Subject - Unions back Refugee Council work campaign

Posted : (Wednesday 1st October 2008 ) By - jess (Registered User)More than 20 union general secretaries now pledge their support to our work campaign.
The Refugee Council's joint campaign with the TUC to win back the entitlement to work for asylum seekers has made great strides forward during the conference season.
At the TUC congress in Brighton, a total of 21 union leaders signed a giant pledgeboard. Unions signing up include the mega unions like Unite, Unison and the GMB - plus those who represent the civil servants charged with carrying out Home Office policy - the Public and Commercial Services Union and the Prison Officer's Association. In all, some five million British workers are represented by the general secretaries who signed the pledge in support of the campaign. At a reception in Brighton, held jointly with our friends in the Voices of Exile Group, Donna Covey spoke alongside the TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, who has shown huge personal commitment to this issue. Another boost was that the incoming TUC president, Sheila Bearcroft, has put the campaign at the top of her agenda.
You can get all the news from the TUC on our website:
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/news/news/2008/TUC2008.htm
We moved on to the Libdem Conference in Bournemouth where the party’s Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne, speaking at a well attended Refugee Council meeting, also gave the campaign his explicit support.
At the Labour Conference in Manchester, the former Deputy Leadership challenger, Jon Cruddas MP, and the Deputy General Secretary of the Unite union, Jack Dromey, spoke in support of the campaign at a meeting we held with the support of Manchester Refugee Support Network. Jon Cruddas called it “one of the most important issues to be debated at conference.”
You can read blogs on the conferences at:
http://refugeecouncil.typepad.com/poliblog/
We move on now to the Conservative Conference where the issues of work and destitution will be discussed at a meeting jointly organised with the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank led by the former Tory Leader, Iain Duncan Smith MP. CSJ billing for the fringe promises an “expose of the current scandalous treatment of asylum seekers arriving in the UK.” This meeting is open to the public, so if you are in the vicinity of the Novotel, at 70 Broad Street, Birmingham, please do attend. The meeting is on Tuesday 30th September at 1pm.
What can you do now? Here’s a few ideas, especially if you are a part of a union.
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/gettinginvolved/campaign/righttowork/action.htm
And watch out for more developments next month. Thanks for your support.