AnnaI was pleased to read this article in the Guardian Society Section this morning, an article by Mike White referring to our winner of the TUC 60 Second Ad Winner 2011, Steve Price. It is worth a read. Also check out our winner here in Hyde Park.
-
-
The enormous turnout at the March for the Alternative on Saturday showed the TUC’s capacity to mobilise opposition against the government’s cuts agenda. The next obvious step is to mobilise support for an economic alternative, and I would argue that a stronger system of collective bargaining needs to be prominent in the case that unions make.
At last week’s TUC/ESRC roundtable, we heard from a number of speakers on the negative outcomes that followed from the decline in collective bargaining coverage over recent decades, for instance the rise of low-paid work and the growth in latent conflict between workers and managers.
There was also consensus among participants that unions can help to address some of the economic problems facing Britain, such as rising living costs and falling consumer demand, by making the case for stronger collective bargaining regulation. I’ve echoed some of these arguments in a post on Left Foot Forward today, where I say that collective bargaining can help to boost wages and consumer spending, which would facilitate economic growth.
But a number of speakers also made the point that unions need to find innovative ways to organise in order to extend collective bargaining coverage. We heard some interesting presentations on the various tools available to unions to increase their organising presence. Steve Murphy (UCATT’s Midlands Regional Secretary) spoke about how UCATT have used framework agreements with large companies to improve pay, conditions and union access among their sub-contractors and suppliers, and Annie Watson (the ETI Trade Union Coordinator) told us of the organising opportunities available through the Ethical Trading Initiative and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Keep an eye out for the next Unions, Collective Bargaining and Employment Relations Project Research Bulletin for a full report from the roundtable.
-
It would take a Sri Lankan sportswear worker 14,000 years to earn the Nike CEO’s £8m pot for 2010. While Adidas, the official sportswear sponsor for London 2012, can afford £100m in sponsorship fees, it is less sure about being able to pay workers making its products a living wage. Nirosha Priyadarshini Manakanda Dewage, co-President, Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Trade Union, Sri Lanka, will be touring Britain in April to provide an insight into working conditions in sportswear supply chains and its impacts on the everyday lives of workers and their families. And he will tell us more about how workers are mobilising to win better pay and conditions.
-
Demonstrations across Syria after dozens of protestors were by security forces mean that one of the least democratic states in the Middle East has now joined the wave of pro-democracy uprisings across the Middle East/North Africa. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has called for an end to the violence and the freedom to join trade unions. You can support the creation of free trade unions by donating to the TUC Aid MENA appeal.
-
On Thursday 4 April 1968, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated in Memphis where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers to demand the right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The AFL-CIO has designated Monday 4 April 2011 a Day of Solidarity with the public sector workers of Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and a dozen other states where right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away these rights.
As part of our support for the workers and unions in the USA, the TUC is holding a rally of solidarity with the workers and trade unions of the USA, from 6-8pm, Monday 4 April 2011 Congress House, Great Russell Street London WC1B 3LS. Registration is essential, but free!
Speakers for the evening will include:
- Kate Allen, Director – Amnesty International UK
- Tony Burke, Unite Assistant General Secretary and TUC General Council
- Prof Keith Ewing, Professor of Public Law – Kings College London
- And guests from the US trade union movement
To attend this event you must register by sending your name, union/organisation and a contact e-address to pbrown@tuc.org.uk. (Any further information about the event will be sent to you by email). We would appreciate your registration no later than Friday 1 April 2011. Light refreshments will be available.
-
Trade unionists from France, Ireland, Spain and the USA joined Ken Livingstone and Christine Blower tonight at the Southern and Eastern Region TUC rally against austerity. It was topped off by Fred Redmond, Vice President of the USW who brought together the campaigns against the cuts with the struggle for union rights. Slamming the right and the bosses before leading the crowd in a chant of ‘we shall resist’, he said:
“What stands between them and the working class … Is us!”
-
Amandatattersall What happens after the rally? Four ideas for strengthening the campaign against the cuts
Politics in the UK is at a crossroads. The government has presented its vision of a radical overhaul to public spending. A community-based movement involving unions and community organisations is building opposition to this agenda, with the major rally on Saturday 26 March.
But like all coalitions between different community-based organisations, the challenge is how a coalition like this can go from holding a one-off mobilisation into a sustained movement that builds an alternative vision for how the United Kingdom should be governed.
As I argue in Power in Coalition, there is a series of strategies is needed for building strong coalitions. These lessons are based on the experiences of three long-term coalitions in the Canada, US and Australia. Here, four useful lessons are identified for those keen to develop and achieve a people-centred vision for the UK.
Chris Wright
Owen Tudor
