TUC pay campaign: to be or not to be?
7 July 2017
First they will, then they won’t. TUC indecision over its “Britain needs a pay rise” campaign is fast becoming a tradition.
Unions
Unions
1833 - 1838: The Tolpuddle Martyrs
7 July 2017
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported for resisting starvation wages and forming a trade union. The annual festival commemorating them – absent for two years because of Covid-19 – was held again this July in Tolpuddle, Dorset.
Don't give way, make headway
History shows that when we rely slavishly on legislation our aspirations for advance have subsided, along with our organisation…
Strikes hit new low
According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics, 81,000 workers went on strike in 2015 – the lowest number since records began in 1893.
Trade unions in crisis – time to change
The lowest membership since the Second World War, the lowest number of workers on strike since records began - these are the symptoms of a failure of purpose that most unions are trying their hardest to ignore...
Safety first
Britain’s railways have become a battleground as companies bent on profit look to cut corners…
Class struggle across a nation
25 February 2017
Since the birth of industrial capitalism, a web of industrial sinews has held the constituent regions of Britain together. The recent dismembering of much of that web has brought not only economic collapse to regions but also threatened our national integrity. We recount struggles in Scotland, London and North Wales that pursued essential class goals of improving wages and conditions of work.
New arts trade union formed
12 September 2016
The Artists’ Union of England, launched in London and Newcastle two years ago with advice based on the Scottish Artists’ Union Rule Book, has just been granted certification.
Trade unions: organise for independence
The referendum result continues to highlight the urgent need for unions to take responsibility for an independent Britain.
No excuses: university pay matters
Teaching staff in Britain’s universities are ramping up their fight for pay. With the autumn term beginning, they could be joined by administrative staff.
Teachers need to target their struggle
If teacher unions are to protect and improve members’ pay and conditions of work, then tactics and strategy must be reconsidered and revamped.
Battle on the railways
The struggle for safety and jobs on Britain’s railways is intensifying as the government seeks to take on the unions.
Tolpuddle annual rally
Tolpuddle annual rally and festival in the village from which six agricultural workers were transported to Australia in 1834 for organising a union.
Reclaim the unions (and ditch the Labour Party)
25 July 2016
The Brexit campaign and in particular its result pose big problems not only for business and government in Britain and throughout Europe but also for the Labour Party and trade unions at home.
Guards sacrificed on the altar of profit
The rail unions are fighting running battles across Britain over safety, with one rail company after the other looking to dispense with guards…
Victory for Airbus 8 against fascist law
9 March 2016
Eight Spanish workers have been cleared of criminal charges under a fascist labour law dating back to the Franco regime. The British government’s current Trade Union Bill aims to introduce something similar.
Hospital HR passes the buck
28 February 2016
Under the guise of “employee relations advice”, King’s College Hospital Trust has implemented a glorious modern-day example of how to undermine a union.
Anti-union laws - the Spanish model
The TUC’s cringeworthy “Love your Union” week from 8 to 14 February against the Trade Union Bill left many trade unionists at a total loss.
Why trade unionists should vote to leave
One of the big lies of the European Union is that it is somehow good for workers. In fact, the EU is attacking the basis of all progress at work – effective collective bargaining…
No advance without Marxism
13 February 2016
Political statement from the Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist, 17th Congress, London, November 2015. There can be no advance without Marxism, because Marx showed that only the eventual victory of the exploited class, the working class, represents a real future. Capitalism means only destruction and war. Here in Britain, we need our own unique vision of a working class future in order to fight and win in the present.
Government cuts trade union education
15 January 2016
By August 2016 government funding for trade union education via the TUC will be slashed by half. By August 2017 all the funding will probably have gone. It is time for unions to grasp the nettle.
Valentine's stunt put up against Trade Union Bill
13 January 2016
The Trade Union Bill passed its second reading in the Lords on 11 January. In the face of a seemingly inexorable journey towards the Bill becoming an Act, the TUC’s response is a tepid Valentine’s stunt.
How to defeat the Bill
With the fascistic Trade Union Bill – attacking membership and finances – shortly to become law, we need organisation and clarity of thinking.
1: Caught in the check off trap
Rail unions learned just how vulnerable their finances were many years ago when British Rail summarily ended the check-off facility to RMT during a dispute in 1993.
2: Half a century of attack
“Kill the Bill!” was the slogan adopted by trade unions more than forty years ago, in opposition to the Industrial Relations Bill – which came perilously close to being accepted in toto by British trade unions.
Taking on the union myth-makers
Just about every union in Britain has policy opposing privatisation. Many are committed to fighting TTIP. It is the EU that is spearheading these attacks on workers.
Desperate Conservatives try to relaunch union front
5 October 2015
The announcement that the Conservative trade unionists organisation, disbanded over 25 years ago, is to be reconstituted should show everyone in the trade union movement just how weak and desperate government really is.
A young person’s place is in their union
Young people are not enthused by traditional politics – but that doesn’t mean they are apathetic. Harnessing and directing interest where young workers have economic power is not easy.
What’s in the bill?
New restrictions on the right to strike, including a 50 per cent voting threshold for union ballot turnouts, plus in some “essential public services” 40 per cent of those entitled to vote must vote for industrial action.
They want us to disarm and surrender
The Trade Union Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech has resurrected every wish-list governments ever had of smashing the working class. It embodies every anti-worker measure they’ve previously tried to implement and every shred of vindictive class hatred they have had in their ranks reaching back to day one of modern capitalism.