My own personal blog. Labour Deputy Mayor & Cabinet Lead for Housing, UNISON NEC member for Community, Convenor, London Regional Council Officer & Chair of its Labour Link Committee.
Newham Cllr for West Ham Ward, Vice Chair of Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, Pension trustee, Housing & Safety Practitioner.
Centre left and proud member of the Labour movement family. Strictly no trolls please.
Check out this article in the Telegraph (of all papers) which is about a UK Government report that
"An average trade union member earns £4,000-a-year more than non-unionised workers". Now this is in part due to more professionals joining trade unions but the research also showed that there has been a decade of better pay deals for union members compared to non union employees.
The UK is an unequal country and for a long time more money has gone to senior management and less in wages. While minimum and living wages are important the only way to reverse this trend is for strong, independent trade unions to freely bargain with employers to get fairer pay for workers. Quite simple really. The more of us in the union the better the deal we will get.
I hope that readers enjoy my favourite YouTube clip of all time. (or this clipor this clip)
Apparently it was on TV last night for the first time. I haven't seen it yet myself but its now on YouTube.
Auto-Enrolment into workplace pensions is the biggest thing to happen to pensions in decades. It's not perfect but a welcome start. As the advert says "the bosses" will indeed pay into your pension (whether they like it or not). So will you and so will the taxman.
This is an excellent snapshot of a day in the life of young people in our borough. Made by members of Newham Youth Council and introduced by film director Danny Boyle. Very professional looking production with sharp observations, some great shots of Newham and a thoughtful twist at the end.
Excellent youtube video of the changing landscape following the building of the Stratford International Station; Westfields Shopping centre, 2012 Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Olympic Village.
On Thursday I went to my Labour Party ward meeting. Afterwards I was speaking to a longstanding member who I hadn't realised was originally from Syria. He spoke about his distress about the massacres and slaughter that is happening in his homeland. Every day he receives emails and graphic videos with shocking images and news. At my request he sent me information and a link to a Google News Group on Syria.
I clicked on its Youtube links and was pretty horrified at what I saw. Dozens of different amateur videos showing countless people being shot, dying and dead in large pools of blood. Crying relatives and friends risking their own lives to pick up up bodies and the wounded being shot at themselves. Shaky Pictures of unidentified gunmen with telescopic rifles on the roof tops of tower blocks. Tanks firing at crowds of fleeing and unarmed civilians. Warning: this link is very, very graphic. Mainstream media just cannot show these pictures. Simply and utterly dreadful. Words (for once) fail me.
Hat-tip for Youtube video above to TheTollundWoman (not graphic)
The Observer and the Sunday Mirror today reveal that Council Binman and rap singer "NxtGen" (aka Sean Donnelly see picture) age 22 was supported by UNISON with regard to the filming of his song
I had listened to a BBC Radio news report on the huge success of the song on YouTube while driving home this lunchtime (over 200,000 hits - which I had posted last month here).
Well, after today’s events I think we all need cheering up at bit. So I’ll just play this clip on YouTube which shows Patricia’s reaction (she is referred to by her family nickname Zoey) in 2007 to the resignation of Tony Blair and the prospect of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.
Excellent post by trade union blogger Johninnit from the TUC congress in Brighton. He makes four predictions about how unions (or at any rate unionists) will be using Web 2.0 by 2010. He addressed a fringe on this subject with Eric Lee who helps edit Labourstart (who I have met). I have never met John even though he once made a banner for me in “Second Life”.
1st - He believes that it will empower the grass roots and points to the 13,000 users of the successful TUC network unionreps.org.uk who share advice and resources. Globalisation could also encourage unions to form connections internationally. There is a General Motors Workers’ blog where GM car plants across the world connect with each other.
2nd - More creative on-line campaigning. Unions and activists can nowadays produce near professional quality campaign material. The Postal Strike YouTube video shown (above) on this post (pardon the pun) is he believes an example of what can be achieved by activists. Quality may be mixed '…they may be loose cannons sure, but if you could line up 1,000 loose cannons pointed in half-way the right direction, I know which side I’d rather be standing.'
3rd - Is an improvement in Union democracy and consultation.
4th - Using the internet will also reach out to young workers who would otherwise never consider joining.
The trade union movement is notoriously conservative (with a small “c”) which personally I feel is a reflection on its membership. Membership has fallen since the peak of the 1970’s but in recent years has stabilised. Sometimes you come across activists who think either its all doom and gloom for the movement or equally bizarrely, we’re just on the verge of “Revolution Now” comrades. It’s refreshing to read something which is both positive and realistic about the future of trade unions for a change.
This is not an alternative “techie only” argument to the traditional values of organising, educating, training, internal discipline and building the union. It should not be either a "free-for-all" by activists regardless of rule or policy. Nor of course, is it a substitute for talking face to face to members when this is possible in the complex modern workplace. The success or otherwise of such traditional values will make or break the movement in the end. Rather, our society and economy has changed radically in recent decades (years?) and trade unions simply have to reflect this.
