Workers' Liberty

I have seen these draconian proposed policies, and to see that talking to the press could mean gross misconduct, going sick for 8 days a year could mean gross misconduct, I could go on its farcical, and so ASLEF ballot, while we tag along behind, again refusing to unite grades, because we appear afraid after copping out with the Shorter Working Week that station side won't strike.
I hope we will not be hearing the old chestnut about "building up a head of steam", as we have sat there over the last year and let management do the very same thing. They have a straightforward policy, attack us in as many ways as possible, and while we bicker over the best way forward they organise more attacks. This will get worse before it gets better.
We are living in the age of the internet, yet we are still organising at a snails pace, we are becoming a dinosaur. In some areas we are crying out for reorganisation. This is obvious in the step change to the website. We have many many tools at our disposal, and yet we do not use them. We still work on the principal of you come to me when you want to know something, not communicating is our big weakness, and when we do we blame others as in the recent put down on TSSA, this DOES NOT GAIN US MEMBERS IT LOSES THEM please stop doing it. We must think carefully in this media political correct climate, and think how we are saying things, psychology is totally overlooked, and yet management are training heavily in it, why aren't we?
If we continue to live on the basis of past glories, we will become the past.

Treating illness as a disciplinary issue now seems commonplace for managements. The same issue has been raised in the thread on TESCO, and as I said there the same kind of policy applied at the Labour controlled Council where I used to work, I understand that people are now being sacked under this policy, and my wife was told last year when she went to see the Works Doctor because she'd been off work with a diagnosed arthritis of the spine, partially slipped disc, and compression of several discs, that she should look for another job, because if she had more time off she would be sacked.

With the Government's attack now on sick people that rely on Incapacity Benefit it is clear that a concerted attack on workers is being organised both to undermine rights won over decades in relation to sickness and pensions. The same kinds of attacks are going on in the US, and it reflects a growing severe crisis of capitalism which the bosses intend to foist on to the workers.

It does not look as though Labour backbenchers are even going to put up much of a fight against the changes in Incapacity Benefit, but it is time that the unions began to say enough is enough. These attacks affect all workers, and so are a legitimate reason for a response by all workers organised by the TUC. Of course we can't expect the TUC to organise much of a campaign unless they are pushed, but that means that as a start all the broad left union organisations must come together to campaign for a well thought out response and programme of action.

Arthur Bough