STRONGER UNIONS

For those who couldn’t get to the Building Stronger Unions fringe meeting at Congress this year, the Stronger Unions YouTube channel now contains highlights from each of the speakers;

Arlene Holt-Baker of the AFL-CIO
Paddy Lillis, USDAW Deputy General Secretary
Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary
Mark Serwotka, PCS Generaol Secretary

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I’ve given many presentations in which I’ve stressed the need for unions to break into new sectors of the economy and organise the previously un-organised.  I have to be honest though and say that I never had members of MI5 in mind, but the FDA, the union that represents top civil servants has won the [...]

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The following article was written by year 11 student Eleni Astrinakis, who has been on work-placement with the TUC during the last two weeks.
On Monday 8th September I attended a Unions 21 fringe meeting called ‘Tomorrow’s unions: attracting and developing future members.’
There were many speakers including: Wes Streeting, President,National Union of Students; Simon Sapper, [...]

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The evidence that union mergers make (the new) unions more effective and create additional resources for organising and recruitment is not (yet!) as convincing as the case to be made for individual unions with shared interests working together more closely.
This post on the blog of Jon Rogers, Unison National Executive member comments on the potential for [...]

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Heres a good article in Tribune by Brendan Barber - he’s my boss - assessing union organising efforts over the last 10 years.
While he rightly acknowledges that external factors such as new union recognition legislation and (until recently) rising employment have helped unions stabilise membership he also points out that, ‘new laws and increased employment [...]

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Some 90 people packed into the Regents room in the Grand Hotel yesterday lunchtime for the ‘Building Stronger Unions’ fringe meeting.
Most people were left standing and the butties were in short supply (we catered for 30!) but the event itself went really well, and all four speakers got a good reception.
Arlene Holt-Baker from the AFL-CIO [...]

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Just back in the office after a brief but hectic visit to Congress.  I had three meetings with unions - the FBU, Equity and GMB - about the Activist Academy, caught up with the teachers unions - with whom the Organising and Recruitment Team has done a lot of work over the last three years - at the [...]

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Earlier today I went aloing to the Unions21/IPA fringe on global organising. There was a decent mix of speakers and some interesting contributions from the floor - covering everything from how we make Global Framework Agreements meaningful to Nautilus UK’s ongoing merger with its Dutch counterpart.

Of course THE big fringe of the week is being [...]

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Last night I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at the NGH’s fringe meeting on vulnerable workers. The fringe meeting was a good pre-cursor to today’s debate at Congress on vulnerable workers which Carl mentioned in his last post.
NGH do a fantstic job of raising the profile of one Britain’s most vulnerable groups [...]

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Congress get under way today and lurking in the shadows will be the Conservative Party’s envoy to the Trade Union movement - Richard Balfe (who was once a union officer and Labour MEP until 2001 when he defected and joined the Tories).   Mr Balfe’s remit is to develop “trust and understanding” between the Conservative Party [...]

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