Union conferences

Unison is organising a strike ballot among its members in the Higher Education (HE) sector to oppose this year’s pay offer. The offer of just 1.1% for the majority of staff, with some additional payments at the lower end of the scale, is not adequate to meet rises in the cost of living and compensate for rises in taxation.The union is recommending rejection of the offer and demanding a 5% rise, and the independent living wage for those on the lowest pay. Although there is a financial squeeze on the HE sector, those at the top are trying to make those at the bottom suffer all of the pain. In...

Unite the union held its bi-annual policy conference from 11th to 16th July. Does the largest working-class organisation in Britain have the policies and perspectives needed for the next two years of struggle? The answer has to be, on the whole, no. Good policy was passed on the casualisation of work, Kurdish solidarity work, the union's relationship with the Labour Party, and many other areas. However on the key current issue of defending freedom of movement after the referendum Unite failed to take a position. The executive promised only an ongoing debate. The working class needs to fight to...

On 7 July the International Dockworkers’ Council (IDC), the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) called a one-hour world-wide strike, from 8 a.m. local time. Under the slogan “Defend Dockers Rights,” the Global Day of Union Action was organised to call for: Improved health and safety in the workplace, an end to job deregulation, respect for bargaining rights and collective agreements, the need for universal labor standards in GNTs, the concerns over automation processes in terminals, and social justice. IDC coordinator Jordi...

In March, the University of Manchester announced plans to restructure its subsidiary company, UMC, making 46 redundancies in catering while moving the remaining staff on to “term-time only” contracts. This latter move would have meant cuts of about one third to their total pay. But now, as a result of solid negotiating by Unison, and agitation, occupations and disruption by students, management have backed down. There will be no compulsory redundancies, no loss of hours and no pay cuts. These victories in the fight against the university’s contemptuous treatment of its workers should embolden...

FBU conference in Blackpool last week witnessed sharp debate over the European Union, with delegates eventually voting for a remain vote after much wrangling. FBU’s executive council proposed a statement to the conference calling for a vote to remain. This argued that the consequences of leaving would be detrimental to firefighters: the working time directive is built into firefighters’ national pay and conditions, while retained firefighters have won gains as part-time workers in the EU, such as pensions, sick leave, holiday pay and other leave. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said it was...

Maria Exall of the Communication Workers’ Union explains why unions must campaign for a vote to remain At CWU conference (24-28 April) we voted overwhelmingly to campaign with other unions for a distinctive workers voice in the debate on the EU referendum. This decision was not based on any defence of the indefensible about the EU but because a “remain vote” is in CWU members’ interests. The EU is in many ways a capitalist club with a neoliberal agenda, but so is this UK Conservative government. The EU certainly needs democratic reform so that our voice in the elections of our representatives...

The conference of the National Union of Teachers over the Easter weekend was a strange beast: a mixture of genuine support for a sustained programme of strike action with a stifling lack of open debate. The conference voted to ballot members for a timetable of strikes in response to the government's education White Paper. To give the union legal cover, and to draw in members already in academies, the strike demand will be for national terms and conditions for teachers (at present academies are not bound by the national Burgundy Book and Blue Book; even in non-academies there is no national pay...

The Corbyn surge could receive an important boost in the next month with the announcement that the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will consider reaffiliation to the Labour Party. The union’s executive has called a recall conference on 27 November to debate affiliation. The FBU disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2004 after a bitter pay dispute, where the Blair government intervened aggressively on the side of the employers. A combination of disgust with the disgraceful behaviour of Labour ministers, anti-political sentiment, nationalism in the devolved administrations and plans by some activists...

TUC Congress was still in session as Solidarity went to press (15 September), but there were signs of a bit more rancour in what is normally a somnambulant affair. The Congress began with a very downbeat address by TUC president Leslie Manasseh, deputy general secretary of the right-wing led union Prospect. Delegates were left wondering whether Corbynmania had completely passed the bureaucracy by. Once the debates began, there were numerous name checks for the new Labour leader. More importantly, a number of unions got up to oppose a Community motion calling for more social partnership...

Unite the union held its rules conference in Brighton this week. About 500 delegates debated motions from sectors, branches, equalities committees and regions. Two key and contested debates were about the election of union officials and the union’s political structures and affiliation to the Labour Party. Unite members do not elect any paid officials other then the General Secretary. There were many different motions calling for the election of different types of officers by different constituencies. These motions all fell and the status quo prevailed. This is a mistake. For the union to be...