Edinburgh Woollen Mill / Peacocks: 23 Nov Day of Action on Bangladesh

I got this email this morning from the TUC website "Going to Work". I have printed off the letter and will be popping into my local Peacocks store on Saturday.

I hope many others will do the same. We will be discussing this at the West Ham TULO meeting tonight as well.


"Dear John,
On Saturday 23 November, the day before the anniversary of the Tazreen fashions fire, in which over a hundred people lost their lives, we are calling out Edinburgh Woollen Mill and their subsidiary company Peacocks for their continued inaction on their deadly factories in Bangladesh.

Please help us to take the message right into their branches near where you live by printing out and signing a letter, and delivering it in person. We need them to join the overwhelming majority of their competitors in signing up to the fire and building safety plan for their factories in Bangladesh, and to pay compensation to victims of the Tazreen disaster.

Retailers are always concerned about their image locally, and getting a lot of letters passed over the counter around the country, on an important Christmas trading date, will send a very strong signal to the company that their customers won't let them just brush people's lives under the carpet.

To make this a bit easier, we've mapped their branches online, and there's likely one near you. Choose a branch in your area, and click to visit the store. We'll give you a letter to download and print out.

First step is to choose a branch that you could visit on Saturday 23 November...

NB: This action is supported by the TUC, War on Want, People and Planet, Labour Behind the Label, SumOfUs.org, SEAD, STUC and WTUC, so you'll be in good company!"

UPDATE: Great news - EWM have signed the Accord!!!!! check out here

SERTUC Health & Safety Seminar 2013

I arrived late and then had to leave early from this excellent health and safety seminar organised by SERTUC (South Eastern Trade Union Congress) which took place the other week at Congress House.

When I arrived Gerard Stilliard, a partner at trade union solicitors, Thompsons (seen
at London UNISON safety committee earlier this year) was speaking about the removal by the Government of Civil liability therefore returning workers protection to that of pre-1878 and the need to prove negligence. He finished his speech by thanking the audience and wishing us all "Good luck" in the future since "we will need it".

Next to speak was  Mike Wilcock, Head of Operations in the South East Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Mike (see picture above) became interested in health and safety because he trained as an industrial chemist and got blown up in a factory in France. He was unimpressed that the French safety inspector looking into this incident was more concerned about going to lunch with the factory owner.

He is very proud of the work of the HSE and concerned that due to reductions in the number of his staff, they now have act more as Policemen and are not "here to help". Real health & safety is not about banning conkers, its about stopping people being killed and injured. Regarding the recent reviews of safety legislation, he accepts that simplification and clarity is good. We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. In Qatar 40 workers have already been killed building the 2022 World Cup stadiums. In the UK we had no deaths when building the Olympics. 

He can now only send inspectors into the highest risk employers. Those who kill and injure the most.  But what and who fills the gap? It has to be the professional safety advisers and trade unions safety reps. Use to have 70% proactive inspections now 70% plus are reactive. HSE will now charge employers £122 per hour if they have to write to them or issue a notice.

In Q&A I asked if trade union safety reps were being expected to help fill the gap caused by the reduction in HSE Inspectors, they should be given the power to issue provisional improvement notices? (PINS) This would give reps greater credibility. Martin disagreed and said that safety reps are already credible and often are better trained than managers. He also didn't think it was at all likely in the "current landscape".

Next speaker was Dr Jenny Harries,  Regional director South of England for Public Health. For her  good health is good for business and the workforce. Public health is everyone's business. See the Marmot Review. Clear link with good employment and good health.  Poor employment and unemployment with poor health.  The affluent tend to retire without disability and live longer.

Stress is still the biggest cause of sickness. Companies with higher levels of staff engagement have 13% lower staff turnover, they have less than half the UK average sickness absence rate and consistently outperform on the FTSE 100 (reference Sunday Times : Best companies to work for in the UK).

I then had to leave for another meeting which is a shame since as a union safety rep I want to know more about "well being" at work as well as avoiding direct injuries and diseases. It is an area that I don't think the unions or the employers do anywhere near enough on.

Payday loans v Bank loans - between a rock and a hard place?

Following this post about Ed Miliband attacking the "wonga economy", I have been having the really important debate below via Facebook private chat with a UNISON member struggling to bring up her kids and pay the bills.

I think it is really important that we don't demonise people who in the real world feel forced to take out pay day loans and instead concentrate more on getting the Banks and credit unions to raise their game.

Name has been removed. Permission given to post.

"Hi John: Hmm ... just
had to pitch an alternative view before Milliband and all do anything stupid with payday loan companies ... of which Wonga is only one! Last month a friend went over her overdraft limit with her Bank by £61 for about 5 days ...got a letter and have been charged £61!!!! Same amount with a payday loan company would have been approx £15-£30!

And yet we're told payday loan companies are taking advantage? Really?! I feel strongly that the focus is being put that payday loan companies are the bad guy in this. Actually they're filling a gap that has been forced between banks and loan sharks. There is no middle ground. You're either using banks or your not. Once you cross the line it's very hard to get back into 'main stream'.

Many of the people making these judgements probably have never been in a place where they can't use the bank, don't have access to easy credit. What happens when you contact your bank to tell them you've been made redundant and ask them for help. Redundancy money is due but won't be in for a few weeks. Their response is far from helping you ... instead they remove your overdraft of £500 with no notice, your mortgage is due out, .. you have £10 in the bank. Your credit card has a couple of hundred left on it. You call them and ask if you can bump up your limit and get told no. .... what are you going to do now? Where can you get money? You have to pay the bills, you need fuel in the car.

You may choose to skip a payment to make ends meet ... now your credit rating is at risk. But choice of food or concern of credit rating? You take the food. But then you start to get on your feet. People now won't lend to you because you're a credit risk. Then your car has a major malfunction. You need it to get to work. It's going to cost £300 to fix. Then you start to look for the alternatives ...

There's a chap down the pub who buys jewellery ... there's a pawn shop in town ... there's a payday loan who can give you £300 now ... it's in the bank in 20 mins and you can pay the bill. It'll cost you about £70 but if you bounce your bills instead each dirct debit will cost you £25 (minimum), if you go over your overdrawn that'll cost you £25 or more ... so actually now £70 sounds quite reasonable.
Instead of painting pay day loans as the enemy they should be being praised for providing a service that the banks aren't prepared to.

Banks are rigid, unhelpful and quite often patronising. They charge massively compared to payday loans ... check out £100 overdrawn /over limit compared to £100 with a payday loan ... it's CHEAPER to use a payday loan (source - Banks vs Wonga). The banks are nothing but bullies who abuse customers because they know we have no choice but to use them. you have to have an account to get salary paid in, to pay direct debits ... they restrict life and cost more than most payday loans.

It really makes me cross that nobody is challenging the banking structure before suggesting whipping the lifeline of payday loans away from people who are using them quite happily and responsibly. Yes Pay Day loans are expensive ... but they're not exploiting people. Loan Sharks and Banks are really the abusers - Pay Day loans offer a lifeline when everyone else would watch you drown. I know some people use them and get into trouble - but there are many thousands of people who use them for the purpose designed.

It's them who would be penalised if regulation is tightened too much - and I am one! you'd be as good as putting the noose around my neck ... I couldn't cope without that occasional help and support from the payday loan companies. I have nowhere else to go ... and if you make it too strict and force credit checks I would be in enormous trouble. I don't know how I would cope. Please help and don't let them strangle the life out of me.

Credit unions are touted as the alternative ... but you have to save with them to build credit ... and even then its normally to a max of £200. They are not a good comparable. Much better would be for banks to offer to clear pay day loans by taking on the debt, help people learn to budget, and a manageable way to reduce the spiral. But while they remain fixated on 6 year out of date credit history that bears no reflection to where you are today banks are nothing but a patronising hindrance for anyone with a poor credit rating. Sorry John but this one makes me SO cross ... people are slating Wonga ... why not the others too? And yet Wonga got me out of a huge mess, no hassle, no patronising, and the highest level of customer service. Banks vs Wonga ... I'd go Wonga everytime. Just had to share a different view xx

John Gray: Hi,  Yes, banks are pretty rubbish as well but they want to lend long term and do set stupid short term rates for customers who fall foul. But Pay Day loans can charge up to 4000% per year 4000% - credit unions do not have a £200 limit? but they do have some restrictions but please, please join one and while you may have to take a pay day loan out don't think anyone is having a go at you, blame the company and the society that forces working families to feel they have to do so in order to survive. Good to hear from you again. Take care. John 

Hi John; Yep apr on pay day loans is mad ... but for a month is often cheaper than bank overdraft or charges. .. banks hide this info away and thats my issue with people attacking pay days. Makes me cross to hear politicians saying ahhh the apr is terrible ... but not looking at what else could be done. The reason pay days get away with it is because there is no practical solution or alternative. I looked into credit union and they genuinely couldn't help me as I couldn't afford to save with them first. They'll only lend a multiple of what you regularly save with them ....and only when you've made several payments. Or that's what it was when I investigated it before .... might have changed since.

I don't feel I'm being blamed for using pay days but I am terrified there will be a knee jerk ban on them. Haven't needed them for a while but they are my security blanket against problems ... to know that in 20 mins I can get no hassle no questions cash boost is reassuring. Sorry this has hit a nerve as you can tell ... I think paydays are greedy on their apr ... but I prefer their open style and approach. They don't judge me. I know what it will cost and its a grown up clear way of borrowing money. Rather than the banks who I find appalling to deal with now I have a bad credit rating ... they patronise, and make me feel like the lowest of the low. I Lol ah bet you've missed by little rants and outbursts really haven't you. Hope you're keeping well. xx

John Gray Hi: I have missed your rants! keep them up! I think we are both right over this. Pay day loans suit some folk but most people would be better off without them. Wonga makes over 50% of its profits from fines and roll over loans. If workers had a fairer share of the income cake and decent pay rises then they would not need such loans in the first place! 

Hi John: Lol ok agree to disagree ... but try not to let them be taken away without a viable alternative being put in place. Eg if banks offered a guaranteed acceptance loan to convert off so people can get off the hamster wheel. Otherwise people will suffer ... and when they're struggling already turning off a source of coping ... even if its far from ideal ... would be catastrophic for some people and families. Keep in touch ... I do keep up with your blogs and posts xx

Sing-a-Long Friday Sectarian: 57 Varieties (The Chicken Song)

We’re a small Trot sect
With a small red student base
But we dream one day
That we’ll rule the human race
People laugh at us
But we’ll show the world they’re wrong
Overthrow the State
While we sing this left wing song

Build a Workers’ Front
Sell a paper to your gran
Have a fuse then split
Be as wacky as you can
Caucus in a letter box
Change your name another time
Turn to industry
And then alter all your lines

There’s fifteen of us
We’re the vanguard of our class
Proletarian
With a dialectic task
Met this bloke in Greece
Now an international’s formed
Like the Bolsheviks
When the Czar’s Palace they stormed

Have a faction fight
Write polemics by the score
Purge your tendency
And reduce your ranks to four
Call for unity
Say the enemy is Benn
Liquidate in Workers Power
And then do it all again

Become entryists
Utilise the bourgeois courts
Launch an armed struggle
Try and build a base in Shorts
Call a general strike
Like Possadas look to the stars
For you never know
Perhaps there’s a loony Trot in Mars

Hat tip Michael Ezra - purists may claim this is the wrong Chicken Song video but comrades surely the ends justify the means :) Update - the Central Committee insist on the other version.

Jon Cruddas MP "George Lansbury's Legacy for the Labour Party"

Last Thursday evening I went to the inaugural lecture of the George Lansbury Memorial Committee in Queen Mary's, Stepney, East London. The speaker was Labour MP Jon Cruddas.

George Lansbury was a former leader of the Labour Party in the 1930's and at the time a very poplar politician in East London. But he is not that well known nowadays.

Jon described him as a man of ethics, principle and character.  A great servant of the people. Born 1859 (to a Welsh Mother) he was a MP 1910-1912 and 1922-1940. In 1921 he was Labour Mayor of Poplar and led the Poplar Rates rebellion which resulted in him and 30 councillors being imprisoned for 6 weeks. He was leader of the Labour Party 1932-1935.

Jon believed that Lansbury by his example saved the Labour Party following the treachery and its near electoral annihilation in 1931. He was a supporter of the suffragette and trade union movements. A teetotal Christian socialist pacifist who despite their differences, laid the way for the great reforming Labour Prime Minister, Clement Attlee.

Lansbury was courteous to all but would bend down to none.  He was a patriotic, free born Englishman in the romantic tradition of William Morris. Not backward or anti-technology.

He was not a scientific socialist or transactional rationalist like Morrison, Dalton or Gaitskell. He believed in human virtue and the power of transformation. The need to motivate people and lead by personal example. Tell a story that speaks to hopes and dreams.

He hated the workhouse and refused to accept the concept of an undeserving poor. He wanted to gain power only to give it away ‘to chain down misery and set happiness free’.

The Labour Party went on to believe more in transactional politics than transformation. Jon argues that Labour's current "One Nation" politics is a return to such transformation beliefs.  This is Lansbury legacy to the Labour Party and in 2015 as in 1945 we will win power and recover from defeat.

There was a wide ranging Q&A chaired by local MP Jim Fitzpatrick. I was able to mention that I was the former Estate officer for George Lansbury House which is a Council Housing building in Bow which is built on the site of his former home.

My question was is (Labour Leader Ed Miliband's promise) to fix broken markets "transactional" or "transformational"? Jon grinned and said it is both.

You can check out the full transcript of his speech at New Stateman. 

Daily Mail caught out lying again & turning into your Dad

When I was growing up my father banned newspapers from our house. He said that they were all biased and we should get our news from the BBC TV at 9pm. He knew that the BBC (bless it) was not perfect but he was satisfied that they meant well and usually got their reporting right most of the time.

I disagreed and use to love reading newspapers. As a teenager I worked in a Newsagents and in the school holidays would try and read every paper in stock. I found it fascinating how different papers would report the same story. Over the years I have become more and more disenchanted with newspapers and have now pretty much stopped buying them.

The latest example of lies and smears published in the Daily Mail last week about Gordon Brown MP just beggars belief (see rare retraction above). You would have thought with the current phone hacking criminal trial and unease about the proposed press regulation charter they would have been just a little big careful about what they publish?

The broadsheets are better but not that much better.  Leaving aside the Sunday Times which I don't believe anything it says anymore. They all seem to be aimed at wealthy middle class elites who obsess over super expensive cars, Waitrose cooking ingredients and exotic holidays in the Seychelles. I exaggerate slightly to make my point and I do on occasions read something interesting and well written but I usually get bored reading them and end up throwing most of it away unread.

Provocative and opinionated stuff you can nowadays get very easily on the Internet. 

I will still read the local press and specialist weeklies but I find myself in yet another way, turning into a slightly updated version of my old Dad. I have decided not to buy daily or Sunday papers and rely on the BBC for my main news.  Now of course largely via their website and PC, tablet, laptop and smartphone.

A History of Housing 1918 to 2012

Check out this excellent post at Red Brick about a new report on the "Politics of Housing" by the National Housing Federation.

As part of this report there is an interactive timeline on the history of housing from 1918-2012.

It is hard to believe that there was ever the time that both Labour and the Conservative pledged to build 500K homes per year if they were in Government!

Remembrance Sunday & Armistice Day

Yesterday morning I went to the Remembrance Sunday Service at West Ham Parish Church of All Saints. This is in my Council ward  and at 1,000 years is one of the oldest buildings in Newham.

The Church is currently undergoing a major programme of restoration with scaffolding everywhere but it still retained its solemnity and dignity.

The Revd Stennett Kirby led the service and our local MP Lyn Brown gave a Bible reading. Following Reveille, the Kohima Epitaph was given by an elderly veteran whose slow, deliberate rasping voice made all of us think of those who gave their today for our tomorrow.

Wreaths were laid with respect by the dignitaries, British Legionaries, serving soldiers and cadets. The most touching was the last which was laid by a little girl of 3 or 4 who had to "persuaded" by her Mum and encouraged by others, to go up and lay her little wooden cross with a red poppy on it.  But what was lovely is once she had finally done this, she turned round and skipped her way back to her Mum across the Church.

The address was made by Rifleman Franklin Anolue, 7 Rifles, G Company, West Ham who was in his Army Battle dress.  Franklin had recently served in Helmond Province in Afghanistan with his regiment. He told us he had always wanted to be a soldier ever since he saw the film "Saving Private Ryan". He was a student studying engineering and a part time soldier with the Territorial Army. He hadn't told his Mum he was going to Afghanistan until he was there, since he knew she would try and stop him! He had gone to Remembrance services before he went on his tour of duty but it is only now that he can really understand why it is so important to remember all those who put themselves in harms way for their country.

Remembrance Sunday takes place on the 2nd Sunday of November every year. This morning I went to the out door Armistice Day Service at the Central Park Cenotaph in East Ham which takes place at the anniversary of the end of World War One, at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th Month.  This was another very moving service. What was particularly important to me was the number of children from local primary and secondary schools who attended and participated in the service.

Also the emphasis on the "forgotten" Commonwealth and the absolutely vital role played in the First and Second World War by Africans, Asians and Caribbeans who defended our country and our freedoms.

The picture above is of my Taid (Welsh for Grandfather) in the trenches during the 1st World War.  He is sitting on the left and I think the picture was taken in Gallipoli where he served in Hawk Battalion, Royal Naval Division. This is a smashing photograph of my Taid. Dan Filson on FaceBook thought he looked like a 1950's teddy boy! Which I am not that sure about but having "attitude" may explain why he survived being on the front line in Gallipoli, Flanders and the Somme for 3 long years. He won the Military Cross in 1917.

Ed Miliband and the Cost of Living Crisis

On Tuesday I went to Battersea Power Station (for the first time) to listen to Labour Leader, Ed Miliband, launch his latest attack on the "Wonga Economy" and the cost of living crisis in this country.

I assume that that this iconic London venue was chosen to reinforce the argument about the on-going rip off by the privatised energy companies of the British public?

There was a mixed audience of ordinary local Labour Party members and the media. Below are some of what I thought were his key points.

Ed spoke about meeting "Pay Day" loan victims, who are in absolute dreadful state, being bullied and exploited by these companies (many of whom I would point out finance the Conservative Party).

"...In this country a few at the top do very well, while everyone else struggles. Growth without general economic prosperity is not enough. Ordinary families are doing worse on pay while Chief Executives have up to 7% rises! Need to restore link between living standards and growth. This government is wedded to a race to the bottom. Supporting poverty wages and insecure zero hour contracts.

...Exploiting migrants as well as British workers. But they won't do nothing since they don't believe in intervening "in the market". But all markets have rules and if these rules are broken or allow exploitation then the government needs to intervene....

This government regularly intervenes into the market to reduce employment rights and therefore decrease wages..... 

We have the slowest "Cameron" recovery in 100 years. New jobs tend to be low paid, part time and insecure. The government thinks we have to compete with India and China by cutting wages to their levels....

Working Britain needs a pay rise! One in five workers live in poverty on less than a living wage. Most children who live in poverty in this country have parents who are in work......

If we pay more to those in work then we the taxpayer will pay less out in benefits. Labour will fix markets when they broken. The Tories use to know that they had to do this. Battersea Power Station was built by Tories who knew that the energy market at the time was broken and they had to intervene....."

Ed's ended his speech by making it absolutely clear that a future Labour Government will intervene in "broken markets".

In the Q&A I asked the first question to Ed about the role of employee representatives on company remuneration committees in tackling unfair pay, as they do in nearly all our competitor countries in Europe. Ed confirmed that the Party in government does intend to make sure that there is such representation. Employers wanting unfair pay rises for themselves should have to look their employees representative in the eye when asking for this. 

The media were on the whole pretty awful during the Q&A. They ignored the issue in hand and were obsessed with Falkirk and the role of Unite the union. Their questions to Ed were mostly puerile and sneering. One so called journalist asked him how scared he was of Unite on a level 1-10? How pathetic.

While I am very proud of our tradition of free speech and a free press in this county I wish more people could see how ugly and ignorant these people are.  There was plenty of possible hard and difficult questions on what Ed had just spoken about but they were just too lazy to think of them.

Anyway, I think this speech is really significant and is part of the repositioning in politics by Ed and the Labour Party, as it resumes its historic mission to save capitalism from itself.

You can watch the speech here on Youtube or read it here on Labourlist. 

Canvassing David Lee Point & Remembering Gunner John Henry Carlile

This afternoon it was raining so we decided to canvass the tower block, David Lee Point in Leather Gardens, West Ham ward.

In the block lives one of our oldest Labour Party members, Gerry Carlile (see picture top right in white shirt).

Gerry invited us in for a rest and a chat. On his wall is the picture of his elder brother John (see left) who was killed in action during the Second World War. He had volunteered to serve as a Gunner on a merchant ship which was later sunk by a German U-Boat in the brutal "Battle of the Atlantic". Below is the stark details on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

"CARLILE, Gunner, JOHN HENRY, 1797607. 3/2 Maritime Regt. Royal Artillery. 7th December 1942. Age 21. Son of John Henry and Margarett Cathrine Carlile, of Stratford, Essex".

I believe that John was on the SS. Peter Maresk, which was sunk during 7 December with the loss of all 67 crew. On that same day at least 3 other ships were sunk with a total loss of another 751 lives. I think only 4 men survived.

I imagine that on walls and mantlepieces, up and down the country, there are similar photos surrounded by red poppies. Over 800 lives were lost on that day in just one part of the War. A sobering thought.

Tomorrow, I will be paying my respects and remembering John and the millions of others who lost their lives defending our country. If you live in Newham Click here for details of the commemorations taking place tomorrow.