“The classic English gentleman abroad: It’s David Niven. It’s Stuart Grainger. It’s Nigel Havers. The look - Imperial Leisure. Offset that look with those four summer reliables - hat, cravat, summer spectacles and, for that touch of class, the Organising Academy Polo Shirt.”
(with apologies to Alan Partridge)
Are you a sartorially challenged union organiser, looking for [...]
“Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.”
The above is [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Their are over 200,000 trade union reps and activists in the UK and for the members in the workplaces in which they are active it is they, not union General Secretarys or full-time officers who are the face of the union. Reps and the work that they do are vital to both the interests of their members [...]
Along with Paul Nowak, our partners, kids and thousands of other trade unionists I spent the weekend at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival. Amongst the highlights of the festival which for me were the march, the wreath laying at the grave of James Hammet and the generally good vibe (sorry!), was a session in the Martyrs Marquee on [...]
Are you going along to one of this year’s TUC Organising Academy Development Centres?
Are you wondering what exactly will happen during the Development Centre?
Do you have any questions that you’d welcome the opportunity to have answered before you arrive?
If you’ve answered YES to any of the above then the TUC’s Organising & Recruitment Team together [...]
Tonight we had the first informal meeting of the TUC’s ‘Leading Organising’ network, bringing together heads of organising from unions including Unison, GMB, PCS, NUT and the CSP.
Our aim is to pull together this group every couple of months or so to share ideas and experience. The meetings are open to everyone with a lead [...]
May Day (Thursday 1 May) sees the launch of Union Island, an innovative new trade union project to build a home for unions and activists in the virtual world Second Life™.
Union Island will host the first ever virtual May Day, a day of training, networking and celebration to bring activists from the global union movement [...]
Last week I spoke about the organising challenge in the UK to the Biennial conference of Mandate, the union for bar and retail workers in Ireland. Its the second event I’ve spoken at in Ireland during the last few weeks. The first was an event hosted by the NCI looking at prospects for union growth [...]
