Union democracy

Workers' Liberty bulletins at National Education Union conference 2022

You can download the 14-page bulletin produced by Workers' Liberty school workers for the National Education Union conference (11-14 April, Bournemouth) here . And here is the additional bulletin we put on the final day of the conference. We held a fringe meeting on Ukraine: Ukraine should decide its own future! Russian troops out now! Speakers from Ukrainian socialist / labour movement organisation Sotsialniy Rukh and from the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign 6pm, Tuesday 12th April Kennedy Room, Durley Dean Hotel, 28 West Cliff Rd, Bournemouth BH2 5HE

Highs and lows as RMT meets

The Special General Meetings (SGMs) of the rail union RMT, held in Leeds on 21 and 22 February, refused to withdraw default support for Labour candidates, added trans rights to the union’s rules, and addressed internal issues in a rather faltering way. The first of the two SGMs dealt with the motions that the 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) had not reached. It voted down a proposal moved by Socialist Party members that they union strengthen its ties with the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and bar branches from backing Labour candidates without prior permission of the National...

Making change real in Unison

The Time for Real Change campaign in the public services union Unison has released a statement about the General Secretary instructing staff to not support committees and attempting to block the new National Executive (NEC: which has a left majority for the first time ever, led by TFRC) from making meetings more regular and accountable. There is also an attempt to block proposals on electing senior officials and clarifying the paid release to attend NEC meetings. The previous leadership in Unison had agreed to pay employers for full release for some NEC representatives, but not those on the...

Steps forward at RMT AGM

Daniel Randall was a delegate to the recent AGM of the RMT rail union. He reports here in a personal capacity. The annual general meeting of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers (RMT) took place in Leeds from 24-29 October. The AGM had held-over business from the truncated 2020 AGM, which took place online, as well the 2021 business. It took place against the backdrop of threats including big job cuts in Network Rail, a pay freeze across the rail industry, and cuts on Transport for London. Recent officer elections in the union have seen the Broad Left alliance between...

Trade union struggle and political struggle - an interview with John McDonnell

John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and former Shadow Chancellor, spoke to Sacha Ismail. After Labour Party conference, what do you think will happen with Starmer’s leadership? Do you think he’ll be around for a long time? It’s impossible to tell at the moment. At the conference he used the traditional Blairite, Mandelson playbook. Attack your own party to demonstrate you’re a strong leader; do a big personal speech to try to demonstrate you’re a normal human being; make banal statements instead of policy commitments. It didn’t work: the bounce in the polls didn’t happen. The...

Unison: fight for democracy to fight for pay

The victory of the left in the national executive council (NEC) elections of the public services union Unison in June was a major opportunity to transform the country’s largest union. Unison has been politically and industrially timid with little fight against privatisation, losses of jobs and services or real-term pay cuts. Democratising the union is essential so members can debate and decide a new strategy for the union. The union’s largest service groups, Health and Local Government, have both rejected pay offers but there has been no forum to discuss how to win ballots under constraints of...

RMT elections: vote Pottage and Hoyle

Elections for the Assistant General Secretary and National President positions are currently taking place in the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers (RMT). Supporters of Workers’ Liberty active in the union are backing Alan Pottage (AGS) and Sean Hoyle (National President). The past year in RMT has seen outbreaks of conflict within the union over the application of its rule book and how much power should be held by union officers and staff, as against lay bodies like the National Executive Committee. The former General Secretary Mick Cash retired early, following claims...

After Sharon Graham's election, some immediate ideas to change Unite

Scrap all Regional Secretary posts. Overhaul the Legal Department. End meddling in lay-member democracy by full-timers. Reformat meetings of constitutional committees. Campaign for union policy on scrapping anti-union laws. Review support for the Morning Star . These are the proposals which a motion passed by my Unite branch earlier this month called on the higher levels of the union’s constitutional committees to give consideration to. The motion was passed in the context of, and on the basis of, Sharon Graham’s election as Unite General Secretary. Graham stood on a platform of change, a...

Getting issues on the CWU agenda

Having safely navigated its way through a virtual special conference called to discuss equality issues earlier this year, and the biennial National Executive Committee (NEC) elections, the hierarchy at the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has arranged another virtual two-day event starting 7 November. The agenda is restricted to general policy and political issues. This gives activists no opportunity to challenge the partnership approach adopted on the postal side of the union or the recent sell out of the BT dispute. The bureaucracy extends beyond HQ, with a substantial number of regional...

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