Solidarity with Bangladeshi workers trade unions must step in now

Bangladesh's government agreed on Monday to allow the country's 4 million garment workers to form trade unions without prior permission from factory owners, a major concession to campaigners lobbying for widespread reforms to the industry following a building collapse last month that killed more than 1,100 people. The cabinet decision came a day after the government announced a plan to raise the minimum wage for garment workers, who are paid some of the lowest wages in the world to sew clothing bound for global retailers. Those working at the eight-storey Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories when it collapsed on 24 April, were paid as little as £25 ($38) per month. Rescuers on Monday continued to search for survivors in the ruins after a seamstress was discovered alive under the rubble on Friday. The woman is recovering in hospital. The toll from the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984 stands at 1,127. No bodies were found at the site, in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, on Monday indicating that all may have been retrieved, a spokesman at the army control room co-ordinating the salvage operation said. The tragedy has prompted widespread criticism of international firms working with local garment producers in one of Asia's poorest countries. Several western firms, including UK high street retailer Primark, have said they were supplied by factories in the complex. The building had been illegally constructed, developed massive cracks in the days before its collapse and workers were forced to continue work despite safety fears. The building's owner has been arrested. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, a government spokesman, said ministers had agreed to amend the law to lift legal restrictions on forming trade unions in most industries. The old law required workers to obtain permission before they could unionise. "No such permission from owners is now needed," Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting presided over by the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. "The government is doing it for the welfare of the workers." Local and international trade unions have long argued for such changes. This is about time the dangers of terrible working conditions and awful pay have been there for years but while the west and capitalist elders turned a blind eye much of these workers faced intolerable conditions. It’s about time trade unions have been allowed to unionize in these factories but for the 1200 workers who died in the disaster this news comes too late for them. A few weeks ago we celebrated international workers memorial day. What an incitement of this rotten capitalist system that a few weeks later this tragedy occurred. Trade unions need to get well and truly stuck in now in areas like this to stand up for workers and not to stand for awful conditions for working ever again. The trade unions need to be democratically run with the members being in control. No to shady deals with the boss’s or watering down any conditions a and pay. If unions do get their act together here we could see pay and conditions raise in nations like this a long long overdue need. But clearly for as long as this rotten bankrupt system of capitalism lives on more sweatshop disasters like this will continue to happen if the blind drive for profit is not ceased. All workers should gain a decent wage to live on and good conditions to work if they so wish to work.

Union shop stewards reject Cables anti trade union threat

National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) 5th Annual Conference - 11.30am-4.15pm, Saturday June 22nd - South Camden Community School, London E10 9DE



On Saturday, over 400 shop stewards and union reps will be sending a message of defiance to ConDem minister Vince Cable after he warned unions about more anti-union laws to restrict their activity. Cable suffered heckles from outraged delegates at this week's GMB conference as he lectured them about not joining the June 30th strikes against the government's attacks on public sector pensions. The NSSN will be using its 5th annual conference in London to prepare rank and file workers to build support for the 750,000 workers from the public sector unions PCS, NUT, UCU and ATL who are now balloting to take strike action.



The NSSN will be voting on a motion encouraging its supporters in unions not yet balloting to push for strike ballots so they too can take action later in the year. The conference will also be supporting trace unionist who have been victimised by their employers for trade union activities. These include Arwyn Thomas the London Tube driver. His union the RMT has just called strike action to demand his reinstatement.



Other speakers include RMT President Alex Gordon, PCS President Janice Godrich and Apostolis Kasimeris a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Public Transport Workers in Attica (Athens and Pireaus region).



ENDS



For more information, contact contact Rob Williams NSSN chair:

Telephone: 07816134690

Email: info@shopstewards.net

solidarity with RMT tube drivers who ballot to strike over unfair sackings

TUBE UNION RMT today announced strike dates after members voted by almost two to one for strike action in a ballot of all train operator and instructor operator members in the on-going disputes over the victimisation of union activists including two driver members - Eamon Lynch and Arwyn Thomas - over their trade union activities.

All London Underground train driver members are instructed not to book on for any duty that commences:

•between 21:01 on Monday 16 May and 11:59 on Tuesday 17 May
•between 12:00 on Wednesday 18 May and 11:59 on Thursday 19 May
•between 12:00 on Friday 20 May and 21:00 on Friday 20 May

All London Underground train driver members are further instructed not to book on for any duty that commences:

•between 21:01 on Monday 13 June and 11:59 on Tuesday 14 June
•between 12:00 on Wednesday 15 June and 11:59 on Thursday 16 June
•between 12:00 on Friday 17 June and 21:00 on Friday 17 June

Eamon Lynch, RMT Bakerloo Line drivers’ health and safety rep, has been sacked by LU and although he remains on full pay following the union’s victory on Eamon’s behalf at an “interim relief” Employment Tribunal hearing the company has shown total contempt for the Tribunal process and have upheld his sacking. Interim relief is only ever granted by the Employment Tribunal where there is the clearest possible evidence that an employee has been dismissed on the grounds of their trade union activities. RMT is currently awaiting the outcome of Eamon’s full tribunal hearing.


Arwyn Thomas, a long-standing RMT activist and driver at Morden has been sacked on trumped-up disciplinary charges following unproven allegations made against him by strike breakers. Arwyn has been an RMT/NUR member for over 29 years and has held various positions in the union. Arwyn has also won an interim relief hearing at the Employment Tribunal on the grounds of his victimisation as an RMT activist and has been put back on full pay as a result.


RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:


“It is the abject failure of LU to recognise that their policy of victimisation of union activists has been well and truly rumbled both in the Employment Tribunal and in their own depots that has left us with no choice but to name these dates for strike action.


“The solution is simple - LU should accept that they have been found out, get these drivers back to work doing the job that they are being paid to do and bring an end to the constant harassment of union activists whose only crime is fighting cuts to jobs and safety.


“The massive vote for action by tube drivers shows that they are well aware of the consequences of allowing our activists and safety reps to be picked off while we hear daily reports of breakdowns and failures on the network as a direct result of the very cuts that our members have been fighting.


“The attack on Eamon Lynch and Arwyn Thomas is the clearest cut case of victimisation on the grounds of trade union activities that you will ever see and it’s no wonder that the Employment Tribunal was swift to see through the management lies and grant both these members “Interim Relief” - an award which requires the strongest possible proof that their sackings were down to their union activities.”



Ends




To me i will always b ack union members wishing to take strike action no matter what as i believe in workers having a way to protect themselves against management and the onslaugh of the capitalist system at its harshest. This strike is not only right but it is fair and i do hope the two workers are reinstated on full pay and compensated for loss of earnings too. The LU think they can bully union members around well they have anotehr thing coming. This sadly is not uncommon in the workplace the victimisation of union members and union reps is something i have blogged about before on this blog and it upsets me to no end. IT just shows that the law is so unfairly balanced against trade unions in this country we barely have a foot to stand on. Its a disgrace and we must show our support and solidarity with these workers. The RMT are one of the best unions for standing up for their members and i think they should be supported not victimised and slandered by the capitalist press.

Making the case against anti trade union laws today

So as we move into a uncertain era of the labour movement in the United Kingdom the role and ability of trade unions will becoming under increasing pressure to act in their members interests and to call industrial action. But as a trade union member myself i am repeatably reminded of the defeats on a daily basis from years gone by. The movement feels so weak and delicate to me with little umpf if you like. This i feel is down to some of the harshest anti trade union laws in the whole of Europe. Not something i feel we as a country should be proud of at all. As a British citizen and a proud socialist i believe the role trade unions do and can play in peoples lives is hugely important. The laws brought in over the years to clamp down on militancy and workers gaining too much power by the ruling class is very evident today.
The media do not help this i feel either with constant barrages of union bashing in most daily papers weekly.

The anti union laws introduced by Thatcher and Tebbit in the Eighties and made worse by New Labour have been used repeatedly and with increasing frequency by employers to undermine effective trade union action.

As a result of the legislation, the main function of trade union officials is no longer to support and defend the members who pay their wages, but to police the membership on behalf of the bosses. When workers at Heathrow struck in solidarity with their brothers and sisters at Gate Gourmet in 2005, the employers got a court order against this “illegal secondary action,” and the TGWU promptly pulled out every stop to bring the dispute to a rapid and unsatisfactory conclusion. Defeat was once again snatched from the jaws of victory.

The legislation works by allowing the courts to undermine the finances of the union involved. For the union bureaucrats, the defence of the union’s financial apparatus is far more important than the defence of the union members, since it is from the apparatus that they derive their privileges. So instead of confronting the judiciary and taking on the law (and if the T&G had pulled out its entire membership in 2005 to defend itself from the attack of the judges, it could have put paid to the legislation once and for all), the bureaucracy in almost every instance takes the path of disciplining its own members instead of leading a determined fight back.

New Labour made the legislation far worse by requiring unions to submit details to the employers of the workplaces of all those who have been sent ballot papers. Since it is almost impossible for unions to maintain membership records that are 100% accurate at all times, this gives a carte blanche to the employers to challenge ballots, even when the ‘discrepancies’ wouldn’t make a scrap of difference to the outcome anyway. This was how the RMT signallers’ strike – which was called against rail cuts and in the interest of safety – was undermined last year.

Judges have even had the arrogance to decide whether they think a strike is ‘proportionate’ to the issues in dispute. In passing judgement against BA cabin crew in December 2009, Mrs Justice Cox declared, “A strike of this kind over the 12 days of Christmas is fundamentally more damaging to BA and the wider public than a strike taking place at almost any other time of the year.” So the judges now no longer restrict themselves to arcane points of law and procedure, but have taken it upon themselves to ban strikes if it looks like they might be effective!

Unions don’t always cower before the law however. When the Prison Officers Association struck in 2007 it did so without even holding a ballot. Ministers declared the action illegal, but in the face of such determined action they didn’t dare to take the union to court. There is a lesson in that for all of us

The RMT tipped the scales a little way in our favour last month with the landmark decision in the Court of Appeal to overturn the injunction that had been granted in the High Court in January preventing a 48 hour strike on Docklands Light Railway. As Bob Crow explained: “The Serco Docklands injunction on balloting process would have taken the anti-union laws in this country to within a whisker of effectively banning the right to strike if it had been allowed to stand and would have tightened the noose around the necks of nurses, firefighters, ambulance crew, home helps and others engaged in fighting back to the point of strangulation. This victory today helps clear the path for those workers to take action.”

John McDonnell’s Private Members’ Bill is an attempt to tip the balance further still in our favour. The bill proposes reducing regulatory burdens on trade unions in relation to the balloting and notice requirements for lawful industrial action. It would extend the provision for small accidental errors contained in section 232B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The burden of proof in applications by an employer to restrain strike action by injunction would be changed, so that the employer would have to show that the union has failed to achieve ‘substantial compliance’ with the ballot and notice requirements. The Bill is unlikely to be passed into law however. It ran out of time in its first reading last October and is unlikely to achieve a second reading.

Personally i feel people are being actively discouraged away from trade unions it seems by our media barrons who control the papers and the tv and radio alot of the time influencing the way a lot of us think unfortunatly. When you begin to break out of that mould of thinking like i have and think independantly you begin to realise workers rights and trade union rights are so tight now you wonder if this was 30 + years ago workers would not have stood for what we stand for now. Complete union victimisation is not uncommon in big workplaces across the land. We read about this weekly in our paper - The socialist with excellent industrial news from workplaces across the country. It is almost like they are making it almost a crime to be in a uniona nd to have rights. With the oncoming cuts the roles of a union will become more accurately defined hopefully with impending action on the horizon.

One of the best unions going Bob Crows own union who the socialist party enjoy good links with, the RMT, points out that British trade unions are restricted by some of the worst anti-union laws in the western world. Whilst not unnecessarily jeopardising union finances, painfully built up over previous decades by members' sacrifices, the union leaders need to be flexible and be prepared to act when required.

The RMT does not make a fetish of the law and does not use the law to block their members taking action if it can help it. But that is not the case in many other unions.

Unison does not allow its branches to initiate strike ballots, maintaining that only the regional officers can do so. Far too often the result is that branches either never get the ballot authorised, or it takes so long that the original reason for it has long been forgotten and the employer gets away without opposition from the union. This leads to demoralisation and members' lack of confidence in their own union.

But this will not always be the case. Tens of thousands of workers in the public sector, in councils and the health service, face massive attacks on their jobs and conditions.

They will not stand idly by whilst the employers do what they want. If the union leaders do not give a lead and organise official strike action from above then it will happen from below, without the union backing and despite the anti-trade union laws.


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what long term effect will the TUC demo on 26th March have on unions

I've been thinking a few days now about the impact of this demo in London will have in the long term. How will history remember it and what will be the fall out from this march. Whilst liberal types argue over whether UK uncut was right or wrong and as it is getting entangled with the Labour party i thought i'd look at how this could affect unions and union membership.

As we all know we are heading into a very uncertain time full of cuts and tightening our belts as the media like to put it. But as this starts to affect peoples jobs and working conditions will the workers look again at unions as organisations to take cover in and gain protection and support from. I do hope so. As someone who is a union member in Unite i feel that there are good benifits to being in a union. Few do agree though it seems with only 7 million in the trades unions now this is a dieing role. Even the labour party now is moving away from unions and asking for more opinions from its outside supporters and lib dems rather than the unions and waht they ahve to say.

It has been clear for years now that the labour party has no interest in ordinary working people. Constantly waging battle with the unions over various issues in the last government over privatisation which most unions if not all were strongly opposed to. Yes that's right a labour government intent on privatising industries such as the Royal Mail and parts of the NHS all be it through the back door. No wonder union membership has fallen anti trade union laws have been coming from capitalist governments from years from teh times of Maggie Tatcher right through her and John Majors timea nd carried on and followed through by Tony blair a Neo conservative. So do unions need to change the way they act do they need to modernise ?

I dont think so i think the anti trade union laws have restricted them so much they are powerless to do much at all. With this tory lead government threatening to brng in even more anti trade union and strike laws where will this leave the unions. Completely battered i would imagine. Not unless people rejoin them and try to reinvigerise them from within. Unions can move left from pressure from below. Rank-and-file member bases can forcea unin to move left. Take PCS for example that was quite a right wing union up untill the last decade or so it has now lurched to the left and is regarded is a very good union defending its members jobs and rights. It is also one of the key unions in this battle against the cuts as it represents public services workers it will be at the front of the cuts and the attacks coming from the tories.

I as well as many other socialists do believe in the role of trades unions they are key to the whole labour movement and giving workers a voice. I would suggest however that as labour have ignored their voices for years that as and when as i am sure it will happen a new workers party is formed with a socialist base to it having socialist principles and having workers interests at its heart maybe the unions who have been bankrolling the labour party for yers and getting very little back on their returns will break away from the Labour Party and join this new workers party in a democratic fashion. taking power back to the workers and workers interests . Taking waht is good about labour and the party we will take too leaving behind its capitalist power hungry careerist ideas.

Linked into this will be the fact that any MP's or trade union leaders will only recieve a average skilled workers wage. Nothing more, as this will keep them firmly within the working class and not stepping above this class which they represent. MP's in parliament today take as many expenses as they can and the expenses scandel highlighted the greed and power in the westminster village and how a new workers party would be so so much different and more rooted to its original principles.

ALl this should link back in to a more vibrant fairer and equal trade union movement too. With no part of the orgnisation being top down run with everybody having a democratic voice and say this is the sort of socialism i believe in and what we in the socialist party beleive in too. It is our aim and view for the future of the labour movement.

I think the TUC demo will do a lot to help the image of trade unions that they can be a voice for people and workers to side with and feel apart of a organisation which represents your interests.

It will be interesting to see if trade union membership increases as i beleive it should do after this weekends march with lots of people visibly seeing a union moving forward with confidence in its class it represents .

Rail unions win over anti-strike laws

As i promised before in a previous blogpost i said i'd put as many trade union news stories on here as i could here it the latest one i've found.



On Friday 4 March 2011 the Court of Appeal in London handed down definitive judgements in two important industrial action cases.

Alex Gordon, president of Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT)
In both ASLEF v London Midland and RMT v Serco Docklands Light Railway, High Court judges had previously granted injunctions banning strike action after finding union strike notices "defective" and union explanations of how they ensured reliable membership data for balloting and engaging in strike action "inadequate".

The superior court has now overturned those injunctions and comprehensively disposed of arguments originally used in the High Court to justify them.

Such an authoritative judgement by the Court of Appeal would be of great significance at any time. However, coming as it does when government policies to destroy up to 750,000 public sector jobs and an estimated 900,000 private sector jobs through cuts and outsourcing, while attacking wages, pensions and public services are fuelling demands for trade unions to lead a fightback, the effect of this Appeal Court judgement is potentially explosive.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow described the judgment as: "not only a victory for staff on Serco Docklands and RMT's 80,000 members but also a massive victory for seven million trade unionists in the UK."

"The injunction would have taken anti-union laws in this country to within a whisker of effectively banning the right to strike and would have tightened the noose to the point of strangulation around the necks of nurses, firefighters, ambulance crew, home helps and others fighting back.

"This victory helps clear the path for those workers to take action".

High Court's use of 'trifles'
In the London Midland case, the union mistakenly sent ballot papers to two members not entitled to vote (out of 604 balloted, 86% voted for strike action) - one had changed employer, the other had become a manager.

This was sufficient for the High Court to grant its injunction.

The Appeal Court ruled that this should have been dealt with as a small accidental failure and found the "de minimis" exception (a Latin tag meaning 'trifling') should apply in employment law as in other areas of law.

Similarly, the High Court found the union's explanations were inaccurate because the word "audit" was used to describe its method of checking membership records.

Legal counsel for the employer even argued that, to conduct a strike ballot, RMT should retain the services of auditors such as KPMG, whose expertise impressed so many corporate clients from Enron to Lehman Brothers.

The Appeal Court said the union's explanation of its membership data was simply for employers "to understand something about the reliability of the data supplied.

"Something, but not necessarily very much".

The court ruled that the use of the word "audit" is not misleading. Neither is there any obligation on the union to use identical job category definitions to the employer.

The law should be given a "likely and workable construction" rather than a restrictive one.

Hair-splitting rejected
The implications of the Appeal Court's ruling are significant and immediate. While employers will continue to apply for injunctions against strike action on spurious and vexatious grounds using legislation memorably lauded by Tony Blair as: "the most restrictive on trade unions in the western world", many of the avenues used in recent years in Metrobus v Unite, EDF v RMT, BA v Unite and Network Rail v RMT, which relied on legal hair-splitting and nit-picking trivia are now closed.

Additionally, Justice Patrick Elias and his colleagues in the Appeal Court made another significant ruling. Common law recognises no right to strike in Britain, however the Appeal Court confirmed that international law does confer a right to strike under International Labour Organisation Conventions 98 and 151.

In addition, the European Convention on Human Rights upholds the right to strike as an element of Article 11(1) on freedom of association.

In a further case, RMT is taking the British government to the European Court of Human Rights for breaching international law through prohibiting the right to take sympathetic (or solidarity) action banned as 'secondary action' by the Tory government in 1980.

Further attacks
Given the profound and prolonged character of the current economic crisis and the history of attacks on trade unions and collective bargaining in Britain by the ruling class, it is likely the Tory/Lib Dem coalition government will propose new primary legislation further restricting the right to strike.

Already far-right voices such as London mayor, Boris Johnson, and the Policy Exchange think tank, have argued for industrial action ballots to achieve a minimum participation threshold and for restrictions on the right to strike for workers in essential public services.

More likely however, will be an attempt to extend the 'proportionality' concept, which has been imported from European law in a number of recent cases by the EU Supreme Court, the European Court of Justice.

This gives judges power to decide what forms of action (if any) are appropriate in lawful industrial disputes, something not even Thatcher's anti-union laws achieved.

For workers facing the onslaught of European Union and UK government austerity policies, the lessons are very clear. The successful legal appeal by ASLEF and RMT has created a window of opportunity allowing trade unions to fight back using strike action to defend jobs and services.

The policy of coordinated strike action to defeat austerity cuts agreed at last year's TUC conference can now be a practical reality.

As cuts start to bite in 2011, trade unions need to bring forward a plan for a strike movement leading to generalised strike action to defend trade un