Strikes by members of the Mexican metals and mining union Los Mineros brought three large silver, gold mines and copper mines owned by one of the world’s richest men, Carlos Slim, to a standstill this week. The mines recognise pro-company “yellow” unions rather than the independent Los Mineros union, led by Napoleon Gomez, currently living and working in exile in Canada.

The disputes began when workers in the pro-company union decided to join the Los Mineros union. One of the mines owned by the Minera Frisco company sacked more than 200 workers in retaliation for switching union allegiance. Similar actions have taken place at the other mines. The yellow unions are docile, pro-government front organizations with little shop-floor presence, who almost never strike and regularly sign contracts that favour employers.

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Posted on June 6th, 2013 by Tony Burke filed under: Global solidarity

KESK supporters stage a protest march on 4 June. Photo KESK

One cannot doubt the sincerity of those who gathered in Taksim square to try and stop the destruction of Gezi Park. One can also not doubt that the following protests which has now spread to 67 Turkish cities resulting in injuries to hundreds of people and sadly to the deaths of two, is not just about trees.

For many Turkish trade unionists Taksim square is an iconic location in Istanbul. There in 1977 during a celebration of May Day, shots were fired into a peaceful crowd resulting in 42 people losing their lives. On May Day this year, as most years, those trade unionists who wished to remember the fallen of 1977 by celebrating in Taksim square, were treated to a brutal onslaught by the police. Roll on little more than a month; Turks have been once again assaulted by the oppressive forces of the state.

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Posted on June 4th, 2013 by Sean Bamford filed under: Global solidarity

In the run up to the 2010 election, David Cameron made a speech about ‘broken politics’ and referred to lobbying as “the next big scandal waiting to happen”. He talked about “the lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisors for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way”. He talked of “cronyism” and “crony capitalism”.

So no-one was surprised when the Government said it would introduce legislation for a statutory register of lobbyists and last year consulted on its plans. But there was widespread surprise when the Government dithered and kicked the Bill into the long grass, choosing not to include it in this year’s Queen’s Speech.

And yesterday we all raised our eyebrows at the Government’s baffling knee-jerk reaction to recent reports of a new cash for access scandal in Westminster, with No 10 briefing that there would now be a Bill in the summer. But what was even more peculiar about this announcement, which was in response to a scandal which didn’t even involve any lobbyists, was that the key point of the Bill now seemed to be to attack the influence and effectiveness of trade unions.

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Posted on June 4th, 2013 by Paul Nowak filed under: Union news

Patrick Mercer filmed on hidden camera for BBC Panorama. Watch at BBC News

The scandal that has erupted around the allegations that Conservative MP Patrick Mercer was paid to ask Parliamentary Questions and put down an Early Day Motion – as well as set up an All Party Parliamentary Group – has focused on the issue of Parliamentary rules. But there’s a bigger question which Patrick Mercer needs to answer: what did he think he was doing giving succour to Fiji’s military dictatorship in the first place?

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Posted on June 2nd, 2013 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

It wasn’t hard for once to find the good news in the annual Labour Force Survey of Trade Union Membership which was released by BIS on Wednesday. For the first time in over a decade union membership increased and given the political, economic and industrial environment in which unions are operating we should celebrate this and acknowledge the fantastic efforts of our union activists and organisers.

No trade unionist could be content that just 26 per cent of the working population are in a union but we should be pleased that density has remained stable (union density was unchanged over the last year) and that whilst between 1979 and 1995 union density fell by almost 25 per cent, between 1995 and 2011 it fell by just 6 per cent.

Whilst membership and density is important, it’s through collective bargaining that unions really make a difference for our members and set the standard for decent pay and conditions for all workers. Here the news from the Labour Force Survey was less encouraging. Overall, collective bargaining coverage fell below 30 per cent and there was a worrying fall of just over 4 per cent in the public sector.

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Posted on May 31st, 2013 by Carl Roper filed under: Union news

Trade union membership is growing during these tough times and it’s thanks to women. That’s the headline that leaps out at me from the latest government stats on trade union membership.

Union membership has grown by 59,000 since 2011 to 6.455 million. Women make up 40,000 of that growth. This is part of a longer term trend that has seen women grow from being 45 percent of the union movement in 1995 to 54.7 percent today.

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Posted on May 30th, 2013 by Ben Moxham filed under: Union organising

This week trade union confederations in Europe (ETUC) and the USA (AFL-CIO) officially kicked off a joint campaign to press for workers’ rights and progressive economic policies to be a core part US-EU trade deal (or Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to use its marvellously uncatchy official title).

Now, just in case you don’t spend your days poring over financial news pages – the TTIP is a Big Deal of a deal.  If it goes through, it will create the largest free trade area in the world and tie the economic policies of the USA and the EU together like never before.

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Posted on May 30th, 2013 by Rosa Crawford filed under: Global solidarity