http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1549
The final speaker at this morning’s (inquorate) meeting of the Regional Council was John Burgess, Branch Secretary of Barnet UNISON.‎Barnet are in the front line of resisting privatisation – and are demonstrating how such resistance can sustain trade union…Read more…

http://www.community-heart.org.uk/
Dennis Goldberg, President of Community HEART, gave an encouraging and inspiring address to the (regrettably inquorate) meeting of the UNISON Greater London Regional this morning.
The ‎Region is going to consider regular donations – and so should our…Read more…

‎This morning, at a meeting of UNISON’s Greater London Regional Council, I have listened to our Regional Secretary give a considered presentation about how UNISON should respond to the result of the General Election.
Although this presentation – in common with the contributions made this week by…Read more…

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/pcs_comment.cfm/mark-serwotka-we-must-unite-like-never-before
It’s apt that PCS – the largest of the civil service trade unions – which was in the front line of the assault on trade union organising …Read more…

‎Our General Secretary has told the North West Regional Council that, had he been at the Development and Organisation (D&O) Committee of the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) last week he would have advised us differently.
Seemingly he thinks our decision to crack on with transferring…Read more…

http://gu.com/p/49259

Oh dearie me “senior Labour figures” are worried that “modernisers” may be squeezed out of the premature election for Labour’s next Leader (in which we can enjoy hasty and unconvincing explanations for electoral failure).
The rea…Read more…

The highest profile of the particular attacks on trade unions and our members in this year’s Conservative manifesto are the new, further restrictions upon the circumstances in which trade unions are protected from civil liability for losses caused by industrial action.Since we are likely to have to…Read more…

I would suggest that a good test of whether or not to listen to proposal for how the trade union movement should respond to the unforeseen catastrophe of the General Election result is how similar those proposals are to the views held by the proposer b…Read more…

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/12/forget-leadership-contest-new-labour-roots-social-movement-supporters-save-party
I spent this evening at two meetings.
The later (or latter?) was a meeting of the left caucus of members of the UNISON…Read more…

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-eced-WHERE-DO-WE-GO-NOW#.VVJgj2pMVxs
I ended the last post on this blog with an implicit echo of Spike Milligan’s question – at the end of each episode of the various “Q” series – “what are we going to do now?”
I t…Read more…

http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/may/12/trade-unions-next-five-years-unite-like-never-before
I don’t know how grateful trade unionists should be to the dear old Grauniad for asking our leaders for their prognosis for the next five…Read more…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32702585
Unlike the Lib Dems five years ago it looks like the Tories intend to keep to some (at least) of their manifesto commitments.
The widely canvassed 50% turnout threshold for strike ballots (with a higher bar o…Read more…

http://labourlist.org/2015/05/who-might-stand-for-the-labour-leadership/
A generally unappealing bunch of career politicians appear set to contest the leadership of the Labour Party, with a relatively swift election which will put a new Party Leader in…Read more…

The interests of the working class were served by those who voted Labour last Thursday, for all that our Party is dominated by those who won’t do enough to defend our interests (and that our trade unions are led by those who consistently refuse to do a…Read more…

http://www.unison.org.uk/news/general-secretarys-blog/your-voice
Our General Secretary was right to affirm, in his post-election message, that UNISON must stand firm for our members in the face of the new Tory Government.
We face a double onslaught, in…Read more…

‎This isn’t a good country to wake up in this morning. The Tories are riding rampant, blue in tooth and claw.
It’s a little early for detailed reflection but we seem to be reaping the bitter harvest sown by a labour movement, the political wing of which peddled “austerity-lite” whilst our…Read more…

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/general-election-2015-watch-out-a-vote-for-labour-will-bring-the-fires-of-hell-to-britain-10217396.html
In the next few days, as we approach the fifth consecutive election in which the Conservative Party (the…Read more…

‎I was pleased to spend an hour or so on the picket line outside North London Business Park this morning, supporting a mass picket of UNISON members on strike against the wholesale privatisation of Council services being rammed through by a Right-wing Tory Council with a wafer-thin one seat…Read more…

http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/hands-off-london-met-defending-jobs-and.html?m=1
I was proud‎ to have been invited to speak at this evening’s meeting in support of the campaign to save jobs (and education) at London Metropolitan University.
60 people, including lecturers, support…Read more…

I’m pleased to see the UNISON website reporting the good news from Lambeth, where we have come to an agreement with the Council that shared parental leave will be paid at a rate equivalent to occupational maternity pay.Whatever happens in the General Election, trade unions will continue to try to…Read more…