Workers' Liberty

For the first time in its history, the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers debated a motion submitted by LGBT teachers from their own conference.

The 2008 National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference was unlike any other in the recent past. The difference? For almost a year NUT activists have been preparing the ground for the first national strike in over two decades. The attack on teachers pay and the unions' industrial response to it shaped the opening days and determined the mood of the rest of conference.

Young members of the RMT met in London on Saturday 5th April for their annual conference.

Gordon Brown and Ed Balls will continue to accelerate the academies programme. The fake concern Balls expressed about some schools flouting admissions procedures acts as sand in our eyes as he and Brown increase selection through academies, trust and foundation status.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire W. B. Yeats

This [NUT 2008 Easter] conference comes at a crucial time for trade unionists both in education and across the Public Sector. Both the NUT and UCU are balloting members over the government’s 3 year pay cut, which will hopefully lead to the first national strike over pay for a very long time.

Dave Prentis clearly signalled in his conference speech that organised left activists were in his sights.

The Unison local government conference saw an attack on Socialist Party comrades from four branches who had tried to raise the issue of why Standing Orders Committee had ruled out of order so many motions. The leaflet they produced had used the “three wise monkeys” as a symbol of how their questioning of the decisions had been ignored. This was laughably deemed to be racist and an investigation is underway.

Three leading SWP activists are also under fire from their employers, the union or both.

By a delegate

Unison national conference in Brighton, 17-19 June, was dominated by the issue of pay, indeed the proposed 2% pay freeze formed the backdrop to the entire week. And on Friday afternoon an emergency motion was passed that committed the union to pursuing a strategy of linking up with other public sector unions.

by a Unison conference delegate

Unison’s national delegate conference (June 19-22) will see a number of debates that could move the union in a new direction in the next year. Unfortunately some of the most important decisions for the union will not be played out on conference floor.

UCU, the lecturers’ union, formed from the merger of Natfhe and AUT, meets in conference for the first time at the end of May.

The SWP have a softish motion for a boycott of Israel on the agenda (through Brighton University and UEL).

By Mike Fenwick

At Unison health conference in Brighton on 22-24 April, the main decision was to reject the 2.5% pay settlement and go for industrial action.

By a delegate

The big step forward at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers, in Harrogate at Easter, was the passing of a motion calling for united public-sector strike action on pay.

Chances to push the union leadership into action on other issues were, however, missed.

The TUC has still not deemed to post on its website the resolutions passed at Women's Conference over a month ago. Instead, we get a decidedly unhelpful "no documents available".

A blow-by-blow blog of TUC Women's Conference, which met in Scarborough on 14-16 March, by RMT delegate Janine Booth.

• TUC Women's Conference: Day One

• TUC Women Discuss Abortion Rights
• Women Fight Back Against TUC Childcare Sell-Out
• John McDonnell, Sexual Harassment, Sweatshops, Women's Representation and more
• Does Anyone Know Where The March Is?
• Trident: Taking The TUC Tops To Task
• Lone Working, Single Parents, TUC Women's Committee election

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(Make sure you are logged in to see pictures. Picture on this item: CWU delegate Maria Exall seconding the RMT motion on Sweatshop Labour)

This morning, we were treated to an address by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.

Thursday morning, down to the conference fresh and early, giving out John McDonnell's new women's manifesto and leaflets for the Labour Representation Committee fringe meeting at lunchtime. First business in conference was the NUT's resolution on Sexist Language, Sexist Bullying and Sexual Harassment. It was very ably seconded by RMT's Jackie Darby, who spelt out the range of sexist abuse that railway workers are subjected to in the course of duty. As Jackie rightly said, "The craven attitude of management to tackling sexual harassment is the single most serious obstacle to eliminating it from the workplace ... Our employers must be made to take sexual harassment seriously, as it seriously affects us in our working lives. It compromises us and oppresses us. We won't put up with it."

Here I am at TUC Women's Conference in Scarborough. Today, I moved RMT's emergency resolution on abortion rights. Here's my speech, plus a report on the debate that followed.

(Pic: The RMT delegation pose in front of the Conference banner in defence of abortion rights)

Into the second day for only the second time (RMT's women's conference was a one-day affair until year), the Executive reported on progress with last year's resolutions. One had been ruled out of order in a heavy-handed manner, others have been "progressed" or "linked to other files" or what have you. We need to make the Executive somewhat more responsive - but we also need to make our own resolutions include more specific mandates to help ensure that action is taken.

RMT's national women's conference took place on Friday and Saturday last week (2nd and 3rd March), in Doncaster. RMT members can watch the whole thing by webcast by logging on to the members' section. There were 25 delegates - that's about average, but less than there could potentially be due to the union notifying the conference via branch secretaries, many of whom do not make much effort to pass on the information to women. Overall, it was very good, and most delegates appeared to come away inspired.

TUC Women's Conference should be accessible to any woman trade unionist elected to respresent her union. But how can it be, when childcare is provided only during formal conference hours and only for pre-school kids?!

Read RMT delegate Janine Booth's session-by-session blog from 2006 TUC Congress here:

• TUC Blogging

• Warming up or selling short?
• Assaults at work
  
  

Apologies for the delay in posting the final TUC Congress blog. I've been laid up all weekend with PMT. I get it very badly every month, but this month could have been made worse by a dose of Post Margaret Tension, after the quite dreadful speech by Foreign Secretary Beckett.

It's groundhog day on equalities representation, as Congress once again debates and rejects the dangerously revolutionary proposals that the TUC's Women's, LGBT, Black Workers' and Disabled Workers' Conferences should have the right to:

1. submit two resolutions to Congress rather than one as at present;

2. elect the women's etc seats on the General Council.

Actually, the proposal was not even to do these things, but to consider doing these things. But no - even that was too much for those union leaders determined to defend at all costs their control over the TUC's General Council and its Congress agenda.

By guest blogger Maria Exall

The Monday evening fringe meeting organised by the United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Union Laws and the Institute of Employment Rights on the Trade Union Freedom Bill was packed. Over 200 delegates and visitors met to hear the latest reportback on the Trade Union Freedom Bill campaign.

I have spent today held captive by a ballot box. I was appointed as a scrutineer for the General Council election, which entails sitting next to a box all morning, counting votes for about an hour-and-a-half, then being banned from Congress floor and penned in by bodyguards for four hours to prevent you telling anyone the result (which you will have to read to the end of this blog entry to find out).

Yesterday, a posse of RMT activists came down from London to make a noise about East London Line privatisation (pictured, but you have to be logged in to see pictures). Wearing T-shirts, holding a big banner and handing out leaflets and stickers and helped for a while by TSSA delegates, they succeeded in making sure that everyone at the Congress now knows about the issue. In the evening, they went to Ken Livingstone's reception to point out to his guests that he is attacking workers and passengers by privatising the line, and is pretty much unfit to be a guest at a trade union event.

Dr. Abdul Bari, new leader of the Muslim Council of Britain gave a speech to Congress on Monday afternoon, and the General Council presented us with a joint statement with the Muslim Council of Britain. There was no opportunity to propose amendments to it, just a take-it-or-leave-it vote, and little time to explain or organise around what was wrong with the statement.

After the formalities and back-slapping that mark the start of Congress, the first big debate was on Pensions. As I reported yesterday, we had a long and uncontroversial composite motion on the subject.

Congress starts tomorrow, so today is the day for going to your delegation meeting, unpacking your undies, blogging in the hotel bar and checking out some social functions later.

At the RMT delegation meeting, we got to the see the composited motions for the first time.