To date I have avoided sectarianism on this blog - but just had to post this. For those unacquainted with the vagaries of UK football rivalry, a 'kopite' is a fan of Liverpool FC (I'm being very polite here!). This picture is based on the current (failing) Tory election campaign..... 

The debate over the future of the US labour movement appears to have stepped up another gear with the AFL-CIO's publication of major new proposals for change yesterday . The proposals include plans to create a $22.5m strategic organising fund and to step up support for grassroots political work.

The reaction from a number of the unions ranged on the other side of the debate - who include the SEIU and Teamsters - seems pretty muted so far, and it remains to be seen if these proposals will prove a real rallying point for unions in the States.

What do you think of the new proposals? You can read them here.

I've blogged a lot on this site about the need for unions to step up our efforts to organise the next generation of union members.

A key element of this is investing in dedicated organisers - people committed to playing their part in the rebuilding of the labour movement. Since 1998 the TUC's Organising Academy and its sponsoring unions have recruited and trained well over 200 new union organisers; more than half of these new organisers have been women, and some 55% aged 30 or under.

If you want to play your part in helping organise the unorganised follow the link below to reserve a place on one of the Academy's development centres. TUC - Become an Organising Academy Trainee Organiser

Today is Workers Memorial Day - a day to remember those who have died at work, and just as importantly, pledge to continue to fight for safer workplaces, safer ways of working and for those responsible for workplace deaths to be held to account.

You can read more about what trade unionists across the UK are doing to mark Workers' Memorial Day

Hazards also has an excellent set of resources on this issue at its site.

The TUC's 'Busting the Busters' course will be running again in June 2005, and then again later in the year. For details check out the TUC's web-site (link on the left). More cartoons from Heinrich Hinze at http://www.scratch.com.au/. 

UNISON's recent advertising campaign has opened up a bit of a debate within the trade union movement about how best we can make a wider impact, and take our message out to the 18 million or so people in Britain who aren't members of a union.

One way of doing this may be to think about how we can 'weave' the trade union message into mainstream pop culture. The EMA - Environmental Media Association, Los Angeles, CA is a great example of how this can be done - albeit with a focus on the environment rather than unions.

Of course, any work of this sort doesn't replace the need for unions to invest in organising, and building sustainable workplace organisation, but it can help create a more positive environment for this work.

How do you think unions can use the media to reach out to the missing millions?

Regular readers of the 'Mail on Sunday' (don't worry your secret is safe with is!), will know the paper is hardly renowned for its progressive approach to politics. Asylum seekers and 'gypsies' are the paper's current 'love to hates', but trade unions are always there or thereabouts.

In fact the Mail is owned by Associated Press who in turn own Northcliffe Press who fought a bitter, but ultimately fruitless, anti-union campaign to try to prevent the NUJ securing union recognition on its regional titles.

Which makes it even more surprising that the MoS ran an article yesterday headlined 'PLAY THE UNION CARD FOR A BETTER PAY DEAL'.

The article (which unfortunately is not on the MoS's web-site so no link I'm afraid), goes on to advise Mail readers...

" ....[a] union card is the ticket to a bigger pay packet, according to government figures just out.
They show that members still earn much more than non-members. And that goes for the private sector as well as the public sector, though the 'union wage premium' is higher for state employees.

Department of Trade and Industry figures for trade union membership last year show that members earned 17 per cent more overall than non-members.

In the private sector, the premium was just over six per cent, with members earning £10.29 an hour and non-members £9.69. But in the public sector, the premium was more than 23 per cent, with workers in unions earning £12.26 an hour and non-members £9.94. "

Has the MoS undergone a 'Paulian' conversion? What can we expect next week - exertions to the Government to announce a migration amnesty? Editorials calling for LESS police on the beat?

If you want a full copy of the article, leave a comment and I'll e-mail you one through.

Vicky & me! (http://www.stortroopers.com) 

When democracy fails...Allowing the likes of the National Front to exercise their 'democratic' right to march sort of misses the point that if these racists and fascists ever got a whiff of power 'democracy' itself would be under threat!

The only silver lining to this particularly nasty cloud is that when these thugs marched last year they were given short shrift by both a larger counter demonstration of trade unionists organised by the Northern TUC, and ordinary shoppers on the streets of Newcastle!

Trades Union Congress - NF march a recipe for disaster

Here's something you won't see everyday; an article in the preferred daily read of literate merchant bankers (sic) - the FT - 'celebrating' 75 years of the communist daily, The Morning Star.

Any ideas for even more bizarre juxtapositions (is that even the right word?!) - click on the comment button to leave your (preferably clean!) suggestions...

In London over the last couple of days to help facilitate the TUC's 'Leading Change' programme, which is a training and development programme for senior union officers.

There are 16 or so union leaders and officers on the programme this year including Mark Serwotka, Christine Blower, Geoff Ellis and Richard Ascough.

Its a long way from organising steelworkers to organising staff in betting shops, but that just shows the huge changes that have taken place within 'Community' (formerly ISTC).

Kevin Pass who heads the organising team in Community has been at the forefront of a lot of the developments around organising in the UK for the last 7 or 8 years - and this campaign which is joint venture with Irish union SIPTU is a good example of this.

So next time you place a flutter remember to ask the person on the counter if they are a union member!

Unions join force to take on betting shop industry

In Newcastle today with Carl Roper to meet Newcastle College to review progress on the development of the TUC Organising Academy.

Despite the partnership between the TUC and Newcastle College only being 4 or 5 months there has been real progress - with more courses on organising and recruitment being run than ever before.

I always enjoy going back to Newcastle - I was the TUC's regional secretary in the region between 2000-2002, and really enjoyed my time in the North East.

Unions are part and parcel of life in the North East (union membership density in the region is 10% higher than the national average) - and the region has some great trade union officers, organisers, activists and members.

As well as meeting up with colleagues from Newcastle College I also managed to meet up with Brian Freeman from trade union solicitors Browells and NASUWT regional officer Simon Kennedy - two Newcastle United Fans who are struggling to see light at the end of the Premiership Tunnel at the moment!

'Collapse' - Jared Diamond 

The eagle eyed amongst the massive readership of this blog (you know who you are...thanks mum!) will have spotted a new feature on the left hand side-bar thingy.

'What I'm currently reading' will feature a hyperlink to, well, what I'm currently reading.

At the moment it is Jared Diamond's 'Collapse' - a tremendous run through thousands of years of human history which charts the rise and fall of human societies as far afield as GreenLand and Easter Island.

'Collapse' is a brilliant follow on from Diamond's 'Guns, Germs and Steel' - which explored the environmental and geographical factors behind the pre-eminet rise of western 'civilization'.

So that's this week's Richard and Judy/Oprah style recommendation - Collapse by Jared Diamond!

There is a school of thought in the UK trade union movement that it doesn't really matter who wins the May election, because Labour's move to the right means there's little to chose between them and the Conservatives.

On some issues - private sector involvement in public services for one - this may hold a bit of water, but the reality is that Labour despite its many shortcomings, still represents the only realistic choice for working people and their families.

Here's just a few things the Tories forgot to mention in the 'mini-festo' - all taken from their April 2005 policy document on 'deregulation'.

Statutory Dismissal
The harder it is to dismiss staff the less likely it is that a business will recruit them in the first place.
The one-size-fits-all approach in these regulations damages small businesses in particular. We will scrap this requirement.

Sex discrimination regulations
Under the Social Chapter the burden of proof in these cases is unjustly biased against the employer. We will revive the UK's opt-out and restore natural justice in our courts.

Information and consultation
The onerous approach of the Social Chapter hampers productivity and hence job creation and regulations particularly damages small businesses. We will revive the UK's opt-out.

The minimum wage and union rights don't even get a mention!

Check here for more 'progressive' policies...

Conservative Party - Policies

What do you want first the good news or the bad news?

Lets be positive and start with the good news - latest figures from the Labour Force Survey show union membership basically steady. The bad news is that density fell by some 0.6 per cent, and membership gains in the public sector were more than balanced out by losses in the private sector.

Click here for more:
National Statistics Online

Why everyone who cares about trade unions needs to worry - Labour Force Survey 2004 

More depressing news from MG Rover - here's a TUC statement on the news of a breakdown in talks between the company and SAIC.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking! (from www.private-eye.co.uk) 

Spent the morning today sitting in on the TUC's General Council meeting. Primary focus of the meeting was to review progress against the Strategic Review which the TUC carried out last year. One of the key elements of the review was how the TUC can develop its capacity to support union efforts around organising and recruitment (I've written elsewhere in this blog about the challenges faced by unions in building their membership and strengthening workplace organisation), which is the area of work I lead on.

In addition to the session on the strategic review, the meeting also heard updates on the situations at MG Rover and the BBC from Tony Woodley and Jeremy Dear respectively. Their contributions put the wider strategic discussions in a great context - building our membership isn't an end in itself, but a crucial element of ensuring unions have the strength they need to represent union members (and their families) as effectively as possible.

Labour launched its manifesto today - which includes commitments to implement the 'Warwick Agreement' in full, and to work with the TUC and unions to develop a new union 'Academy'. What do you think of the manifesto - is there enough substance to encourage Labour voters to get out there and vote on May 5?

Article in the FT today about a Government initiative to try and get more graduates to consider a career in pre-school childcare. Good idea - and it builds on the Governments existing commitments to make affordable childcare more widely available - but pre-school childcare needs to move higher up the political agenda - and, perhaps more importantly, general perceptions about the value of childcare need to change dramatically. Unfortunately pre-school childcare is still seen by many as a form of glorified baby-sitting, an OK job for young women straight out of school, but not a serious profession. Low pay, perceived low status and lack of career prospects are the norm rather than the exception in the sector. In my experience the vast majority of people employed in pre-school childcare are unbelievably dedicated, skilled and proud of the job they do, but this is rarely reflected in their pay-packets or in opportunities to develop their careers. Partly this is because while the vast majority of paid childcare in Britain is expensive at the point of delivery, a lot of the money in the system goes straight out as profits for private sector providers.

Good quality childcare needs properly rewarded, developed and supported staff to deliver it. It also requires not just government, but employers, to put their hands in their pockets. Any ideas on this - what more can be done to drive childcare higher up the political agenda?

FT.com / World / UK - Cash for nurseries that hire graduates

At Goodison Park today with my oldest son Joe (all of 7), to see Everton put four past Crystal Palace. Match report here!

The tabloid press always play a big role in the UK election. The 'Sun' (sorry not going to do hyperlink!) might not have actually been 'wot won it' for John Major in 1992, but it undoubtedly played an important part in Labour's fourth consecutive election defeat.

No doubt the next few weeks will see us treated to the usual barrage of headlines about how 'illegal' immigrants and gypsies (the 21st century equivalent of single mums and trade unionists) are singlehandedly bringing about the fall of western civilization as we know it - you can use this link to generate your very own 'Daily Mail' headline. Post your best efforts in the comments section!

Great report from Candian union CUPE, exposing the failure of private sector involvement in the funding and delivery of core public services around the world. Public private partnerships (P3s): an international disaster (Canadian Union of Public Employees) .

The report, Flawed, Failed, Abandoned: 100 P3s, Canadian & International Evidence, documents the problems associated with public-private partnership projects, providing examples from across Canada, as well as in Australia, England, Scotland and Wales. Cost overruns, legal disputes, bankruptcies, environmental disasters, and shoddy construction are just some of the problems flagged up by the report.

Sad day for Rover - and for the thousands of people in the Midlands who rely on the plant for their livelihood. MG Rover Update

Great item on Radio 4's 'Women's Hour' this morning, about the 1888 Match Girl's strike. The strike, and the sense of enthusiasm and optimism it provoked in working class people across Britain, helped lead to the development of 'New Unionism' - which opened up unions to millions of unorganised workers. You can listen to the item and get more links here - BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Match Girls.

I used to help lead the TUC's 'New Unionism' project, which was set up in 1996 in an attempt to get unions focusing on how they could 'organise the unorganised'. Despite some success, unions still have a long way to go - at our current rate of growth it will take us some 240 years to get back to where we were in 1979. What do you think are the key challenges for unions? How can we begin to reach out to the 19 million or so British workers who aren't union members?

Election 2005 kicked off with the first full day of campaigning today...Cartoon, © David Austin 2005, The Guardian

 

Just got this through from Rand Wilson at the AFL-CIO. Rand used to work with Jobs with Justice in Boston. Click on the link below to play your part in stopping George Bush's privatisation of social security in the US.

'Last Thursday, in 65 cities across the country, more than 7,000 people demonstrated outside Schwab offices to protest its support for privatizing social security. Online activists sent nearly 45,000 e-mails to Schwab as well.

On Monday, the AFL-CIO sent an email out to its Working Families "e-Activist" network asking people to follow up on the actions by faxing Schwab a letter. As of Tuesday afternoon, that resulted in 15,300 letters faxed to Schwab offices!

The AFL-CIO also appealed to Schwab clients to sign on to an "open letter" that will be delivered by a delegation of Schwab clients directly to Schwab. Already, 554 Schwab clients have already signed the open letter!

Please help keep the momentum going by faxing a letter to Schwab (it just takes a few seconds) and forwarding this email to your friends so that it gets into the hands of more Schwab clients. The link is www.unionvoice.org/campaign/SchwabShame '

I love this feature of the 'Workers Online' site hosted by the Labour Council of NSW in Australia. Sure UK trade unionists could nominate plenty of 'Tools of the Week' if we had a similar feature on a UK site!Workers Online : Tool Shed : 2005 - Issue 257 : My Restaurant Tools

Spent the last couple of days working with the TGWU, helping to facilitate their assessment centre for new organisers. The new organisers are being taken on as part of the union's ambitious plans to put organising and recruitment centre-stage. You can read more about these plans here.

The day before the assessment centre started TGWU members working for merchant bank Morgan Stanley, were joined by supporters for a picket and demonstration outside the Old Vic theatre, run by Hollywood star/luvvie, Kevin Spacey. While Morgan Stanley are happy to spend thousands sponsoring plays at the Old Vic, they seem less keen to pay their cleaning staff a living wage - as TGWU organiser Paul Davies ironically notes, "Morgan Stanley is, quite rightly, proud of the voluntary work its workers do and the donations it makes to help the poor of London....We just think they should do more for the poor who work in their own buildings."

Paul used to be the president of Wirral Trades Council a few years ago (I was vice-president for a short while around the same time as well), and had a bit of a reputation for being arrested on virtually every picket or demonstration he too part in. Happy to report no arrests were made on Thursday night!