Wednesday 4 July 2007

Launch of COFUP!

At 7pm on Tuesday 24th July, we're launching the new Coalition Fighting Unfair Pay (COFUP) in Committee Room 9, House of Commons. Speakers include:

Bob Crow (RMT General Secretary)
Cllr Miranda Grell
John McDonnell MP
Rory MacQueen (GMB)
Angela Molloy (Regional Industrial Officer for T&G Region 1)
Heenal Rajani (UNISON)
Samuel Tarry (Compass Youth)
Marsha-Jane Thompson (Co-Chair of Socialist Youth Network)

COFUP is campaigning for a living wage for all workers - regardless of their age.

The two main aims of our campaign are:

1) To campaign for all Labour councils to include a Living Wage without exemptions in their procurement contracts;

2) To make a Living Wage for all workers the policy of the Labour party.

In October, the national minimum wage will rise £5.52 an hour for workers aged over 22, £4.60 for 18-21 year olds and only £3.40 for those aged 16-17 year olds. £5.52 an hour represents poverty pay - and it remains a scandal that a worker doing the same job as someone older than them can be paid nearly £1 an hour less.

COFUP is the initiative of the Socialist Youth Network, the youth wing of the Labour Representation Committee. For more details, email the Co-Chairs at:

Marsha-Thompson: marshajanethompson@yahoo.co.uk
Owen Jones: o.p.jones@gmail.com

SYN's Campaign

Hello all,
At the Socalist Youth Conference in January 2007 SYN passed a motion that amongst other things instructed SYN to:

1) To campaign for a universal living wage of at least £8/hour.

2) To work within the youth structures of our trade unions to force our unions to take seriously the task of organising currently unorganised sectors where many young workers are employed.

3) To advocate an organising and campaigning strategy based on the spirit of the "Supersize My
Pay" campaign from New Zealand .

4) To lobby local Labour Groups to include a pledge to pay all employees (including sub-contracted workers) a living wage in their manifestos for the upcoming local elections.

The SYN Exec met and discussed putting into action a campaign for a real living wage as we all decided at our Conference.
The name we've settled on is COFUP! - which stands for COalition Fighting Unfair Pay.

The focus of the campaign will be
a) to campaign for Labour councils to have a living wage as part of their workerprocurement agreements; and
b) to make a Living Wage official Labour Party policy by having it passed at Conference.

Welcome to our New Blog and hope to see you at the COF UP Launch!

COFUP is being launched by the Socialist Youth Network, the youth wing of the Labour Representation Committee. We're a coalition of young activists fighting for socialism in the Labour party.For information about SYN activities, email either Marsha or Owen at marshajanethompson@yahoo.co.uk or o.p.jones@gmail.com