Trade union issues

Issues for workers and our trade unions - opposing victimisation, fighting for better pay and conditions, health & safety, rank-and-file organising, and more.

Industrial news in brief

Train drivers on Arriva Trains Wales have taken strike action in a dispute over a number of issues, including pay. Arriva drivers are amongst the lowest paid in the country, and ASLEF – one of the unions which organises the drivers – says they are paid substantially less than their English counterparts. The strike had a significant impact on services with only four scab drivers turning up for work. The action comes hot on the heels of a strike by cleaners employed by Mitie at First Great Western’s Cardiff and Swansea depots. Speaking before the action, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said “As a...

Government to set up strike-breaking unit?

The Daily Mail on 22 February carried an article reporting on “top secret” government plans to undermine strikes, with the Cabinet Office setting up a special “unit” to “prevent Britain grinding to a standstill in the event of mass public sector walkouts.” According to the Mail , the plans include developing relationships with private firms to provide scab labour to break strikes, and establishing special contingency arrangements in key areas to maintain services during any industrial action. The Mail claims that government minister Francis Maude has analysed the workforce at thousands of...

Tories want to help your boss sack you

The government is attempting to introduce a new charter of employers' rights that will give bosses much greater freedom to sack workers. The proposals include an extension of the qualifying period for an unfair dismissal claim from one year to two, meaning that no worker will be able to claim for unfair dismissal within their first year of employment. The charter also includes a plan to charge for the right to lodge an employment tribunal, with government sources suggesting the fee will be towards “the higher end” of the £30-£500 bracket suggested by bosses' organisations. Leading figures in...

Workers' Liberty No.8 - Le Pen, South Korea, Australian Labor Party, National Union of Railwaymen (NUR), 1987 TUC conference

A collection of articles from Workers' Liberty No.8. * Conservative Party invitation to French Fascist and leader of the French National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen. * 1987 TUC conference and the Union leaderships' response to declining union membership. * An analysis of the Australian Labor Party's 1987 Australian general election victory. * Child sex abuse, incest and UK law. * The rise of working-class struggle in South Korea * General Secretary Jimmy Knapp's sell-out of the members of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) Click here to download pdf .

Class struggle in the arms industry?

From the Workers' Climate Action website . Workers at Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston are set to take strike action over pay. A lunchtime protest on 23rd November was believed to be the first industrial action taken by workers in the company's 50 year history. Obviously this particular group of workers deserve to be viewed with a healthy degree of contempt by the rest of the labour movement. Their role in building the weapons of apocalyptic power is something many of us would struggle to live with. However, we should rise above our distaste for their job and extend our solidarity...

Stranded abroad by volcanic ash? Can't get to work? Tough!

Penny-pinching and sheer bloodymindedness has been the response of some bosses towards workers stranded abroad due to the recent volcanic ash cloud. “Act of god” or not, they want to dock workers’ pay. During the heavy snowfalls of 2008/9 and 2009/10, employers all over the UK docked pay from workers prevented from getting to work, prompting RMT general secretary Bob Crow to refer to them as “throwbacks to the worst excesses of the Victorian mill-owners.” That statement was closer to the mark than the meek official response from the TUC to the volcanic ash crisis. They comment: “it seems...

Workplace bullying: winning respect at work

“Work is, by its very nature, about violence — to the spirit as well as to the body... It is, above all (or beneath all), about daily humiliations. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.” Studs Terkel. Bosses have always used harsh discipline and authoritarian measures to keep their workers in line. In a context of economic crisis, management bullying has intensified as bosses claim that harsher sickness and absence policies, staff cuts and workload increases are all necessary parts of the belt-tightening demanded by the “new austerity”. What...

Cuts fightback: Jersey workers prepare to fight

The tiny island of Jersey may be about to host some major class struggle. This year the island’s States (Parliament) decided to withdraw the money budgeted for public sector pay rises, over the head of the States Employment Board, which usually negotiates with the unions. At the end of October, a motion to reinstate free collective bargaining fell, with Chief Minister Terry La Souer commenting: “At a time when private sector jobs are being frozen or cut, a pay rise for States staff is not viable.” What was previously on the table was not a pay rise at all, but a real-terms pay cut. At the same...

THE BLACKLEG* (By Jim Connell, author of"The Red Flag")

(Air: "Paddy's Lament") There's a cuckoo** in our household And he terrifies our young, For the habits of the traitor Have been often told and sung. Though his feathers flutter softly, There is murder in his heart, And all down the toiling ages, He has played the villain's part. Chorus: Oh! We hate the cruel tiger, And hyena and jackal, But the false and dirty blackleg Is the vilest beast of all, When we dress*** our brave battalions And confront the lords of loot, We behold the scab desert us Ere the guns begin to shoot. Just to gorge his greedy stomach, And to save his coward skin, With...

For jobs, fight the bosses, not other workers!

An Appeal by Socialists and Trade Unionists As the recession brings attacks on jobs, wages and conditions, we are determined to fight back, and to support our fellow workers who do so, for example in the recent engineering construction walkouts. We demand: • Jobs for all workers • Work or full pay • Pay to be levelled up to the best rates • Direct recruitment of labour by the companies or by principal contractors, rather than the use of subcontractors, wherever possible • Union agreements to be enforced without exemptions for contractors • A register of unemployed union members which companies...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.