Unions marking May Day with event in city

LEICESTER & District Trades Union Council are holding their May Day event to celebrate their 150th anniversary on Sunday.

The event takes place at the Highfields Centre from 11am until 3pm and everyone is invited.

There will be food available and stalls from unions and campaigning organisations and face painting and other activities for children.

This year the May Day theme is the trade union garment trade campaign.

We are grateful for the help and support of Fashion Advice Bureau – Leicester (FAB-L), which has been funded by the trade union movement.

We are delighted to have Gary Smith, the general secretary of GMB, speaking at our event.

GMB is one of the major trade unions who were involved in the FAB-L project.

The Leicester May Day event this year is structured in two parts. The main part of the day is a celebration of the work of trade unions and the trades council.

We are working with a community radio station, EAVA FM radio, which will compère this section.

We have a series of speakers who will have five-minute slots from 11am to talk about their work, with world music interludes in between.

We have invited speakers on L&DTUC, our anti-fascist and antiracist work, our anti-workplace parking levy campaign, International Workers Memorial Day, our work with Save Our NHS Leicestershire, University College Union dispute and Just Eat (Stuart) courier dispute as well as the garment workers campaign.

We have also invited speakers from trade unions such as Unite and we will also try to include any workers who are taking action, which may well include GMB Cadent (gas workers) and CWU Royal Mail by then.

The second part of the day is an hour’s discussion on the garment trade campaign, starting at 2pm. As well as Gary Smith we have Amber Sunner, a journalist, and Priya Thamotheram from FAB-L.

Chris Willars, president, Leicester

and District Trades Union Council