Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE …Read more…
No sign of recovery in union membership
Here is the news about union membership I was anticipating yesterday;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/712543/TU_membership_bulletin.pdf
It’s not good news. A fractional (0.3%) increas…Read more…
Strike action has all but disappeared from the public sector
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE …Read more…
Trade unions decline as our leaders whistle to keep their spirits up
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE …Read more…
Normal service will be resumed (sort of) as soon as appropriate
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Keep calm and carry on campaigning for socialism
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How shall we write Labour’s manifesto in local elections?
One area of the current Labour Party Democracy Review which won’t necessarily attract the attention of the media (which may be a good thing) concerns the arrangements for relationships between the Party locally and Labour Groups on local authorities.
D…Read more…
Time to think again about unity on the left
In a week in which a leading figure on the Labour left bizarrely called for disaffiliation of trade unions from our Party it may seem idiosyncratic to continue to be interested in the fate of another minor Party.
But – having advanced the argument here…Read more…
Savaged by a very poorly sheep
https://medium.com/@davidarnold_87226/jon-rogers-should-resign-as-labour-chair-d9e44dd467d7
The incredibly measured and balanced postings on this blog would, you might think, be unlikely to upset anyone.
You would, I fear be wrong.
Above is a …Read more…
No longer sub judice – UNISON can act. Will it?
http://employmentappeals.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk//public/Upload/05Feb2018(revised8Feb).pdf
This Thursday the appeal against last year’s decision by the Assistant Certification Officer was finally heard by the Employment Appeal Tribunal and reached its predictable conclusion.
No one can…Read more…
Policies not personalities
As flattering as it is to have extracts from this blog quoted elsewhere, it is a shame when people treat debate about policies as if it were about personalities.
What matters about politics is how it impacts upon peoples’ lives, not who holds which pol…Read more…
Labour in local government is changing. Now is a good time to catch up.
I haven’t been blogging so much recently since there is less to say (in public) about leading the local Labour Party than there used to be about criticising the leadership of a trade union (although I wouldn’t want anyone to think those criticisms are …Read more…
Thinking further about the Labour Party Democracy Review
Having fallen victim to “’flu’-like symptoms” I find myself laid up and that I therefore have time to think further a bit about the first phase of the Labour Party Democracy Review (about which I blogged a few days ago).
Perhaps the most entertaining f…Read more…
The first thing for Labour Party members in the New Year
The first phase of the Labour Party’s Democracy Review is very much upon us. The deadline for submissions on the organisational aspects of Young Labour, BAME Labour and Women’s Conference is 12 January 2018. The questions which are specifically as…Read more…
A message for UNISON members at Christmas
Although I have stood down in the past year from all my elected positions within my trade union, UNISON, of which I am now simply a member like any other, I have not lost my interest in what UNISON, its activists and officials, are doing. Indeed, at Ch…Read more…
This Christmas is a good time to fight racism
As regular readers of this blog might expect, I got into something of a row in a pub in the run up to Christmas about whether or not black workers experience systematic racial disadvantage in the workplace. I know what I know from the evidence of my ow…Read more…
Farewell John and Carl
As the year in which I ceased to be a full-time local trade union representative after quarter of a century draws to a close, I am sorry to hear of the passing of two other former UNISON Branch Secretaries in London local government.
John Mulrenan, fro…Read more…
Who should elect the Leader of the Labour Group?
Comrade Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the recently elected MP for Brighton Kemptown, has written an interesting article proposing that Labour Group Leaders should be elected by the Party membership, rather than simply by Labour Group Members.
Lloyd argues persu…Read more…
Perils of the Rule Book…
As regular readers of this blog (Sid and Doris Retired) will be aware, your humble blogger spent many years as a troublemaker in the ranks of UNISON, during which time (according to no less an authority than the Assistant Certification Officer) I acqui…Read more…
Savaged by an anonymous (dead) sheep?
I was going to blog thanks to those members of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party (CLP) who attended last night’s Annual General Meeting (at which I was re-elected as Chair) for the comradely conduct of the meeting – but my attention has been …Read more…