Chertsey, Painshill and Banstead fire stations closed on Saturday July ...

'Freedom of speech removed' as Surrey fire stations BANNED from ...

Surrey fire service 'on its knees' as figures show scale of station ...

These recent articles in the local press, along with the flurry of posts on social media, show the dire state of Surrey's fire and rescue service. This is from the mouths of the firefighters and their representatives. Surrey County Council are trying to gag our firefighters and stop them from telling us the truth.

SOSIS is proud to have been part of the fight to defend fire services in Surrey since our inception in 2009 - particularly our role in the campaign to defend fire services in Spelthorne and Staines Fire Station (see previous posts). We will be discussing the most recent developments and what can be done about them at our meeting on 26th September in Woking. Why not come along? 

We have also been support the RMT (Railworkers union) in their battle to keep the Guard on South West Railways (SWR). We hope to have RMT and FBU Reps at the meeting on 26th to see if a joint campaign can be developed on the issue of public safety and austerity.

It has been a while since I last emailed. Everyoneone is incredibly busy and the cuts continue. I just wanted to ensure people that we are still here and that we intend to hold an annual general meeting soon (probably in April) to elect our officers etc. for 2018-19.

In the meantime, there are a few things coming up:

This Saturday (tomorrow) We have a stall arranged at the 'Jazz for Labour' event with Courtney Pine (and guest speaker John McDonnell MP) in the Leatherhead Theatre. I believe there are still tickets available if you want to come along https://www.theleatherheadtheatre.com/jazzforlabour. 
 
LOCAL PAY RALLY 7 APRIL
Surrey County UNISON, with the support of the regional UNISON office, have organised a rally against austerity and for a fair pay rise for all. This event will be on 7th April at 2pm in the Runnymede constituency of Philip Hammond MP – the current Chancellor of the Exchequer. Runnymede is also where the Magna Carta was signed which protects the right of people to free speech and to protest (amongst other things). They have set up a Facebook event which will be regularly updated here:https://www.facebook.com/events/813239645526585/. Please think about coming along and bringing your colleagues, friends and family. Bring banners!
A letter for trade union branches and an initial flyer for the event is attached (which also advertises the TUC march and rally on 12th May on the back).
 
WE ARE THE LIONS MR MANAGER – showing at the Electric Theatre, Guildford on 25th March
This is an exciting new play from the Townsend Theatre company, which is about Jayabe Desai’s inspirational fight for freedom, equality & human dignity as part of the famous Grunwick Strike 1976-78. Paul Couchman, SOSiS Secretary, will be speaking at the after-show talk. You can book tickets here:https://electric.theatre/shows/wearethelions/

NHS 70th BIRTHDAY EVENTS
The NHS will be 70 in July this year. We should think about organising an event/events to celebrate and to continue to fight against privatisation and for an NHS publicly-owned, publicly-managed and free to all. There is a major London demo planned on 30th June by Health Campaigns Together and the Peoples Assembly Against Austerity.​​

Come to the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) TUC Congress Rally in Brighton Sept 10: ‘Smash the Tory pay cap!’

NSSN TUC Congress Rally in Brighton: ‘Fight together to scrap the Tory pay cap!’ – 1pm Sunday September 10th in the Arundel Suite in the Holiday Inn, 137 King’s Rd BN1 2JF. Confirmed speakers: Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Len McCluskey Unite General Secretary, Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary, Steve Gillan POA General Secretary, Ronnie Draper BFAWU General Secretary, Dave Ward CWU General Secretary, Sean Hoyle RMT President, Amy Murphy USDAW Southern Division NEC member and Len Hockey Secretary Unite Barts NHS Trust branch – currently on strike. Chaired by Janice Godrich PCS National President – all welcome!  We will also be giving a platform to speakers from other current disputes to build solidarity

Over 80 NHS supporters crammed into the Walton Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre to watch the film SELL OFF and hear our panel of speakers, which included the ex-CEO of Ashford and St Peter's, a Junior Doctor from the Royal Marsden and Dr Bob Gill, who stars in the film. This was one of our best events and we hope that those who attended will have been angered and inspired enough to get active with Save Our Services and help us defend our public services. Pictures below.

As usual, our steering committee was positive and action-focussed.
 
Key issues:
 
Confirmed speakers on the panel for our film showing and discussion next Thursday at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton are Aislinn Macklin-Doherty, a Junior Doctor and Cancer specialist working at the Royal Marsden - see her promoting the sequel to SELL OFF here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab4fyqCKStE
Dr Bob Gill, a GP and health campaigner (who appears throughout the film) and Stephen Fash (ex-Chief Executive of Ashford ad St Peter's Hospital Trust) who is campaigning to save the Blanche Heriot Unit at St Peter's. Matt Clarke (SOSiS Chair, will preside)
Tickets are still available (although half the seats have been sold) at just £5 each at the box office:
https://thelittleboxoffice.com/riverhouse/event/view/69220
 
Put Tuesday 26th September at 1pm in your diaries. We will be lobbying the SCC Cabinet before presenting our 2,500 signature petition to save Spelthorne's fire services. More nearer the date.
 
Notes from the meeting
Attendees - Helen Couchman, Paul Couchman, Liz Mansfield, Steve Trafford, Jon Button, Roger Bowen, Fiona Corr, Veena Siva and Karen Lyons.
 
Apologies from Matt Clarke, Thelma Snelgrove, Ginny Eaton, Iain Raymond and Mick Dawson.

• Ashford Childrens Neurological service - will be re-commissioned in September so we need to keep our eye on this.
• Tickets are selling well for the SELL OFF film on 31st August. See above for confirmed speakers and link for tickets. Walton Labour Party has plans for a 'Radical Cinema' project at the same venue and will promote our film night. It was agreed to give out the last of the flyers in Walton on Saturday (26th) from 11am in Walton outside Sainsbury's. As usual, we will have a stall where any SOSiS-supporting political groups can sell/give out their materials. Helen will coordinate getting people's names and contact details.
• On 4th September at 10am the SCC Adults and Health Select Committee will be discussing the Blanche Heriot Unit (BHU) and SOSiS activists are asked to attend in support of the campaign. Stephen Fash will be asking questions at this meeting.
• There is also a second public meeting on 9th September at 10.30am in Chertsey House, St Peter's Hospital, regarding the future of the unit. The last meeting was very angry and upset - the BHU has a great deal of support.
• National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) Scrap the Pay Cap rally at TUC Congress in Brighton at 1pm on 10th September at the Holiday Inn. Contact Paul if you want to drive down with him.
• Save Spelthorne Fire Services - we counted all the paper petition signatures and we have nearly 1,200. If we add these to the online signatures (1,350) then we have over 2,500 signatures! The online petition is now closed but we will still collect any full petition sheets and add them to the total. We will be presenting the petition to a full SCC Cabinet meeting at 2pm on 26th September. UNISON Branch Chair and SOSiS supporter, Andy Pattinson, will speak to the Cabinet and present the petition. We are asking all supporters to come to a lobby outside from 1pm on the day.
• Liz gave an update on the Truth About Zane (TAZ) campaign. Everyone agreed that the turnout and banner on the national demo in July was excellent. The campaign for an independent public inquiry is not going away and SOSiS will continue to support the family in their fight for the truth. Zane's father, Kye, is writing a book and looking for a sympathetic publisher.
• Liz recommended that people read Naomi Klein's latest book - No is Not Enough.
  

SOSiS have been busy during July. Since our emergency NHS meeting in Staines in June we have attended the national demonstration in London on 1st July called by the People's Assembly Against Austerity. We marched with the Truth About Zane contingent, reaffirming our support for the family's campaign for truth.
We then spent all day Sunday 2nd July at the Staines Fire Station Open Day collecting signatures on the petition to save Spelthorne's fire services from cuts. We now have over 1,200 online and almost 2,000 written signatures to hand in to SCC. Closing date is mid-august so please sign if you haven't already.
On 5th July, we supported Surrey UNISON members collecting signatures on a giant birthday card to the NHS from the TUC and Health Campaigns Together at St Peters Hospital in the morning and then at the NW Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) AGM in Woking in the afternoon.
On 14th July we supported the UNISON lobby of SCC Adults and Health Select Committee over the proposed cuts in health services in Surrey.
Our next meeting will be another public showing of the film 'Sell Off' about the cuts, closures and privatisation of the NHS. A venue is being sought in Spelthorne for a showing at the end of August. Watch this space.
Photos and reports from all the above activities have been posted on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/SOSinSurrey/ and on the Surrey UNISON FB page https://www.facebook.com/SurreyUNISON/. 
We will also post a selection here.