Rail Dispute : Who’s in Charge? Peter Whitelegg The revised offer (19/1/23) lauded by much of the media is nothing more than a charter for the complete dismemberment of anything approaching decent employment conditions. With no pay rise in many cases for 4 years, and inflation running above 10%, the current offer of 5% for … Continue reading The Rail Dispute: Who’s In Charge?
Author: lefroggy01
Working Conditions: the Case of the Railways
Working conditions: the case of the railways Eamon Dyas In its report on the recent pay offer to the railway workers (link below) the BBC acts as the public relations department of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) in the way it frames the offer. Not only is the 4% on offer miserly in itself but … Continue reading Working Conditions: the Case of the Railways
Working Conditions: the Case of the Müller Drivers
Working Conditions: the case of the Müller drivers Eamon Dyas Members of the Unite Trade Union are currently picketing supermarkets in London to highlight an industrial dispute that has received little coverage in the media although it touches on a subject that is becoming a growing concern for workers generally – the erosion of working … Continue reading Working Conditions: the Case of the Müller Drivers
Working Conditions—Comments
Muller and rail disputes: a comment Feargus ORaghallaigh There is an aspect to this story/dispute that has been left unmentioned and I wonder why. It is that Muller is a German-owned milk processor. It is highly successful, concentrating on the consumer/value-added end of the business - short shelf-life chilled FMCG (yogurts and such things). Its big … Continue reading Working Conditions—Comments
Blue Labour
BLUE LABOUR - STRONG ON THEORY, WEAK IN PRACTICE REVIEW: Maurice Glasman: Blue Labour - the Politics of the Common Good, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2022. Peter Brooke HOPEFUL BEGINNINGS Back in 2011 it looked as if Maurice Glasman could become highly influential in the Labour Party. Ed Miliband had become leader in 2010 and, casting around … Continue reading Blue Labour
Notes on the News
Notes on the News By Gwydion M. Williams Is Thatcher’s Spell Fading? Starmer and Labour’s ‘Timid Tendency’ China Badmouthed Over Covid The Sad Fate of All the Ukraines Snippets US Citizens Above the Law? Qatargate – Backwash From the Ukraine War? Russia Solid Chinese Protestors as Straw Dogs Is Thatcher’s Spell Fading? Baby Boomers like … Continue reading Notes on the News
Mick Lynch In His Own Words
(The image above is by water colour artist Inga Bystram) Transport Committee meetings 11/1/23 https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12513/pdf/ The three witnesses are Mick Lynch (RMT), Mick Whelan (ASLEF) and Frank Ward (TSSA). One of the Committee members is the SNP Gavin Newlands, whose later intervention in the House of Commons we quote below. Extracts. Question. [There have been three … Continue reading Mick Lynch In His Own Words
Stop the War in Ukraine—Peace Talks Now
Trade Union anti-war conference Saturday 21st January 2023 With Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan and RMT president Alex Gordon TRADE unionists gathered at central London’s Hamilton House today for a conference on strengthening voices for peace in the labour movement. The World at War — a Trade Union Issue has been called by the Stop the … Continue reading Stop the War in Ukraine—Peace Talks Now
Pay Increases
Meanwhile, in the Private Sector: Tanker drivers gain huge rise after walkout threat LOGISTICS workers were celebrating yesterday after their threat to go on strike led to them winning a “huge pay victory” worth close to 40 per cent for some staff. About 150 Unite members employed by Wincanton to deliver fuel to Valero petrol … Continue reading Pay Increases
Marie Dupin
The News Personified—a fresh look at the news A short daily humorous piece on French state radio ‘France Info’ Every morning, the journalist Marie Dupin takes on the role of a personality, an event, a place or a fact at the heart of the news. News reports usually leave out historical context, or even any … Continue reading Marie Dupin
Fiscal Rules – A Scam To Justify Austerity — Editorial
Early in his Autumn Statement to Parliament on 17th November, the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced two new fiscal rules: “…I also confirm two new fiscal rules. The first is that underlying debt must fall as a percentage of GDP by the fifth year of a rolling five-year period. The second is that public sector borrowing over … Continue reading Fiscal Rules – A Scam To Justify Austerity — Editorial
The Non-Existent UK Fiscal Black Hole— Editorial 2
The story we are being told about UK government finances by virtually every main stream media (MSM) commentator goes something like this. The government wants to spend more than it is raising in taxes. This means that it will have to borrow from the private sector. The private sector may choose not to lend to the government. In … Continue reading The Non-Existent UK Fiscal Black Hole— Editorial 2
Are Strikes Being Banned?
Minimum service levels legislation By Pete Whitelegg We are currently witnessing the largest wave of industrial action since the start of the Thatcher era. The current high level of inflation, combined with real wages having stagnated for at least the past 10 years (see charts elsewhere in the magazine), with real standards of living collapsing for … Continue reading Are Strikes Being Banned?
The Northern Powerhouse
Eamon Dyas The issue preventing the employment of new train drivers isn't the absence of rest-day rosters (as implied in a BBC report*) but the insistence by the rail operators (and the government) that the existing rest-day rosters be thrown out and the unions accept new ones that are detrimental to the interests of the existing … Continue reading The Northern Powerhouse
Labour’s Vocational Education Policy
A New Beginning? Dave Gardner This journal has for some time bemoaned the Labour Party’s lack of interest in a matter of the first concern to working people, vocational education and training (VET). In Robert Halfon MP on the other hand, the Tories have a Minister of State responsible for VET who is exceptionally knowledgeable … Continue reading Labour’s Vocational Education Policy
Eco-warriors are not Fighting Climate Change
Eamon Dyas The whole issue of climate change has long been hijacked by the liberal lobby and they have effectively debilitated any effective response by pushing it into the stable of virtue signalling. This has meant that those who are concerned about the issue are now preoccupied with it as an abstract cause that is … Continue reading Eco-warriors are not Fighting Climate Change
Notes on the News
Notes on the News By Gwydion M. Williams Back to Tax-and-Spend? USA Still Macho on Climate Snippets A New Age of Gold? China Badmouthed Over Covid-19 North Korea – Too Dangerous to Invade? UAS Losing its Farmers India Overpopulated? Heavy Punishment for Upsetting the Rich and Powerful Everything Russian Must Be Bad? Northern Cyprus – … Continue reading Notes on the News
How to Fail at Globalisation
How the USA Botched 1990s Globalisation By Gwydion M. Williams In the early 1990s, the USA was handed the world on a plate. And they knocked the plate over. Vain and greedy and aggressive, their two dominant political parties were united in doing most of the wrong things. And in Britain, Tony Blair encouraging all the errors. Almost … Continue reading How to Fail at Globalisation
Labour Affairs 