Postal workers will take their campaign against Royal Mail privatisation to parliament in December.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is organising a public rally at lunchtime on Wednesday December 15 at Central Hall, Storey's Gate, Westminster, London, SW1H 9NH.
The main speakers are Green MP Caroline Lucas and shawdow business secretary John Denham.
Other campaign events include a demonstration on Sunday January 9 in Witney, Oxfordshire - the constituency of prime minister David Cameron.
The union is urging people to support their Keep the Post Public campaign.
And pledging to link to blogs that oppose the sell-off of Royal Mail.
DECLARATION: I'm working for the CWU on a freelance basis.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Monday, 29 November 2010
BA cabin crew to ballot for more industrial action
BA cabin crew are to hold another ballot for industrial action - as predicted on The Workers United.
The latest twist in the year long dispute over working conditions was announced by Unite today.
The ballot will be concluded in early January.
Red Pepper reports: from the picket line at BA and from the deserted airport.
The latest twist in the year long dispute over working conditions was announced by Unite today.
The ballot will be concluded in early January.
Red Pepper reports: from the picket line at BA and from the deserted airport.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Pilots win union recognition at low cost airline
The British pilots' union has won the right to negotiate pay and conditions at the low cost airline Jet2.com.
As predicted on The Workers United the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) was awarded recognition without the need for a ballot.
The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) - the quango that adjudicates recognition claims - had already established that more than 60 percent of the company's 247 "flight deck pilots" are members of the union.
At a recent CAC hearing the company argued that a ballot would clear the air given the "heat" there had been on both sides.
Jet2.com also said a vote would provide a democratic mandate for union recognition.
The CAC panel agreed with BALPA that the law - introduced by Labour in 2000 - gave a union with that level of membership the right to conduct collective bargaining for the pilots without a ballot.
There is a full report of the decision on the CAC website.
COMMENT:
Congratulations to BALPA. This sort of victory against a modern and relatively new private sector employer should act as inspiration to the whole trade union movement.
But a public meeting in Manchester heard that BALPA members organised themselves into strike-breaking squads during the ongoing cabin crew dispute between Unite and British Airways.
The airline industry is cut-throat and the workers need unity to defend and improve working conditions.
As predicted on The Workers United the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) was awarded recognition without the need for a ballot.
The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) - the quango that adjudicates recognition claims - had already established that more than 60 percent of the company's 247 "flight deck pilots" are members of the union.
At a recent CAC hearing the company argued that a ballot would clear the air given the "heat" there had been on both sides.
Jet2.com also said a vote would provide a democratic mandate for union recognition.
The CAC panel agreed with BALPA that the law - introduced by Labour in 2000 - gave a union with that level of membership the right to conduct collective bargaining for the pilots without a ballot.
There is a full report of the decision on the CAC website.
COMMENT:
Congratulations to BALPA. This sort of victory against a modern and relatively new private sector employer should act as inspiration to the whole trade union movement.
But a public meeting in Manchester heard that BALPA members organised themselves into strike-breaking squads during the ongoing cabin crew dispute between Unite and British Airways.
The airline industry is cut-throat and the workers need unity to defend and improve working conditions.
Friday, 26 November 2010
GUEST POST: Union leader reports from inside a student occupation
A book lies on one of the tables inside the occupation at London South Bank University (LSBU).
It's about the 1968 student revolts in Europe and there is a film running on one of the students’ laptops about the Situationists.
So the historical forebears of the current wave of student occupations across the UK is clear, yet these students are making entirely modern demands – no Con-Dem cuts, of course; no increases in tuition fees, of course; but in this language centre turned occupation centre at LSBU the students have specific demands for their ProVice Chancellor Phil Cardew.
They want no repeat of the recent ban on students’ meetings, restore second language teaching and convene a public meeting with students to discuss how they and teaching staff can agree alternatives to cuts.
The students’ organisation at LSBU is impressive.
They are disciplined and welcoming, with a mature understanding of the issues - and it is heart-poundingly exciting for me to get the chance to visit the occupation and meet them.
But there is no hiding the feeling of exhaustion and isolation among some of them.
Located in the unglamorous Elephant and Castle in south London, the LSBU students do not have the high profile - or the recent previous experience – of other London occupations such as at University College London (UCL) or the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
However, that probably makes them even more determined. They urgently deserve support from trade unions and other campaign groups.
It is impossible not to recognise the inspiring role which all the occupations and the student organisers are playing in the fast-growing coalition of resistance against cuts and the austerity agenda.
More traditional trade unions have masses to learn from them.
We live in historic times.
By Pete Murray, President, National Union of Journalists
Defend LSBU! Defend our Education! student blog
EXTRA: Solidarity message to students from Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary Mark Serwotka.
COMMENT:
It would be good to hear other examples of links between workers and students in the last few days. Unity is everything.
It's about the 1968 student revolts in Europe and there is a film running on one of the students’ laptops about the Situationists.
So the historical forebears of the current wave of student occupations across the UK is clear, yet these students are making entirely modern demands – no Con-Dem cuts, of course; no increases in tuition fees, of course; but in this language centre turned occupation centre at LSBU the students have specific demands for their ProVice Chancellor Phil Cardew.
They want no repeat of the recent ban on students’ meetings, restore second language teaching and convene a public meeting with students to discuss how they and teaching staff can agree alternatives to cuts.
The students’ organisation at LSBU is impressive.
They are disciplined and welcoming, with a mature understanding of the issues - and it is heart-poundingly exciting for me to get the chance to visit the occupation and meet them.
But there is no hiding the feeling of exhaustion and isolation among some of them.
Located in the unglamorous Elephant and Castle in south London, the LSBU students do not have the high profile - or the recent previous experience – of other London occupations such as at University College London (UCL) or the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
However, that probably makes them even more determined. They urgently deserve support from trade unions and other campaign groups.
It is impossible not to recognise the inspiring role which all the occupations and the student organisers are playing in the fast-growing coalition of resistance against cuts and the austerity agenda.
More traditional trade unions have masses to learn from them.
We live in historic times.
By Pete Murray, President, National Union of Journalists
Defend LSBU! Defend our Education! student blog
EXTRA: Solidarity message to students from Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary Mark Serwotka.
COMMENT:
It would be good to hear other examples of links between workers and students in the last few days. Unity is everything.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Lose a ballot and do two terms as a union general secretary
A man who lost the last postal ballot for the leadership of the GMB is about to start his second term as the union’s general secretary.
Paul Kenny was the only candidate when nominations closed on November 16.
As Wikepedia notes: “Kenny had been defeated heavily by Kevin Curran in the 2003 GMB general secretary election to replace John Edmonds. However, he was appointed acting general secretary on 24 March 2005 following Curran's resignation after alleged election rigging.
“In May 2006 he was elected un-opposed as GMB general secretary.”
The GMB, formerly the General Municipal Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union has 600,000 members.
COMMENT:
Congratulations to Paul Kenny. But why do none of the GMB’s other 599,999 members fancy a crack at the top job?
I’d be interested to hear from GMBers in the comments box – anonymously if necessary.
DECLARATION:
I was a GMB member in 2003 and voted for Kevin Curran.
Paul Kenny was the only candidate when nominations closed on November 16.
As Wikepedia notes: “Kenny had been defeated heavily by Kevin Curran in the 2003 GMB general secretary election to replace John Edmonds. However, he was appointed acting general secretary on 24 March 2005 following Curran's resignation after alleged election rigging.
“In May 2006 he was elected un-opposed as GMB general secretary.”
The GMB, formerly the General Municipal Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union has 600,000 members.
COMMENT:
Congratulations to Paul Kenny. But why do none of the GMB’s other 599,999 members fancy a crack at the top job?
I’d be interested to hear from GMBers in the comments box – anonymously if necessary.
DECLARATION:
I was a GMB member in 2003 and voted for Kevin Curran.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Unite 2010 general secretary election - McCluskey wins
Len McCluskey, 101,000 votes (42%)
Jerry Hicks, 53,000 votes (22%)
Les Bayliss, 47,000 votes (19%)
Gail Cartmail, 39,000 votes (16%)
Turnout 16 percent
COMMENT
A remarkable performance by Jerry Hicks - who has recorded this message.
A very poor vote for Les Bayliss considering the money spent.
Your comments welcome below.
Jerry Hicks, 53,000 votes (22%)
Les Bayliss, 47,000 votes (19%)
Gail Cartmail, 39,000 votes (16%)
Turnout 16 percent
COMMENT
A remarkable performance by Jerry Hicks - who has recorded this message.
A very poor vote for Les Bayliss considering the money spent.
Your comments welcome below.
Friday, 19 November 2010
GUEST POST: Bradford journalists join colleagues fighting the big publishing company Newsquest
Newsquest’s bosses in West Yorkshire are worried about falling sales of their papers.
Solution: sack most of your newsroom staff and get them to apply for their own jobs – but there will be fewer of them.
If it wasn’t so serious, you could die laughing. Here’s a company that has lost the plot.
Its journalists, including 29 National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members, have endured a pay freeze lasting more than 1,000 days and the closure of their pension scheme. Now they’re being thrown on the scrap heap.
Paul Davidson, chief executive of this profitable British arm of an American-owned company, sits in his Surrey ivory tower with his enhanced pension and £106,000 pay rise while his managers steer a course for oblivion.
Two editors, six reporting staff and six photographers, including the NUJ’s father of chapel, are at risk of losing their jobs, along with some editorial middle managers’ posts. When the dust settles, there will be two fewer jobs.
Keighley, a post-industrial ex-mill town with high unemployment and social problems, will have its editorial operation merged with Ilkley, a genteel, affluent former spa town.
To pretend this is going to help sales is to live in cloud cuckoo land.
Enough is enough. The Newsquest Bradford chapel today announced it was balloting for industrial action, joining our Newsquest colleagues throughout England.
There have been strikes at Southampton and Brighton. Chapels - workplace branches - in York, Darlington, Bolton, and Blackburn are also balloting.
We’re fighting not just for our journalist members but for our towns and communities, which will be left with pale imitations of newspapers.
By Bob Smith, Father of Chapel, Newsquest Bradford and Newsquest group chapel, NUJ
Strike in Brighton
Ballot in Brighton
Ballot in Blackburn
Ballot in Darlington
Strike in Southampton
LATEST: Newsquest cut jobs in Scotland today
EXTRA: NUJ vice president Donnacha Delong reports from the Brighton picket line
Solution: sack most of your newsroom staff and get them to apply for their own jobs – but there will be fewer of them.
If it wasn’t so serious, you could die laughing. Here’s a company that has lost the plot.
Its journalists, including 29 National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members, have endured a pay freeze lasting more than 1,000 days and the closure of their pension scheme. Now they’re being thrown on the scrap heap.
Paul Davidson, chief executive of this profitable British arm of an American-owned company, sits in his Surrey ivory tower with his enhanced pension and £106,000 pay rise while his managers steer a course for oblivion.
Two editors, six reporting staff and six photographers, including the NUJ’s father of chapel, are at risk of losing their jobs, along with some editorial middle managers’ posts. When the dust settles, there will be two fewer jobs.
Keighley, a post-industrial ex-mill town with high unemployment and social problems, will have its editorial operation merged with Ilkley, a genteel, affluent former spa town.
To pretend this is going to help sales is to live in cloud cuckoo land.
Enough is enough. The Newsquest Bradford chapel today announced it was balloting for industrial action, joining our Newsquest colleagues throughout England.
There have been strikes at Southampton and Brighton. Chapels - workplace branches - in York, Darlington, Bolton, and Blackburn are also balloting.
We’re fighting not just for our journalist members but for our towns and communities, which will be left with pale imitations of newspapers.
By Bob Smith, Father of Chapel, Newsquest Bradford and Newsquest group chapel, NUJ
Strike in Brighton
Ballot in Brighton
Ballot in Blackburn
Ballot in Darlington
Strike in Southampton
LATEST: Newsquest cut jobs in Scotland today
EXTRA: NUJ vice president Donnacha Delong reports from the Brighton picket line
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)