Work Kills 20,000+ People Every Year in the UK

This is from Thompson's Solicitors' e-bulletin ...

The TUC has published a report showing that more than 20,000 people in the UK are killed by injuries and health conditions contracted at work every year.

“The Case for Health and Safety” smashes the myth that Britain is one of the safest places to work and shows that health and safety is as relevant an issue today for workers and employees as it has ever been.

An analysis by the TUC of the most conservative official safety figures shows that at least 20,000 people - the equivalent of the entire population of the Orkney Islands - die every year as a result of conditions such as occupational cancers and lung diseases, exposure to fumes and chemicals, and fatal work-related traffic accidents.

The report finds that thousands of workplace injuries go unreported. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that almost 250,000 workplace injuries happened last year but many were unreported or not reported correctly.

“The Case for Health and Safety” also reveals that 1.2 million working people in the UK believe they are suffering from a work-related illness. These include heart disease, stress, musculoskeletal disorders such as back, shoulder and neck pain, and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

And the report disputes claims, which have fed calls from business for health and safety deregulation, that the workplace is now much safer than it has ever been.

The TUC is calling on the Government to:

• ignore calls from the business lobby to reduce regulation and enforcement
• champion the issue and appoint a Government 'tsar' for health and safety
• use the UK network of 150,000 trained union health and safety reps to even greater effect
• support the work of the HSE and local authorities in protecting people at work.

You can download the report at: http://www.tuc.org.uk

Johnson Loves Monks

Unlike some, I am not a regular reader of The Guardian - or The Graun to comrade Denham - but the other arf purchased a copy yesterday, so I dutifully did the puzzles, read a bit of news and browsed the magazine.

Along with some strange household tips, and a mildly disturbing guide to whether you should consider moving to Dalston, there lies a Q&A with Home Secretary Alan Johnson, in which he reveals that the living person he most admires is John Monks. For those of you who can't remember, or never noticed, John Monks used to be General Secretary of the TUC. Alan admires him for being "an ego-free visionary who is kind and self-deprecating".

Never having met Monks, I can not comment on his personality, and he may well deserve Johnson's praise for his kindness and lack of ego, for all I know. But if he was a "visionary", then his vision was that of a trade union movement subservient to the employers and the government, content to plead deferentially for a few crumbs in return for exploitation and anti-union laws, and all in the name of "partnership". So he deprecated not just himself but the workers' movement, and while the former may be admirable the latter certainly is not. But it does, I guess, explain why postie-turned-bureaucrat-turned-Cabinet-minister Johnson likes him so much.

Mind you, Johnson's Most Embarrassing Moment was "Wetting myself in class", rather than "Selling out my former workmates", so I guess that tells us where his conscience does not reside.

Brendan Barber to Speak at Tory Party Conference

What a plonker.

I was going to write a long tirade, but I thought I'd leave the comments to you, dear reader.

Dear Ed, about Vestas, ... erm ...

So, you are the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, which makes you a (even the) leading spokesperson for workers in Britain. In the midst of a recession, hundreds of jobs are to be lost as a factory closes on the Isle of Wight. Moreover, this is a wind turbine factory, and so plays an important role in the transition to environmentally-friendly energy production that is so desperately needed. The workers get organised, occupy the factory, attract loads of support from across the union movement, and what do you do ...?

Well, the one good thing that can be said for Brendan Barber is that he has written to Ed Miliband saying that he thinks that efforts should be made to keep Vestas open. Bravo. Better than not writing a letter, I'm sure.

But the letter - copied below - is at pains to praise the government's efforts so far (what efforts?!) and conspicuously avoids either mentioning the workers' occupation of the factory or suggesting even tentatively that the government might possibly consider bring the factory into public ownership.

With union leaders like this, the bosses must be quaking in their boots (not).

Dear Ed

Vestas Wind Systems

As you are aware, the TUC shares your absolute commitment to tackle climate change, including through the development of a low carbon industrial strategy with quality green jobs and skills at its heart.

I am sure that you also share our frustration and dismay about the planned end to production at the Vestas wind turbine facility on the Isle of Wight – the only one of its size in Britain – which would result in the loss of over 600 jobs directly, and many more through the supply chain. In the context of a growing global urgency to cut carbon emissions, it would be difficult to find a more damning example of market failure, or of corporate inflexibility, than one such as this which threatens the viability of existing UK based green energy manufacturing, and the livelihoods of a skilled and dedicated workforce.

I want to acknowledge the considerable efforts you have already made to intervene in respect of the planned closure of the Vestas plant, to secure investment and to tackle the barriers to renewable energy market growth. However, I am sure you understand that unions, and the members they represent in the Vestas workforce, will want to feel sure that no stone has been left unturned in our bid to find an alternative that would protect green manufacturing skills and jobs on the island and elsewhere.

Even at this late stage we believe that Vestas should be pressed to halt its closure plan to give time for proper dialogue and for every possible alternative to be fully explored. I would also ask Government to urgently bring together business, unions and industry experts with a view to securing a future for wind turbine production in the UK, and so that the lessons of Vestas can be learned and never allowed to happen again.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely

Brendan Barber
General Secretary

Protesting Against Primark

Tomorrow morning, an extraordinary event will take place. A company that sources sweatshop labour will be meeting in the headquarters of Britain's trade union movement.

The No Sweat campaign will rightly be protesting outside, and here is what they have to say about the issue ...

Friday 5 December from 10.30am, TUC, Congress Centre, 28 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS

PRIMARK's AGM is the most important opportunity this year to put pressure on PRIMARK. This annual shareholder meeting is when important decisions get made regarding PRIMARK's policies and procedures.

It is PRIMARK's shareholders who take home the lion's share of PRIMARK's profits and who have the power to make PRIMARK introduce policies and procedures that will ensure the lives of workers are put ahead of PRIMARK's pursuit of profits.

So join us on Friday 5 December from 10.30 onwards to make your voice heard. We have seen how fearful PRIMARK is of us publicly shaming them, so please help us make sure their shareholders deliver justice to the workers making PRIMARK clothes.

It beggars belief that PRIMARK has been caught on the back foot again. Just five months on from the BBC exposé that highlighted the appalling conditions faced by Indian workers producing clothes for the famous high street store and PRIMARK has yet again been caught out disrespecting these workers. Join us on 5 December to hammer the nail in PRIMARK's ethical coffin.

An embarrassed and defensive TUC bureaucracy is fighting its corner, with General Secretary Brendan Barber issuing the remarkable statement reproduced below. Aside from his haughty chagrin that any supporter of workers' rights dare publicise any issue without approaching him first, the statement also endorses Primark's owning company ABF in words that could have been written by its own PR department.

And if the leaders of Unite, GMB and USDAW think it is OK for the trade union movement to host this event, then they should be ashamed of themselves.


I have received a number of enquiries from colleagues following the story in today’s Guardian headed ‘TUC in sweatshop labour row over firm hiring congress hall’.

I am therefore writing to all unions to set out the background and the TUC position.

Some months ago the company ABF made a commercial booking for Congress Centre conference facilities for their company AGM on 5th December.

Ten days or so ago, a letter was received by the TUC from Brent Trades Council demanding that the commercial booking should be cancelled because of unacceptable labour abuses in Bangladesh perpetrated by Primark which is a wholly owned subsidiary of ABF.

Their letter purported also to be on behalf of the campaigning group ‘No Sweat’ though no direct approach to the TUC has ever been made by No Sweat itself.

The letter also referred to an on-line petition to the TUC.

The TUC has been well aware of concerns over issues in Primark’s supply chain and has raised these through the Ethical Trading Initiative.

ABF is a member company of ETI and has accepted that they have responsibilities to ensure that their supply chain should observe decent employment standards.

The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) (which is also represented on the ETI) has also been actively following up issues with Primark in Bangladesh and other countries.

On receiving the approach from Brent Trades Council the TUC communications department consulted their counterparts in Unite, GMB and USDAW all of which are recognised within ABF.

None of the unions supported the demand that the contract with ABF should be cancelled.

The following statement was then issued to the Guardian when it raised this issue with us:

"Associated British Foods has made a commercial booking to hold its AGM in the TUC's conference facilities. This is not a Primark event.

"ABF is a unionised company with good relations with UK unions.

"The TUC has a proud record of campaigning in the interest of vulnerable workers both in the UK and developing countries.

"We believe in constructive engagement with companies. We welcome ABF's membership of the Ethical Trading Initiative and have used that opportunity to press concerns about supply chain issues - including in Bangladesh.

"Unions recognised by ABF also, of course, have other direct channels to raise such issues with the company."

If any union ever does have an issue over Congress Centre bookings then of course it is always open to them to raise it direct with the TUC. This is surely preferable to raising issues through the media.

Yours sincerely
BRENDAN BARBER
General Secretary

TUC: Rearranging The Deckchairs?

I promised on Stroppy's open thread a few days back to do a wee post on Brendan Barber and his deckchairs. I thought it a story of such patheticness that it warranted blogging.

There I was watching BBC News 24 on the day before TUC Congress started, when the Beeb's cameras popped up on Brighton beach to show Brother Barber embracing a row of deckchairs, upon each of which rested a large letter, spelling out 'FAIR TAX'. Immediately, the BBC reporter said, "The TUC wants the government to tax the rich".

And therein lies the patheticness. The BBC had to spell out what the TUC's vague, motherhood-and-apple-pie slogan actually meant. Why on earth could Barber's deckchairs not have spelled out 'TAX THE RICH'?! Could they not afford the extra three letters, having blown the budget on Congress hospitality? Or did they not want to upset the, erm, rich?! Or not put a demand on the Labour government that was at all specific or put them under any kind of meaningful pressure?

Anyways, the deckchair 'photo-opportunity' seems to have left no lasting impression, as I have failed to find an image of it on the world-wide web - hence the rather more ordinary deckchairs atop this post. But Google 'deckchairs' and 'Barber' and you'll find that the links to TUC pages about the deckchair episode have been mysteriously replaced by other stuff.

Women Migrant Workers Cheated Out Of Minimum Wage

Gawd bless the TUC. You can't rely on them to organise workers to fight back, or to say boo to a goose, but they come up with some useful research every now and again.

So the latest from the Department Of Oo You Don't Say is the startling news that female migrant workers are the group most likely to be paid less than the minimum wage. You probably guessed that already, but at least you now have the facts at your fingertips.

Still, at least this will not include women cleaners on London Underground, as RMT cleaners have won the 'London living wage' after a hugely inspiring struggle which I must write up at some point.

Prison Officers Propose Strikes For Trade Union Freedom

The Prison Officers' Association has submitted an excellent resolution on trade union freedom to this year's TUC Congress. Marking a change from the annual charade of passing a resolution denouncing the anti-union laws but doing little concrete about it, the POA proposes a series of one-day general strikes to demand trade union freedom.

No doubt, the TUC bureaucracy will bring megatonnes of pressure to bear on the POA to withdraw the final paragraph. Let's hope they are tough enough to resist. And should anyone fear that such strikes would be illegal, just stop and ask yourself ... Who exactly is going to lock us all up?!

P05 Trade union freedom

Congress recognises the level of work carried out by the General Council in an attempt to progress the Congress resolutions that called for a more modern, fair and appropriate approach to trades union rights in our country.

Further, Congress places on record its appreciation to all those academic lawyers and MPs who sought to take the Trade Union Freedom Bill through the Parliamentary process, but expresses its disbelief at the Labour Government which choose to talk the Bill out of time, in order to ensure that the Bill fell. This act of “political sabotage” is unworthy of any Government, but particularly a Labour Government.

Congress recognises that the actions of the TUC and affiliated unions have had no success to date in persuading the Government to amend legislation to return the fundamental rights of all workers. In fact, Government has taken even more draconian legislative action to stifle trade unions.

Therefore, Congress instructs the TUC to organise a series of one-day general strikes until such time as the Government removes the restrictive anti-trade union legislation from statute.

TUC Women's Committee

Last week, I attended my second meeting of TUC Women's Committee. You'd hope this would be a gathering of women activists from various unions to organise solidarity with women workers in struggle and plan exciting campaigns for working women's rights. In practice, it is gathering of some activists and some full-time officers, who go through an agenda largely consisting of reports which we are invited to comment on to little apparent purpose. Despite that, it should still be possible to fight for the aforementioned solidarity and campaigns to get a look in, and even if comments criticising the government's latest wheeze don't go anywhere, I'm still glad that I am there (along with others) to make them. Some high- and lowlights:

Hearing about the struggle by women workers in the Antalya Free Trade Zone in Turkey.

Reviewing the recent TUC Congress. The equality debates got pushed to the end of the agenda, as per usual. And the only controversial issue all week was the General Council persuading the big unions to vote down a resolution from the Women's Conference on childcare. No, they are not willing to provide childcare that enables parents to attend fringe meetings. I suggested instead that we could have a creche during fringe meetings but not bother during Congress hours - then I could go to the interesting discussions and have some quality time with my children while Congress votes unanimously for inane resolutions and listens to that bloke from the CBI. Apparently, I was joking.

Being consulted by the government. Except they ask questions designed to get the responses they want, put a word limit on your reply, and give the TUC such a short time to reply that the response is written by an unelected official. We - the elected Women's Committee - get to comment on its afterwards. I expect the government would probably ignore what we would say anyway, but it would still be nice to actually say it.

So, too late, I commented on the government's consultation on the 'Priorities for the Ministers for Women'. The Ministers asked how they should support families, the TUC replied that low pay is a big factor. The MInisters asked for practical suggestions - Janine suggests (too late) that the TUC could have mentioned increasing the minimum wage, preferably by a significant amount. The Ministers ask how we can tackle violence against women and improve the way we deal with women who commit crime. The TUC gave some reasonable replies about violence against women, but omit to answer the second part. Janine suggests (too late) that we should raise the issues of deaths of women in custody, women who are in prison but shouldn't be (eg. for shoplifting, debt, etc), and, and POA General Secretary Brian Caton put it so neatly at a TUC fringe meeting last year , the fact that "90% of prisoners should be in the care of the health service rather than the prison service".

Planning next year's TUC Women's Conference. About which more another time.

TUC Congress: Wednesday morning

Last night’s bad news was that Bob Crow was voted off the TUC General Council. He was on last year, off the year before, on the year before that, so they are obviously going to have to fit a revolving door with his name above it. Despite my several criticisms of Brother Crow, it is obvious that he was voted off by right-wing union leaders’ votes because he doesn’t accept the TUC bureaucracy’s kissing of newLabour’s arse, and because he quite likes strikes. So yes, it is bad news, not least so because his exit may strengthen those isolationist voices with the RMT who would have us pull out of the TUC altogether.

Sadly, in an attempt to come out fighting this morning, Bob – seconding a Prison Officers’ Association resolution about prison officers’ union rights – made a comment about electing banjo players above strikers which misfired as an insult at the Musicians’ Union which had won the seat he used to occupy. Next time, Bob, stick to the subject of the resolution you are speaking on.

The next resolution was about the Shrewsbury pickets, 24 building workers convicted in 1973 under the 1875 Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, who have still not had justice. Congress unanimously demanded a Parliamentary enquiry into their conviction, imprisonment and treatment behind bars.

Next up was an NUT resolution entitled ‘organising and independent trade unionism’. Although it didn’t explicitly say so, I think this is about NUT’s isolation following its correct decision not to sign up to a ‘partnership’ agreement that other education unions signed up to thus neutering themselves and helping the employers to attack their members. It was odd, then, that the GMB managed to second the resolution by doing a speech in favour of ‘partnership’. Honestly, I think their speaker would have claimed that a pork chop was a pig and butcher partnership (to paraphrase someone else’s joke).

The debate on migrant workers saw a TUC video and some determined speeches from the rostrum, the most notable of which was NUT delegate Kevin Courtney’s, as he pointed out that migrant workers are exploited not just by gangmasters and cowboy outfits, but by large corporate agencies and by governments.

On to minimum wage enforcement. After much welcoming of Gordon Brown’s pledge on Monday to improve enforcement, a PCS speaker reminded us that Brown made much the same promise last year, and told us what had happened to it. A promise to increase enforcement resources by 50% has translated in reality to the 80 compliance officers in post last December soon to be increased by a measly 8. HM Revenue and Customs has the resources to bring only six prosecutions per year, leaving all other cases for individual workers to challenge alone through the Tribunals. The poverty-paying employers must be well and truly not shaking in their shoes.

The snottily-named First Division Association had a wee moan at the PCS for daring to criticise HMRC management for failing to deliver enforcement. Apparently the senior managers are union members, and apparently that makes them immune from criticism. All I can say is that there are bosses where I work who hold trade union membership cards, but I won’t hold my tongue on their mistreatment of workers just on account of that.

TUC Congress: Will Unions Co-ordinate Action Against Pay Cuts?

Following Monday's debate on trade union freedom, the other biggy of the week was on Tuesday afternoon, on public services and public sector pay. The TUC had attempted to sedate us all in advance, with guest speeches from not just the CBI but also government ministers Jacqui Smith and Peter Hain - the latter telling us that the government, trade unions and employers had reached an "historic consensus" on pension reform, prompting me to heckle "I didn't!".

The two main composites were 12, on public serivces, and 13, on public sector pay. There was never any doubt that they would pass unanimously, but the content and fire of the speeches would also give a clue as to union leaders' commitment to see the fight through.

Proposing Composite 13, PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka challenged Gordon Brown's argument that you need to restrain workers' pay to defeat inflation. He quoted Brown in saying that "The price of a job should never be substandard pay", pointing out poverty pay levels among civil servants. Mark announced to great cheers that yesterday, workers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had voted by 76% to reject their pay offer. He might have mentioned (but didn't) the ironic fact that those workers' boss, John Hutton, would be given a big chunk of Congress time tomorrow to tell us what a good bloke he is.

Just when I began to fear that Mark's speech would be all rumbustious fat-cat- and government-bashing, but nothing on how we would fight back, he set out the case for co-ordinated industrial action, civil servants alongside health workers, posties, teachers and others. 200 people had attended PCS's fringe meeting on the subject, and he called for the TUC to call a meeting to co-ordinate action immediately Congress finished. Good stuff.

Seconding, Christine Blower offered the solidarity of the NUT to other public sector unions. She stated that if in November, the teachers' pay review body failed to deliver decent pay rises, then the NUT would call industrial action co-ordinated with other unions. Christine did not explain why this had to wait until November - after all, how likely is it that the pay review body will go against government policy and give teachers the rise they deserve?!

A speaker from the Prison Officers' Association pointed out that Prison Service managers will be getting their pay rise in full, whilst the lowest-paid workers in the service - ancillary staff - will have their rise staged, pegged to 10p per hour instead of 15p. "How will that 5p difference fuel inflation, while tax breaks to private equity won't?!", he asked. The POA also joined the call for co-ordinated industrial action.

A UCU speaker expressed gratitude to the PCS and POA for demonstrating that members can be won to a programme of strike action. However, I see more grounds for concern as to whether union leaders can be won to strike action, especially strike action of more than token days. Rank-and-file members will always be willing to fight, especially when given leadership they can be confident in.

And to me, that is now the issue. The Congress debate was welcome - a clear declaration of intent for co-ordinated industrial action to break Brown's public sector pay cuts. But the demand for co-ordinated action must not become an excuse for union leaders not to fight unless every other union is doing so too. And the action they co-ordinate must be more than isolated days out to show token protests rather than a strategy to win. Now we have the Congress policy, we need rank-and-file pressure to make the union leaders deliver.

TUC Tuesday Morning: Transport – Debate, Demo and Fringe

This morning, the TUC invited the class enemy into its living room. We found the need to have an RMT delegation meeting outside the congress hall at the time.

Later was a session on rail and transport. We are, as usual, in favour of freight on rail, in favour of public railways, and aware of the environmental benefits thereof. And it was very welcome to see the General Secretaries of TSSA and ASLEF speak clearly in defence of the RMT against the media witch-hunt during the Metronet strike last week. This was particularly important given Brendan Barber’s silence on the issue, but that said, TSSA did not explain why, despite defending our strike, they called off their own. RMT President John Leach thumped the tub for the ending of Tube privatization, waking up some of the sleeping delegates.

Then I got up to make a point and this is what I said …

I’ve got up here to ask for your support for an important campaign we are waging on London Underground. London Underground Ltd plans savage attacks on its ticket office, closing 39 and cutting the opening hours of most of the rest.

The company claims this is because more and more people are using Oyster – the new smartcard ticketing system. But we know that passengers still need ticket office. Not everyone uses Oyster; it’s a complex system and people need help; there are already long queues at our ticket offices; several types of transaction can only be carried out at a ticket office; stations without ticket offices are hostile places to be, especially at night; and sometimes, phonelines, websites and touchscreens are no substitute for human contact.

The truth is that LUL is not simply responding to changes in ticket-buying behaviour but trying to force that change by driving you away through closing its ticket offices.

I am no Luddite. I believe that new technology is good – but it must be introduced in the interests of workers and service users not in the interests of maximising profits. London Underground already charges you some of the highest underground rail fares in the world – it could at least make it easier for you to pay, or better still, cut the fares.

The attack on ticket offices will also see over 270 staff posts cut; workers displaced; promotion opportunities lost; part-time and family-friendly working opportunities lost; increased workload and stress; and increased vulnerability to assault against workers on a system where 77% of assaults are ticketing-related.

Don’t let Ken Livingstone come to this Congress telling you he is the champion of working people when he is doing this to his own staff and his own passengers.

RMT and TSSA are campaigning against this. A week on Thursday, we are holding a public rally to which you are all invited. I believe that we will have to strike to save our ticket offices, and I am asking for all unions in this hall to support us, and for the General Council to support us too.

Outside the Congress hall, RMT members waved banners and posed in front of a hired display lorry adorned with the demand that Metronet be returned to public ownership now.

After taking part in the demo for a while, I went to a fringe meeting about transport, arriving late to hear Jack Dromey extol the virtues of Ken Livingstone. I had to chip in and mention Livingstone calling on RMT member to cross their own union’s picket lines, presiding over the de-staffing of London Underground stations, and now ushering in ticket office closures (I could also have mentioned East London line privatisation, the multiple fat cats he employs, and many more sins, but you get the point.) Jack replied that Ken may have his faults, but he’s moving in the right direction on bus policy and at least he’s not Boris Johnson.

TUC Monday afternoon - Trade Union freedom

Here at Congress, debates have to squeeze their way in between speeches from visiting worthies and TUC back-slapping sessions. But on Monday afternoon, a very important debate did squeeze its way in - on trade union rights and freedom.

Proposing, Bob Crow pointed out that Gordon Brown's speech had made not one promise to extend trade union rights. He plugged the forthcoming RMT strike on One rail in defence of a sacked guard, and pointed out that the employer will be using managers from different sections and companies to help them break the strike through scabbing. If bosses have the right to take solidarity action, then so should workers. Bob also encouraged delegates to come to the rally against the anti-union laws on 18th October.

Seconding, Brian Caton of the Prison Officers Association quoted Gordon Brown's speech from earlier in the day - "no injustice can last forever". Prison officers are denied trade union rights, but are still determined to fight privatisation and underfunding of the prison service. Interestingly, Brian blamed violent reoffending on the lack of government funding and support for rehabilitation programmes in prisons.

Steve Kemp of the National Union of Mineworkers argued that because of the anti-union laws, "Unions have been taken over by lawyers and judges". He reminded Congress of the Gate Gourmet strike two years ago - when Heathrow baggage handlers took solidarity action, the anti-union laws "came to the rescue of the employer". While the media decries 'wildcat strikes', Steve decried 'wildcat employers' and 'wildcat judges'.

A CWU speaker described how the anti-union laws were affecting their current dispute. The employer can use scab labour, but it is illegal for the union to picket the depot that labour comes from to dissuade the scabs, because that would count as 'secondary picketing'.

This subject comes back to Congress every year. Two reasons. One, its continuing importance. Two, the TUC does so little about it from one Congress year to the next. The POA had some text in the composite that asserted that the TUC must campaign for its policies even when the government opposes them (especially when the government opposes them, you might think). It shouldn't need to be said, but it strikes at the core of where the TUC is going wrong. Whether it is on the Trade Union Freedom Bill, the minimum wage, agency workers, Trident replacement or a host of other policies, the TUC must stop acting like a beaten dog that keeps crawling back to its abusive owner.

Oh, and the composite on trade union rights and freedom was passed unanimously. Most things do. Mostly, the General Council 'supports'. Sometimes it 'supports with reservations'. Occasionally, it 'opposes'. I wonder whether there should be a new category: 'supports with no intention of implementing'.

TUC Congress Monday Morning: Barber and Brown

It was a morning of Speeches By Important People, interspersed with some awards and the odd resolution. First up was TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, who began by welcoming “another year of solid progress for our movement”. He cited the TUC’s work fighting the BNP, congratulated ASLEF for its landmark legal victory securing the right of unions to expel fascists, and welcomed the formation of Unite. He also offered support for the industrial battles currently being waged by the CWU, Prison Officers’ Association and GMB/Unite/Unity in Remploy. Somehow, he ‘forgot’ to mention RMT’s strike on Metronet just a few days ago.

Telling us that Gordon Brown would be speaking later, Brendan described the PM as “an old friend and a good friend” (isn’t there some saying that starts “with friends like these …”?), and pleaded that “it’s not easy to be a Labour Prime Minister addressing a TUC Congress”. My heart positively does not bleed. Of course, it’s also not easy being a contracted-out public services worker on poverty pay, or a victim of the war on Iraq, or a young person more likely to get an ASBO than an apprenticeship. But Brendan seemed determined to be Gordon’s warm-up act.

There was some criticism – there could hardly not be – but it was all polite, all muted, all timidly whimpering from under the shadow of our gratitude for the plethora of fabulous things that newLabour has done for us. It was part Oliver Twist, part Uriah Heep.

Brendan rightly denounced vulnerable employment as “the dark underbelly of British life”, and described meeting many of its victims – workers who are super-exploited by long hours, poverty pay, insecure employment, workplace bullying and more. It’s a veritable scandal. But isn’t the real scandal that this situation persists ten years into a Labour government? Brendan didn’t mention that.

I watched Gordon Brown’s speech from the balcony, holding aloft ‘End Tube Privatisation’ placards along with several fellow delegates from RMT and TSSA.

Brown pushed all the right buttons to get himself a sympathetic hearing – his former life as a trade union tutor, praise for union learning, name-dropping of Nelson Mandela. He talked about oppression and poverty in other countries.

He also said many of those phrases that trade unionists like to hear, but left them suitably vague and ignored the fact that his own government’s policy contradicted them. How about “dignity and security in retirement” (despite attacks on pensions), “raising standards in the workplace” (despite the ravages of privatisation) and “a better NHS” (that’ll be the one that’s laying off workers as funding rushes into the hands of privateers and away from patient care).

But Brown’s main theme was jobs, and his main message was that British trade unions must help British employers to compete with foreigners. His subtext was that we must accept changes, no doubt meaning giving up important rights and agreements, accepting less secure employment, always feeding our employers’ need for more ‘flexibility’.

He is going to fast-track British workers into British jobs, and asked the unions to enter into partnership with the employers to help oil the wheels. And while he didn’t defend his privatisation policies or his attacks on pensions, he was prepared to defend his public sector pay cuts, justified by the need to “defeat inflation”. As usual, no such restraint is expected from the fat-cat bosses, only from low-paid workers. I shouted “rubbish!”, then fell silent in shock as not a whimper emanated from the public sector unions whose members are being told to accept below-inflation pay rises. To give them credit, PCS had produced some posters demanding decent pay for public servants, which plenty of delegates held up, but I expected at least a few verbal outbursts when Brown positively advocated holding back pay, and my gob was duly smacked.

Brown is trying to shackle the British labour movement to the British ruling class, enlisting us to help our exploiters extract more value from our labour. What is this – The Bridge Over The River Kwai?! To resist this, both the right and sections of the left of the labour movement need to drop their decades-long embrace of nationalism and insist that the workers of the world will not ‘compete’ with each other in a race to the bottom, but unite with each other to end exploitation.

“Some people”, said Brown, “think the 21st century will be a Chinese century. I think it can be a British century.” What about a workers’ century?!

TUC Congress: Sharks And Other Sea Life

As promised, here I am in Brighton, blogging from TUC Congress, as I did last year and the year before. It starts this morning, when we will be blessed with an oration from our beloved new Prime Minister.

Yesterday, the various union delegations held meetings to go through the agenda, and then 'networked' in the evening at receptions. Our first grief happened even before these, though. The union had booked all the delegates in to the hotel from Saturday, and the full duration of the stay was paid up in advance. My partner is also an RMT delegate, so we have our entire family with us for Congress, and given that we live in London, there was no need to come down until Sunday morning. But on arrival, we discovered that because we didn't show up on Saturday, the hotel had cancelled our booking and given our room to someone else! Some people will tell you that being involved in the labour movement when you have young kids is fraught with obstacles - and you know what, they're right.

And due to the lack of out-of-formal-conference-hours childcare (which will be debated later in the week), our kids joined us in the delegation meeting. Fortunately, they managed to entertain themselves in a reasonably non-disruptive way - which earned them an afternoon trip to the SeaLife Centre.
The TUC Women's Committee reception in the evening was an opportunity to meet up with some good women trade unionists who I hadn't seen for some time. We were also treated to a speech by Harriet Harman (my son was disappointed to find out that she was not Harriet Jones, the PM from Doctor Who). Harriet's speech made much of the small steps of progress that the Labour government had made, and admitted that "we still have much to do" in a way that suggested that progress is naturally, unchangeably slow rather than a product of a government's unwillingness to legislate genuine steps to improve working-class women's lives for fear of offending the employers. I bent her ear about the need for the legal right to paid time off work for parents of kids with special needs to attend traning courses.

Next door was Not-At-All-Red Ken Livingstone's reception. He remains the master of posing to the left even while acting to the right. So he slagged off Metronet's payment of fat-cat salaries to its bosses, shamelessly overlooking the fat-cat salaries he pays to himself, his advisers and his TfL big cheeses. And he promised to bring Metronet into public ownership, but didn't repeat his denunciations of RMT's strike action last week. And he demanded that Tube cleaners should have the London Living Wage despite having done nothing to actually enforce this.

His transport chief - and therefore, my boss - Peter Hendy was present, so I took the opportunity for some more ear-bending, sounding off to him about London Underground's ticket office closure plans. He says he'll get back to me - then I, dear reader, will get back to you.

Cats - Still Fat

Those over-stuffed filthy rich have got their snouts in the trough again. Check this out and ogle at the size of their pensions.

This obscene greed has been thoroughly exposed by a report from the TUC (from whose Congress I will be blogging from Sunday onwards). Now all the TUC needs to do is support unions which fight to defend their members' pensions instead of phoning them up begging them to call off strikes.

Hat tip - Ben

Abortion Rights Resolution

Here is the text of one of the two resolutions that RMT is submitting to Scottish TUC Women's Conference. It's a good one. Never having been to Scottish TUC Women's Conference, I'd be interested in any informed speculation as to how it will be received! (Cat?)

ABORTION RIGHTS

“This Conference deplores the views of Cardinal Keith O'Brien who spoke out against abortions. He called on catholic politicians to use their political power and influence to change the law and impose their views on people who disagreed with them. Cardinal O'Brien said that the abortion rate in Scotland was equivalent to 'two Dunblane massacres a day'. He also took a public step towards coercing MP's when he said that catholics in Parliament should cease to take the sacraments of their religion if they did not obey the church.

The outlawing of abortion hits hardest at working class women. It was poor and desperate young women who risked and sometimes lost their lives in back street abortions.

Conference calls on the General Council and Women's Committee to condemn religion dictating politics and defend the right for all women to have the choice.”

Trade Union Movement Flagellates Itself

Reports are coming through that the National Union of Turkeys has invited Bernard Matthews to be the guest speaker at its annual Congress. Union leader Brendan Gobbler explained that in the spirit of partnership, it was important to accept the hand of friendship from Mr Matthews. He confirmed that turkeys would be invited to Mr Gobbler's Slaughterers' Association annual feast, where they would be given a prime slot on the menu, erm, agenda.

Rejecting the bad old days of relentless hostility between turkeys and farmers, Mr Gobbler said that they did not want to be left out in the cold this Christmas, and argued that "You've got to be on the plate to be in the debate".

In fact, what has actually happened is that the TUC has invited the Director-General of the CBI to be a guest speaker at Congress this year. And when some members of the General Council objected, General Secretary Brendan Barber retorted that it was too late, since the invite had already been sent! A few worthy souls voted to send a dis-invitation in the next post, but the majority of the workers' leaders did not wish to offend their members' masters.