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Showing posts with label workers rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workers rights. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 October 2013
Police and Trade Unions implicated in blacklisting scandal workers still need justice!
So new evidence has come to light in recent weeks on the disgraceful act of blacklisting workers in the construction industry mainly but no doubt it does and has gone on elsewhere too.
In a Observer piece this morning
“Police officers across the country supplied information on workers to a blacklist operation run by Britain's biggest construction companies, the police watchdog have told lawyers representing victims.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has informed those affected that a Scotland Yard inquiry into police collusion has identified that it is "likely that all special branches were involved in providing information" that kept certain individuals out of work.
The IPCC's disclosure confirms suspicions voiced by the information commissioner's office last year that the police had been involved in providing some of the information held on the files, as revealed by this newspaper.
The admission has been welcomed by campaigners for the 3,200 workers whose names were on the blacklist that was run for construction companies as "absolute evidence" of a conspiracy between the state and industry that lasted for decades.
Dave Smith, an engineer who had a 36-page file under his name and was repeatedly victimised for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos, said he was delighted that the IPCC had revealed "the truth". He added: "For the past five years, when we have been saying the police were involved, we were told we were talking nonsense and it was a conspiracy theory. They wanted it to go away. Now we have the absolute evidence and this is no longer about industrial relations but is a major human rights scandal involving a conspiracy between the police and the industry."
The blacklist, run by a company called the Consulting Association, funded by 40 major firms in the construction industry including Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine, was discovered in 2009 after a raid by the information commissioner's office. Since then, the victims have fought to find out who was providing information against them. The IPCC's correspondence is regarded as a major breakthrough.
However, the watchdog's disclosure has been disputed by a subsequent letter to the victims' solicitors. This was sent by a recently appointed senior investigating officer for the inquiry into the activities of undercover police officers, known as Operation Herne.
In a letter, seen by the Observer, detective inspector Steve Craddock insists that the IPCC's statement is incorrect and that he has seen "no conclusive evidence" that Scotland Yard shared information with the blacklisters.
The IPCC is standing by its correspondence, which it says was informed by discussions with the Metropolitan Police and that "developments since that ... are a matter for the Metropolitan Police".
In response, a spokesman for Craddock said Operation Herne's investigating officer was "aware of the apparent contradiction and is looking into how that may have arisen". She added: "Operation Herne will report on the 'blacklisting' matter to the Metropolitan Police commissioner in due course."
The developments come as the group fighting for justice for the blacklisted workers has received confirmation of a meeting between undercover police officers and those running the blacklist in November 2008. The information commissioner's officers have confirmed in a freedom of information response that they hold notes from a meeting between the Consulting Association and officers from the police national extremism tactical co-ordination unit, which runs undercover officers.
The notes of the 2008 meeting are part of a haul of documents seized by the information commissioner's office when it discovered the existence of the secret blacklist during a raid on an office in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
Sir Robert McAlpine, which was allegedly a major player in the establishment and funding of the blacklist, is currently being sued in the high court over an unlawful conspiracy to amass a database of information against thousands of people.
Last week, in a dramatic twist, eight major construction companies, including Sir Robert McAlpine, announced that they would compensate some of the 3,213 workers whose names had been on a blacklist.
A statement said: "The companies – Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci – all apologise for their involvement with the Consulting Association and the impact that its database may have had on any individual construction worker."
Sean Curran, a solicitor representing 69 victims in the high court, said he cautiously welcomed the announcement but raised concerns over the involvement of the unions, which are also suspected of providing information to the blacklist operation in some cases. He said: "We note that there has been reference to the consultation of Ucatt and Unite in the formulation of the proposed compensation scheme. We express serious concern about the involvement of those organisations.
"We have seen evidence that implicates Amicus (which evolved into Unite) and Ucatt officials in the supply of negative commentary about the suitability of their members for employment. That commentary frequently made its way onto the Consulting Association database and was no doubt one of the factors that led to denials of employment.
"It is also worthy of note that those unions refused to support their members in bringing a High Court claim so that they could seek redress for the hardship that they suffered. Many of those that we represent are firm that they object to Unite or Ucatt playing any part in negotiations with the relevant companies for these reasons."
Claire Windsor, solicitor for the victims in regard to the complaint over police collusion, said her clients had lost any faith in the ability of the police to investigate themselves and that the blacklist support group was now calling for a judge-led independent inquiry into blacklisting.
“
Article in Observer is here
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/12/police-blacklist-construction-workers-watchdog?guni=Keyword:news-grid%20main-1%20Main%20trailblock:Editable%20trailblock%20-%20news:Position2
Monday, 29 July 2013
Defend workers rights join a trade union
A big day in legal rights for workers today as their rights at work are significantly dented. I’d urge you all now if you are not already to join a trade union as unions are there to protect your rights oh well they are supposed to anyway.
Some unions have already pledged to cover the extra cots that workers will face but you need to be in a union for this help and support.
Elizabeth George from the law firm Leigh Day has called plans to charge people to take action against their employer a retrogressive step, and claims that the system will be thrown into chaos through a lack of preparation for the changes and inadequate information for claimants and their representatives. Full information was only released one working day before the fees are introduced, late on 24 July. From today (29 July 2013), workers making an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim against their employer will have to pay fees of up to £1200, regardless of the manner in which they have been treated at work. The first fee is an ‘Issue Fee’ and must be paid at the same time as the claim is issued It will be £160 or £250, depending on the type of case being brought. The second fee is a ‘Hearing Fee’ and must be paid before the full hearing takes place. It will be either £230 or £950, again depending on the type of case. The lower fees will be for cases such as wages claims whilst those bringing claims for unfair dismissal and discrimination will have to pay the higher fee. Whilst some provision is being made for those on low incomes, who may be exempt from paying fees under the ‘Fee Remission Scheme’, the details on how to apply for this remission were only announced on 24 July.
Details on who qualifies for the fee remission scheme have been made available; an unmarried claimant with no children will not qualify if they are earning over £13,000. A married person with 4 children will be ineligible if the combined household income exceeds £29,000. Elizabeth George, a Barrister in the employment team at law firm Leigh Day said: “This sends a very dangerous message to employers who will be less inclined to abide by their legal obligations as the risk of being challenged will be much reduced. “These fees will disproportionately hit those suffering discrimination because of their age, race, disability and gender with women returning from maternity leave particularly hard hit as they’ll be judged on their salary when they left rather than their statutory maternity pay."
In 2012/ 13 there were 191,540 claims brought in front of the employment tribunal which has seen a 74% rise in the number of sex discrimination claims. Ms George explained: “Whilst we cannot know the number of legitimate claims these fees will dissuade, the introduction of substantial and often disproportionate fees will undoubtedly see many people having to put up with discrimination and unable to challenge unfair dismissals however badly they have been treated. “We have already seen guidance from lawyers advising employers to wait to fire people as it will be cheaper and the chances of being taken to Tribunal will be less following the introduction of fees. “Instead of standing up for people suffering unlawful discrimination in the workplace, the Government is doing the exact opposite by potentially penalising those who get pregnant, those who are disabled, those who fall ill and those who grow old.”
Elizabeth George from the law firm Leigh Day has called plans to charge people to take action against their employer a retrogressive step, and claims that the system will be thrown into chaos through a lack of preparation for the changes and inadequate information for claimants and their representatives. Full information was only released one working day before the fees are introduced, late on 24 July. From today (29 July 2013), workers making an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim against their employer will have to pay fees of up to £1200, regardless of the manner in which they have been treated at work. The first fee is an ‘Issue Fee’ and must be paid at the same time as the claim is issued It will be £160 or £250, depending on the type of case being brought. The second fee is a ‘Hearing Fee’ and must be paid before the full hearing takes place. It will be either £230 or £950, again depending on the type of case. The lower fees will be for cases such as wages claims whilst those bringing claims for unfair dismissal and discrimination will have to pay the higher fee. Whilst some provision is being made for those on low incomes, who may be exempt from paying fees under the ‘Fee Remission Scheme’, the details on how to apply for this remission were only announced on 24 July.
Details on who qualifies for the fee remission scheme have been made available; an unmarried claimant with no children will not qualify if they are earning over £13,000. A married person with 4 children will be ineligible if the combined household income exceeds £29,000. Elizabeth George, a Barrister in the employment team at law firm Leigh Day said: “This sends a very dangerous message to employers who will be less inclined to abide by their legal obligations as the risk of being challenged will be much reduced. “These fees will disproportionately hit those suffering discrimination because of their age, race, disability and gender with women returning from maternity leave particularly hard hit as they’ll be judged on their salary when they left rather than their statutory maternity pay."
In 2012/ 13 there were 191,540 claims brought in front of the employment tribunal which has seen a 74% rise in the number of sex discrimination claims. Ms George explained: “Whilst we cannot know the number of legitimate claims these fees will dissuade, the introduction of substantial and often disproportionate fees will undoubtedly see many people having to put up with discrimination and unable to challenge unfair dismissals however badly they have been treated. “We have already seen guidance from lawyers advising employers to wait to fire people as it will be cheaper and the chances of being taken to Tribunal will be less following the introduction of fees. “Instead of standing up for people suffering unlawful discrimination in the workplace, the Government is doing the exact opposite by potentially penalising those who get pregnant, those who are disabled, those who fall ill and those who grow old.”
Thursday, 2 May 2013
The real meaning of May Day
A press release from the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN)
Millions of workers around the world will be marking May Day today (1st May) and over the next few days.
The media and the mainstream politicians will attempt to gloss over the real meaning of this holiday.
But it will be a celebration of the struggle of workers and ordinary poor people through the ages for a decent life.
The NSSN believes that this 2013 International Workers' Day must be more than a memorial.
NSSN national chair Rob Williams said:
"The first May Day in 1886 was the first general strike in the USA, called to fight for an eight hour day.
"The bosses' reprisals saw four of the workers' leaders executed. May Day isn't some quaint holiday but a celebration of the struggle undertaken by working people for the basic necessities, none of which were given willingly by the employers or their governments.
"In that sense, nothing much seems to have changed, with the huge Con-Dem austerity offensive which is attacking the poor, the sick and the unemployed - young and old.
"For those in work, more is being demanded for less. 60% of those being affected by the cuts to welfare are working and there are 1 million workers claiming housing benefit - a figure that's doubled. 40% of the civil servants administering the new Universal Credit will be claiming it! The NSSN will be attending the countless May Day rallies to call on the TUC and the unions to name the date for a 24 hour general strike"
At last week's TUC General Council meeting, lobbied by the NSSN (video-nssn-lobby-of-the-tuc/) it seems that the TUC agreed to organise a meeting of all unions currently engaged in strikes and those planning ballots.
With 250,000 civil servants from the PCS taking action plus some 700,000 teachers about to recommence their dispute plus innumerable other smaller disputes currently taking place, this could be significant.
Also, the government has made its final pay offer to millions of council workers confirming its 1% pay cap - effectively a 2% pay cut in real terms.
The NSSN believes there is a basis for joint strike action on a similar scale to that of 30th November 2011, when up to two million public sector workers went on strike to defend their pensions.
The NSSN was initiated by the RMT in 2006 and is holding its 7th annual conference in London on 29th June 2013.
Speakers include PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka and the leaders of the CWU and the POA.
Email - info@shopstewards.net
Website - www.shopstewards.net
Phone Rob Williams on 07816134690
Friday, 14 September 2012
New employment laws, benefiting no one
The new proposed employment laws Vince Cable is looking to introduce will benefit no one. Won’t benefit companies who complain of too much red tape as will be found out in other ways and it certainly doesn’t help workers whose rights see further erosion under this con-dem government.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has proposed a cut in how much workers can claim for unfair dismissal at employment tribunals.
He will consult on plans to cut the limit on compensation payouts to a maximum of 12 months' salary.
He also wants to bring in settlement agreements, in which staff agree to leave without being able to go to a tribunal, but get a pay-off in return.
Proposals to make it easier simply to fire workers will not be made law.
The suggested changes come on top of others made in April, which limited unfair dismissal claims to workers who had been in a job for two years, rather than one as before.
Sarah Veale from the TUC told the BBC that the proposals were still wrong.
"The clue is in the term 'unfair dismissal'," she said.
"If people have been unfairly dismissed, this means the employer has done something wrong and its right that the tribunal should then decide what sort of compensation the person deserves," she said.
Furthermore, employers need to be aware that this cap will not apply to claims brought against them in discrimination cases, where the cap on payouts is unlimited."
Which is good as many businesses will be gunning for union reps as trying to victimise any workers looking to stand up for others. Whether this will water down the chances of unions and union reps fighting back we will have to see but clearly the government has it in for workers still and this is just another attack on the working class.
Many of these changes were dreamt and thought up and compiled by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft who we all know a few months back wanted business’s and the boss’s to have the ability to fire any staff on the spot without any comebacks or any legal misunderstandings. This kind of free market thinking of hire cheap and fire cheaper is what free market capitalists dream of and must be opposed every step of the way by unions and workers alike.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Solidarity on international workers day happy may day to all
On the 1st of May around the world workers are uniting together to stand together on international workers day.
Otherwise known as May Day. In Britain there will be many rally’s marches and events held to celebrate this day where we can feel our strength and unity together as a collective force.
Fewer and fewer times we get to feel this feeling. I felt it last year on November 30th where 2 million workers took strike action that day. The labour movement hasn’t fully realised its power for sometime I hope this is about to change.
The power working people have when we unite is huge. One of the greatest movements there is when workers get up off their knees and fight back against their exploitation.
With the crisis of capitalism deepening everyday let’s remember we are far stronger united than divided lets fight every attempt to divide and rule us by the ruling class. We are far greater in numbers but let’s unite on grounds of our class all races, genders, ages, sexualities and religions. We are all workers and all want a better life for the human race.
This May Day let’s remember those workers who have given their lives to the struggle for a better society a fairer world and a world free of injustices.
Let’s double our efforts to fight for a socialist transformation of society putting peoples social needs first.
As Karl Marx prescribed workers of the world you have nothing to lose but your chains, workers of the world unite!
Otherwise known as May Day. In Britain there will be many rally’s marches and events held to celebrate this day where we can feel our strength and unity together as a collective force.
Fewer and fewer times we get to feel this feeling. I felt it last year on November 30th where 2 million workers took strike action that day. The labour movement hasn’t fully realised its power for sometime I hope this is about to change.
The power working people have when we unite is huge. One of the greatest movements there is when workers get up off their knees and fight back against their exploitation.
With the crisis of capitalism deepening everyday let’s remember we are far stronger united than divided lets fight every attempt to divide and rule us by the ruling class. We are far greater in numbers but let’s unite on grounds of our class all races, genders, ages, sexualities and religions. We are all workers and all want a better life for the human race.
This May Day let’s remember those workers who have given their lives to the struggle for a better society a fairer world and a world free of injustices.
Let’s double our efforts to fight for a socialist transformation of society putting peoples social needs first.
As Karl Marx prescribed workers of the world you have nothing to lose but your chains, workers of the world unite!
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
minimum wage is 9% lower in real terms than when introduced , fight for a living wage now !
The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.
One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.
As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.
As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.
SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.
Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.
The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.
As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.
One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.
As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.
As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.
SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.
Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.
The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.
As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.
minimum wage is 9% lower in real terms than when introduced . , fight for a living wage now !
|We need a living wage for all!
The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.
One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.
As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.
As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.
SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.
Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.
The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.
As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.
The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.
One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.
As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.
As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.
SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.
Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.
The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.
As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.
minimum wage is now 9% lower in real terms than when introduced . , fight for a living wage !
The minimum wage was one of the better things new labor did it gave young people protection by the law in terms of low pay.
One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.
As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.
As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.
SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.
Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.
The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.
As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.
One of the better ideas by labour didn’t stop it finding difficulties as I have blogged on before many companies and employers find ways around paying minimum wage which still sits at a tiny level in 2012.
As the socialist party and youth fight for jobs we fight everyday for levels of pay and conditions which are falling all the time. At the moment the national minimum wage isn’t under huge threat from being scrapped but there may come a day. But while this is the case we must continue to fight hard and doggedly for a national living wage keeping pace with inflation as a reformist measure for workers.
As Marxists we are not reformist we may fight dam hard for the best reforms for working class people but also point out that reforms will never last and will be given with one hand and taken with the other by the ruling class.
SO a national living wage of 8 pounds an hour rising to 10 pounds an hour as a sliding scale of wages would be our stance. With trade union recognition in all workplaces and the right to join a trade union.
Everything is up for grabs right now and the minimum wage is not safe at all may be for now but it will come back on the agenda. It was just the other year Phillip Davies a Tory MP suggested disabled people taking jobs for less than minimum wage just to get work. How insulting. Gives me further impotence to fight for a living wage and ultimately the means of production to be in the hands of the working class where the wage labor system is abolished for good.
The minimum wage is no longer at the rate it was when it was introduced due to the cost of living and inflation. Yet no one is pointing this out only us labour who introduced the law is silent on the issue as they like the Tories are servants to the capitalist system and are in the pockets of big business and the bankers.
As well as fighting for a national living wage this must be linked to the need for a new workers party which can provide reforms with the eventual goal of transforming society to one based on everybody’s needs.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Say no to blacklisting, fight for workers rights
The police or security services supplied information to a blacklist funded by the country's major construction firms that has kept thousands of people out of work over the past three decades.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome.
The files were collected by the Consulting Association, a clandestine organisation funded by major names in the construction industry.
Its database was seized nearly three years ago, but the extraordinary nature of the information held has only now emerged, following an employment tribunal for one of the victims, Dave Smith, a 46-year-old engineer who had a 36-page file against his name and was victimised repeatedly for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos.
David Clancy, investigations manager at the ICO, told the central London tribunal adjudicating on Smith's claims against construction giant Carillion that "there is information on the Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services".
Speaking to the Observer, Clancy added: "The information was so specific and it contained in effect operational information that wouldn't have formed anything other than a police record."
The scandal will be thrown open to further public exposure in the coming months as a class action by 100 victims against at least 39 companies is set to be pursued in the high court by Hugh Tomlinson QC, currently counsel for several of the phone-hacking claimants. The revelations will inevitably raise fresh questions about the probity of the police in a week in which its relationship with major news corporations, and News International in particular, has come under sharp focus. Last week the Leveson inquiry heard that the police were investigating a "network of corrupt officials" as part of their inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption.
Clancy said he was unable further to trace the specific sources of the information held in the Consulting Association files because it touched on individuals living across the country and stretched over three decades.
He added that the relationship between the Consulting Association and the police and security services appeared to have been nurtured when the organisation went under an earlier guise as the Economic League, at a time when the state was keen to liaise with major building firms to discover as much as it could about Irish construction workers amid the threat of IRA terrorism.
John McDonnell MP, who first raised the issue of blacklisting a decade ago, said he would demand a debate in parliament on what he described as collusion. "I am outraged at the systematic abuse of people's rights. This has destroyed people's lives, broken up families, ensured that people have not been able to earn a living. It has devastated people year after year, and nobody has listened to us. No one has been willing to believe the extent to which there has been collusion between police, security services and companies. It is all about the ability of companies to exploit workers and destroy anybody who stands up against them."
The existence of the secret blacklist was first exposed in 2009, when ICO investigators from the Information Commissioner's Office raided an unassuming office in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
The investigators uncovered an extensive database that was used by construction firms to vet workers they deemed to be trade unionists and troublesome – usually trade unionists. More than 40 construction firms, including Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine, had been funding the confidential database, which recorded workers' trade union activities and conduct at work.
The Consulting Association was closed down and a 66-year-old private investigator, Ian Kerr, was fined £5,000 for administering the database, although the construction firms escaped prosecution. At Smith's tribunal, Carillion admitted that two of its subsidiaries covertly supplied information to the database to "penalise" Smith for being a trade unionist, even though he had "reasonably brought health and safety concerns to their attention". However, Smith lost his claim for £175,000 in lost income because he worked through an agency and was not directly employed by Carillion.
A spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission said it had not yet received a complaint from the victims or the ICO.
Piece taken from Sundays Observer
All this says to me that this has been going on a long long time but finally gets some exposure in the popular press. It also confirms more widely the involvement the state has in defending the capitalist class. It is used to prevent workers gaining too much power and influence in trying to blacklist people who were known as trouble makers.
How far the state and the capitalists will go to protect their system and to prevent woerkers with a fighting spirit gaining a foot hold is staggering sometimes.
But clearly shows how much of a threat they see fighting trade unionists and this should bolster other trade unionists to keep on fighting for what is right. Fighting for the highest form of democracy and openness in the unions and employment.
This story wont go away I can only see it getting bigger as workers are forced into fighting for their rights and fighting for better pay and conditions.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome.
The files were collected by the Consulting Association, a clandestine organisation funded by major names in the construction industry.
Its database was seized nearly three years ago, but the extraordinary nature of the information held has only now emerged, following an employment tribunal for one of the victims, Dave Smith, a 46-year-old engineer who had a 36-page file against his name and was victimised repeatedly for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos.
David Clancy, investigations manager at the ICO, told the central London tribunal adjudicating on Smith's claims against construction giant Carillion that "there is information on the Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services".
Speaking to the Observer, Clancy added: "The information was so specific and it contained in effect operational information that wouldn't have formed anything other than a police record."
The scandal will be thrown open to further public exposure in the coming months as a class action by 100 victims against at least 39 companies is set to be pursued in the high court by Hugh Tomlinson QC, currently counsel for several of the phone-hacking claimants. The revelations will inevitably raise fresh questions about the probity of the police in a week in which its relationship with major news corporations, and News International in particular, has come under sharp focus. Last week the Leveson inquiry heard that the police were investigating a "network of corrupt officials" as part of their inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption.
Clancy said he was unable further to trace the specific sources of the information held in the Consulting Association files because it touched on individuals living across the country and stretched over three decades.
He added that the relationship between the Consulting Association and the police and security services appeared to have been nurtured when the organisation went under an earlier guise as the Economic League, at a time when the state was keen to liaise with major building firms to discover as much as it could about Irish construction workers amid the threat of IRA terrorism.
John McDonnell MP, who first raised the issue of blacklisting a decade ago, said he would demand a debate in parliament on what he described as collusion. "I am outraged at the systematic abuse of people's rights. This has destroyed people's lives, broken up families, ensured that people have not been able to earn a living. It has devastated people year after year, and nobody has listened to us. No one has been willing to believe the extent to which there has been collusion between police, security services and companies. It is all about the ability of companies to exploit workers and destroy anybody who stands up against them."
The existence of the secret blacklist was first exposed in 2009, when ICO investigators from the Information Commissioner's Office raided an unassuming office in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
The investigators uncovered an extensive database that was used by construction firms to vet workers they deemed to be trade unionists and troublesome – usually trade unionists. More than 40 construction firms, including Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine, had been funding the confidential database, which recorded workers' trade union activities and conduct at work.
The Consulting Association was closed down and a 66-year-old private investigator, Ian Kerr, was fined £5,000 for administering the database, although the construction firms escaped prosecution. At Smith's tribunal, Carillion admitted that two of its subsidiaries covertly supplied information to the database to "penalise" Smith for being a trade unionist, even though he had "reasonably brought health and safety concerns to their attention". However, Smith lost his claim for £175,000 in lost income because he worked through an agency and was not directly employed by Carillion.
A spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission said it had not yet received a complaint from the victims or the ICO.
Piece taken from Sundays Observer
All this says to me that this has been going on a long long time but finally gets some exposure in the popular press. It also confirms more widely the involvement the state has in defending the capitalist class. It is used to prevent workers gaining too much power and influence in trying to blacklist people who were known as trouble makers.
How far the state and the capitalists will go to protect their system and to prevent woerkers with a fighting spirit gaining a foot hold is staggering sometimes.
But clearly shows how much of a threat they see fighting trade unionists and this should bolster other trade unionists to keep on fighting for what is right. Fighting for the highest form of democracy and openness in the unions and employment.
This story wont go away I can only see it getting bigger as workers are forced into fighting for their rights and fighting for better pay and conditions.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Casual part time work on the rise in capitalist Britain
Part-time workers now account for nearly three in 10 of the British workforce, the latest statistics have shown.
The number of people working part-time hours rose by 143,000 in the three months to August to reach 7.96m, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1992, the figures by the Office for National Statistics have revealed. Part-time working accounted for 27.3pc of total employment, with the number of people in working rising by 178,000 on the quarter to 29.16m.
A record 1.14m employees and self-employed people were working part-time because they could not find a full job, up 65,000 on the quarter, the ONS said.
In 2011 in capitalist Britain this is the state we find ourselves. Its no coincidence that workers in part time jobs has shot up like this in recent years. To a employer they are cheaper to employ and require less incentives to work in their view. They are often people who have been unemployed and are desperate for any job just to pay their bills. Many workers i know now are having to take 2 or 3 part time jobs in a week just to get anywhere near the level they need to pay their monthly and weekly bills.
We hear a lot about the unemployment figures but i thought i'd put it back out there that although there is growing mass unemployment in Britain those who are still in work face a very tough time of it. With peoples hours being cut, pay frozen or even cut and even then part time workers are seen as some of the first and easiest to get rid of in the eyes of a employer when costs need to be saved as they put it.
Part-time jobs are hit hardest as companies use the flexibility of these contracts to reduce costs. With the economy expected to remain weak for some time and the spending cuts still being implemented, unemployment is expected to continue increasing.
It is a tough time to be a worker but i sense that being a part time employee myself we will be looked at at either being employed to save cost as we dont work as long as a full timer or let go first when cuts are looked for as we may not have been at our work for as long so havent built up so much of a pay off offer perhaps.
Many women are in part time work having many had children find it easier to ease themselves back into work that way of going part time first of all and we of course know women out number men in the public sector which of course are under the greatest threat by cuts and pension reforms.
It is key we dont forget any part of the working class employed or not, part time or full time, public or private sector. We are all workers and are all facing a unprecedented attack on our living standards and take home pay. It is estimated that by 2015 our average take home pay will be back to what it was in 2001. So if capitalisms only answer is to take us backwards it is time we all stood up and brought a end to this backward exploititive system of greed over peoples needs.
The number of people working part-time hours rose by 143,000 in the three months to August to reach 7.96m, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1992, the figures by the Office for National Statistics have revealed. Part-time working accounted for 27.3pc of total employment, with the number of people in working rising by 178,000 on the quarter to 29.16m.
A record 1.14m employees and self-employed people were working part-time because they could not find a full job, up 65,000 on the quarter, the ONS said.
In 2011 in capitalist Britain this is the state we find ourselves. Its no coincidence that workers in part time jobs has shot up like this in recent years. To a employer they are cheaper to employ and require less incentives to work in their view. They are often people who have been unemployed and are desperate for any job just to pay their bills. Many workers i know now are having to take 2 or 3 part time jobs in a week just to get anywhere near the level they need to pay their monthly and weekly bills.
We hear a lot about the unemployment figures but i thought i'd put it back out there that although there is growing mass unemployment in Britain those who are still in work face a very tough time of it. With peoples hours being cut, pay frozen or even cut and even then part time workers are seen as some of the first and easiest to get rid of in the eyes of a employer when costs need to be saved as they put it.
Part-time jobs are hit hardest as companies use the flexibility of these contracts to reduce costs. With the economy expected to remain weak for some time and the spending cuts still being implemented, unemployment is expected to continue increasing.
It is a tough time to be a worker but i sense that being a part time employee myself we will be looked at at either being employed to save cost as we dont work as long as a full timer or let go first when cuts are looked for as we may not have been at our work for as long so havent built up so much of a pay off offer perhaps.
Many women are in part time work having many had children find it easier to ease themselves back into work that way of going part time first of all and we of course know women out number men in the public sector which of course are under the greatest threat by cuts and pension reforms.
It is key we dont forget any part of the working class employed or not, part time or full time, public or private sector. We are all workers and are all facing a unprecedented attack on our living standards and take home pay. It is estimated that by 2015 our average take home pay will be back to what it was in 2001. So if capitalisms only answer is to take us backwards it is time we all stood up and brought a end to this backward exploititive system of greed over peoples needs.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
The contradictions of capitalism part 3 : the class struggle
This is part 3 of my look at capitalist modes of production and its contradictions which lead to such crisis's in its system. The system of capitalism based on the exploitation of the working class by the ruling class to produce more and more wealth for a smaller and smaller minority is where this vicious system begins to fall down.
For as long as time has begun and humans have been about there has been some form of class structure to humans be it the old surfs or the monarchies and kingdoms of old. Now in todays world we have capitalism which pits two groups of class's against eachother in a constant tug of war if you like. The ruling class often called the bourgeoisie and the working class those who have to sell their labour to get by often refered to as the prolitariat . This has seen big battles of concessions and loss's for both sides over the years but very rarely the capitalists loose out at all. They will always find a way of surviving and do so up to this day.
We pick up this look at the contradictions of capitalism after looking at the over production of products and the ideas of monopolies and the failiure of the market to produce long term success for the majority in the previous posts i've made on capitalism so far. Next we look at the class struggle and the battles that have taken place over the years.
there is the contradiction between the capitalist class and the working class rooted in the exploitation that takes place in every capitalist workplace. This class conflict has accompanied capitalism from its birth. For centuries the bourgeoisie has used all its economic, ideological and political power to incorporate, divert and repress working class resistance. Time and again it has been successful, inflicting on the working class numerous grievous defeats, and time and again its ideologists have proclaimed the end of the class struggle.
But to no avail. The fact is capitalism cannot do without the working class; it needs it to produce its profits. And the more capitalism grows and expands, the more it is compelled to increase the size and potential power of its mortal enemy. The bourgeoisie can win battle after battle but it cannot win, or end, the war. The class struggle can end only with the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the abolition of capitalism.
A further contradiction is that between the capitalists themselves. Capitalist production is organized on the basis of competition between rival capitals. This competition permeates the whole system from the level of the smallest corner shop to the biggest super market, from the most humble workshop to the mightiest multinational corporation, and, because the state is the instrument of capital, it produces competition between states which in turn leads to imperialism, arms races and wars.
Capitalist competition is competition to accumulate capital through the exploitation of labour. Any capitalist business that falls behind in the race risks bankruptcy or take over by its more profitable rivals. Every capitalist is therefore compelled to attempt to increase the exploitation of their workforce and the sum of their profits, thus intensifying the contradiction between the classes. Free market competition turns into its opposite, monopoly, as unsuccessful businesses are swallowed up by successful ones, but competition is not ended, it breaks out anew between the monopolies.
As the class struggles get more and more intense as capitalist production slows as it cant find anywhere new to make profits from the workers still demand more and more wages for working harder and harder. The capitalists will always look to cut workers pay and conditions first of all when looking to save money. This is another contradiction as capitlaists dont always look after their workers and as Karl Marx pointed out in his critical analysis of capitalism in Das Capital the workers are simply a tool of labour brought by the capitalist to produce the final product to sell on and make a profit from.
There is always money for a capitalist to spend on wars and exploitation of his or her workers but workers are told there is no more money for your wages and no more work and you will have to be laid off.
This is another fact of capitalism that workers are only wanted for a short time when there is no percieved need for their labour anymore the capitalist has no worries in laying them off straight away as all he or she is interested in is making that next profit.
A system based on exploitation of workers and the creaming off of the fruits of workers labour for their own greedy profits is not a system i'd like to entertain for much longer. I hope there is a general realisation of the way things work and a exposure of how this capitalist system works to open ordinay peoples eyes to the shocking way this system of waste and profit works.
In my next piece i will be looking at the ideas of Karl Marx further looking into his findings on workers wages and how they are constantly being squeezed by the capitalist and he/she never gets paid what their labour produces only a slice of that.
For as long as time has begun and humans have been about there has been some form of class structure to humans be it the old surfs or the monarchies and kingdoms of old. Now in todays world we have capitalism which pits two groups of class's against eachother in a constant tug of war if you like. The ruling class often called the bourgeoisie and the working class those who have to sell their labour to get by often refered to as the prolitariat . This has seen big battles of concessions and loss's for both sides over the years but very rarely the capitalists loose out at all. They will always find a way of surviving and do so up to this day.
We pick up this look at the contradictions of capitalism after looking at the over production of products and the ideas of monopolies and the failiure of the market to produce long term success for the majority in the previous posts i've made on capitalism so far. Next we look at the class struggle and the battles that have taken place over the years.
there is the contradiction between the capitalist class and the working class rooted in the exploitation that takes place in every capitalist workplace. This class conflict has accompanied capitalism from its birth. For centuries the bourgeoisie has used all its economic, ideological and political power to incorporate, divert and repress working class resistance. Time and again it has been successful, inflicting on the working class numerous grievous defeats, and time and again its ideologists have proclaimed the end of the class struggle.
But to no avail. The fact is capitalism cannot do without the working class; it needs it to produce its profits. And the more capitalism grows and expands, the more it is compelled to increase the size and potential power of its mortal enemy. The bourgeoisie can win battle after battle but it cannot win, or end, the war. The class struggle can end only with the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the abolition of capitalism.
A further contradiction is that between the capitalists themselves. Capitalist production is organized on the basis of competition between rival capitals. This competition permeates the whole system from the level of the smallest corner shop to the biggest super market, from the most humble workshop to the mightiest multinational corporation, and, because the state is the instrument of capital, it produces competition between states which in turn leads to imperialism, arms races and wars.
Capitalist competition is competition to accumulate capital through the exploitation of labour. Any capitalist business that falls behind in the race risks bankruptcy or take over by its more profitable rivals. Every capitalist is therefore compelled to attempt to increase the exploitation of their workforce and the sum of their profits, thus intensifying the contradiction between the classes. Free market competition turns into its opposite, monopoly, as unsuccessful businesses are swallowed up by successful ones, but competition is not ended, it breaks out anew between the monopolies.
As the class struggles get more and more intense as capitalist production slows as it cant find anywhere new to make profits from the workers still demand more and more wages for working harder and harder. The capitalists will always look to cut workers pay and conditions first of all when looking to save money. This is another contradiction as capitlaists dont always look after their workers and as Karl Marx pointed out in his critical analysis of capitalism in Das Capital the workers are simply a tool of labour brought by the capitalist to produce the final product to sell on and make a profit from.
There is always money for a capitalist to spend on wars and exploitation of his or her workers but workers are told there is no more money for your wages and no more work and you will have to be laid off.
This is another fact of capitalism that workers are only wanted for a short time when there is no percieved need for their labour anymore the capitalist has no worries in laying them off straight away as all he or she is interested in is making that next profit.
A system based on exploitation of workers and the creaming off of the fruits of workers labour for their own greedy profits is not a system i'd like to entertain for much longer. I hope there is a general realisation of the way things work and a exposure of how this capitalist system works to open ordinay peoples eyes to the shocking way this system of waste and profit works.
In my next piece i will be looking at the ideas of Karl Marx further looking into his findings on workers wages and how they are constantly being squeezed by the capitalist and he/she never gets paid what their labour produces only a slice of that.
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Press Release: International solidarity need for Kazakhstan
this article was just posted on Paul Murphy's blog the socialist party's own MEP from Ireland part of the CWI- committee for workers international on the recent strikes in Kazakhstan
As I mentioned yesterday, I have spent the past week in Kazakhstan meeting up with NGOs, community activists and striking workers. It was an incredible trip and the scale of the strike wave is unbelievable and is having an enormous impact throughout Kazakhstan, despite the massive repression from the state. Below is a Press Release from this morning outlining what exactly is going on and the importance of a campaign of international solidarity with the workers. In the next few hours, I’ll post up a draft protest letter and I’d encourage everyone to send a copy as well as asking friends, family and colleagues to also do so and if possible, to push for your trade union branch to send a copy too.
Press Statement: 21 July 2011
Official visit of Paul Murphy MEP as part of European United Left delegation to Kazakhstan
*Incredible strike movement impacting oil production in West Kazakhstan
*Strikers are met with jailings, intimidation and brutal repression – right to strike and form independent trade unions are being denied.
*Management is refusing to negotiate with strikers – massive campaign of international solidarity needed
*Sting cancelled concert in support of the striking oil workers
Paul Murphy MEP is currently on a delegation to Kazakhstan on behalf of the European United Left group (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament. Within the short period of a week, he has traveled across this vast country, meeting with mining workers near Karaganda, campaigners against housing evictions in Almaty, as well as representatives of the government.
A major strike is raging in the Mangistau Oblast in the west of Kazakhstan, where, at its height, up to 16,000 workers in the oil industry have been on strike. This strike has now been ongoing for over two months. Supporting this strike was a key reason for the visit. Paul spoke to open air meetings of thousands of workers, met individually with workers to discuss their cases and had discussions with the management of KazMunaiGas, Kazakhstan’s national oil giant which is closely linked to the government and President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. He also met with the local governor in the area. Before visiting Kazakhstan, he had spoken out about the strike in the European Parliament (http://www.paulmurphymep.eu/kazakhstanvisit)
One of the most pressing demands for the workers is the release of two trade union representatives who have been jailed. Natalia Sokolova was the workers’ lawyer and has been jailed for “fermenting social conflict” and another trade union representative, Akshimat Aminov, has also been jailed. If found guilty, Natalia Sokolova will face a prison sentence of more than 10 years.
“The jailing of two trade union representatives and lawyers of these striking workers is an outrageous attack on the right to strike and the right to form free and independent trade unions. Natalia Sokolova, has now been in jail for over two months. I spoke with her husband, who has been denied the right to see her for all of that time and has received a death threat in the post telling him to drop this case. These breaches of human rights and workers’ rights are only a selection of the abuses that I have witnessed”
“The repression, brutality and intimidation that these workers are faced with is outrageous. Workers’ protests have been attacked by the riot police. The strikers have been sent text messages threatening the lives of their families and threatening to burn their homes. Many have also received official letters from the company stating that if they continue their strike, they will be fired. Hundreds of workers have already been fired, simply for exercising what should be their right to strike.
“I not only met with workers and their representatives in west Kazakhstan, but also with the Governor of the region and very senior representatives of the oil company, KazMunaiGaz. Unfortunately, it was clearly explained by the First Vice President of the company, that the management is not willing to discuss with representatives of the strikers until the strikers return to work, and that those who have been fired would not be able to return. Clearly that is a call for the workers to surrender rather than a serious attempt at negotiation.
“A serious campaign of disinformation is being waged by the Kazakh authorities in downplaying the importance of the strike. The attempt to undermine the strike has now also led to allegations about the character of my visit. The Kazakhstan national press agency released a statement declaring that I am simply here on a ‘private visit’, when in fact I am on an official delegation from the European United Left parliamentary group.
“I am convinced that the workers’ demands are justified. Natalia Sokolova and Akshamat Aminov, the workers’ trade union representatives, should be released immediately. All of the workers who have been fired and all of the strikers should be allowed back to work without any reprisal actions being taken against them. The company must sit down to negotiate with the elected representatives of the strikers.”
“I have given a firm commitment to these workers that I will do everything in my power to assist them and I certainly intend to do that. I will be launching an international solidarity campaign with these workers.
“Sting recently cancelled a concert in Kazakhstan in support of the oil workers’ strike saying that, ‘Hunger strikes, imprisoned workers and tens of thousands on strike represents a virtual picket line which I have no intention of crossing’.
“More solidarity like this is necessary. I am calling on the trade union movement in Ireland and across Europe to take up the cause of these heroic workers and to express their support for the workers in order to increase pressure on the company to negotiate with the strikers.”
As I mentioned yesterday, I have spent the past week in Kazakhstan meeting up with NGOs, community activists and striking workers. It was an incredible trip and the scale of the strike wave is unbelievable and is having an enormous impact throughout Kazakhstan, despite the massive repression from the state. Below is a Press Release from this morning outlining what exactly is going on and the importance of a campaign of international solidarity with the workers. In the next few hours, I’ll post up a draft protest letter and I’d encourage everyone to send a copy as well as asking friends, family and colleagues to also do so and if possible, to push for your trade union branch to send a copy too.
Press Statement: 21 July 2011
Official visit of Paul Murphy MEP as part of European United Left delegation to Kazakhstan
*Incredible strike movement impacting oil production in West Kazakhstan
*Strikers are met with jailings, intimidation and brutal repression – right to strike and form independent trade unions are being denied.
*Management is refusing to negotiate with strikers – massive campaign of international solidarity needed
*Sting cancelled concert in support of the striking oil workers
Paul Murphy MEP is currently on a delegation to Kazakhstan on behalf of the European United Left group (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament. Within the short period of a week, he has traveled across this vast country, meeting with mining workers near Karaganda, campaigners against housing evictions in Almaty, as well as representatives of the government.
A major strike is raging in the Mangistau Oblast in the west of Kazakhstan, where, at its height, up to 16,000 workers in the oil industry have been on strike. This strike has now been ongoing for over two months. Supporting this strike was a key reason for the visit. Paul spoke to open air meetings of thousands of workers, met individually with workers to discuss their cases and had discussions with the management of KazMunaiGas, Kazakhstan’s national oil giant which is closely linked to the government and President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. He also met with the local governor in the area. Before visiting Kazakhstan, he had spoken out about the strike in the European Parliament (http://www.paulmurphymep.eu/kazakhstanvisit)
One of the most pressing demands for the workers is the release of two trade union representatives who have been jailed. Natalia Sokolova was the workers’ lawyer and has been jailed for “fermenting social conflict” and another trade union representative, Akshimat Aminov, has also been jailed. If found guilty, Natalia Sokolova will face a prison sentence of more than 10 years.
“The jailing of two trade union representatives and lawyers of these striking workers is an outrageous attack on the right to strike and the right to form free and independent trade unions. Natalia Sokolova, has now been in jail for over two months. I spoke with her husband, who has been denied the right to see her for all of that time and has received a death threat in the post telling him to drop this case. These breaches of human rights and workers’ rights are only a selection of the abuses that I have witnessed”
“The repression, brutality and intimidation that these workers are faced with is outrageous. Workers’ protests have been attacked by the riot police. The strikers have been sent text messages threatening the lives of their families and threatening to burn their homes. Many have also received official letters from the company stating that if they continue their strike, they will be fired. Hundreds of workers have already been fired, simply for exercising what should be their right to strike.
“I not only met with workers and their representatives in west Kazakhstan, but also with the Governor of the region and very senior representatives of the oil company, KazMunaiGaz. Unfortunately, it was clearly explained by the First Vice President of the company, that the management is not willing to discuss with representatives of the strikers until the strikers return to work, and that those who have been fired would not be able to return. Clearly that is a call for the workers to surrender rather than a serious attempt at negotiation.
“A serious campaign of disinformation is being waged by the Kazakh authorities in downplaying the importance of the strike. The attempt to undermine the strike has now also led to allegations about the character of my visit. The Kazakhstan national press agency released a statement declaring that I am simply here on a ‘private visit’, when in fact I am on an official delegation from the European United Left parliamentary group.
“I am convinced that the workers’ demands are justified. Natalia Sokolova and Akshamat Aminov, the workers’ trade union representatives, should be released immediately. All of the workers who have been fired and all of the strikers should be allowed back to work without any reprisal actions being taken against them. The company must sit down to negotiate with the elected representatives of the strikers.”
“I have given a firm commitment to these workers that I will do everything in my power to assist them and I certainly intend to do that. I will be launching an international solidarity campaign with these workers.
“Sting recently cancelled a concert in Kazakhstan in support of the oil workers’ strike saying that, ‘Hunger strikes, imprisoned workers and tens of thousands on strike represents a virtual picket line which I have no intention of crossing’.
“More solidarity like this is necessary. I am calling on the trade union movement in Ireland and across Europe to take up the cause of these heroic workers and to express their support for the workers in order to increase pressure on the company to negotiate with the strikers.”
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Tories relight their attack on trade unions once again
Today we have heard a tory minister named Dominic Raab who was voted in by 42.6% of the electorate is calling again for the government to introduce strike ballot thresholds of a turnout of 50% to be passed officail and legal. Anything less he says would be made ilegal and could not take place.
Bob Crow the general secretary of the RMT union one of the most left leaning unions going made the e xcellent point that if this rule applied to MP's as it is being proposed under the AV voting system if it goes through in may would mean MP's like Mr Raab and many of his career driven polititains not taking their seats in the house of commons. How hypocritical of this man who wouldnt even be in a position to make such remarks if it wasnt for the voting system thatallows MP's to gain office on such low turnouts.
It is clear to me the tories are sparing for a battle with the unions again with this latest drive for cuts and austerity they are almost goading the unions into action to then release these anti trade union laws on them.
Whatever happened to the right to strike. Unions do not ust strike for the sheer fun of it Mr Raab , they use industrial action as a last resort. Mr Raab s claims that due to RMT underground workers strikes last year Londons economy lost millions of pounds of revenue is clearly all a tory minister is likely to notice. They do not see the other side of the coin where workers are loosing their jobs facing reduced pay and conditions. As Bob Crow points out what other ammunition do workers have to defend themselves against the boss's if they cannot use the right to strike to protect their rights.
I am a trade unionist myself and am a member of Unite where in our union we have balloted time after time with BA cabin crew but each time BA seem to find something a technical hitch which means the workers cannot excersise their democratic right to take industrial action.
As the coming months move forward and the prospect of industrial action in the public sector becomes more and more of a reality i imagine we will be hearing more and more scare mongering from tory ministers with clearly nothing better to do than stir up trouble with the unions. We all know tories are no fans of unions they canot stand the idea of workers having collective power in numbers and always look to break them up.
So the hypocrisy of this man is dripping and i do hope that trade unions are not brought under further legislation to curb any industrial activity which they have a fundemental right to use in my opinion. The right to remove your labour is one of the workers last resorts in times of struggle and must be upheld in my view.
Bob Crow the general secretary of the RMT union one of the most left leaning unions going made the e xcellent point that if this rule applied to MP's as it is being proposed under the AV voting system if it goes through in may would mean MP's like Mr Raab and many of his career driven polititains not taking their seats in the house of commons. How hypocritical of this man who wouldnt even be in a position to make such remarks if it wasnt for the voting system thatallows MP's to gain office on such low turnouts.
It is clear to me the tories are sparing for a battle with the unions again with this latest drive for cuts and austerity they are almost goading the unions into action to then release these anti trade union laws on them.
Whatever happened to the right to strike. Unions do not ust strike for the sheer fun of it Mr Raab , they use industrial action as a last resort. Mr Raab s claims that due to RMT underground workers strikes last year Londons economy lost millions of pounds of revenue is clearly all a tory minister is likely to notice. They do not see the other side of the coin where workers are loosing their jobs facing reduced pay and conditions. As Bob Crow points out what other ammunition do workers have to defend themselves against the boss's if they cannot use the right to strike to protect their rights.
I am a trade unionist myself and am a member of Unite where in our union we have balloted time after time with BA cabin crew but each time BA seem to find something a technical hitch which means the workers cannot excersise their democratic right to take industrial action.
As the coming months move forward and the prospect of industrial action in the public sector becomes more and more of a reality i imagine we will be hearing more and more scare mongering from tory ministers with clearly nothing better to do than stir up trouble with the unions. We all know tories are no fans of unions they canot stand the idea of workers having collective power in numbers and always look to break them up.
So the hypocrisy of this man is dripping and i do hope that trade unions are not brought under further legislation to curb any industrial activity which they have a fundemental right to use in my opinion. The right to remove your labour is one of the workers last resorts in times of struggle and must be upheld in my view.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
The vast influence of Tesco in todays society
As many of you will be aware one of our biggest supermarkets if not our biggest in the UK Tesco dominate the high street in many towns and cities. We now have a case where we get what are called "tesco towns" where the influenceand the role a Tesco has is unrivaled in a town.
I found this set of facts about Tesco from the excellent Tescopoly website which you can check out here
http://www.tescopoly.org.uk/
1) 1 in every 7 pounds spent in the UK in 2007 was spent in Tesco
2) Tesco use their monopoly power to squeeze farmers hard. A Competition Commission investigation revealed that Tesco consistently pay suppliers nearly 4% below the average price paid by other retailers. There isn’t much evidence they pass these savings to consumers – they just pocket the profits.
3) Research by ActionAid found workers in Costa Rica producing bananas for export to all major UK supermarkets earning 33p an hour. This wage is so low that they cannot afford to take an hour off when dangerous pesticides are being sprayed on the crops.
4) Unite the Union have a long running campaign against Tesco over the terrible treatment of workers in their meat supply chain.
5) The New Economics Foundation have shown that fresh fruit and veg is, on average, 30% cheaper at a street market than it is in a supermarket. However, through short term aggressive pricing when they first move into an area, Tesco often shuts down these markets, reducing access to fresh fruit and veg for the poorest.
6) Tesco offer their best deals in out of town shopping centres rather than their city centre stores. This not only encourages driving, but also excludes those without cars – mostly, poorer people.
7) In the 5 years to 2002, an average of 50 local food shops were lost in the UK every week, largely due to the Tesco takeover.
8 ) Tesco is Europe’s biggest property company. In 2007 they were sitting on property assets worth £28bn.
9) Tesco are not a net creator of jobs. Because they aggressively force local shops out of business, and then provide the minimal possible service to customers, on average, every time a large supermarket opens, 276 jobs are lost.
10) Between 2003 and 2007 the Labour Party accepted donations of £54,194 from Tesco.
Unions have raised serious concerns about conditions for workers employed along supermarket supply chains in the UK. Pay and working conditions can be negatively affected as supermarkets squeeze suppliers for goods at lower prices or relocate in search of cheaper products. The major food retailers can exert undue pressure on suppliers causing job losses in food processing companies that simply cannot produce goods at the prices Tesco and their competitors wish to pay.
Unite has been campaigning in Supermarket supply chains such as the Red and White Meat Sectors since December 2007. This began by publicising the harsh conditions many workers in the UK experience when employed by companies supplying meat to some of the major Supermarkets. Unite then undertook a campaign against Tesco’s abuse of power over the Meat supply chains through the ‘Tesco: Every Workers Counts’ campaign. Unite works towards its ultimate goal of ensuring the highest ethical standards in the treatment of customers and to insist upon the highest ethical standards for workers employed by companies throughout the supply chain. For more
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) meat sector inquiry
In March 2010 the EHRC released its findings from its "Inquiry into recruitment and employment in the meat and poultry processing sector". The report reveals evidence of the widespread mistreatment and exploitation of migrant and agency workers in the sector, and makes recommendations including supermarkets improving their auditing of suppliers; processing firms and agencies improving recruitment practices, working environments and the ability of workers to raise issues of concern; and for the government to provide sufficient resources for the Gangmasters’ Licensing Agency to help safeguard the welfare and interests of workers.
The Commission will review action taken over the next 12 months by supermarkets, processing firms and recruitment agencies, and will consider taking enforcement action if necessary.
The Commission launched its first ever Inquiry into a key sector of the economy in October 2008, focusing on the UK's multi-billion pound meat industry for evidence of employment abuse and discrimination. The meat sector is a significant industry employing some 40,000 workers across Britain engaged in processing and packaging meat for sale in supermarkets and retailers.
Tesco's profits are in very stark contrast with the suppliers who have been squeezed. In 2006 the T&G announced it was forming a national co-ordinating committee to bring together its shop stewards across the Tesco empire. The initiative was the first step on the road to fighting for jobs and decent pay, terms and conditions in the country's top supermarket. Shop stewards report pressures to make efficiency savings as well as demands to give up hard won pay and working conditions in order to be admitted into the Tesco pension schemes. According to Ron Webb, T&G national secretary for transport, "Unbelievable though it may be, Tesco is actually looking to make job cuts on the day it claims to be the consumers' friend. We do not accept these cuts are either necessary or ethical. How can a multi-billion pound outfit attack the pay, terms and conditions of those people it relies on to get its goods to the stores?"
The major supermarket chains have announced numerous environmental initiatives. Tesco announced a Community Plan including an Environment Fund of £100 million in a speech by Terry Leahy in May 2006, and have continued to announce further plans since then, including carbon labelling of their products.
Despite the many benefits of these initiatives, it remains the case that Tesco's size and growth, its numerous unsustainable products, and its impact on independent retailers stop it from being a truly green company. The same is true of the other large chains. With larger numbers of car-based hypermarkets and food being sourced from around the world, and trucked around the UK, these companies continue to damage the environment.
and press release on the environment fund and waste. George Monbiot in his book "Turn up the Heat" suggests that the increasing trend of individuals and companies showing their green credentials, is often green-wash hiding real environmental costs.
Some of supermarkets' environmental costs include:
• The food industry is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore has a massive part to play in tackling climate change. The bulk of these emissions come from food production. Tesco and the other supermarkets must do more to make sure that their production lines are sustainable - this needs to be prioritised above paying farmers the lowest possible prices. Research by Friends of the Earth has shown that low prices have reduced farmers' ability to produce food in environmentally friendly ways. This needs to stop.
•Fewer local farmers and shops mean both customers and goods need to be transported further. This means more pollution from cars, as people drive further to shop, and more pollution from aircraft and lorries, as food is transported from around the world. Indeed Tesco's business could be seen as one of the drivers behind the rise in UK CO2 emissions. More needs to be done to support local, seasonal produce - something that independent shops and supermarkets are well suited to. On the other hand, a 2005 Friends of the Earth survey found that Tesco came lowest out of the supermarket chains for sourcing British apples.
•Tesco's store sizes means they are some of the most energy-inefficient buildings in the retail sector. A Sheffield Hallam University study found that despite the new stock, large superstores are the most energy inefficient buildings in the sector. It would take more than 60 corner shops and greengrocers to match the carbon dioxide emissions from one average sized superstore. Although they are taking steps to increase efficiency, their commitment to building yet more stores means that these savings will be cancelled out.
•Tesco also encourages shoppers to travel by car. One in 10 car journeys in the UK are now to buy food. Work for DEFRA suggests that car use for food shopping results in costs to society of more than £3.5 billion per year from traffic emissions, noise, accidents and congestion. Tesco has been massively expanding into "Extra" format hypermarkets, which are particularly geared towards car-based shopping. The proportion of Tesco's floorspace taken up by hypermarkets is three times what it was 6 years ago.
•Tesco boasts about its progress on reducing waste and how it is following a market trend to introduce degradable plastic bags. But grocery packaging still makes up roughly a quarter of household waste, and the UK's biggest supermarkets distribute billions of plastic bags, which end up in landfill. Even degradable bags do not help, as they will still predominantly go to landfill sites where the lack of sunlight and oxygen will hinder rapid breakdown. To make a real difference the supermarkets need to stop handing out free bags altogether.
•A large amount of food is being wasted. Tesco was among the supermarkets found to be rejecting apples purely on cosmetic grounds by a 2002 Friends of the Earth survey of fruit growers.
•Biofuels - Tesco is a major shareholder in and customer of Greenergy Biofuels Limited, a UK company promising customers climate-friendly, sustainable biofuels from UK rapeseed oil. The organisation BiofuelWatch has, however, undertaken research which reveals that Greenergy's biofuels contain increasing amounts of palm oil, soy and sugar cane. All three are crops linked to large-scale rainforest destruction, massive greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and peat and forest fires, and in some instances to human rights abuses.
SO Tesco who was the focus of a recent squatter protest in Stokes Croft last week as some of you who follow the news will have read and this is a sign of people saying enough is enough with more and more of these stores opening up every year.
Critics said they did not want the area to lose its local character and feared smaller shops would find their businesses threatened.
But Tesco said evidence showed that opening such a store could bring shoppers back to an area and help local traders.
Robin Markwell from BBC Radio Bristol, who spent several hours outside the building, said campaigners in the street had been shouting support to the squatters on the roof.
There had been one or two minor scuffles involving protesters and police outside. The atmosphere was "relatively calm", he said.
Bristol City Council has approved the change of use for the building.
A protest took place at the site in February.
Claire Milne, who represents the group No Tesco in Stokes Croft, told the BBC last month that the area was "a melting pot of independent traders" who may have to close if they are unable to compete with the multi-national company.
Bushra Randhawa, a postmaster and resident for 24 years, said last month: "It's taken a huge effort from local groups, traders and the community to regenerate this area.
"Only now does it feel like a real community spirit is developing.
"This move will take us two steps backwards when we need to take two steps forward."
As the eviction got under way, a Tesco spokesman said: "We're keen to invest in the area. Many local people we've spoken to tell us they are eager to see a Tesco Express at this site.
"Our store will create approximately 20 new jobs and provide shopping facilities for hundreds of local residents.
"The squatters, who were illegally occupying the building, were asked to leave but refused.
"High Court enforcement officers are removing them from the premises with the support of the police
So i go back to one of my points i've made before that this sort of protest and anger at such a plan by Tesco is down to the brutal nature of capitalism where their drive for profit and bigger dividends for their directors is paramount. If we were to see the top 300 monopolies including the likes of Tesco nationalised by a socialist government and brought in to public ownership under workers control the rich's of these companies would cease going striaght to the top but instead be reinvested in the workers paying them a good living wage for the area they live in. Allowing trade union involvement at a advanced scale to work alongside the workers who will run these monopolies for the many not just the few who cream off the profits year in year out.
Only this way will the power and greed of companies just like Tesco be controlled more equally for the benifit of all of society not just their directors who are dam right greedy.
I found this set of facts about Tesco from the excellent Tescopoly website which you can check out here
http://www.tescopoly.org.uk/
1) 1 in every 7 pounds spent in the UK in 2007 was spent in Tesco
2) Tesco use their monopoly power to squeeze farmers hard. A Competition Commission investigation revealed that Tesco consistently pay suppliers nearly 4% below the average price paid by other retailers. There isn’t much evidence they pass these savings to consumers – they just pocket the profits.
3) Research by ActionAid found workers in Costa Rica producing bananas for export to all major UK supermarkets earning 33p an hour. This wage is so low that they cannot afford to take an hour off when dangerous pesticides are being sprayed on the crops.
4) Unite the Union have a long running campaign against Tesco over the terrible treatment of workers in their meat supply chain.
5) The New Economics Foundation have shown that fresh fruit and veg is, on average, 30% cheaper at a street market than it is in a supermarket. However, through short term aggressive pricing when they first move into an area, Tesco often shuts down these markets, reducing access to fresh fruit and veg for the poorest.
6) Tesco offer their best deals in out of town shopping centres rather than their city centre stores. This not only encourages driving, but also excludes those without cars – mostly, poorer people.
7) In the 5 years to 2002, an average of 50 local food shops were lost in the UK every week, largely due to the Tesco takeover.
8 ) Tesco is Europe’s biggest property company. In 2007 they were sitting on property assets worth £28bn.
9) Tesco are not a net creator of jobs. Because they aggressively force local shops out of business, and then provide the minimal possible service to customers, on average, every time a large supermarket opens, 276 jobs are lost.
10) Between 2003 and 2007 the Labour Party accepted donations of £54,194 from Tesco.
Unions have raised serious concerns about conditions for workers employed along supermarket supply chains in the UK. Pay and working conditions can be negatively affected as supermarkets squeeze suppliers for goods at lower prices or relocate in search of cheaper products. The major food retailers can exert undue pressure on suppliers causing job losses in food processing companies that simply cannot produce goods at the prices Tesco and their competitors wish to pay.
Unite has been campaigning in Supermarket supply chains such as the Red and White Meat Sectors since December 2007. This began by publicising the harsh conditions many workers in the UK experience when employed by companies supplying meat to some of the major Supermarkets. Unite then undertook a campaign against Tesco’s abuse of power over the Meat supply chains through the ‘Tesco: Every Workers Counts’ campaign. Unite works towards its ultimate goal of ensuring the highest ethical standards in the treatment of customers and to insist upon the highest ethical standards for workers employed by companies throughout the supply chain. For more
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) meat sector inquiry
In March 2010 the EHRC released its findings from its "Inquiry into recruitment and employment in the meat and poultry processing sector". The report reveals evidence of the widespread mistreatment and exploitation of migrant and agency workers in the sector, and makes recommendations including supermarkets improving their auditing of suppliers; processing firms and agencies improving recruitment practices, working environments and the ability of workers to raise issues of concern; and for the government to provide sufficient resources for the Gangmasters’ Licensing Agency to help safeguard the welfare and interests of workers.
The Commission will review action taken over the next 12 months by supermarkets, processing firms and recruitment agencies, and will consider taking enforcement action if necessary.
The Commission launched its first ever Inquiry into a key sector of the economy in October 2008, focusing on the UK's multi-billion pound meat industry for evidence of employment abuse and discrimination. The meat sector is a significant industry employing some 40,000 workers across Britain engaged in processing and packaging meat for sale in supermarkets and retailers.
Tesco's profits are in very stark contrast with the suppliers who have been squeezed. In 2006 the T&G announced it was forming a national co-ordinating committee to bring together its shop stewards across the Tesco empire. The initiative was the first step on the road to fighting for jobs and decent pay, terms and conditions in the country's top supermarket. Shop stewards report pressures to make efficiency savings as well as demands to give up hard won pay and working conditions in order to be admitted into the Tesco pension schemes. According to Ron Webb, T&G national secretary for transport, "Unbelievable though it may be, Tesco is actually looking to make job cuts on the day it claims to be the consumers' friend. We do not accept these cuts are either necessary or ethical. How can a multi-billion pound outfit attack the pay, terms and conditions of those people it relies on to get its goods to the stores?"
The major supermarket chains have announced numerous environmental initiatives. Tesco announced a Community Plan including an Environment Fund of £100 million in a speech by Terry Leahy in May 2006, and have continued to announce further plans since then, including carbon labelling of their products.
Despite the many benefits of these initiatives, it remains the case that Tesco's size and growth, its numerous unsustainable products, and its impact on independent retailers stop it from being a truly green company. The same is true of the other large chains. With larger numbers of car-based hypermarkets and food being sourced from around the world, and trucked around the UK, these companies continue to damage the environment.
and press release on the environment fund and waste. George Monbiot in his book "Turn up the Heat" suggests that the increasing trend of individuals and companies showing their green credentials, is often green-wash hiding real environmental costs.
Some of supermarkets' environmental costs include:
• The food industry is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore has a massive part to play in tackling climate change. The bulk of these emissions come from food production. Tesco and the other supermarkets must do more to make sure that their production lines are sustainable - this needs to be prioritised above paying farmers the lowest possible prices. Research by Friends of the Earth has shown that low prices have reduced farmers' ability to produce food in environmentally friendly ways. This needs to stop.
•Fewer local farmers and shops mean both customers and goods need to be transported further. This means more pollution from cars, as people drive further to shop, and more pollution from aircraft and lorries, as food is transported from around the world. Indeed Tesco's business could be seen as one of the drivers behind the rise in UK CO2 emissions. More needs to be done to support local, seasonal produce - something that independent shops and supermarkets are well suited to. On the other hand, a 2005 Friends of the Earth survey found that Tesco came lowest out of the supermarket chains for sourcing British apples.
•Tesco's store sizes means they are some of the most energy-inefficient buildings in the retail sector. A Sheffield Hallam University study found that despite the new stock, large superstores are the most energy inefficient buildings in the sector. It would take more than 60 corner shops and greengrocers to match the carbon dioxide emissions from one average sized superstore. Although they are taking steps to increase efficiency, their commitment to building yet more stores means that these savings will be cancelled out.
•Tesco also encourages shoppers to travel by car. One in 10 car journeys in the UK are now to buy food. Work for DEFRA suggests that car use for food shopping results in costs to society of more than £3.5 billion per year from traffic emissions, noise, accidents and congestion. Tesco has been massively expanding into "Extra" format hypermarkets, which are particularly geared towards car-based shopping. The proportion of Tesco's floorspace taken up by hypermarkets is three times what it was 6 years ago.
•Tesco boasts about its progress on reducing waste and how it is following a market trend to introduce degradable plastic bags. But grocery packaging still makes up roughly a quarter of household waste, and the UK's biggest supermarkets distribute billions of plastic bags, which end up in landfill. Even degradable bags do not help, as they will still predominantly go to landfill sites where the lack of sunlight and oxygen will hinder rapid breakdown. To make a real difference the supermarkets need to stop handing out free bags altogether.
•A large amount of food is being wasted. Tesco was among the supermarkets found to be rejecting apples purely on cosmetic grounds by a 2002 Friends of the Earth survey of fruit growers.
•Biofuels - Tesco is a major shareholder in and customer of Greenergy Biofuels Limited, a UK company promising customers climate-friendly, sustainable biofuels from UK rapeseed oil. The organisation BiofuelWatch has, however, undertaken research which reveals that Greenergy's biofuels contain increasing amounts of palm oil, soy and sugar cane. All three are crops linked to large-scale rainforest destruction, massive greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and peat and forest fires, and in some instances to human rights abuses.
SO Tesco who was the focus of a recent squatter protest in Stokes Croft last week as some of you who follow the news will have read and this is a sign of people saying enough is enough with more and more of these stores opening up every year.
Critics said they did not want the area to lose its local character and feared smaller shops would find their businesses threatened.
But Tesco said evidence showed that opening such a store could bring shoppers back to an area and help local traders.
Robin Markwell from BBC Radio Bristol, who spent several hours outside the building, said campaigners in the street had been shouting support to the squatters on the roof.
There had been one or two minor scuffles involving protesters and police outside. The atmosphere was "relatively calm", he said.
Bristol City Council has approved the change of use for the building.
A protest took place at the site in February.
Claire Milne, who represents the group No Tesco in Stokes Croft, told the BBC last month that the area was "a melting pot of independent traders" who may have to close if they are unable to compete with the multi-national company.
Bushra Randhawa, a postmaster and resident for 24 years, said last month: "It's taken a huge effort from local groups, traders and the community to regenerate this area.
"Only now does it feel like a real community spirit is developing.
"This move will take us two steps backwards when we need to take two steps forward."
As the eviction got under way, a Tesco spokesman said: "We're keen to invest in the area. Many local people we've spoken to tell us they are eager to see a Tesco Express at this site.
"Our store will create approximately 20 new jobs and provide shopping facilities for hundreds of local residents.
"The squatters, who were illegally occupying the building, were asked to leave but refused.
"High Court enforcement officers are removing them from the premises with the support of the police
So i go back to one of my points i've made before that this sort of protest and anger at such a plan by Tesco is down to the brutal nature of capitalism where their drive for profit and bigger dividends for their directors is paramount. If we were to see the top 300 monopolies including the likes of Tesco nationalised by a socialist government and brought in to public ownership under workers control the rich's of these companies would cease going striaght to the top but instead be reinvested in the workers paying them a good living wage for the area they live in. Allowing trade union involvement at a advanced scale to work alongside the workers who will run these monopolies for the many not just the few who cream off the profits year in year out.
Only this way will the power and greed of companies just like Tesco be controlled more equally for the benifit of all of society not just their directors who are dam right greedy.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Workers being worked towards heart attacks
SO not only workers are loosing their jobs today and facing the worrying prospects of not being able to keep up their mortgage repayments and feeding their families but now a study has shown that we are working far too long and far too hard for you guessed it for less.
Workers who spend longer in the office could be at greater risk of heart disease, a study has found.
People who work an 11-hour day compared to those who work a standard seven or eight hours increase their risk of heart disease by 67%, according to researchers at UCL (University College London).
They said that the findings could be useful to GPs when calculating a patient's risk of heart disease alongside other indicators, such as blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.
This study might make us think twice about the old adage 'hard work won't kill you'
Professor Stephen Holgate, Medical Research Council
The research tracked 7,095 British civil servants aged between 39 and 62 for 11 years.
Over the course of the study, 192 participants suffered a heart attack.
Andrew Steptoe, British Heart Foundation Professor of Psychology at UCL, said: "Even if you take those factors into account, finding out how long people work adds to our understanding of heart disease.
Working long hours increased risk of heart attack, research found.
"This could be to do with stress, or it could be to do with other factors in peoples' lives - if you are spending 11 hours at work you are spending less time with the people you may love and like to be with.
"But we do know that work is associated with increases in stress hormones and various other biological changes which might themselves increase the risk of heart disease."
Professor Stephen Holgate, chairman of the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Population and Systems Medicine Board, said: "This study might make us think twice about the old adage 'hard work won't kill you'.
"Tackling lifestyles that are detrimental to health is a key area for the MRC, and this research reminds us that it's not just diet and exercise we need to think about."
So if you are one of the lucky ones remaining in employmemt during the time of these cuts start to bite you may wish to check with your doctor that you are healthy and doing well.
Workers conditions are slowly decreasing in this country as fewer jobs about and more is being asked of the reminaing workers. There is increased pressure on these workers to do more for less. I think trade unions should take heed of this and make a case again for a 35 hour week which we argue for as socialists . The capitalist greed has driven workers to have to work longer and longer as their boss's drive them forward in terms of production. All the capitalist boss's carea b out is deadlines and the next profit margins. SO lets think about the health and conditions of workers during these times of cutbacks as the workers who will remain will be in worsened conditions.
Workers who spend longer in the office could be at greater risk of heart disease, a study has found.
People who work an 11-hour day compared to those who work a standard seven or eight hours increase their risk of heart disease by 67%, according to researchers at UCL (University College London).
They said that the findings could be useful to GPs when calculating a patient's risk of heart disease alongside other indicators, such as blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.
This study might make us think twice about the old adage 'hard work won't kill you'
Professor Stephen Holgate, Medical Research Council
The research tracked 7,095 British civil servants aged between 39 and 62 for 11 years.
Over the course of the study, 192 participants suffered a heart attack.
Andrew Steptoe, British Heart Foundation Professor of Psychology at UCL, said: "Even if you take those factors into account, finding out how long people work adds to our understanding of heart disease.
Working long hours increased risk of heart attack, research found.
"This could be to do with stress, or it could be to do with other factors in peoples' lives - if you are spending 11 hours at work you are spending less time with the people you may love and like to be with.
"But we do know that work is associated with increases in stress hormones and various other biological changes which might themselves increase the risk of heart disease."
Professor Stephen Holgate, chairman of the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Population and Systems Medicine Board, said: "This study might make us think twice about the old adage 'hard work won't kill you'.
"Tackling lifestyles that are detrimental to health is a key area for the MRC, and this research reminds us that it's not just diet and exercise we need to think about."
So if you are one of the lucky ones remaining in employmemt during the time of these cuts start to bite you may wish to check with your doctor that you are healthy and doing well.
Workers conditions are slowly decreasing in this country as fewer jobs about and more is being asked of the reminaing workers. There is increased pressure on these workers to do more for less. I think trade unions should take heed of this and make a case again for a 35 hour week which we argue for as socialists . The capitalist greed has driven workers to have to work longer and longer as their boss's drive them forward in terms of production. All the capitalist boss's carea b out is deadlines and the next profit margins. SO lets think about the health and conditions of workers during these times of cutbacks as the workers who will remain will be in worsened conditions.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Shame on Wisconsin removing trade union rights
This news story i have just read really upset me. I care alot about unions as some of you who do read this will know, i'm part of a union myself and this move here just looks likea nother heavy fisted attempt by the capitalist system to remove workers rights. Really sad this is and i think it shows how far the capitalists will go to get their cuts package through even in teh United States struggles are continuing.
I think this will only encourage protesters to come back harder with more resolve though so all may not be lost here.
The Wisconsin state assembly has voted to approve a plan to strip public-sector unions of most of their collective bargaining rights.
Senate Republicans used a procedural move to pass the bill on Wednesday.
Republican Governor Scott Walker promised to sign the bill into law as quickly as possible.
AFL-CIO union leader Richard Trumka earlier attacked the Republicans' move as a "corruption of democracy". The plan has prompted widespread protest.
Police have been ejecting demonstrators from the state capitol building after weeks of mass demonstrations in support of public workers.
Mr Walker and Republicans say the bill is necessary to help the state balance its budget deficit.
"This is about protecting the middle class and doing it in a way that avoids massive tax increases and massive lay-offs," Mr Walker said on Thursday.
He added that the bill would give local governments the "tools" they needed to balance their own budgets.
Protesters flood capitol
The US state's 14 Democratic senators had sought to prevent the bill moving forward by fleeing the state, leaving the chamber short of the number needed for a vote.
But Republicans used a procedural move to allow them to vote on the measure in committee instead on Wednesday evening.
Crowds of protesters swamped the state capitol in Madison following the vote.
The state House - the lower legislative chamber - passed the measure in a 53-43 vote on Thursday afternoon, after police had removed protesters from the building.
The state faces a $3.6bn (£2.23bn) budget deficit in the coming two-year period. The bill on labour unions would affect rubbish collectors, teachers, nurses, prison guards and other public workers.
Democrats, labour unions and their supporters, who disparage the bill as an attack on labour unions and on the middle class, spent three weeks protesting at the state capitol building.
On Thursday, Mr Trumka, head of one of the largest labour union coalitions in the US, told reporters the Republican move had engendered solidarity among union supporters.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Mr Trumka joked that unions should give Mr Walker their "Mobiliser of the Year" award for galvanizing support for labour among thousands of protesters and in national polls.
I think this will only encourage protesters to come back harder with more resolve though so all may not be lost here.
The Wisconsin state assembly has voted to approve a plan to strip public-sector unions of most of their collective bargaining rights.
Senate Republicans used a procedural move to pass the bill on Wednesday.
Republican Governor Scott Walker promised to sign the bill into law as quickly as possible.
AFL-CIO union leader Richard Trumka earlier attacked the Republicans' move as a "corruption of democracy". The plan has prompted widespread protest.
Police have been ejecting demonstrators from the state capitol building after weeks of mass demonstrations in support of public workers.
Mr Walker and Republicans say the bill is necessary to help the state balance its budget deficit.
"This is about protecting the middle class and doing it in a way that avoids massive tax increases and massive lay-offs," Mr Walker said on Thursday.
He added that the bill would give local governments the "tools" they needed to balance their own budgets.
Protesters flood capitol
The US state's 14 Democratic senators had sought to prevent the bill moving forward by fleeing the state, leaving the chamber short of the number needed for a vote.
But Republicans used a procedural move to allow them to vote on the measure in committee instead on Wednesday evening.
Crowds of protesters swamped the state capitol in Madison following the vote.
The state House - the lower legislative chamber - passed the measure in a 53-43 vote on Thursday afternoon, after police had removed protesters from the building.
The state faces a $3.6bn (£2.23bn) budget deficit in the coming two-year period. The bill on labour unions would affect rubbish collectors, teachers, nurses, prison guards and other public workers.
Democrats, labour unions and their supporters, who disparage the bill as an attack on labour unions and on the middle class, spent three weeks protesting at the state capitol building.
On Thursday, Mr Trumka, head of one of the largest labour union coalitions in the US, told reporters the Republican move had engendered solidarity among union supporters.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Mr Trumka joked that unions should give Mr Walker their "Mobiliser of the Year" award for galvanizing support for labour among thousands of protesters and in national polls.
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