FSA strike to go ahead as pay scraps rejected

A strike by workers employed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will go ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week after the FSA refused another offer by UNISON to try to settle the dispute through independent conciliation. UNISON is in dispute with the FSA following its decision not to pass on a 1% cost of living pay rise to its staff. Instead, a 0.75% rise was imposed, while the remainder was distributed to a selective part of the workforce, despite the concerns of trade unions.
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/food-standard-agency-strike-to-go-ahead-after-employer-refuses-offer-to-try-to-settle-dispute

The Lilacs and the Roses by Louis Aragon

O months of flowering months of metamorphosis
May without a cloud and June lacerated
I will never forget the lilacs or the roses
Nor those spring’s folds have consecrated

I will never forget the tragic illusion
The procession cries crowd the sunlit clarity
The tanks laden with love the gifts from Belgium
The air that quivers the road this buzzing of bees
The rashness of victory that primes a quarrel
The red blood that a carmine kiss prefigures
And those about to die at the turrets, mortal,
Covered in lilacs by intoxicated watchers

Who benefits from union bashing?

Jane Carter, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee (AFSCME), addressed the 2013 UNISON conference in Liverpool about the relentless and well funded attacks on unions in the USA. Here she is interviewed by Thom Hartmann on The Big Picture and discusses the forces behind the anti union psychosis in many US states. Jane highlights the continued existence of a union wage premium despite decades of membership decline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhJ1BrjnPNU&feature=youtu.be

Stand up for Gaza Edinburgh Comedy Gig

Wednesday 20 August at 22:00: New Empire Bingo, 50 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DT
MC: Imran Yusuf
* Josie Long
* Paul McCaffrey
* Nick Revell
* Rob Deering
and more!!!
   FREE event. Donations accepted at the end of the show.
War on Want https://www.facebook.com/events/712696162158186/

GAZA: Emergency Lobby of Parliament - Tuesday September 9th

The massive protests against the Israeli attack on Gaza all over the UK, coupled with the resignation of the Conservative foreign office minister Sayeeda Warsi in protest at the Government's policy on Palestine, may have finally helped to bring about a shift in opinion among politicians.

It's too early to say, but MPs were queuing up to criticise Israel after the troops moved into Gaza in July, no doubt encouraged by hundreds - and in some cases over a thousand emails they had received. For some MPs it was the first time they had voiced any criticism of Israel.

Having a say in how things are run

Two new publications examine ways in which workers’ views can be better represented in corporate decision making in the private and public sectors. The TUC’s ‘Beyond Shareholder Value – the reasons and choices for corporate governance reform’ is a wide ranging collection of 17 essays on various themes of which the most significant is that of representation, focusing on who participates in decision-making and proposes potential reforms including mandatory worker representation on company boards. The Scottish Government’s ‘Working Together Review: Progressive Workplace Policies in Scotland’ looks at industrial relations throughout Scotland, and how greater engagement between employers, trade unions and government could have a positive effect in workplaces, sectors and nationally.

Illegal Illness by Clare Saponia

It’s official: the stats have shrunk.
It’ll be illegal to be sick by 2020.
Disease has been cut. So don’t
develop ME, rheumatism or any
strain of mental imbalance
or you’ll be pawning breadsticks
for psychotherapy sessions.