All the union news that's fit to blog...
Regular readers (Sid and Doris Blogger) may have been disappointed by my recent silence.
Or they may have been quite happy.
However, I’m not abandoning blogging just because I have stepped aside from a quarter century of defending workers’ rights at the front line.
This evening I enjoyed a drink…
Brighton is welcoming delegates to the annual Trades Union Congress, which convenes here this afternoon (read more here).
I hope that friends and comrades in the UNISON delegation (and other delegations) will take the opportunity to network between activists in different trade unions – because…
Those of us with an interest in our trade union movement may sometimes peruse the Final Agendafor the Annual Trades Union Congress when it is published. Having attended Congress on UNISON’s behalf on eight occasions I know that the annual Parliament of our trade unions could (just possibly) be a…
Having stepped down from my various UNISON roles a couple of months ago, I have more time to think and read. I am, of course, still interested in trade unionism (and am still a public sector trade unionists).
In a couple of recent blog posts I have com…
I blogged a little while ago about the disappointing official statistics which show the current decline in trade union membership. For some years I have been perplexed that the official leadership of the movement isn’t more alert to our plight. Perhaps it would be clearer if it were looked at from…
Much online comment has arisen from remarks made by the Labour Leader concerning the impact of migration on wages. I am not really interested in a debate about whether “Jeremy Corbyn is right” about this or that issue – that simply makes politics about individuals (in a way with which no…
Regular readers of this blog over the years (Sid and Doris Blogger) will know that – as a former members of the National Executive of UNISON (and long standing Branch Secretary) I was never backward in coming forward with criticisms of my trade union when I felt it right to express these.
It is…
I haven’t been ignoring the trade union movement since giving up my various positions within UNISON – but I must admit to having failed, over the past six weeks to comment upon important official statistics about the state of our union movement.
It’s not good news comrades.
Around 6.2 million…
I wouldn’t want readers of this blog in the bowels of Congress House to think that I shall completely ignore the Greater London Region of UNISON now that I am simply a member, rather than holding any office.
Indeed, I was about to send greetings of solidarity in connection with the strike action by…
Here is a link to the list of Tory held marginal seats which Labour needs to win in order to form a majority Government.
In Sussex the three Tory held target seats are Hastings and Rye, Crawley and East Worthing and Shoreham.
Of course we also need to…
I see that some of my fellow complainants in the recent case at the Certification Officer concerning the last General Secretary election in UNISON havelodged an appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).
I haven’t.
I don’t want to comment on the legal merits of an appeal. I’m not a lawyer…
Regular readers of this blog will be aware that, after a quarter century on release to my trade union as a full time lay official, and following fourteen years’ service in the purgatory that is the National Executive Council (NEC) of UNISON, I have returned to work.
I am therefore trying to study…
Now that I am no longer a UNISON representative I think I should turn my talent for writing controversial blog posts which may upset people to the sphere of my Labour Party activity. As regular readers will know, everything I say here is only my own pe…
Within the next hour I shall cease to hold my last UNISON position as I am replaced on our NEC by the excellent Sean Fox.
It’s been a wonderful, exhilarating, irritating, exhausting and fascinating quarter century as a Branch Secretary and – for fourteen years – a member of the National…
I was saddened to see an inarticulate rant in Friday’s “London Calling” (the generally tedious and anodyne Regional news sheet at UNISON National Delegate Conference).
The rant, written by one of the stooges of those who brought our trade union into such disrepute by their misconduct…
I cannot say that I have always enjoyed sitting on the top table at the past fourteen UNISON Conferences.
I haven’t always agreed with what my NEC colleagues have got up to. Our trade union has not always been united.
However, I cannot imagine a better way to spend my final day on this platform…
In my fourteen years on the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) I think I have spoken from the platform on no more occasions than the four on which I spoke, from the floor, in the two days of my last Local Government Conference as a branch delegate…
I mentioned a little while ago this morning’s meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) (the second to last such meeting in my fourteen years on this august body). Towards the end of the meeting we descended into pantomime as an NEC member spoke by means of asking questions which he clearly…
I have just sat through my last ever Rules debate at UNISON National Delegate Conference. UNISON Conference has passed three non-controversial Rule amendments.
I have to say that we used to have rather more interesting Rules debates within our Conference (indeed we use to have more actual “debates”…
My only contribution this morning at my penultimate meeting of UNISON’s National Executive Council (NEC) was to ask an innocent little question about whether or not the idea of an NEC policy of “support with qualifications” on Conference motions may have had its day.
This led to a lengthy debate…