I just had to post about this latest revelation from our colleagues in the US trade union movement. Scott Walker, the Republican Governor of Wisconsin, has started a firestorm by abolishing public sector workers’ collective bargaining rights. It has split the state and unions have run a fantastic campaign to recall him which we have covered before. Governor Walker claimed that he took this step to save the state money, a claim that unions always doubted. Now the truth is out, with a video of Governor Walker telling a billionaire funder that his plan is actually to turn Wisconsin into a ‘right-to-work’ (ie non-union) state.

Yup, he really is just out to get unions. Good luck to the Wisconsin AFLCIO in their efforts to make sure he fails.

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Posted on May 14th, 2012 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

The TUC has joined a global campaign launched by Amnesty International to focus on other Iranian trade unionists now that Mansour Ossanloo and Ebrahim Madadi are out of jail. Building on their release over the last twelve months, we are now encouraging trade unionists to write to the Iranian authorities demanding freedom for Reza Shahabi and Zabihollah Bagheri.

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Posted on May 13th, 2012 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

The local elections are over, France and Greece have seen people vote for an alternative and as pundits scramble to analyse and say what it all means, I want to take a step back and consider the role that organising and campaigning plays in building for change.

Campaigning can be tricky.  You have a position and you want someone else to agree with you.  You try all manner of tactics to press your positions.  Send out press releases and hope that there’s space in your local newspaper.  The trudge can be relentless and sometimes no end in sight.  Sometimes we win, sometimes we don’t.  But what happens when the dust has settled and the campaigning is over?  What does it really mean to win or lose? 

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Posted on May 8th, 2012 by Becky Wright filed under: Union news

The release of the 2011 trade union membership figures by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills provides much food for thought for the trade union movement. Across the workforce as a whole trade union membership continues to fall. There was a loss of 143,000 members overall leaving union membership at what should still be considered a highly significant level of 6.4 million.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to just consider what this figure of 6.4 million people belonging to trade unions actually means. In my humble opinion it means that there are still 6.4 million people who see the importance of standing by their fellow workers and the need to represent their personal interests alongside the collective good. Some who want to see the death of the trade union movement will want to portray these figures as the death of the trade union movement. I see these figures, and what lays beneath them as a major opportunity for renewing our movement.

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Posted on May 4th, 2012 by Roger McKenzie filed under: Union organising

Marchers at London's May Day march, 1 May 2012

The ITUC chose the eve of May Day -  international workers’ day – to launch its new enquiry into the impact of the global financial crisis on workers’ rights around the world. Former head of the South African trade union movement Jay Naidoo, former Portuguese Labour Minister and ETUC Deputy General Secretary Maria Helena Andre and the former Prime Minister of Denmark Poul Nyrup Rasmussen will be on the enquiry panel. They will investigate at first hand how the crisis has impacted on workers and their unions in Bulgaria, Greece, Indonesia, Mexico, Portugal and Romania, where the right-wing Government was toppled last week because of its economic and social policies.

This enquiry is part of the growing resistance of workers and unions around the world to austerity policies which often target not only public services and public spending, but workers’  wages (pay and social benefits).

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Posted on May 1st, 2012 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity

Last week I was one of a number of trade union officials and shop stewards who took part in a visit to Germany to look at training and skills. We went with Skills Minister John Hayes MP and representatives of BIS and the UK Commission For Employment and Skills. The delegation visited the Siemens plant in Lincoln, UK and Siemens’ giant training facility and manufacturing site in Berlin.

We were also able to meet officials from a number of German training organisations – and of course trade union representatives from IG Metall, Germany’s biggest union and the TUC equivalent – the DGB. The latter meetings gave us an opportunity to discuss and assess the state of German unions and the overall economic situation in the EU’s powerhouse economy.

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Posted on May 1st, 2012 by Tony Burke filed under: Union learning

Thanks to Becky for her analysis of the 2011 trade union membership figures released by BIS last week.

Given the huge labour market turmoil we’ve experienced in 2011, I’m immediately struck by the remarkable stability in the key indicators relating to total union membership and density compared with 2010. Of course, there’s no denying the current Government policies have created a more challenging environment. But they have also created opportunities for us to make our case for fair treatment and, perhaps for some, the first realisation of why they need a union.

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Posted on April 30th, 2012 by Sue Ferns filed under: Union news