Greek public service workers say 'no more sacrifices'

Tens of thousands of Greek public service workers staged a 24 hour general strike against austerity on Tuesday. But the Greek parliament scraped through a vote on Wednesday for on mass sackings of public sector workers as a condition of securing bail out funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Pavlovian Pickard excited by General Strike talk

It’s a sign of the times when the big business paper of record, the Financial Times, gets itself excited by an ‘exclusive’ leak of internal TUC consultation documents on the ‘practicalities of a general strike’ which have been doing the rounds in affiliated unions for weeks. You can only imagine the paper's reaction if far-fetched talk about practicalities became actualities - an editorial calling for Martial Law?
http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2013/04/ft-exclusive-britains-largest-union-presses-for-general-strike/

Back to Basics on Policies and Recruitment

February’s NEC is much concentrated on the motions to submit to National Delegate Conference and this year’s selection emphasises the extent to which the union’s politics has had to go back to basics to really concentrate on the extensive issues affecting our members and their families in their everyday lives.

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

A General Strike & the general lack of strikes

Hollow cliches about organising a General Strike have become a commonplace in union meetings since last year's Trades Union Congress - when a majority of trade unions went along with a POA proposal that the TUC leadership should 'investigate the practicalities of a General Strike':
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/
sep/11/tuc-to-consider-general-strike

That such demands can be made with any credibility, given the current low levels of industrial militancy and the absence of evidence that large swathes of unionised workers are ready to respond to a general strike call, is in no small part due to the opportunism and self serving gesture politics of some union leaders who fail to point out these basic if uncomfortable realities.

Austerity a time of opportunity for trade unions?

The FT interviews TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber who is retiring this month and surprisingly attributes a comment to Brendan that austerity is a “time of opportunity” for trade unions. It's a well known cliche that a crisis or disaster can present an opportunity. But the loss of 1.1m public sector jobs over six years is certainly analagous to a tsunami:

General Strike call – a premature proposition?

This week saw general strikes in several European countries which represented a powerful trade union response to austerity, finding its most militant expression in Greece where over 20 national stoppages have been called in the last two years. A demand for similar action has surfaced in Britain in recent months and the TUC is reviewing the practicalities of a general strike within the straitjacket of UK labour law. An effective national strike across the whole economy is desirable but not a serious runner in the short term according to Professor Gregor Gall in examining the whys and wherefores of such action: ‘What would make the holding of a general strike much more probable and potent would be if the general level of strike activity was much higher. If there was then there would a more palpable sense that a general strike came out of and feed back into a rising level of more confident struggle by workers where their sectional and class consciousnesses were of a higher order’
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/layout/set/print/content/view/full/125884

Across Europe workers say No to Austerity

#14N As the EU political elite and national governments impose ever harsher austerity measures on the working people of Europe, those bearing the brunt of pay cuts, jobs losses and tax rises are taking a stand today with co-ordinated strike actions and protests across several countries. General strikes and national stoppages are being held in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20320993

What next after Oct 20? Ending the Pay Freeze must be top priority

The massive demonstrations in Belfast, Glasgow and London once again showed the latent strength of our trade unions, particularly those who organise in the public services. looking ahead, it's important that momentum is maintained and focused on ending the pay freeze - which after three years is damaging the living standards of workers in local government in particular, where most employers have even refused to implement the Con Dem concession of a £250 rise for those earning under £21,000. Last week GMB, UNISON and Unite submitted a claim for a ‘substantial flat rate increase’ and it’s about time the populist rhetoric about a general strike is put to the test by at least delivering an industrial campaign to secure a pay rise in real terms during 2013:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/21/unions-local-government-pay-freeze
The NJC pay claim for 2013/14 (England, Wales & Northern Ireland) can be read here:
http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B6085.pdf and the SJC (for Scotland) here http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/localgovt/pay2012/index.html#1

Greece strikes against EU/ECB/IMF imposed austerity

Public and private sector workers are participating in a 24-hour strike today against harsh new austerity measures that the Greek Government is imposing on its people to secure the next instalment of a €130bn bail out from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19724284

Theory & Practice of a UK General Strike

#tuc12 A former Labour leader once coined the phrase ‘far-fetched resolutions’ and some commentators (and Congress opponents) placed motion 5 from the 35,000 strong POA - which called for ‘coordinated action where possible with far reaching campaigns including the consideration and practicalities of a general strike' - in that category.

Suffolk police petition at Burston as Crow calls for cuts strike

UNISON Suffolk police branch members took their petition against cuts and privatisation to the Burston Strike School Rally on Sunday as over 1,000 gathered at the annual event celebrating the longest-running strike in British history. The RMT's Bob Crow told the rally "It's 98 years since Burston yet the same attacks are taking place now. We should be doing what the Spanish workers have done and the Greek workers have done and have a general strike."
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/123380

The Happy Lands - "something remarkable"

The Happy Lands is a film about the 1926 General Strike in Fife. Interesting, but so what? Well what makes this film unique is that the actors are all local people (including UNISON members), the script was written by local people, and even the film sets were built by local people - all under the direction of Theatre Workshop Scotland. A taste of what's been achieved can be seen in the trailer https://vimeo.com/42118987

General Strike against austerity in Portugal

Portuguese workers led by the CGTP union federation are staging a 24 hour general strike against austerity today. The BBC reports on the severe impact on working people of the economic crisis and last year’s €78bn EU bail out – massive unemployment, cuts in public spending and huge tax increases: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17471098

UNISON Scotland NHS staff strike on pensions

NHS UNISON members in Scotland kicked off a new round of industrial action on NHS pensions yesterday. Selective strikes started with Ayrshire and Arran and will roll out to Glasgow and Lothian throughout March.
The action is designed to put pressure of the Scottish Government for a Scottish solution to all aspects of pensions changes. This includes the Year 1 increases to employee contributions of up to 2.4% - a pensions tax on health workers. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/

The anti-democratic death spiral of austerity

Larry Elliot spells out the anti democratic reality of decision making in the European Union - by the Frankfurt Group, an unelected cabal made of up eight people. ‘In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that electorates have resorted to general strikes and street protests to have their say...’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2011/nov/08/euro-papandreou-berlusconi-bailout-debt

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.

Herbert faces sword of Police & Justice

The Coalition Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice Nick Herbert was given a rough ride yesterday at the first conference of UNISON's reconfigured Police and Justice service group held in Chester.

NHS employers move into anti-strike mode

The Guardian reports that the NHS employers have been quick to move into an adversarial mode as the real trade unions in the health service gear up for industrial action in defence of NHS pensions and the agreement on a new sheme reached less than five years ago: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/23/nhs-court-orders-halt-strikes

Pensions: demographic double dealing & the battle for public opinion

'The likes of Mr Prentis must count on public opinion being dynamic: if their lives are disrupted enough, voters may want the government to sue for peace' says the Economist, reducing the pensions dispute to an industrial trial of strength. For a magazine which aims "to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress” it might at least acknowledge that the reforms agreed in 2006 dealt with the same workforce demographic issues which its editorial writer and the ConDems (and Lord Hutton) are now using to justify the latest attack on our pensions:http://www.economist.com/node/21529070