STRONGER UNIONS

The TUC has responded vigorously to the CBI’s calls for the law on industrial action ballots to be changed so that in effect unions could only strike if at least 40% of the balloted workforce voted positively for action.
As well as being an affront to basic democracy (as far as I’m aware there is no ‘turnout threshold’ [...]

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Each year 3/4 million workers are injured or suffer illness as a result of work – a fact conveniently ignored by that section of the tabloid press which revels in  ’elf and safety gone-mad  tales of toothpicks banned in restaurants or school-kids made to wear googles to play conkers.
So today’s announcement by the  Government that [...]

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Yesterday trade unionists around the world (and for the first time, the British government) commemorated Workers’ Memorial Day.
This dreadful story is a reminder as to why we should all, ‘Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living’.

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Nice article at The Sauce (hat-tip RMT magazine), exploring the links between Mrs Justice Sharp, (the Judge who awarded Network Rail an injunction against the RMT), the private equity industry and Network Rail.
No allegation or suggestion of impropiety, but as The Sauce comments it does raise questions about,
“…the closeness of the British judicial system to major corporate [...]

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Lots of union activists will be in election mode for the next 16 days – working day and night and all the bits in-between, knocking on doors, telecanvassing and handing out leaflets.
But in the midst of election fever its important to remember that whatever the outcome of the election, unions will have their work to [...]

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Following Gordon Brown’s trip to see the Queen, politicians will be spending the next month trying to persuade the electorate why they deserve our votes.
One of the key battleground issues will undoubtedly be the future of public services. While there appears to be a political consensus that cuts are on the horizon (with not unimportant [...]

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Yesterday was  pretty sad day for both democracy and industrial relations. The decision to overturn RMT’s ballot was just the latest in a long line of recent cases which have seen the Courts ride roughshod over the rights of union members.
What makes this case even worse is that employer initiated the legal proceedings at the [...]

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“We are facing a spring of discontent as yet another union flex their muscles and threaten to walk out.”
Eric Pickles, Conservative Party Chairman, March 2010
“Britain now faces Labour’s spring of discontent with militant unions threatening to bring our railways to a standstill as well. Strike action could leave the country facing a serious transport meltdown.”
Theresa [...]

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Over the next few months unions will understandably focused on the General Election. Labour Party affiliates will be busy mobilising people and resources to try and deliver a Labour victory; and unions more broadly will be working hard to ensure that the priorities of union members and their families are reflected in Party manifestos.
Whatever the [...]

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Just read the sad news that Howard Zinn, the author of the seminal ‘A People’s History of the United States’ has passed away.
I met Howard Zinn briefly five years ago, when he gave he led a seminar at the HTUP, and he was a genuine, inspiring bloke – a working class intellectual, who worked in a [...]

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