Comments for STRONGER UNIONS

Comment on Workers’ rights to compensation under threat from all sides by p.k.

p.k. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:02:07 +0000

not only do employees have no more rights.unions officials are siding with management in order to destroy an employees legitimate grievance in order to stop/prevent cases reaching tribunals.

Comment on Save our NHS rally: 7 March by New Browsings « Paintings and Other Things

New Browsings « Paintings and Other Things — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:18:05 +0000

[...] out the Falklands, Disability/NHS reviews and The Queen. Divide, Rule and Distract. Anti heroin campaigns aren’t enough these days. Not like the ’80′s…you lot don’t know [...]

Comment on Save our NHS rally: 7 March by June Turnbull

June Turnbull — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:48:29 +0000

I am amazed that Cameron & co. can ignore the voices of so many professionals, patients and general public. I agree with Rob Sale that we need a demo as iconic as the poll tax protest. They need to be reminded that all opponents are voters. They have no mandate for these changes – I cannot call them ‘reforms’ – and were not popular enough to win the election last time. They will not listen until their own self-interest becomes more pressing than their ideology.

Comment on Save our NHS rally: 7 March by Sharon Stocker

Sharon Stocker — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:37:31 +0000

I work in the NHS and I do feel really strongly about these changes they are putting forward and as do many of you I feel this will be the final nail in the coffin for the NHS.
I have also had to be under a hospital for best part of my life and with out thier dedication and care I would not be here now, and if the goverment make these changes people in the position I was would not have the support of the best service around and would fall by the wayside and just be dismissed by our ever caring goverment.
I would like to see if they would be so quick to change the system if them and thier families relied on the system as so many of us do and if they would rest so peacefully if they did not have the private sector to turn to would they put thier families health and lives on the line like they are doing with ours.
there are other ways and its about time they actually put the people first who have fought for this country and grown up here.

Comment on Spanish unions agree to tie pay to GDP by mostafa rostom

mostafa rostom — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:15:17 +0000

Daer Brother

It is interesting General Trdae Union of Textile workers have opened an account in National bank to collect money from the workers to help national budget. Independent unions like petrol chemical lso shared the sme idea

Comment on Spanish unions agree to tie pay to GDP by Owen Tudor

Owen Tudor — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:18:55 +0000

Fair points, Gareth – I agree much more with this comment than your other one today!

I agree that where real wages increase more than real GDP, that is probably good for working people (although it depends what goes down to compensate – it’s not necessarily good for working people, their families or their communities – ie the country as a whole – if the wage rises reduce investment, spending on skills and public services like health and education, although higher tax income would often compensate for that, and it is of course a dynamic not static system). But if the real wages increase by more than real GDP as a result of falling or relatively declining dividends, CEO bonuses and fatcat salaries, or other forms of rent, then it is indeed ‘good’ decoupling.

If only that was happening. Real wages in the UK economy have stagnated (and latterly fallen) compared with real GDP growth since about 2005, and in the USA since much earlier than that, and have been falling behind the income growth of the very rich for even longer (these figures overlap with your time series, so I’m not saying you’re wrong, and I think you’re definitely right about the beginning of your time period, although it depends whether you’re talking about the mean or the median because mean wage growth will be distorted by the performance of high incomes.)

China is different from that, although there too, while real wages have been increasing, they have barely kept pace with GDP growth (again, the time period makes a difference: they have caught up a bit since tighter labour markets and new collective bargaining laws forced wages up a bit faster), and inequality is growing there too, suggesting that, again, the rich are getting a disproportionate share of increasing GDP.

Comment on Spanish unions agree to tie pay to GDP by Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:28:27 +0000

Intriguing.

Are we talking nominal wage rises and real GDP there? There is a throwaway comment about links to CPI in the TUC piece.

“Wage increases have, of course, been decoupled from price increases and productivity”

Hmmm, you make that sound bad. UK average wages went up 40% 2000->2008 wherease real GDP went up 20%. I suspect the China numbers look even better on the wages front. Isn’t that good?

Comment on Egypt’s new labour movement comes of age by mostafa rostom

mostafa rostom — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:27:24 +0000

Call for solidarity with dockers in Egypt
10 February 2012
The ITF is urging affiliates to show solidarity with workers in the port of Sokhna in Egypt, who started a sit-in protest this week over their employer’s unwillingness to implement an agreement.
The dockers, represented by the Independent Union of Sokhna Port Workers, began their three-day sit-in protest on 9 February; it will be followed by indefinite strike action. The move follows the failure of talks between DP World, which operates the port, the labour ministry and the union over the implementation of a settlement reached in October 2011. The agreement dealt with workers’ concerns regarding pay and promotion processes, compensation for hazardous work and the payment of profit-related bonuses; however, its terms have never been put into practice.
Earlier this week, the ITF called on both Egypt’s prime minister Kamal al-Ganzouri and the chief executive officer of DP World in Sokhna port Captain Rustom Dastoor to help bring about a settlement.
Bilal Malkawi, ITF Arab World office, commented: “The situation in the port has now escalated – the union had no option but to take industrial action after discussions ended without any positive results. The ITF is standing firmly behind the union and is calling on affiliates to do the same.”
Unions are being urged to send a message of solidarity to the union and a protest letter to the company.

Comment on Save our NHS rally: 7 March by rob sale

rob sale — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:06:31 +0000

Great that someone is organising something the silence from the unions has been deafening in last week. But demo should be on the street, in parliament square not tucked away in a hall. Tories are saying bill like the poll tax so let’s fight it like the poll tax.

Comment on Egypt’s new labour movement comes of age by mostafa rostom

mostafa rostom — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:17:45 +0000

For me I have been working to help ICEM within Victor thorpe time But do u think transparency is needed not only through us and i can send you on yoiur personel email some have been written about solidarity center and donor organbziation
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