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The Solidarity Federation Education Union (SFEU), welcomes the news that workers in Further and Higher education have voted to take strike action on pay and pensions. On both counts, the voting threshold was attained (some 84.9% in favour with a 60.2% turnout for strikes over pension cuts and 81.1% in favour with a 57.7% turnout on real term pay cuts).

The Solidarity Federation Education Union (SFEU) supports the strike action by Leeds University workers in UNISON, as well as the ongoing ballot for industrial action by academic staff in the UCU. We have members in both unions – and you can support them by not crossing the picket line. This means staying out of university buildings while the strike is going on.*

Support staff vs the University: the UNISON dispute

UNISON is currently in dispute with both the University of Leeds and UCEA (the body of employers) nationally. The union at Leeds represents support staff, ranging from porters and estates through to all aspects of administration and student support.

During Solidarity With Anarchist Prisoners Week, we are holding a prisoner letter-writing session on Sunday 28 August at 1pm. Come along and give practical support to comrades jailed for fighting against authoritarianism & repression. Free event & all materials provided. The cafe will be open for refreshments & delicious vegan treats. Child-friendly event with activities: colouring books, crayons etc. so please bring younger people along.

Venue: Star & Shadow Cinema, Warwick St. Newcastle NE2 1BB

Date & Time: 28/08/22 1pm

https://starandshadow.org.uk/programme/event/prisoner-solidarity-letter-writing,6389/

Solidarity Until Every Prison is Abolished!

In solidarity with the Spanish CNT-AIT we publish an account of a current dispute. We condemn the attempts to intimidate workers at Yelloh Village San Miguel who are only organising together to defend their rights. We join with fellow IWA sections, CNT-AIT in Spain & France, in their demands for solidarity, fairness and respect. We urge British holidaymakers staying at any of the Europe Plein Air resorts to support the workers & ensure that they have decent pay & conditions. There’s no holiday from slave labour!

All across the UK there is now a renewed sense of optimism and public alignment with the movement for increasing workers’ rights, union rights, pay increases and general improvements in working conditions. As the vast majority of people around the countries wages and pay remains stagnant or face a real terms pay-cut, the 1% are the only group whose economic position is increasing. But it’s always this way – that’s how capitalism functions – especially the financialised, neoliberal model of capitalism which we live under today which restricts the bargaining rights of workers, destroys the public sector, and strives towards a dystopian society where all services, social relationships and ideas are marketized – or as conservative, lib dem and ‘labour’ politicians call it – ‘modernisation’.

Whether you're in a union or not, join us for our free workshop on how to organise in your workplace. We think you'll find our direct action approach refreshing! Based on successful organising work over the last decade, the training covers:

• making contacts
• building a 'shop committee'
• cross-union activity
• collectivising grievances
• workplace mapping
• types of direct action
• the basics of an anarcho-syndicalist approach
• role plays of one-on-ones, group meetings and confronting the boss!

Date & time: Sat 30/07/22 10am to 5pm.

Venue: Star & Shadow Cinema, Warwick St. Newcastle NE2 1BB

Booking essential: email: newcastlesolfed@riseup.net

On Saturday @DurhamGala! Note the updated start time. More than a bloc on a march: we're organising resistance now & growing workingclass activity for a future free of exploitation & oppression. Get involved!

Solidarity Federation welcomes the overwhelming support for strike action as voted by RMT members across the UK. In the face of some of the most repressive anti-strike legislation in Europe, rail workers have delivered a resounding message to both train bosses and union bureaucrats: the time for talking is over, a national strike now.

As an Anarcho-Syndicalist union we stand in solidarity with rank and file rail workers as they fight against a pay freeze, safety-critical job cuts and attacks on their terms and conditions. Our members will join them on the picket line. We are aware that they are already facing state pressure from political and media lackeys to compromise – this will only escalate, probably into more restrictions on industrial action in an attempt to curb the effectiveness of a strike. Meanwhile, TUC bosses will prove their complicity by staying silent in public as they betray workers in private. It’s the same old tune.

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SFEU (Solidarity Federation Education Union) continues to stand in solidarity with those workers who are currently involved in the UCU industrial actions taking place at FE and HE institutions across the country.

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The UCU, at a Special Higher Education Sector Conference, has now set out the terms of the continuing dispute centred on pensions and the Four Fights (casualization, workload, equal pay and conditions for women and BAME workers and the broader issue of pay).