Wapping Dispute - New Online Archive‏

The News International dispute in 1986-87 was a turning point in the history of the British press. The sacking of virtually an entire workforce by the owner Rupert Murdoch introduced the age of corporate control that today determines what people are told about the world by the professional media. 5500 workers were sacked in a ruthlessly planned union busting exercise aided and abetted by the right wing EETPU union. An online archive of the dispute is now available including audio interviews with strikers, documents and photographs:
www.wapping-dispute.org.uk 

Fife's working class heroes of 1926

The Sunday Mail in Scotland yesterday published an excellent two page feature on The Happy Lands – the new film about the 1926 General Strike which shows how ‘the mining villages of Fife and the working-class heroes who fought for better conditions were made to suffer during the nationwide stand against the bosses’:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/movies/movie-news/relatives-pay-tribute-to-mining-heroes-1572327

Young must hear about union achievements

#tuc12 Unions must ensure that young people hear about the heritage of what organised labour has delivered, and why it’s so important to defend it, UNISON’s Graham Smith told the TUC yesterday.
..Congress backed a Young Members' call for a programme of political education for young workers that explicitly addresses how trade union activity has delivered essential workers rights and has benefited society and demonstrates the positive and practical workplace benefits of union membership for young people. It also called for a positive media campaign about the value of trade union membership and participation.

Plaque unveiled to commemorate Liverpool workers killed during 1911 Transport Strike

Last Saturday Merseyside trade unionists commemorated the lives and deaths of Michael Prendergast and John Sutcliffe, two workers shot dead by soldiers in the Vauxhall Road area of Liverpool on 15th August 1911 during the Transport Strike. Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey unveiled a plaque to ‘mark the sacrifices they made for fighting for trade union and political rights':
www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/misc/articles/vauxhall_road_plaque.php For more on Liverpool’s Bloody Tuesday go to:
http://unisonactive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/liverpools-bloody-tuesday-commemorated.html

Trade union rights are human rights – John Hendy QC

Union News interviews John Hendy QC on the occasion of Liberty bestowing him with a well deserved lifetime achievement award. Asked how difficult it is to represent unions given the anti union laws prevalent in the UK, Hendy characteristically replies that ‘it’s not particularly difficult. Compared to the risks faced by lawyers and trade unionists in Colombia it’s child’s play really’ http://union-news.co.uk/2011/12/video-john-hendy-barrister-to-the-unions/

Q: What do unions stand for? A: Liberty, Equality, Solidarity

In recent days conservative commentators have been quick to condemn the British trade union movement. Christopher Caldwell writing in the FT asserts that trade unionism ‘cannot be the force to restore balance to western economies’ and writes off unions as government concessions that marked the Industrial Age, much as mercantilist companies marked the Age of Exploration’: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f47ff54-a42a-11e0-8b4f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1R9W9Wn8r

The lost world of Tory trade unionism

In the context of George Osborne's recent exhortations to big business to take up arms against unions, the suggestion by Tory MP Robert Halfon on the Conservative Home website that Tories should embrace trade unionism seems quixotic to put it mildly: http://bit.ly/kiqszn

Support the People's History Museum

The People’s History Museum in Manchester is up for the 2011 Art Fund prize of £100,000. This unique working class cultural asset lost Government funding in last year's Con Dem Comprehensive Spending Review and hence needs the the money. You can help by voting for it. It will not cost you anything and the good news is that it is leading the poll. Go to http://www.artfundprize.org.uk/2011/vote/index.php  and vote for the People’s History Museum

New branch banner for 26 March - send us yours

UNISON South West London St Georges Mental Health Trust branch will unveil their new branch banner at the TUC Demonstration in London on 26 March. The banner was created by famous London trade union banner maker Ed Hall and designed by UNISON's Michalel Walker. The colours are UNISON's purple, green and white which in turn are based on the WSPU suffragette colours. (chosen in 1908 by Emmeline Pethick Lawrence).