10 steps Ed Miliband will immediately take if we win the next election.

Labour's Cost-Of-Living Contract With You

We Will:

1. Freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017 and reform the energy market


2. Get 200,000 homes built a year by 2020


3. Stop families that rent being ripped off and help them plan for the future with new long term predictable tenancies


4. Cut income tax for hardworking people through a lower 10p starting tax rate, and introduce a 50p top rate of tax as we pay off the deficit in a fair way


5. Ban exploitative zero-hour contracts


6. Make work pay by strengthening the Minimum Wage and providing tax breaks to firms that boost pay through the Living Wage


7. Back small businesses by cutting business rates and reforming the banks


8. Help working parents with 25 hours of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds


9. Tackle the abuse of migrant labour to undercut wages by banning recruitment agencies that only hire foreign workers and pressing for stronger controls in Europe


10. Back the next generation with a job guarantee for the young unemployed and more apprenticeships

This is our contract with you. Vote Labour to make Britain better off.

ED MILIBAND

This looks very good to me

Lobby One Housing Group staff Conference over trade union suspension

"I'm Bryan" is about the One Housing Group union convener who has been suspended by management following the strike action organised by Unite last year over pay cuts to care and support workers. 

Supporters will be holding a lobby tomorrow outside the One Housing Group staff conference. I hope to be there as well. 

Check out previous posts on One Housing and the way it treats union activists. 

Press release "Support victimised Unite rep Bryan Kennedy, Friday 9 May Demonstrate against the victimisation of Unite rep Bryan Kennedy this Friday at the One Housing staff conference at Novotel West in Hammersmith from 8.30am, 1 Shortlands, Hammersmith International Centre, Hammersmith, W6 8DR".

The Un-credible Shrinking Man

"Ever wondered what really goes on around the Cabinet table? The sorry story of Nick Clegg - the un-credible shrinking man!"

Excellent! Well worth a punt. 

Don't Let UKIP steal what matters to you.

Check out this poster from Unions Together (TULO).  People just do not appreciate how anti British worker and economically right wing is the ultra Tory UKIP.

"Chairman of TULO and leader of the GMB union, Paul Kenny, warned that “Nigel Farage is just another banker, trying to flog his snake oil while forgetting to tell us about the small print...

He really does not want people knowing that UKIP will take Britain’s working people back to the dark ages, scrapping basic rights we fought hard for and relied upon by the 31 million workers in this country to make life fairer like maternity leave, sick pay, and paid holiday leave".

National Express - Union busters and Blacklisters?

On 14 May it is the Annual General Meeting of British PLC National Express.

US transport trade union, the Teamsters, are calling for share owners to vote for Resolution 22 which calls for "improved oversight and reporting of human capital policies and practices". 

This relates to an ongoing dispute with the US School bus business owned by National Express called Durham School Services. 

While in the UK National Express has on the whole a positive relationship with British trade unions,  in the US it has allowed local managers to be trade union busters and blacklisters. This has a reputational risk to the brand and value of National Express. Especially when trade union members have been victimised for exposing health and safety concerns. 

In the UK there has been a campaign to "Blacklist the Blacklisters"  and to boycott companies in the UK who blacklisted workers for their trade union activism. 

I note in the US that National Express has been accused of "disparate treatment, discipline and discharge of employees engaged in union organizing; alleged illegal surveillance of workers engaged in union activity; and allegedly threatening workers with reduction in benefits, working conditions and the loss of employment for supporting unionization".

I think this is also Blacklisting and National Express runs the risk that they will be added to British list to be boycotted by responsible public and local authorities.

Check out this post I did last year on the risk to our pension investments from investing in National Express. Didn't the huge losses we took from investing in BP teach us anything? 

Picture above is of US School bus driver, Diane Bence, explaining to a meeting last month of Pension trustees and journalists, how awful it is to be employed by a bullying, disrespectful employer who takes risks with children's safety. 

On the left was Louis Malizia from the Teamsters who pointed out that if National Express wanted to expand in the US then they will have to compete for contracts in areas which have strong trade union membership. If they are seen as "anti-trade union" then it will make it much harder for them to win contracts from local School boards.  By being so anti-union they are cutting their nose to spite their face.

This meeting was chaired by Cllr Kieran Quinn (middle) who chairs the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum. He pointed out that he had asked National Express to publish their safety data if they have nothing to hide? But they keep ignoring his questions. 

I said at this meeting that this failure indicates a wider governance concern about the Board of National Express. Surely after the BP Gulf disaster investors need to wake up to the risk from investing in such companies?

UPDATE: sign the ShareAction petition here

What happens if you don't vote?

I think that we should never forget what will happen if you don't vote.
"Make sure you have YOUR say in London's future. Register to vote or for a Postal Vote at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk. Put the date 22 May in your diary.

West Ham & Stratford Super Saturday

This morning and afternoon we went door knocking in some of our West Ham ward high rise and tower blocks.

We had been keeping them back this campaign to canvass when it has been raining but so far (touch wood) we have been really lucky with the weather.

During our lunch break I went with my fellow West Hammer candidate, John Whitworth, to Stratford ward who had a "Super Saturday" with our MP, Lyn Brown, (and Cara the Labour attack dog).

I spent some time with an elderly resident who has lived in her block for 50 years. Who wanted to tell me what life was like when she first moved into West Ham. She still likes living here and her neighbours but due to mobility problems finds it hard to go to the supermarkets in Stratford.  She  wishes that all the local bakeries, greengrocers and butchers she remembers from 1964 were still around. 

I also had some good natured banter with some cheeky West Ham youngsters playing football in the street who with glee rescued our canvass team when we got locked inside a communal garden area.  

While many things have indeed changed in the last 50 years, I bet that the kids playing football in Cridland Street, E15 have changed not one bit.

Click on photo to bring up detail.

Activist Investing - Mallowstreet Live

Last Tuesday I took part in a live web debate on "Activist Investing" hosted by the Pension Social Media site Mallowstreet.

I have never done anything quite like this before.

The debate was chaired by Dawid Konotey-Ahulu from Mallowstreet (2nd from right). Next to me was Maarten Wildschut, Co-Head of European Focus Fund | RWC Partners. While on the left of Dawid is Steve Brown, Chairman | Governance for Owners. I was there as a local government pension fund trustee.

I think there are two types  of activist investors. Maarten and Steve are fund managers who will invest in companies they think are being poorly managed and will then "actively" try to turn around these companies and make them more profitable.

While I see myself as also being an "Activist investor" but one who will try and make sure that companies my pension fund invest in are not only well run  but have good governance, don't kill their workers, destroy the environment, employ child labour or bribe public officials.  They also should ensure that the interests of pension beneficiaries come before the interests of management and their advisers.  

You can see the debate here but warning it goes on for 45 minutes.  Check out this post I did on Active investing from the LAPFF conference 2013.

Fantastic May Day news - Return of rent protection & security of tenure

I missed Ed Miliband's launch of Labour's Local Government election campaign this morning in next door London borough Redbridge.

I am really pleased with the commitments he made to reform the private rented sector.  Insecure tenancies, unaffordable rent rises and rip off letting agency fees are the top 3 complaints I get as a Councillor from private tenants.

Also more UNISON members now live in the private rented sector than in Social Housing.

Check out this report by progressive housing blog RedBrick.

"The three elements of the reform package are:

• three year tenancies to be the norm, with suitable exemptions (eg a mortgage covenant and students) and a 6 month probationary period.
• an upper limit on rent increases during a tenancy.
• scrapping extortionate letting agent fees to tenants, saving tenants an average of £350 for each letting".  

Finally, together with the commitment to build 200,000 homes a year by 2020, the Party is going to stop just moaning about the broken housing market we live in and do something about it.

The Tories obviously want to do nothing and just let the rip off continue. Even though I know privately many think we should adopt such policies that even right wing governments in Germany don't even blink about. 

I look forward to more announcements on Labour spending more on capital investment and social rents than continuing to waste money on housing benefit.

May Day March & Rally 2014

I 

I'm not sure if I can make the March this year but will try and make some of it.