Posts Tagged ‘TUC’

Andrew Fisher on Trade Unions: Wrong, wrong, wrong

by Andy Newman.

It is hard to imagine a more ill-judged intervention into the debates about the public sector pensions dispute than that of Andrew Fisher, joint secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, and I was therefore surprised to see it reproduced at Left Futures, and praised by Gregor Gall, who is usually an astute commentator on trade union affairs.

The Pensions dispute and the way forward for trade unions

by Andrew Fisher.

The November 30 strikes saw unprecedented unity in the union movement but the speed of its collapse illustrates just how tenuous it was. Despite claims to have extracted significant concessions from the government, unions that sign up to the government’s offer are really guilty of selling short not only their members but millions more whose […]

Is it time to review the Bridlington agreement?

by Andy Newman.

The dispute over recognition for GMB with Carillion Facilities Management at Great Western Hospital (GWH) in Swindon raises important issues related to privatisation of services in the NHS, and the relationship between sister trade unions. GMB is a general union that organises all grades in the NHS, and has a national recognition agreement with the NHS. […]

Ed Miliband did ‘OK’ at the TUC

by Andy Newman.

To be honest I have found the press reaction to Ed Miliband’s speech at TUC Congress rather annoying. Of course he was heckled by a minority of delegates; that was always going to happen. But as we can seen from the delegates reaction on Pete Murray’s film, most were listening attentively, and UNISON delegate John Gray reports “it […]

The state of unions in Britain

by Andy Newman.

The General Council Report for the next week’s TUC Congress in London is a very useful document. The quoted statistics concerning union membership are sobering. In April, they recorded a union density amongst employees of 26.6%. In the public sector, it remained stable at just over 56 per cent but in the private sector density fell to […]

March for the Alternative – the movie

by Jon Lansman.

This short film, funded by Philosophy Football, tells the story of one group of campaigners, from Northampton and their journey to join the big 26 March. It’s a lovely record of the day but let it also inspire your future campaigning.

Support UK Uncut and those arrested at Fortnum & Mason – “non-violent and sensible,” innocent and victimised

by Jon Lansman.

In a few short months, UK Uncut has reshaped public opinion on tax avoidance. Its peaceful actions, light-hearted and engaging people never previously involved in political activity, have left corporate Britain running scared, forced the Treasury to run training sessions in response and thrown the right-wing anti-tax Tax Payers Alliance onto the defensive. In a […]

Cuts are not the cure

by Jon Lansman.

A brilliant animation based on the arguments in False Economy’s “Cuts are the wrong cure” section.

About those “peaceful” suffragettes

by Owen Jones.

Firstly, a defence of Ed Miliband. He has been savaged from both left and right for speaking at the TUC’s historic demonstration against the cuts on Saturday. Some activists booed him as he spoke, angered by any association between Labour and the anti-cuts movement. The criticisms from the right, meanwhile, have been largely predictable: in […]

Labour must get back in touch

by Mark Seddon.

I have a photograph back home taken in 1978. It is of a demonstration organised by local trade unions in the town of Trowbridge in Wiltshire. I was barely seventeen years old at the time, but there we are marching underneath a banner that reads ‘Wiltshire Against the Cuts’, Tony Benn, the then local Swindon […]

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