Union conferences

CWU says no shoo-in for Brown

For the first time, a major union has put down a marker for the forthcoming Labour Party leadership contest. At its conference in Bournemouth on 21-26 May, the Communication Workers’ Union voted to support, in the forthcoming Labour Party leadership election, only candidates who support the principles of trade union rights as outlined in the proposed Trade Union Freedom Bill — and who are committed to keeping the Post Office in 100 per cent public ownership. Proposing the London West End Amalgamated branch motion, London regional secretary John Denton said such a stance was vital if the...

Public sector union meets - Time to fight the NHS cuts

By a Unison member At the conference for health workers in Unison back in April, delegates voted for a vibrant national campaign against the cuts in the NHS. The lumbering machinery of the union is now slowly starting to move. It supported the 11 May lobby of parliament, originally called by the Royal College of Nursing and there is now some mention of a national campaign on Unison’s website! More hopeful are the moves within the regions of Unison to establish some local a nationwide petition and some encouragement to branches to investigate possibilities of local action. But the more militant...

Labour link?

By a CWU conference delegate AT the postal section of the CWU conference (21-6 May) the plans for tackling Allan Leighton’s attempts to push the liberalisation agenda further in Royal Mail were discussed, but at General Conference which deals with the whole union the issue arose in motions on policy and politics. There was a negative motion that called for suspension of payments to Labour if the Government backs Leighton on the issuing of shares to staff. It was carried with the support of the executive as Government intervention on this issue would certainly lead to a review of the CWU-Labour...

CWU Prepares For War

By Pete Keenlyside, CWU Postal Executive (personal capacity) THE CWU has given notice to Royal Mail management that if acceptable progress has not been made on a range of outstanding issues within the next four weeks, a ballot for industrial action will be implemented among the entire CWU membership in the business. The anger caused by management’s imposition of this year’s pay deal was reflected in the emergency motion, carried unanimously, presented to the CWU annual conference held last week. This labelled their actions “an act of union derecognition” and called for the reopening of the pay...

PCS conference: defy the pensions sell-out!

By a pcs socialist caucus member THE annual conference of the civil service union PCS, in Brighton on 7-9 June with group (sector) conferences on 5-6 June, will debate an emergency motion from the union's Executive to "welcome" the pension agreement made earlier this year. Pensions will be the crucial issue of the conference. PCS was central to the trade union alliance that accepted that new entrants to the civil service, the NHS and teaching will have to work five years longer in order to receive their full pension, with the pension rights of existing workers supposedly "ring-fenced". This is...

Israel boycott is serious mistake

By delegates to the conference of further and higher education lecturers’ union natfhe A resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel was passed at our conference [on 29 May] passing by 106 votes to 74 (with 21 abstentions). The debate and vote reflects the less than perfectly democratic make-up of NATFHE conference — it is made up of delegates from regions, not branches. Nonetheless this was a very poor decision. The text of the motion reads: “Conference notes continuing Israeli apartheid policies, including construction of the exclusion wall, and discriminatory educational practices...

Women's TUC - Freedom Bill

A fringe meeting on the Trade Union Freedom Bill was held at Women’s TUC. The concept of a such a Bill has won the support of over 100 Labour MPs since the Trade Union Congress 2005 called for a campaign to free our unions. Its aim is to begin to roll back the long standing restrictions on collective action by trade unions that were brought in under the Tories and continued by this Blair-led Labour Government. If adopted the Bill would give us stronger rights in the workplace and give working women and men a platform to resist the ruthless employers of the 21st century. This Bill has...

Women's TUC - Iraqi visit

From a report by Pauline Bradley About 320 delegates, from all the major unions and some of the smaller ones, attended the Women’s TUC Conference this year. Only a few motions caused any contention. One on “Artistic freedom of expression” proposed by Equity, which raised concerns about the cancellation of the play Behzti, depicting a rape in a Sikh temple, caused a discussion. There were several good motions on pensions and equal pay (which were what we sung about at the social!) and a good one on trafficked women and children too. We were graced with the presence of Tessa Jowell MP, who has...

Women’s Pay: Mind the Gap

The hot topic of TUC Women's Conference was the gender pay gap – the fact that, three decades on from legislation supposedly guaranteeing ‘equal pay for work of equal value’, women still earn significantly less than men. Just a few days previously, the government’s ‘Women And Work Commission’ had...

TUC Congress to discuss women's rights in Iraq

The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) has submitted the following resolution to TUC Congress, to be held in Brighton from 12th to 15th September. Women's Rights in Iraq Congress notes the draft Iraqi Constitution that was issued on the 23rd August and will now be subject to a national referendum. Congress expresses its deepest concern over the proposed restrictions on women's civil rights due to the inclusion of provisions for religious codes within the draft Constitution, including Sharia law. Congress further condemns the current and continuing rape, kidnapping and murder of women in Iraq...

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