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.

Concerted union action required to reverse pay decline

This week’s figures from the Office of National Statistics confirming that real wages have fallen for the first time since 2009 will come as no surprise to public service workers. And the implications of the Bank of England’s prediction that real wages will not begin to rise until 2015 are clear.
   Wage growth requires a concerted push by trade unions. Planned local protest action next Wednesday aims to keep up momentum in the local government NJC dispute ahead of strike action on 14 October. If attempts to engage the Food Standards Agency in ACAS talks are unsuccessful, a high profile strike by UNISON meat inspectors could be imminent. Also, two important industrial action ballots are due to start in the near future.
    On 28 August ballot papers will be sent to 300,000 UNISON members in the NHS, followed on 9 September by the industrial action ballot of UNISON’s Scottish local government members in the SJC pay dispute. Effective co-ordination and prosecution of these important disputes is the only way that the decline in real wages in public services can be reversed. The solution is in our own hands.

The Dragon by Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati

A dictator, hiding behind a nihilist's mask,
has killed and killed and killed,
pillaged and wasted,
but is afraid, he claims,
to kill a sparrow.
His smiling picture is everywhere:
in the coffeehouse, in the brothel,
in the nightclub, and the marketplace.
Satan used to be an original,
now he is just the dictator's shadow.

In Iraq again, not in my name

As the war drums continue over the situation in Iraq, and the predictable “experts” call for yet another military intervention, British media as usual are ignoring alternative voices, and alternative view points. It took a million people marching through London for the BBC to report on the anti war movement before the last invasion. It will take another million before the opposition to another military adventure is noticed. Seumus Milne in today’s Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/13/war-in-iraq-yazidis-aid-military-intervention  provides an excellent summation of the illogical nature of the arguments being made to justify further imperial escapades, and the politics behind the martial music being played so very loudly. Read it now and check http://www.stopwar.org.uk/  for local events that will allow your branch to participate in protest events .