Union democracy

FBU: Keep the pressure on the EC! No compromise, no witch-hunt!

By Nick Holden As the dust settles from the FBU's decision last month to disaffiliate from the Labour Party, union activists continue to prepare for a possible strike over pay, with at least one hand tied behind their backs by their own union leadership. FBU leaders have continued to seek negotiations with employers, including meeting with the TUC. As things stand, the FBU will be balloting for industrial action in August unless the employers pay the second and third instalments of last year's pay agreement before the end of this month. The chances of that seem slim, but the record of the FBU...

GMB-Amicus merger?

We need unions that serve the members Sanjay Sirikanth, GMB member With the recent takeover of the print union GPMU and the forthcoming acquisition of banking union UNIFI, AMICUS is fast becoming the union of choice for trade union bureaucrats seeking to secure their pension funds by pushing merger through their union Executives. The TUC appears to be backing this AMICUS campaign and complaints from members in both GPMU and UNIFI point to large amounts of time and money being invested in getting the "right" result out of membership votes - that is, the one that suits the suits. The TUC has...

Fantasy Union of Railworkers

What kind of union do we need? The story of the fight against PPP shows up the strengths and weaknesses in our current union set-up. Union officials will often have you believe that things can only be done the way they are done, because ... well, because they have always been done that way. We do not agree. We have made several serious criticisms of the unions in this pamphlet, so it is only fair that we set out in more positive terms what our ideal union might look like. Let's call it the Fantasy Union of Railworkers (FUR). Some of the good things about this fantasy union could be put in...

FBU: time for rank and file control!

By Nick Holden After suspending conference on 11 May the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) exec went into extensive negotiations with the employers over the conditions they wanted to implement in stage two of the 2002 pay award. A "compromise" agreement was struck and agreed by the Executive that firefighters would give up the right to "stand down time". The deal followed widespread unofficial action over the issue - stand down was widely seen as a dispute which the FBU leadership couldn't lose, and couldn't afford to. Yet apparently they were prepared to "give it away". Later the FBU heard that the...

Amicus and GMB to merge?

According to reports from a number of AMICUS Executive members, a deal is being struck between Derek Simpson and Kevin Curran for Amicus to take over the crisis ridden GMB next year. Simpson has only a few years before he retires and the deal seems to be that Curran would assume the role of General Secretary after he goes. The arrangement has the full support of the TUC who seem to be spending much of the £10 million Blair gave them to "modernise" the unions on campaigning for yes votes in unions about to be taken over by AMICUS - Unifi, GPMU, and the merged KFAT/ISTC for example. This will be...

FBU: The rank and file must take the initiative

Resist the sell-out, reject the deal Firefighters fighting further attacks on their terms and conditions found this week that the FBU leadership was intent on negotiating a deal which would open the door to changes in the four-watch shift system, and even allow fire service management the option of closing some fire stations overnight, even while it encouraged firefighters to risk suspension in pursuit of a union policy it no longer believed in. Having spent weeks insisting that 'stand down time' (the time, in the early hours of the night, when fire crews are only required to attend calls, not...

Reclaim our party

By a RMT delegate The RMT Special General Meeting held in Glasgow on the 6 February upheld the decision of its 2003 AGM to affiliate to organisations outside the Labour Party. The union has now been expelled from the Party. The outcome should be no surprise to the wider labour movement. The RMT has a proud tradition of standing by its principles and facing up to bullies. The threats and ultimatums from the Labour Party Executive, (where representatives of our sister unions sit and shake in fear at the thought of rocking the boat), only served to strengthen the resolve of the delegation. We...

TGWU stewards win an inquiry

Three former TGWU shop stewards have called off a hunger strike after claiming victory in their dispute with their trade union. Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer were dismissed as shop stewards by the TGWU and sacked from their jobs as security staff at Belfast International Airport in May 2002 - along with 21 other people - after a strike. They were demanding a TGWU inquiry, made up of rank and file members of the union, to uncover the truth about the role played by their union official, Joe McCusker, and other officials. The strike at Belfast Airport was over pay and they claim...

RMT Special General Meeting

I attended, as a visitor, the RMT SGM on Feb 6th in Glasgow. As you will all be aware the Union rejected the bullying tactics of the LP and upheld the decision of last years AGM to allow the political fund to be used to support other organisations other than the LP. The main argument against the rule change was that support does not mean affiliation even though during the debate at the AGM the word affiliation was used on numerous occasions, this was rejected as nonsense as were other points against the rule change One pro LP delegate finshed his contribution by claiming that this Government...

FBU rules left motions out of order

The London region of the Fire Brigades Union says in its "News Report" of 29 January 2004 that all its motions to the union's 2004 conference have been ruled out of order. The London region FBU is known as a strong base of left-wing criticism of the FBU leadership. London members will be disappointed to learn that all three of our motions to the union's 2004 annual conference have been ruled out of order by the Standing Orders Committee. It is for this reason that no London motions are included in the Preliminary Agenda booklet just issues to all branches. The regional committee had submitted...

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