Unions under the microscope

Last week’s Radio 4 broadcast of a debate on the state of the unions coincided with the BIS publication of the Government’s annual estimate of union membership in the UK. It was a mixed bag of a report with 2013 showing positive growth (+61,000) in private sector membership but that welcome trend was offset by a marginal decline in overall union density (down to 25.6%). The same might be said of the radio debate, which included Frances O’Grady and Alan Johnson MP as well as some excellent studio audience input. Available online until Wednesday 4 June.

Carr Review - a stunt or fast track to new anti union laws?

On Friday the UK Government’s announcement that the Carr Review into industrial relations (launched 5 months ago following the Grangemouth dispute) would focus narrowly on union tactics rather than wider issues such as employer blacklisting of trade unionists as originally envisaged. This led TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady to once again dismiss the review as a ‘headline grabbing party-political stunt’.
    However, Carr’s terms of reference - which are to ‘provide an assessment of the alleged use of extreme tactics in industrial disputes and the effectiveness of the existing legal framework to prevent inappropriate or intimidatory actions’ - appear to be leading directly to new anti union laws in particular a clamping down on protest by workers to win wider community and political support. Coming hard on the heels of the Lobbying Act which according to David Cameron was expressly intended to stifle union influence in general elections, this review could well result in further draconian restrictions on the freedom of expression for trade unions in the UK. There are no grounds for complacency.

EU elite in hock to the interests of global finance - O’Grady

‘If the EU is about little more than protecting the single currency at all costs, privatising services and keeping a tight lid on public spending, then popular support for European integration and the European ideal will diminish as surely as night follows day. From the trade union movement’s perspective, Europe needs to rediscover the values that served it so well not just during the long post-war boom, but also through challenges posed by the Oil Crisis and the economic counter-revolution of the 1980s’ said Frances O’Grady, TUC General Secretary, in a recent speech on ‘revitalising social Europe’ to Ireland’s Institute for International and European Affairs:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/node/118945

Stand up for union rights, civil rights, people’s rights

#TUC13 “If unions were denied a political voice: We wouldn't have had the 1944 Education Act; we wouldn't have the NHS; we wouldn't have equal pay for women; we wouldn't have a minimum wage. And remember who first exposed the scandal of tax avoidance? Who first raised the alarm about falling living standards? And who first blew the whistle on zero-hours? You can see why some people want to shut us up. That is why we must now stand up for our rights. Not just union rights. Civil rights. People's rights” said Frances O’Grady in a scathing attack on the government’s Lobbying Bill during her General Secretary’s speech at TUC Congress yesterday:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-22581-f0.cfm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVovy0_otFk&feature=youtu.be

UK locked into a vicious downward spiral of cuts – O’Grady

Incoming TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has put an early marker down against the failing policies of the Con Dem Government: “We were told that short-term pain would deliver long-term gain, yet all we see are nasty side-effects with no sign of a cure. What is worse is that we now seem to be locked into a vicious downward spiral of cuts. They are not working so the government cuts even more. Reducing the living standards of some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society, while attempting to tar them all as scroungers, is perhaps the very definition of a party determined to be seen as nasty.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tuc-chief-frances-ogrady-in-blast-1513040

Women bearing brunt of Con Dem austerity - O'Grady

#TUC12 Ahead of next week’s annual Congress, Frances O’Grady, TUC General Secretary designate, sets out her stall in a wide ranging Guardian interview today. The impact of con Dem austerity on women workers is strongly highlighted: "You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was part of a back-to-the-kitchen-sink campaign. When you look at what's happening, with women being hit hardest by job losses, service cuts, threats to take away employment rights, pay depression, rising bills and lack of childcare … You could be forgiven for thinking that there is a plan here."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/05/frances-ogrady-tuc-hope-future?newsfeed=true

Is There a Better Way?

What future do we have to look forward to? Under the current Tory regime the Hobbesian quote that it may be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short seems apt, particularly for the workers. But, to use a cliché, another future is possible

The O'Grady Bunch

It may have taken well over a hundred years to get here but the TUC is now to be led by a woman (Frances O'Grady). It is an historic moment for the movement but also a timely one. Women are disproportionately impacted by the savage cuts in public spending and economic decline. The progress, albeit slow, in recent decades on equal pay, is under threat from regional pay bargaining, the public sector pay freeze and regressive Tory policies on employment rights.  http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-21198-f0.cfm