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What were you doing on Christmas Day? Your colleagues in Tunisia were holding the first day of the 22nd Congress of the UGTT, the national trade union centre that played a key role in the Tunisian revolution last January, and had for years before that maintained an uneasy – and occasionally compromised - role as the only venue for criticism and opposition to the Ben Ali dictatorship. Over four days in Tabarka, northern Tunisia, 518 delegates debated a range of issues such as the economic future of the newly democratic Tunisia, revised their rules (eg regional structures and the role of women) and elected a new leadership led by former teacher Houcine Abbassi, the new Secretary General. 

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Posted on December 31st, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

As you contemplate further campaigning against the cuts and redundancies in Britain’s public sector, spare a thought for public sector workers facing even more savage cuts in other countries. Several thousand public servants, mainly in the health and public administration sectors, were recently arbitrarily dismissed leaving Ecuador’s health and central administration services in disarray. Many of those dismissed are members of sister organisations of Britain’s public sector unions. You can add your e-protest to the campaign, or send a formal protest letter in Spanish.

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Posted on December 30th, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

On Friday 16 December  a celebration of Independence Day in the Western Kazakhstan city of Zhanaozen ended up with violent clashes between police and protesting oil workers who have been striking since May,  demanding wage increases (the global union federations representing oil workers in the country protested this autumn about developments in the dispute.) It has been reported that oil workers planned to have a peaceful rally on Zhanaozen’s main square but were attacked.  According to reports we have received, armed police were sent against the demonstrators.  Some reports say the police used their weapons, that 16 were killed and over 100 injured. Since the protests 26 people have been arrested.

However, there are reports that the Kazakh elite has begun to take a softer line with the oil workers, and have replaced key people involved in the repression, so now is the time to step up the pressure on the regime. Please send a message to the Kazakhstan authorities calling on them to cease violence against their own people.

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Posted on December 29th, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

It’s now a month since US firm Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. locked out 1,050 members of USW Local 207L in Findlay, Ohio on 28 November. These men and women offered to stay on the job as contract negotiations moved forward, but the company refused. The company pleads poverty, but their workers say it is corporate greed – not need – that is driving the company’s campaign. Unite, who represent workers at the Cooper Tire facility in the UK, and are working with the USW and other unions around the world in Workers Uniting, have taken out adverts in local Ohio newspapers to argue the workers’ case – as reported on Unite Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke’s Power in a Union blog. Sign their petition demanding fair treatment.

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Posted on December 28th, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

This is NOT a sales pitch, but I’d be interested in any examples of similar provisions in Europe. I’ve just come across a remarkable blog on the AFLCIO website about a union-backed mortgage plan which provides cover for people on strike, unemployed or off sick (remember that in the US, social security is far more restrictive than in the UK or the rest of Europe – mortgage insurance and state benefits in the UK would certainly cover some of these, but not, I think, being on strike!) Part of the reason for the decline in strike activity in the UK is due to the high cost of living which means that workers are reluctant to lose more than a few days’ pay at a time, and unions rarely have the reserves for prolonged strike pay, but this US mortgage would make that decision a bit easier (although it’s mostly based on interest free loans, with only a few grants).

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Posted on December 28th, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Union organising

Emphasising their long-held belief that trade union rights are human rights, Amnesty International are working with Turkish unions to demand that trade union laws are brought into line with ILO standards. Although the main focus of the action is with the Turkish trade union confederations DISK and KESK – there was a big postcard campaign earlier this year – AI are now asking foreign supporters of the campaign to email the Minister of Labour. Turkey is applying to join the European Union, and although it is clearly going to be a long process, securing proper trade union rights for its workers is a key element of that process: and will have benefits for workers everywhere else in the EU too. Please take the time over the holiday season to support Amnesty’s campaign, because stronger unions anywhere mean stronger unions everywhere.

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Posted on December 27th, 2011 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

On 21 February the TUC will be holding its annual Pay Bargaining Forum with Incomes Data Services. (More details, or register) It’s about equipping union representatives with facts and arguments that will be useful in the 2012 pay negotiations; this is the bread and butter of trades unionism, but we’re consciously putting that in the context of unions’ long-term struggle for a fairer world.

So in addition to a practical “Pay Negotiators’ Tool Box” we’ll also be looking at how to challenge the fragmentation of bargaining and taking on some of the myths that are being promoted by our opponents. A good example of this sort of thing is the Chancellor’s claim in his Autumn Statement that:

“public sector pay has risen at twice the rate of private sector pay over the last four years.”

In a brilliant recent post, Alastair Hatchett of IDS (who’ll be one of the speakers at the conference) took this claim apart.

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Posted on December 19th, 2011 by Richard Exell filed under: Union reps