The first TUC Activist Academy courses are due to get underway over the next few weeks.
During January and February, courses will be starting in Birmingham (first session January 14 and 15), Ruskin College, Oxford (Jan 15 and 16), Stowe College, Glasgow (January 26 and 27), Leeds (Jan 28, 29 and 30), Plymouth (Feb 9 and [...]
A few days ago I posted on what I thought was a rather oddreport on the Politics Home website that (to me at least) seemed to go to great lengths to reassure readers that unions hadn’t had any influence on the governments recent decisions to negate the the worst effects of the downturn.
Reading the post back [...]
It’s estimated that around 3 million jobs will be lost in the US if the car industry collapses and an article here from the Los Angeles Times puts an interesting spin on the crisis arguing that what’s needed is MORE not LESS unionisation of car makers.
Commenting on attempts by the ‘big three’ car makers in the [...]
When I was a CPSA/PCS activist in the late 80s/1990s, for a period of time it seemed that I was never out of the Merseyside Trade Union Community Unemployed Resource Centre, a building that dominated (and still does) the top half of Hardman Street in Liverpool.
I was there for training (it housed the city’s TU [...]
Not a post directly related to trade unions - but thought it worth mentioning that yesterday I unexpectedly got the chance to go and see the Revd. Jessie Jackson speak at Liverpool University.
Jackson’s life has been devoted to the struggle for equality in the US and elsewhere and he witnessed first hand some of the [...]
For over 7 years, workers at Pakistan’s Pearl Continental Karachi Hotel have been fighting against sackings, harassment, violence and imprisonment to have their union recognized.
Now the charitable foundation established by the hotel’s owners to freshen their image is a finalist in the online World Challenge competition co-sponsored by amongst others, the BBC.
If you agree that [...]
I came across this short piece on the Politics Home site today discussing the influence (or lack of) of unions on recent policy announcements by the government.
According to a panel of “insiders and experts” trade unions (and am I being paranoid in thinking that the way the piece is worded suggests that the author thinks that the [...]
Yesterday I was in Blackpool at an event run by unionlearn in the North West to speak about the Activist Academy as part of a workshop on the link between Learning and Organising.
During the discussion that followed the opening comments we got round to asking the reps there how many of them, as well as [...]
Tomorrow I’m off to Coventry to speak at the 2008 NUS Activist Academy. The NUS established their Activist Academy in 2007 (with the assistance of the TUC’s Organising Academy) to generate a new generation of student activists based on the principles and practices of union organising.
This is a continuation of work between the TUC and [...]
Attendees at the recent Building Stronger Unions event held on October 14th got the chance to see a short play written especially for the occasion. The play performed by the excellent Electric Picnic explored the challenges faced by a new union organiser who finds that that pre-conceptions are often mis-conceptions and that whilst both can [...]
