Tomorrow (Thursday 16 Jan) I will be moderating an online investor briefing on Private Credit and ‘fire and rehire’ – The Oscar Mayer dispute and Pemberton Asset Management. “Oscar Mayer is a food production business that makes ready me…Read more…
“Private credit, public squalor”
Check out this Substack article in “The Social Factor” by Tom Powdrill regarding the attempt by the owners of a food manufacturing company in Wrexham, North Wales to cut the terms and conditions of its workers by “fire and rehire”. I have co…Read more…
Trade Union Congress 2024: Monday
(better late than never) Day 2 of TUC started for me with a session in the hotel’s gym followed by a jog along a damp and windy Brighton prom. Congress started at 9.30am. First item again was a short general video celebrating “Union wins” includi…Read more…
TUC London, Eastern & South East Regional Council AGM 24
(Text largely from my twitter account @grayee) “At @The_TUC LESE AGM in Congress House, London (home of the British Trade union movement) which I am attending as a @unisonglr delegate. After a minutes silence to remember comrades who have died i…Read more…
Staff at East of England landlord to strike for nine days over pay
Hat tip Clarion UNISON Facebook page “Solidarity to Unite Housing association members taking strike action over their pay cuts. Hopefully Clarion UNISON members will be taking similar action next month”. “Nearly 60 workers at Freebridge Comm…Read more…
Joint Covid-19 visit to Newham Council Repairs & Maintenance depot (& future plans)
This morning at 8am I went on a joint walkabout with Cllr Shaban Mohammed, management and local Unite trade union reps of our Council Housing repairs (RMS) depot in Bridge Road E15. We were there to inspect the new social distancing arrangements in the…Read more…
“A legendary social worker (and Labour movement activist) has retired” Dave Draycott
I have just congratulated on Facebook, Dave Draycott, a former Newham Council social worker and Leeds Labour movement activist (legend) on his retirement.
Dave has been a social worker for 44 years and a very active trade unionist, who also served as …Read more…
Wearing Red for Key Workers on May Day
This afternoon I took part in a Zoom meeting with the Newham Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, our TUC regional secretary, Sam Gurney and Newham Council shop stewards from UNISON, Unite and GMB.
We were all wearing red to mark “May Day” and we wanted to show sol…Read more…
“Len McCluskey hits out as he joins fellow union bosses in urging party to adopt full IHRA definition”
Well said! elected General Secretary of UNITE, Len McCluskey who gave support in advance of the Labour Party NEC meeting on Tuesday, where the issue regarding the IHRA definition will be discussed and hopefully begin to be resolved.
I also agree …Read more…
Unite calls for tougher takeover laws as GKN bid gets government go-ahead
Unite calls for tougher takeover laws as GKN bid gets government go-ahead24 April 2018The whims of short-term speculators and hedge funds will ‘drive a coach and horses’ through the UK’s industrial strategy unless the government toughens up the UK’s ta…Read more…
GKN takeover – losing the battle, winning the war
Few things have made me as angry recently as the Melrose takeover bid for GKN. This bid was opposed by a very wide group – workers, unions, GKN customers, Labour, some Tories, the Daily Mail, most of the large long-term GKN shareholders – yet it got ov…Read more…
Elliott’s support for Melrose shows why GKN must not be taken over
Yesterday afternoon, Elliott Advisers announced that it plans to support the Melrose bid for GKN. This was duly reported, without much scrutiny, as support for Melrose from GKN’s second largest shareholder.
Actually it’s more complicated than that. In…Read more…
Melrose / GKN bid – is the hedge fund long/short trade unwinding?
As you’ll have noticed, I’ve been following the Melrose bid for GKN with interest. In particular I’ve been looking at hedge fund activity around the bid, and the short Melrose / long GKN arbitrage trade. As I’ve blogged previously, one of the key playe…Read more…
More on GKN / Melrose
So it’s been quite a few days in terms of GKN’s continued attempt to fend of Melrose Industries’ hostile bid.
Last week saw Melrose get overwhelming shareholder approval for its bid. It will be interesting to dig into Q1 voting disclosures once they a…Read more…
UNISON and Unite have officially endorsed Rokhsana Fiaz as the Labour candidate for Newham Mayor
Both UNISON and Unite have officially endorsed Rokhsana Fiaz as the Labour candidate for Newham Mayor in May.
Unison “Greater London Region UNISON Labour Link is pleased to support our union member, Rokhsana Fiaz, to be the next Labour candidate to …Read more…
Melrose / GKN battle continues
Quite a lot of news on the Melrose bid for GKN today.
Unite, which is campaigning strongly against the bid, held a rally and series of meetings at parliament. It is pleasing to see that a lot of Labour MPs are speaking out against the bid too, and it …Read more…
Melrose / GKN bid arbitrage: like flies round…
The Melrose bid for GKN is currently subject to a lot of scrutiny, and is actively being campaigned against by Unite.
What hasn’t attracted much scrutiny so far (as far as I am aware) is the extent of speculative activity that is occurring, and as suc…Read more…
“Sir Robin Wales calls for contested mayoral ‘trigger ballot’ outcome to be cancelled”
Hat tip Dave Hill’s On London blog “Sir Robin Wales has asked the Labour Party to cancel the outcome of the internal selection process that saw him endorsed to seek a fifth term as Mayor of Newham following a campaign by local members for an inves…Read more…
Sports Direct chairman scrapes through
Today was the Sports Direct AGM and, once again, chairman Keith Hellawell was in the firing line. He had previously said he would stand down if he failed to get the support of a majority of independent shareholders.
Ahead of the AGM Unite has flagged …Read more…
Construction undercutting must end
Construction unions Unite and GMB held a series of demonstrations on 12th April over the exploitation of workers. The protests focus on several Danish firms who are building of major energy from…Read more…