Union democracy

PCS leader contributes £100,000 to strike fund

In June this year it will be four years since John Moloney, Assistant General Secretary of civil service union PCS, was elected. By then he will have given just under £100,000 of his salary to the union’s strike funds. John is fulfilling his election pledge to take only a “worker’s wage” – to tie his living standards and their improvement, or otherwise, to those of the union’s members, by taking only the take-home pay of an Executive Officer (the most common civil service grade) in the Department for Work and Pensions (the biggest department). For most of his time in office, John gave back...

UCU: no confidence in Grady

On 4 January, UCU members at Sheffield Hallam University voted in an emergency branch for no confidence in the industrial strategy of General Secretary Jo Grady. Members expressed anger at the General Secretary undermining the democratic processes of the union and doing so publicly. It was judged that Grady has effectively derailed and de-escalated the industrial dispute and is now offering a strategy that — as evidenced over the past four years — fails to deliver. Caught between a rock and a hard place, members know that two days here and three days there will not win, but neither can we move...

Liverpool Dockers: A history of rebellion and betrayal

Please share this contribution about the Liverpool Dockers’ strike, global union solidarity, democracy, and betrayal by Jack Heyman, a dockworker from California. He spoke at a panel discussion of Mike Carden’s book - A History of the Liverpool Dockers: rebellion and betrayal , about the Liverpool Docks strike from 1995-1998. Jack says “Any young worker who is interested in trade union organizing should read Mike’s book which movingly documents the necessity of fighting to implement decisions democratically taken by the membership but denied by an ossified, class collaborationist trade union...

We were right to back Sharon Graham

Two recent articles have offered different assessments of Unite's activity since Sharon Graham was elected as general secretary.

How to get real change in Unison

Last year the left in public services union Unison, mainly organised through the Time for Real Change grouping, won a majority of the national executive committee (NEC) of Britain's biggest union for the first time. At the 2022 conference (14-17 June, Brighton), however, the old right-wing leadership had a majority of delegates, and used it to viciously attack the left and constrict democracy in the union. We will report on the conference in detail soon. On 14 June Time for Real Change held a meeting attended by about three hundred delegates, and hearing from a range of Unison activists as...

Stand with Ukraine and its labour movement: a letter to UCU Congress delegates and activists

Bombed out building, National University of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine From Denys Pilash, political scientist at Kyiv National University and activist in Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement), and Rhian Keyse, Birkbeck UCU and incoming UCU NEC member Dear comrades, At its Congress this week, UCU has the opportunity to take a strong stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and its labour movement. We urge delegates to pass Motion 23 and amendments strengthening it, and reject Motion 22 . The Russian military’s bombing of universities, colleges and schools in...

Report of NEU conference 2022

The first in-person National Education Union (NEU) conference since April 2019 committed to build towards a ballot in either summer or autumn term if the School Teachers Review Body comes up with a poor pay award.

An amendment from Lewisham District with a clearer time line, and which more clearly...

Two speeches on Ukraine at NEU conference 2022

The 2022 National Education Union (NEU) conference saw heated debate about Ukraine. In the end the conference voted down the only motion available, a Stop the War Coalition-type one (more on what happened here). Below are excerpts of two speeches given by Ukraine Solidarity Campaign supporters in...

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