GMB Union cuts financial support to the Labour Party

The recent row over the influence of the Unite union in selecting parliamentary candidates in Falkirk has led to a reaction from an unexpected quarter. The GMB, one of the largest unions in the country has decided to drastically reduce its' financial contribution to the Labour Party. The BBC reports:

The GMB union is to cut the affiliation funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000 in the wake of a row over reforms, it has announced.

The union said there would also be cuts in spending on Labour campaigns.

The changes will take effect from the start of next year.

It comes ahead of Ed Miliband's move to reform union funding so individual union members have to opt in to support the party, rather than being automatically affiliated.

Of the £3.14m Labour received in the three months from April to June, the GMB gave £486,000.

The full statement by the GMB reads:

“The GMB Central Executive Council (CEC) has voted to reduce its current levels of affiliation to the Labour Party from 420,000 to 50,000 from 2014.

This will reduce the union’s basic affiliation fee to the Labour Party by £1.1m per year.

It is expected that there will be further reductions in spending on Labour Party campaigns and initiatives.

GMB CEC expressed considerable regret about the apparent lack of understanding that the proposal mooted by Ed Miliband will have on the collective nature of trade union engagement with the Labour Party.

A further source of considerable regret to the CEC is that the  party that had been formed to represent the interest of working people in this country intends to end collective engagement of trade unions in the party they helped to form.

The CEC also decided to scale down by one third the level of it’s national political fund.”

LABOUR’S BIGGEST DONORS – APRIL TO JUNE 2013

Unite – £772,000

GMB – £486,000

Unison – £458,000

Usdaw – £411,000

Communication Workers Union – £143,000

(Source: Electoral Commission)

The TUC Conference begins on Saturday and attention will need to be made to the views of other Labour affiliated unions.

Two victories for trade unions!

Last week I published an article about the current attacks by the Government against the civil service and in particular the trade unions. This included an on line petition to protest about Eric Pickles attempt to end the "check off" system (collecting union subs via the payroll). I am pleased to report that the Government has lost the court case that was held today.



The PCS website reports:

Pickles lands taxpayers with £90,000 bill

Taxpayers now face a £90,000 legal bill after a High Court judge ruled the communities secretary acted unlawfully by unilaterally scrapping the 'check off' system for collecting union subscriptions through salaries.

The Department for Communities and Local Government had tried to end the decades-old arrangement even though it only costs the department £300 a year to administer.

The judge ruled today the move was a breach of contract and must be reversed, and ordered DCLG to pay our legal costs as well as its own.

The £90,000 bill would cover the cost of check off for the next 300 years.

Pickles has previously advised local authorities to end check off but was the first cabinet minister to attempt to apply it in the civil service.

In a statement to the media, our general secretary Mark Serwotka described it as a "reckless and political attempt to undermine our union".

He added: "Pickles has very serious questions to answer about why he decided to spend tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money fighting to scrap something that costs less than £30 a month."

The following report was sent out by Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Council:



Blacklisted UNITE union shop steward Frank Morris is returning to work onthe Crossrail project on 9th September. This is a massive victory, not justor UNITE but the whole of the trade union movement.

Frank Morris came to symbolise the struggle the unions are waging againstthe illegal blacklist of their members by major construction firms after he was dismissed last September. His reinstatement sends a message out: unions are back and we are ready to fight our corner if we have to.

The dismissal of Frank Morris took place soon after he took on the role of union steward and raised safety concerns about tunnelling operations on the largest publicly funded construction project in Western Europe. The Crossrail dispute was a central part of the a BBC One Panorama TV documentary: Blacklist Britain.

Blacklist campaigners and UNITE argued from the start that Frank's dismissal was due to the blacklist and have been fighting a bitter battle against the Bam-Ferrovial-Kier (BFK) consortium. The senior HR managers on the project including Ron Baron (head of HR for Crossrail) and Pat Swift (head of HR for BFK) are proven blacklisters, both having been exposed in parliament.

The 12 month dispute has rallied thousands of union members to new tactics unseen in industrial disputes including mass civil disobedience with Oxford Street, Earls  Court and Park Lane being blockaded during rush hour on over 20 occasions. The Office of the Rail Regulator was occupied by protesters the day after a gantry collapsed on the very section of the site where Frank Morris had raised safety concerns. Google HQ and major corporate investors offices in the City were occupied. Videos made by Reel News went viral around the world and turned the dispute into a cause célèbre.

The Crossrail dispute has resulted in questions being asked in parliament, Holyrood and the London Assembly. UNITE Assistant General Secretary Gail Cartmail raised the Crossrail case as an example of ongoing blacklisting when giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee which then referred the case to government for a full,investigation. Local Authorities have passed motions at full council meetings refusing to grant public contracts to blacklisting firms.

The dispute entered a new phase when Unite General Secretary Len McLuskey addressed the AGM of the Blacklist Support Group and promised to use the full resources of the union to "Blacklist the Blacklisters" until Frank Morris got his job back.  This leverage strategy included union protests in Holland, France, Spain, Canada and last month Chicago in an attempt to pressurise major clients to refuse contracts to firms that blacklisted union members. In the UK, dinner jacket attendees of awards ceremonies were greeted by giant inflatable rats and 40 foot banners. At one protest outside Manchester City Football ground a blacklist campaigner called George Tapp was run down by a car and suffered two fractured knees. Meetings have been taking place at ACAS with executives of Bam and Ferrovial flying in from Holland and Spain to participate.

There is a gagging order on the agreement to get Frank Morris his job back and UNITE the Union and Frank are both unable to discuss the detail of the agreement but the following Joint Statement has been issued by UNITE and BFK

BFK and Unite Joint Statement

"Today, Unite the Union and the BAM Ferrovial Kier Joint Venture (BFK) are pleased to announce that they have successfully concluded matters between them in relation to BFK's Joint Venture on the Crossrail projects.

BFK acknowledge that the conclusion of the EIS contract could have been handled better and BFK and Unite have agreed to work together to continue the provision of transparent working practices including safeguarding the right of workers to choose whether or not to join a trade union.

BFK and Unite agree that there has been no contravention of the Blacklisting Regulations on the BFK Crossrail projects.

BFK and Unite are committed to improving ways of working together. The above allows BFK and Unite to further build upon their working relationship for the good of all involved and both parties look forward toworking with each other in the future."

David Jacobs remembered

A tribute to the gentleman of pop music 
David Jacobs 1926 - 2013

TUC Action in September

Tell the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester: SAVE OUR NHS. Defend Jobs and Services. No to Austerity.

March and Rally - Sunday 29 September 2013

Supporters of the National Health Service and all those who want to defend jobs, services and a decent welfare state will be marching in Manchester to deliver a clear message to Conservative Party Conference that we mean to Save Our NHS from cuts and privatisation.

A march and rally have been called by the North West TUC, backed by unions and NHS campaign groups. They'll be assembling at Liverpool Road (M3 4FP) from 11am, and marching to a rally in Whitworth Park.

The protest will highlight the impact of huge job losses and spending cuts across the health service, as well as the rapid sell-off of the most lucrative parts of the NHS to private healthcare companies - many of whom like Circle are also Conservative Party donors.

The event will also raise concerns about the wider effect that government economic policies are having upon communities across the UK.

• Sign up to support the march and rally
• Join the march and Rally on Facebook
• Follow on Twitter at @NHS299

PDF Downloads:

• Save our NHS A4 poster
• Save our NHS A5 flyer
• Save our NHS and Pride A5 flyer

Labour Day 2013: Cause to celebrate as Toronto hotel workers win big

Eric Lee of LabourStart reports:



Today is celebrated as Labour Day in Canada (and Labor Day in the USA) and I'm very pleased to pass on some great news:

Striking hotel workers in Toronto have won a huge victory, due in large part to the solidarity they were shown by fellow workers.

The bitter 13 week long strike at the Toronto Plaza Hotel ended this weekend as 80% of the workers voted to ratify a new agreement with the company.  

According to their union, the United Steelworkers, the new agreement "removes all the draconian concessions demanded by hotel management and even provides a wage increase. Also removed from the final settlement was management’s insistence on new language that would have gutted basic protections and rights of union workers."  (Full details are here.)

According to a union staff representative, "Our members stood strong and their spirits were uplifted by the support they received from the labour movement, Toronto area steelworkers and the public throughout the GTA [Greater Toronto Area] and across Canada".

At the request of their union, LabourStart launched an online campaign at the end of July targeting our Canadian supporters that generated 1,540 messages of protest.  

According to a senior United Steelworkers official, "LabourStart played a key role in this victory."

So thank you very much to everyone who supported this campaign -- but let's build upon this victory.  

Let's spread the word about other active LabourStart campaigns that aren't over yet -- and that might win if we can get thousands more trade unionists involved:

• Show your support for public sector workers in Peru who are challenging a new law that threatens their rights
• Help build the campaign in support of 147 jailed workers in India at the Maruti Suzuki plant
• And in the Philippines, help demand justice for Antonio "Dodong" Petalcorin, a trade union leader who was shot dead two months ago

If you've already supported these campaigns, great -- but please make sure that your fellow union members know about them and sign up as well.

If you're not sure that online campaigns work, just ask the workers at the Toronto Plaza Hotel.

David Frost remembered

BDS: Dubai and South Africa

Cross-post from Harry's Place by Sarah AB

Here’s news of two disturbing cases of BDS in action.  The first is more uncertain, as Elder of Ziyon is now reporting that the International Federation of Television Archives (IFTA) is denying it has discriminated against Israel, so I’ll look out for further updates on the story.  But what has been claimed is that the creators of ‘Israel: A Home Movie’ were told their film had been dropped from an international film competition because Dubai, where the awards ceremony is to take place, has no diplomatic relations with Israel:

…Two months ago Bernstein was officially informed that the film, which is known as “Kach Ra’inu” in Hebrew and directed by Eliav Lilti, had made it to the finals. A jury chose it as one of the nine best movies and the film was in the running in the “Preservation and special use of archival material” category, against two competing movies. The notice invited the filmmakers to attend or send a representative to the October 26 award ceremony. The ceremony is held in a different country every year, and Dubai was chosen as this year’s location.

However, two weeks ago Bernstein was informed that the invitation had been withdrawn and his film had been removed from the competition. “This is an international organization of which Israel [through the state broadcaster Channel 1] is a member,” Bernstein said Thursday. “The total disqualification of the film followed pressure from the authorities in Dubai, which are hosting and funding this year’s conference,” he said.

The second case relates to protests from supporters of BDS South Africa at a concert given by Israeli musician Daniel Zamir at Wits University.  Although some protestors were peaceful, others were aggressive:

“You have the blood of Palestine children on your jersey,” shouted a protester to a woman who was walking in to the concert area.

“ You have blood on your hands. You think you can use our university to cleanse your image,” said another protester.

And some were unambiguously antisemitic:

At some point the protesters threw papers at concert attendees as they arrived. They also sang, “dubula e juda” (“shoot the Jew”), and chanted “there is no such thing as Israel” and “Israel apartheid” as the concert attendees were coming in.

Muhammed Desai, co-ordinator of BDS South Africa, could have roundly condemned these chants, or at least distanced his group from them.  But instead he tried to excuse them:

Desai said many African people in South Africa when using the word “Jews” meant it in the same way they would have during the eighties. “Just like you would say kill the Boer at funeral during the eighties it wasn’t about killing white people, it was used as a way of identifying with the apartheid regime”.

He said there was no evidence of Jews being harmed because of anti-Semitic impulses, – “the whole idea anti-Semitism is blown out of proportion”.  He said if there were anti-Semitic sentiments they would flatly challenge it even if it came from within their protest.

The ‘kill the Boer’ song has been judged hate speech by South Africa’s high court.  And I’m not sure at what point someone who doesn’t think ‘kill the Jew’ is antisemitic would start to ‘flatly challenge … anti-Semitic sentiments’.

Some BDS supporters have condemned Desai’s comments. 

------------------------------------------------------------------

Howie Adds: Simon Schama's new five part series The Story of the Jews starts on BBC 2 at 9:00 tonight Sunday 1st September