Ballot: What’s good for the Lib Dem goose…

Danny Alexander has hailed a Lib Dem councillor’s election in Inverness on a 26.8% turnout, a 0.3% majority and less than a third of the electorate’s first preference. Will he now hail a UNISON pensions ballot majority of 73% in Scottish local government on a 32% turnout? Or indeed a 33% turnout in NHS Scotland with an 88% yes vote?

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine - live on-line today

Today the South Africa session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine can be watched live on line from 10am. If you want to view contributions from Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, Stephane Hessel, John Dugard, Michael Mansfield, Vavi, Mairead Maguire, Jeff Halper, Jamal Juma'a, Haneen Zoabi and many others go to: http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/

Qantas shows there's nothing fair about Australia's Fair Work Act

The TUC reports on the response of Australian unions to last week's Qantas lock out through the ACTU trade union centre:
http://strongerunions.org/
2011/11/01/qantas-a-lesson-in-how-unions-should-hit-back/ Whilst it's necessary to expose the corporation's machinations it isn't the whole story. As in the UK, Australian trade unions operate under restrictive labour laws and what this case highlights is the legislated right of employers to lock out workers!

Honda's Right Hand Works Hard by Jennifer Cooke

sibilance for mascu-doric
shoulder blades dehiscing
over Threadneedle Street
the machines that make
dancing are stilled red
one journo in / one out
tick tick thrice-crossed by
anti-trade union ligature
tearing enough cerumen
from the kitchen DAB
greasing his column inch
remote in one-way windows
diamonds snagging skin
fall downstream this May
while pea soup is eternal
smeared sideways to seal
flies to the cheap metal pan

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ea/staff/Academic%20Staff/Jennifer%20Cooke.html

Pensions - the real story behind tabloid tosh

The hawks will now start to circle, regurgitating the bile to undermine the democratic right of all workers to withdraw their labour.

Vigil for the Miami 5, Thursday 1st December 2011

Outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London, W1 (Bond St tube): Bring candles and trade union banners to this peaceful Vigil for the Five and their families as we mark the 13th year of their unjust imprisonment. Special guests include mothers of the Miami 5: Mirta Rodriguez Perez, Irma Sehwerert Mileham and Magali Llort Ruiz. For up-to-date information and full speaker details, please visit the Vigil webpage: http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/events.asp?EventID=360 

Flawed Journalism

Confusing attention seeking assertions with facts, Personnel Today is running an 'exclusive' report that the UNISON pensions industrial action ballot could be “fatally flawed:”
http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2011/11/03/58127/unison-strike-ballot-could-be-fatally-flawed.html

30 November mobilisation begins

Dave Prentis addresses an historic joint meeting of six service group executives on the outcome of UNISON's public sector pension ballots today in London. Strike action on 30 November was unanimously endorsed.

Ballot turnout - hypocrisy of Tory attack dogs

The UNISON ballot result was greeted with predictable attacks by Tory politicians on the level of turnout. Yet two thirds of MPs (433, 66.6%) elected in 2010 did not have the support of a majority of voters – as highlighted on the map of ‘minority mandates’ published by the Electoral Reform Society: http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/minority-mandates

It's a huge YES to pensions strike

Members of UNISON, the UK’s largest union, have today voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action to protect their pensions.