akin to kid gloves… I had been having real troubles getting to see a Welsh speaking advisor until it came to the time to start Workfare. At the initial pre-Workfare interview I presented a letter withdrawing my consent to share my personal info with Third Parties and the interview was halted and I didn’t hear anything about Workfare for eleven months…. But it did make them sit up and take note as from that point forward I started to consistently see a Welsh speaking advisor and that they ensured that another Welsh speaking member of staff was available when he isn’t available, (and he must be one of a very few Glaswegian Welsh speakers!).
Throw a strop or cause a scene, and they can deal with it easily as then they get the G4S heavies in on it, but do it quietly and in writing and they tend to back off.
Perhaps IDS had something in his statement some years ago about not underestimating the determination of a quiet man…. 🙂
sib
so tell me dying to ask, whats the view in wales re #indyref….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/05/uk-judge-says-freedom-of-information-means-choice-of-digital-file-format/
When forced workers are used as strike-breakers, the TUC will regret supporting workfare.
Australia bringing in slavefare, reading the comments is like groundhog day.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/06/employers-could-exploit-unemployed-unpaid-work-experience-unions
Is your jobcentre adviser bullying you into allowing them to access and view your Universal Jobmatch account?
If so, hand in this letter of complaint at your next signing day. The Data Protection Act 1998 guarantees you right to privacy.
Follow the link below.
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/universal-jobmatch-access-complaint-letter
I was getting a bit fed up with my moaning and lack of action and thought the time is right for a modern Union of Unemployed. Please have a look at this blog and leave your comments.
https://unionofunemployed.wordpress.com/
I’ve already written up a letter about the DWP wanting to spy on me 24/7. I won’t however yet throw the final letter version to my JCP manager UNTIL when I start getting dubious job alerts from my new advisor – and only then will my account go back to denied access.
I’ve only changed over to a new advisor after sending the manager a written moan about the poor service and intimidation threats I got last week with my previous ‘job coach’ – whom I now call the Rottweiler. But I won’t yet send in my new written complaint about UJM access as it is far too soon to do so after a significant JSA claim transfer.
My old job coach was a right old bag at times. Last Tuesday morning I noticed she was laughing and joking with another JSA customer prior to seeing me. It was like her and the other person being signed were like two old school friends, the way they were acting – talking and laughing about the types of films they generally watch. Made me feel sick with the public display being put on in front of me, and then when I have to sign with her, she is a right crabby old boot to me and takes the royal piss.
That letter I sent in last Wednesday threatening to complain fully or take another option of forcing my JSA claim to another jobcentre woke the manager up. I could have kicked off in the JCP over being bullied but the security goons would have thrown me out and barred me. Instead I did it the correct way and wrote how I was being set upon by the ‘Rottweiler’ of Wisbech.
“WITH THE ELECTION LOOMING, WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE FOR ETON’S FINEST, SPOILT GEORGE OSBORNE, TO BE OFFERING THE NORTHERNERS THE VERY MONEY THAT HE HAS STOLEN”……….
FORGIVE ME FOR BEING IGNORANT, BUT ISN’T THIS THE ACT OF A PICKPOCKET COMPENSATING HIS VICTIM?
AUSTERITY COMES IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES BUT IT ONLY HAS A PROFOUND EFFECT ON THOSE LESS LIKELY TO RESIST, US…………
FUCK OFF OSBORNE, YOU HORRIBLE LITTLE INSIGNIFICANT PIMP…………
I attended a CWP induction. They handed out a big folder of paperwork for us to fill in/tick box/sign. I signed/filled in/ticked absolutely nothing and I mean NOTHING!! Can they still send me on a placement. And can I be sanctioned for not filling in/ticking/signing these forms? Anyone know.
You may want to check out the What Do They Know website. I know on the Work Programme you were under no legal obligation to fill in or sign any of their paperwork. As for the CWPs, it’s early days yet.
When you declined to sign any of their paperwork, did they say anything to you at all? And exactly what did they ask you to sign?
Just DPA stuff, code of conduct crap, that you get on the work programme. No, they didn’t want a fight – too scared. And they wouldn’t have got anywhere. Still been sent on CWP though.
Anyway, they can fuck right off! I couldn’t give a flying toss!
DWP plotting ‘secret’ universal credit plans – Labour MP.
A Labour MP has claimed that the government is “keeping under wraps” plans to make people who lose their jobs wait five weeks before they get any benefit payment under universal credit.
Michael Meacher, MP for Oldham West and Royton, says the plans are being kept secret by the government in the run up to the next general election but they are “hidden in the small print” of the rules for the controversial new benefit system.
Mr Meacher says the impact of a five-week wait will be “devastating” for anyone who loses their job as they will be unable to get help to cover rent, mortgage, food or fuel bills.
He said: “The five-week wait will apply to anyone making a new claim, however long they have held their job or however much national insurance they have paid in during their working life.
Under current rules, new claimants wait just over two weeks for their first payment but under DWP plans this will no longer happen.
He added: “The only ones to gain will be the rip-off payday lenders like Wonga who must be licking their lips because theirs will be the only loans that many unemployed people will be able to get.”
http://www.24dash.com/news/central_government/2014-07-31-dwp-plotting-secret-universal-credit-plans-labour-mp
Universal Jobmatch still utter shite according to leaked NAO report http://www.channel4.com/news/universal-jobmatch-bogus-misleading-ads-nao One of the firms spamming the site with duplicate ads is Monster Jobs!
Here’s the Channel 4 News report from 7/8/2014.
Universal Jobmatch duplicated and scam jobs.
Thanks , Have blogged this on my Twitter page.
“Urgent need for an International Court for Global Financial Crimes”
http://www.newropeans-magazine.info/Urgent-need-for-an-International-Court-for-Global-Financial-Crimes_a152.html
Another computer recycling company is now exploiting the unemployed as a “charity” with 6 months Commmunity Work Placements overiding ethical concerns. The “lady” at Motherwell Job Centre says she was only obeying orders yesterday when she handed out the 6 month sentence but from all appearances it seemed to me like pure spite because she was meeting somebody who didn’t hallow the ground she walked upon. I told her I wanted nothing to do with it but Learn Direct phoned today to get security questions but I wouldn’t give such immoral people anything at all never mind personal info.
If you guys would like to join in protesting at what this “charity” is doing then please google Lamh Rycle Ltd for email and contact details. They are based in Motherwell. (For some reason this blog doesn’t accept some kind of links hence the google search.)
If you detest the exploitation of the unemployed, sick and disabled then please let this company know and pass on their contact details to others to do same.
I hope the scum get same treatment the last place got.
Independence is our only hope here in Scotland yet we have junkies with No stickers on there doors and No on the back of football tops. They really don’t understand that a No vote will be the worst possible outcome for them but as they are Rangers fans they think voting no is a badge of honour for the queen and country. That is why in a nutshell we are most likely going to wake up depressed on September 19th as we need all the poor to stick together on this.
Fucking imbeciles.
…update..posted months ago. Son left college september. Has had jobseekers about 8 weeks sanction after sanction,few weeks hardship. Husband end of 48 week liver treatment. Put in for pip ths time last year….not even appt for assesment. Car offroad 6 months couldn’t afford tax. Struggling to hospital 40 mile round trip on bus. No longer sending son to jobcentre even. He’s had zero money for months and months.
There’s no work! When my husband was younger working on demolition and pulling mills down…..EVERY part of the machinery was broken down in parts small enough to fit through a 4″ grid……to make SURE it could never be used again. So f..kin pissed off. We need to revolt. How the f..k can we all hit these cunts hard in one go?
at least they yts lead to some jobs (i saw it first hand, people just older than me) none of these do, except here in Wales where it sometimes leads to the very popular Jobs Growth Wales scheme where wages are paid by the Welsh Assembly (usually started on its own not as a continuation)
After the Collapse of Nazism The Nazi Party was Barred from Participation
in Germany’s Political Life, Given the Monstrous Damage the Tories and
Liberal Democrats have Done to this Country Not Least to the Poor
There is a Case for the Tories the Liberal Democrats and All Enemies
of the Poor to be Barred from Participating in Political Life or to Deny
the Misery Inflicted upon the Poor by their Slavery Agenda of
” Austerity ”
Nazism Never Again Neo Liberalism Never Again
Yes to Human Dignity such as the Poor being Helped
No to Human Degradation such as the Poor being Degraded
Liberty and Security comes with Decent Policies in Government
People in this Country are Spineless they Bloody Well Are
Why the Cretins in Office Get Away with what they Have
Only the Delusional do Not Despair
Mass Protests the Necessity Not Mass Slavery and being APolitical Zombies
Pingback: 2000 Workfare Staff Planned For Tax Office Next Year, And The PCS Union Is Doing … Nothing At All | the void