Please use the following resolution at your union branch to push for action across the trade union movement on 15 March

The NEU teachers union and the PCS Civil Servants’ union have called national strikes on Budget Day, 15 March. The NEU has called a national demonstration on that day. 

We are asking all Counterfire members and supporters to campaign for other unions with live ballots to join the action on that day. To help the process we have drawn up a model resolution which you can download here as a Word document, amend to address the specifics of your union and put to your local branch.

Do let us know how you get on with this resolution. Email us at [email protected]

15 March: Coordinate strike action and build the national demonstration

This branch notes:

1. The Conservative government’s commitment to making workers bear the burden of the cost of living crisis, primarily through real-terms pay cuts
2. The significant increase in strike action, including major national strikes, across a range of sectors including rail, post, education, health and the civil service in response to attacks on pay
3. The threat of increasingly draconian anti-union laws from the current government
4. The co-ordination of nationwide strike action by a number of trade unions on 1^st February, with scores of joint strike rallies and demonstrations that expressed opposition to the government’s attacks on trade union rights as well as rallying support for striking unions’ demands
5. The National Education Union’s plan to have a 2-day national strike on 15-16 March and a national demonstration on 15 March to coincide with the Budget

This branch believes:

1. The strikes by a range of trade unions have been a hugely welcome and necessary development, which deserve our full support
2. Trade unions’ efforts to increase members’ pay, at least in line with inflation, must be combined with campaigning to increase investment in health, education and other public services
3. Coordination of strike action over pay and living standards, across a range of trade unions, is essential to building a broad, united labour movement response to this government’s attacks on working people and their unions
4. Budget day (15th March) is an exceptional opportunity for coordinated strike action and a massive, very timely, national demonstration targeting the government

This branch resolves to:

1. Commit to practical efforts to develop coordinated responses, including strike action, to the assaults on living standards and workers’ rights
2. Lobby for trade unions with a live strike mandate to call nationwide strike action for 15th March
3. Encourage members to participate in the national demonstration on 15th March and mobilise for it