Recent Trade Unions Articles

How RMT union could have played the strike action differently

Evening Standard readers will be well aware that London underground is heading for a prolonged period of strikes following a dispute at TfL. This isn’t entirely unexpected; I think both Bob Crow and Boris Johnson are itching for a fight.

But when I first read the story, my thought was that the RMT union could have handled this differently. The issue here isn’t just the unwillingness of Boris to sit down and talk to the unions: it is a trap set by Conservatives.
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What happens in Wisconsin matters world-wide

contribution by Owen Tudor

The new independent unions of Egypt have been on the receiving end of a lot of solidarity messages from around the world as they struggle for democracy and human rights. But they are also sending solidarity messages to other workers engaged in the struggle for human rights: such as the trade unions of Wisconsin in the US mid-west.

It may seem bizarre to suggest that workers in the state capital of Madison, Wisconsin are engaged in a similar struggle as those in Tahrir Square, but it doesn’t seem bizarre to those Egyptian trade unionists, and they’re right.
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Upcoming NUS elections: meet the three candidates

There are three front-runners in the election in April to replace Aaron Porter as President of the National Union of Students. The contest is significant for students and non-students alike, so I’ve interviewed all three.

Liam Burns is currently President of NUS Scotland, Shane Chowen is Vice President (Further Education) of the NUS and Mark Bergfeld is member of the NUS National Executive and spokesperson for the Education Activist Network.
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Five reasons why Aaron Porter was right not to seek re-election

It’s official: Aaron Porter will no longer be the British student movement’s official figurehead. For only the second time since 1969, a NUS President will not serve a second term.

Aaron Porter chose the wrong time to be a Blairite at the helm of the student movement. If the joint NUS/UCU demo on November 14th had been half as big, Porter would still be in office. But it lit a torchpaper. No-one on left or right had a real sense of the burning anger on campuses and in sixth forms across the country.
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Ed Miliband will address the big TUC march – and why it matters

So, it’s official. Ed Miliband will be speaking at the TUC’s ‘March For The Alternative‘ on 26th March. Well, that’s what Peter Hain told me on Twitter today, and I’m willing to take his word for it.

Cue right-wing hysteria about ‘Red Ed’. In other countries, no-one would blink if the left-of-centre opposition leader joined his supporters in marching against an aggressive neo-liberal government.
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Why the student movement in England is essentially dead

There is growing media chatter globally about the “rising anger” of this generation’s youth. Student protests in the UK; uprisings across the Middle East; the rise of India and China; things kicking off elsewhere etc.

But its also too easy to overstate the impact of these changes, especially if the student movement here is anything to go by.
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Guardian today misrepresents unions and the fight against cuts

The Guardian today carries a comment piece by Unite union’s gen-sec Len McCluskey arguing: Unions, get set for battle. It has been turned into a rather simplistic news story title: Unions warn of massive wave of strikes.

It is also accompanied with a leader titled: Trade unions: Leading nowhere “Len McCluskey sadly sounds as if he stopped thinking in 1979. What a waste.”

I would be willing to bet money it was written by Julian Glover, because it once again misses the point and misrepresents the left and unions.

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Labour and the unions: the Blairites are back

Second only to the Granita pact in the list of most memorable New Labour meals is surely Stephen Byers’ fish supper of 1996. Labour’s frontbench spokesman on industrial relations was in Blackpool for the TUC conference, and speaking to journalists over a restaurant meal, expressed the opinion that the party should cut ties with the unions.

Even for a man who started out as a principled revolutionary socialist and ended up touting himself to lobbyists as a ‘cab for hire’ at £5,000 a day, it was hardly a career high.

That the Blairites wanted to go through with the divorce was at that time received wisdom among the political classes. The game plan was to get into office, introduce state funding, keep on tapping the pockets of the super-rich, and then kiss the horny-handed sons of toil goodbye.
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Why the BBC strikes deserves public support

Members of the NUJ started their 48 hr strike at the BBC at midnight on Thursday over changes to their pensions.

When I arrived at BBC White City studios yesterday I had expected a deflated and demoralised picket line. But it proved to be much more optimistic. Coffee and cake was circulating the picket line. Even the heavy downpour of rain didn’t harm the fighting spirit.

Paul Mason, economics editor for Newsnight and the Father of the Chapel, told me he expected them to win the strike, providing an agreement can be found with the management.
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David Davis: ‘libertarian’ against striking

Too many of those directly engaged in industrial relations regard it as all a bit of a laugh. As a journalist who has covered numerous disputes ever since the 1980s, I know plenty of union officials and employer reps who get a kick out of showing what a clever clogs they can be across the negotiating table.

A spot of brinkmanship here, a threat of some argy-bargy there.

Then split the difference, maybe 70/30, 80/20 or 90/10 in favour of the bosses. The ‘concessions’ get presented to the members as ‘the best deal that could be done in the circumstances’, and everyone’s happy. See you same time next year, mate.
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