ATUC 150th Anniversary Year Diary - See what we did in our 150th year

WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT OUR 150th ANNIVERSARY YEAR DIARY

• January 24 - Film "Belonging" at Belmont Cinema
• January 28 - Sunday - Holocaust Memorial Day, Castlegate
• March 3 - Protest Conservative Conference, AECC 0800 hours - 1730 hours
• March 7 - STUC Event - Aberdeen City Council's Civic Reception to launch our 150th anniversary celebrations
• March 8 - International Women's Day rally at the Castlegate at 1830
• March 22 - Public talk on Palestinian Child Prisoners 
• April 16-18 - STUC Congress in Aviemore
• April 17 - Lewis Macdonald leads a debate in Holyrood on the ATUC 150th anniversary
• April 28 - International Workers Memorial Day (memorial held at Persley Gardens) 
• May 5 - Mayday March and Rally
• May 9 -  An introduction to economics for trade union and community activists
• May 19 - Spring Clean of ATUC Offices and Cataloguing of Books and Artefacts
• May 26 - Grampian Pride 
• June 2 - ATUC stall and the Feein Market, Stonehaven
• June 14 - Vigil to remember Grenfell one year on
• July 10 - Rearranged Trade Union History talk by Jurgen Thomanek 
• July 14 - Trump's a Chump Protest 
• July 25 - A just transition for Aberdeen event
• 8th September - Doors Open Day at 22a Adelphi
• 28th September - Evening of celebration for the XV International Brigade Aberdeen
• November 9 - Aberdeenshire Council's Civic Reception
• November 24 - St Andrews Day March
• December 3 - Commemoration of John Maclean's release from Peterhead Jail
• December 13 - A history of political protest in Aberdeen - a talk by Andrew McGregor

Thanks to everyone who has worked to make our 150th anniversary such a special year and to all those who joined us to celebrate it.

Protest the Tory Conference in Aberdeen on 3rd March 2018

ATUC delegates are urged to get along to a protest against cuts and austerity at the Conservative Party Conference in the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. The protest will last from 8am to 5.30pm on Saturday 3rd of March 2018 outside the conference entrance of the AECC.

The protest will highlight the damage of austerity by having a food bank collection outside the conference alongside the picketing. We will display it for them all to see! Please bring along a small contribution for the food bank.

This will show that the people of Aberdeen stand united against the cuts and the fall in living standards that are leaving so many in absolute poverty. 

The organisers said, "Austerity is a cruel and politically motivated agenda that results in us all suffering. We see disabled deaths rise, we see higher levels of child poverty, we see higher levels of working poor all whilst the rich friends of the Tories are getting richer; richer on the back of our suffering.

"This on top of the shameful Rape Clause supported by Ruth Davidson! Let's show them we are a community who have compassion and care. Let's show them we will defend our poorest and most vulnerable!"

Click here for more information on Facebook

UCU Strike at University of Aberdeen to Defend Pensions

ATUC sends solidarity and support to University of Aberdeen staff in the University and College Union (UCU) who will begin fourteen days of strikes throughout the rest of February and into March today after drastic cuts to staff pensions were announced which would see their pension entitlements being cut by £10,000 a year.

They join colleagues from over 60 branches across the country who are fighting to defend their pensions after plans to end the defined benefit element of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) continue to be pushed through.  This is following the current trend of attacks on pensions across other sectors, where profit and short term concerns are used to justify sweeping changes to pensions at the expense of workers.

Staff have also received support and backing from students and the Aberdeen University Student Association who said:

"AUSA are in support of the strike: we believe that our lecturers deserve fair pay and conditions, and recognise the long-term negative effects these pension cuts will have on the quality of students’ education" - AUSA

Staff and students have set up a number of fund-raising events for the strike action - if you'd like to get involved, go along to one of their Aberdeen events here:

For more information see Aberdeen UCU's twitter feed, https://twitter.com/aberdeen_ucu and website at https://www.abdn.ac.uk/ucu/

Celebrate International Women's Day with the ATUC on 8th March in the Castlegate, Aberdeen.

Come and celebrate International Women’s Day 2018 in the North East of Scotland at a Rally in the Castlegate, Aberdeen beginning at 6.30pm.

Organised by Aberdeen Trades Union Council (ATUC) the event will be compered again this year by ATUC Vice-President, Kathleen Kennedy. A great line up of speakers include Gemma Clark, speaking on behalf of the ATUC, Christina McGonigle, Gaelic TV presenter, Cllr Alison Evison, President of CoSLA, Cllr Ross Cassie, a speaker from the WASPI campaign, Rev Robert Smith Rubislaw Church and trade union speakers and supporters.

International Women’s Day is a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements – from the political to the social – while calling for gender equality.

The International Women’s Day website states: “With the World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report findings telling us that gender parity is over 200 years away - there has never been a more important time to keep motivated and #PressforProgress. 

“And with global activism for women's equality fuelled by movements like #MeToo, #TimesUp and more - there is a strong global momentum striving for gender parity.

“While we know that gender parity won't happen overnight, the good news is that across the world women are making positive gains day by day. Plus, there's indeed a very strong and growing global movement of advocacy, activism and support.”

So please join us on Thursday 8^th March. Women and the men who support us are all welcome!

Next ATUC Delegates meeting on Wednesday 07 February 2018

The second ATUC Delegates meeting of the year will be held on Wednesday 07 February 2018 at 7.30pm within the ATUC premises at 22A Adelphi Aberdeen.

The 150th year events will once again be key agenda item, including the Civic Reception event happening on Wednesday 7 March 2018 to launch our 150th birthday celebrations.

Other agenda items include the Annual Report 2017 for which adverts and articles have been steadily received. We will also be discussing arrangements for International Women's Day, International Workers' Memorial Day and May Day as well as the AGM in March.

Please remember that this meeting is the nominations meeting for office bearers and post holders for the year ahead, in preparation for the AGM being held on 14 March 2018.

We hope as many Delegates as possible can attend this important meeting.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY ABERDEEN 2018 - THE POWER OF WORDS

Holocaust Memorial Day is an annual event organised by Aberdeen City Council which the ATUC and local trade unions support. It took place this year on the 28th January.

Here ATUC Vice-President, Kathleen Kennedy, who attended to represent the ATUC gives an account of a very moving event. With thanks to Norman Adams, Aberdeen City Council for the photographs.

"Holocaust Memorial Day marks the liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau which was the Nazi's largest death camp. Having been there last year I can tell you it was large - almost as large as a small town!

This event was held downstairs in the Belmont cinema which was most appropriate as we remember how many lost their lives and tried to hide from the Nazis.