Unions & politics

Trade Unions and politics

COP26 lessons: the need for workers' climate action

On 17 February, the Office for National Statistics published figures showing that the number of green jobs in the UK is stagnating; in Scotland, host to the COP26 summit in November 2021, it is falling. The lack of progress toward meaningful climate action was one of the issues addressed on 19 February at a day-long meeting of local representatives of the COP26 Coalition. The gathering had been planned to take place in-person in Birmingham together with a local climate festival (which went ahead), but it moved online after Storm Eunice disrupted travel. About 50-60 people joined the ten...

ASLEF disaffiliation would be a dead end

LabourList and the Mirror have reported that train drivers’ union Aslef may disaffiliate from the Labour Party, via a motion going its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May. Union general secretary Mick Whelan is currently the Chair of Labour Unions (the consortium of Labour-affiliated unions, formerly TULO) and is opposed to disaffiliation, but the sources say that a majority of the Aslef executive supports the move. Some of the opposition may be hinged on Starmer’s rightwards turn, his shutting down of party democracy, and him reportedly having snubbed meetings with Aslef until recently. The...

How to use union clout in Labour

Refuse workers employed by Coventry City Council are striking to demand better pay. 70 HGV drivers launched the action after what the Unite union says was a “year-long” negotiation that failed to produce a settlement. A union statement said: “The workers are paid a basic rate of between £11.49 to £14.37 an hour, which is below comparable rates of pay for HGV drivers in the region. The low pay of the refuse drivers is in sharp contrast to Coventry’s top council bosses who were paid £2.9 million last year. Chief executive Martin Reeves takes home £229,000 in pay and pension.” The strike is now...

AWL bulletin for UCU and UNISON HE strikes, 14 February-2 March 2022

AWL Higher Education workers fraction have produced this bulletin for the UCU and UNISON HE strikes starting 14 February 2022. Please download and read - and distribute if you agree! Let us know what you think - email awl@workersliberty.org We have members in UCU and UNISON and hold regular meetings to discuss building a democratic, fighting rank and file across campus unions.

Out with Johnson! Out with Johnson’s policies!

Boris Johnson’s bubble has burst. Most people accept that the government has had to issue instructions over Covid: self-isolate, test, reduce social contact in various ways, all the rest. All governments have done fairly similar, in one way or another, and varying with different geographical conditions. Most people even accept that the governments, dealing with a new virus, will be bound to make mis-steps. Even those, like us on Solidarity , who are political opponents of all the existing governments, recognise that on Covid it is better that we all follow even flawed rules, to give us all...

Labour mumbles on sick pay. We need to shout!

In the last week Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has started to make comments about the UK’s scandalous sick pay system . Better than saying nothing - just about. The first issue is that a few tweets and comments to the media are not the same as a message argued for and hammered home consistently over a long period – let alone an actual campaign. Go on Keir Starmer’s Twitter , and you'll see he has not mentioned sick pay in the last month. I stopped scrolling down, but I'd be willing to bet he has not mentioned it for much longer than that. An internet search about Labour and sick pay finds...

Police Bill: wake up the labour movement!

An energetic demonstration, initiated by Extinction Rebellion and involving many different campaigns and activists, gathered at Parliament on 8 December to oppose the Police Bill. Let’s make this the start of a renewed movement against the Bill, reviving the spirit of spring 2021 when tens of thousands across the country demonstrated against it. There is not much time. The House of Lords will start voting again on 17 January, and soon after the Bill will be back in the Commons. We need to wake up the labour movement, rousing the biggest possible sections of it to shout out and get people on...

From 1997: "Hong Kong on the auction block"

Editorial in Workers' Liberty magazine 39 , April 1997. At the time of republishing (December 2021), the Chinese government has just spent two years radically demolishing Hong Kong's freedoms. A century and half a go Britain was the great world power, the pioneer and bearer of a new type of production by steam-driven machinery; her navy ruled the world's seas. By contrast, China was an ancient civilisation, grown decrepit and spiralling into decay and disintegration. Britain fought a series of wars to force China to open its borders to opium from British-ruled India - the "opium wars". Britain...

The union and outsourcing (John Moloney's column)

Following their victory in the recent dispute, our members in Royal Parks are preparing further demands, including over a range of safety issues, to submit to management. Throughout my time as Assistant General Secretary I’ve worked support and empower outsourced workers in the civil service to organise and take action. We’ve increased our membership by hundreds. We have a number of targets for next year, including winning company-wide bargaining with Mitie. This company holds ten major outsourced contracts in the civil service; we currently have recognition in seven. We want an agreement that...

AWL bulletin for the UCU strikes, 1-3 December 2021

AWL Higher Education workers fraction have produced this bulletin for the UCU strikes on 1-3 December 2021. Please download and read - and distribute if you agree! Let us know what you think - email awl@workersliberty.org . We have members in UCU and Unison and hold regular meetings to discuss building a democratic, fighting rank and file across campus unions.

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