1 December 2023
Cruise operator Carnival quickly withdrew an apparent threat to fire and rehire over 900 maritime professionals. After urgent negotiations with their union, the company confirmed it will not do so.
17 November 2023
The government is trying to stop workers fighting for pay and conditions. A TUC special conference will discuss the trade union response.
No worker really thinks that one year’s success ends the necessity for future defence of pay. Yet perpetual, unending strikes are not the answer either…
Rail workers should ensure that the strong workplace organisation that has been developed when they built support for their campaigns of industrial action is not dissipated...
Workers at aerospace and defence company Rolls-Royce plc recently rejected the company’s pay offer in response to the workers’ cost of living claim made on 2 February this year.
The well crafted and deliberate attacks on education by government are now being resisted by workers, who believe this is a critical point in the struggle to arrest decline…
Control is the power of directing what happens in a country, or an industry. We say workers must take control, but that has quite a different meaning for workers than for capitalists…
Workers have always organised to defend their interests, governments have always used the law to oppose them, but struggle does not stop…
As workers began to challenge the power of capital and employers at the start of the industrial revolution, trade unions were simply made illegal by the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800.
From 1 to 3 March Royal College of Nursing members at every employer in England with a strike mandate will be taking action including on night shifts.
Mark Harper, prime minister Rishi Sunak’s new Secretary of State for Transport, failed to give any real indication to those working in rail or to passengers that he will in any way adequately address the industry’s current problems.
On 1 February, teachers in the National Education Union (NEU) joined other public sector workers on strike, the first of six days of national and regional strike action throughout England and Wales.
Following significant progress in negotiations with university employers on pay, working conditions and pensions, the university staff’s union, the UCU, is suspending for two weeks the remaining seven days of its planned 18 days of strike action.
The railway industry and its workforce enter 2023 with uncertain futures. So far rail workers have shown they are prepared to stand and fight for their interests, together with those of the industry…
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has slammed the government for scuppering a deal which could have prevented rail strikes in the run-up to Christmas.
In many ways the situation facing workers in Britain is as dire as it has been at any time since the Second World War. But there is a shining light: the army of the working class is on the move.
When a strike takes place, when workers withdraw their labour, they and their employers are confronted with the truth: workers are essential to capitalism.
The working class and their trade unions know that capitalism isn’t working. At least not for us. But it seems to be doing a grand job for the capitalists…
Heightened class struggle in the early 1970s was neutered by a Labour government and trade union establishment working in tandem…
The TUC congress met in Brighton from 18 to 20 October. Much of the agenda was routine and predictable, but some unions are thinking honestly and hard about the future of their industries and of Britain.
27 October 2022
Struggles erupted in the early 1970s, notably the engineering union’s destruction of the 1971 Industrial Relations Act and the miners’ fight over pay. The new Labour government preached class conciliation in exchange for moderation of wages.
The rail disputes are now nearly six months old, and railway workers and their unions – led by RMT – are now resigned to a long-drawn-out campaign...
Given the siren calls for similar action often heard now, it’s vital to recognise what actually happened the last time a general strike was held…
The state of the trade union movement
Pay fights are breaking out across the country, but are our unions up to the challenges facing workers in Britain? Are they strong enough, or clear enough? And if not, what is to be done?
Email info@cpbml.org.uk for an invitation.
Bad news on trade union membership: the proportion of the workforce belonging to a union is at its lowest level since the current method of calculation began in 1995.
24 May 2022
The government plans laws to make rail strikes illegal unless minimum staff levels are maintained. This aims to make industrial action ineffective – and will not stop with rail workers.
28 November 2021
Inflation is at its highest in a decade and prices continue to rise. Trade unions are beginning to respond, but there’s opportunity for doing more.
Road closures and police cordons reminded people in Glasgow of the reality of hosting the city’s biggest ever gathering, the COP26 climate conference.
11 May 2021
Louise Lewis, the suspended National Education Union rep at North Huddersfield Trust School, has finally been reinstated after a seven-month battle by her fellow union members.
Four separate days of strike action have been solidly supported by RMT members who work as conductors and ticket examiners for ScotRail...
