Amicus

Large engineering and general union

Support Jerry Hicks!

By an Amicus member Thousands of trade unionists will be converging on Bristol on Friday 2 September to demonstrate in support of victimised Rolls Royce convenor Jerry Hicks. In late July Jerry was suspended and then sacked from the Bristol Patchway Rolls Royce plant, where he is the Test Area convenor. Workers at the plant walked out on strike in protest at Jerry’s suspension, and struck again in protest at his dismissal. Amicus members in the plant’s Test Area were subsequently balloted on further strike action, and voted two to one in favour. Since 23rd August the Test Area workers have...

Rolls Royce: strike against victimisation

By Doug Russell On 3 August 95 test engineers at Rolls-Royce’s Filton plant in Bristol received ballot papers on whether to strike over the dispute resulting from the sacking of their Amicus convenor Jerry Hicks. Jerry Hicks has been a long-time union organiser at the plant, but is now being victimised after a three-day strike in June which successfully defended two fitters from being dismissed. Ian Waddell, Amicus’ national officer for the aerospace industry, said that “it’s difficult to see the dismissal as anything other than a cynical ploy to attack workers and the union”. Indeed, it seems...

News about Rolls Royce dispute

From the campaign to reinstate Jerry Hicks
--------------------------------------------

The Second Major Blow for Rolls-Royce Within a Week!

After the remarkable victory in the Interim Relief Hearing at the Tribunal in Bristol, which found in Jerry's favour and called for Rolls-Royce to reinstate him, today we have the result of the Test Ballot, which is almost two to one in favour of strike action! This is a MARVELLOUS decision by people who have said with the loudest voice that they are prepared to defend the Union and demand to have their Convenor back! The first strike day is likely to be Monday, 22 August 2005.

The priority now is SOLIDARITY! MESSAGES! SUPPORT! FINANCE! and ...

JOIN THE DEMONSTRATION IN BRISTOL ON
FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2005
(details to follow).

Don't forget to keep checking out our Website at: http://www.union.coreoperations.co.uk/rolls All news/updates are posted here.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Jon Locke
Amicus Shop Steward
Test Operations
Rolls-Royce, Bristol
Mobile: 07769 536 660

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 18/08/2005 - 00:02

Why are you defending Jerry Hicks? Your member Jim Denham can be found all over the internet calling the SWP and Respect scum who should be booted out of the workers' movement as apologists for Islamofascism. So how on earth can you defend one of their members like this?

Submitted by Pete on Thu, 18/08/2005 - 10:24

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The apologies for political Islam given by the SWP should be fought and defeated by the workers movement. But no-one from the AWL has ever argued that SWPers should be expelled or 'booted out' of the workers movement. If that is what the contributor is alleging then that is simply untrue!

Wanting a fierce argument with the ideology the SWP propagates is different and doesn't justify scabbing on a dispute in which they are involved.

Would the contributor, who presumably is fiercely hostile to the AWL line on Iraq, think that scabbing, on a dispute in which an AWLer was central, would be justified? If he is a member perhaps his contribution reveals the irrationality of the SWP's hostility to the AWL more than any irrationality in our own?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 18/08/2005 - 23:08

In reply to by Pete

Two quotes from Denham:

"The SWP is... a pro-fascist organisation. It should be denounced and exposed within the Labour movement as such. I will certainly do my best to expose it as pro-fascist."

"we, the3 SWP, just hate Amercicans and Jews... and we'll support *anyone* who attacks te Americans and Jews... including Fascists"

Do you not have a policy of no-platforming fascists or pro-fascists? How can you defend anti-semites? Shouldn't you be pointing out to the Bristol workers that Hicks is a pro-fascist anti-semite rather than just cheerleading for him?

And no, I wouldn't for one second consider scabbing on a dispute in the extremely unlikely event that one of your members were central to it.

Submitted by Pete on Fri, 19/08/2005 - 00:27

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I don't recognise the quotes you give of Jim Denham. And I don't know whether the repeated '...'s change their meaning substantially.

If you want to consider what the AWL view is on the SWP, don't take it from quotes of individuals presented out of context.

I think you know that we don't define the SWP as 'fascist'. We consider that you give platforms to 'anti-Zionists' like Atzmon who sees nothing wrong with Israel Shamir, an open friend of the Nazi anti-semite, Martin Webster. You give platforms to people from MAB who believe that homosexuality should be repressed by Sharia law and those renouncing the faith of Islam executed or tried for treason.

I imagine that that is what Jim meant by his use of 'pro-fascist'.

But the SWP leaders protect their membership from a real consideration of the MAB's policies. And most of the SWP's trade union members, as far as I can see, are semi-disengaged from your organisation these days. In a sense there is hope in that.

I don't know Jerry Hicks but if he is a trade union member of the SWP I imagine he would not want Sharia Law to operate in the 'muslim' communities with all that would mean for women, gays ... and socialists.

But even if he were a reactionary or even a racist (which as I say I very much doubt) he, and the union organisation he is part of, are under attack and that is why we defend him.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 24/08/2005 - 01:45

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I've no idea what Jerry Hick's views are on the middle east: but if he is presently leading a dispute, then we should support him.

If Mr Hicks has reactionary views on other matters, then we should take them up with him later on...

I don't think the question of tIsrael /Palestine is usaually central to industrial disputes...

Jim Denham

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/09/2005 - 11:35

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Are you the same Jim Denham that also said the Gate Gourmet strikers shouldn't accept solidarity from Respect? http://www.haloscan.com/comments/lenin/112377425874230404/

Strange view, if such issues are not central to industrial disputes.

But still, I'm puzzled to see how people like Jerry Hicks are to be "exposed and rooted out of the Labour movement" if you don't mention his membership in such a high-profile dispute.

ps I particularly like this comment "because they've thrown in their lot with Muslim communalism, they are now unable to relate to the Sikh Gate Gourmay strikers" - as we can all clearly see http://respectcoalition.org/?ite=862

Towards the super-union?

The congress of the general union GMB in Newcastle on 5-9 June voted to affiliate to No Sweat and to support the new labour movement in Iraq. The run-up to the congress had been fractious, with Kevin Curran, who was elected as general secretary in early 2003, being suspended by the union’s executive in March on charges of misconduct during the general secretary election and then resigning, under a mutually-agreed but confidential deal with the Executive, three weeks later. Curran put out a letter just before the congress criticising the union’s direction, but this made little impact at the...

Report on Amicus conference

Around 800 delegates attended the Amicus Policy and Rules conference held in Brighton 14-18 May. Amicus was originally formed through a merger of the MSF and the old engineering union. Since then the banking union BIFU and the media union GPMU have also merged into the union. After the BIFU and GPMU mergers Amicus claimed a membership of around 1.2 million. A pre-conference membership audit corrected this figure to around 850,000 – as if, overnight, seven or eight unions the size of the AUT had suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. The Amicus General Secretary is Derek Simpson. His...

Super-union offers opportunities

I think Maria Exall (Solidarity 3/68), is unduly pessimistic about the prospects for the TGWU/Amicus/GMB “super union”. Of course, mergers are not automatically progressive, and all the problems Maria describes are real ones. But I don’t think Maria gives sufficient weight to the fact that this is not simply a merger, but the creation of a new union. Of course, it’s “driven by the bureaucracy” — what else would you expect? But that fact does not automatically necessitate rank and file activists opposing it. And, equally, if the any of the three unions decides not to go ahead with the merger...

Fitters’ strike solid

By Stan Crooke Pickets were out in force at Marshalls Aerospace in Cambridge last Tuesday 15 March as fitters — members of Amicus — staged a 24-hour strike in a dispute over regrading. A gap of £7,000 a year separates fitters in the factory from the grade above them. Negotiations about regrading have been dragging on for four years. In early 2003 management promised that a deal would be done by July of that year. But July came and went with no deal in sight. This lack of progress had much to do with the cosy relationship which Marshalls management enjoyed with certain union officials at the...

Fight to make the “super-union” democratic!

By Jim Denham The proposed creation of a giant new union, made up of the TGWU, Amicus and (probably) the GMB has caused much excitement and some misgivings within the trade union movement. The idea was hatched from lengthy and highly secretive talks between the TGWU’s Tony Woodley and Amicus’s Derek Simpson. Even the executives of the two unions knew nothing about it until a joint announcement from the two general secretaries on 2 February. The secrecy was probably necessary, given the extremely delicate nature of the negotiations, but it also served to fuel concerns about democratic rights...

Where is Amicus headed?

When Derek Simpson was elected General Secretary of Amicus many thought it would lead to greater democracy in the union, and make the union more critical towards the Labour government. There was a rational basis for such a belief. The two unions (MSF and AEEU) which had merged to form Amicus had both been under the thumb of a right wing, authoritarian leadership — Roger Lyons in MSF, and Ken Jackson in the AEEU. Both leaders were confirmed Blairites. Simpson, on the other hand, was backed by the Engineering Gazette (the Broad left in the AEEU) and by Left Unity (the Broad Left in the MSF). In...

Agenda for Change: more battles ahead

UNISON and Amicus have both accepted the NHS pay package, “Agenda for Change” (AfC). UNISON members voted 3 to 1 to accept the deal, on a low (25%) turnout, while 57% of Amicus members accepted the deal and 43% rejected it on a 40% turnout. This is a clear victory for the union leaderships, and leaves the Society of Radiographers (SoR) as the only union to reject AfC. AfC will mean many thousands of health workers facing a pay freeze. 200,000 will face an increased working week. Promises that the deal would be “fully funded” to allow low-paid workers in the NHS to catch up look less likely...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.