Saturday 27 September 2008

Labour Party Conference 2008

To be or not to be…

WHEN THE GOING got tough back in the 1960s Labour leader Harold Wilson famously said that a week is a long time in politics. Well Brown’s Labour government has 20 months to play with until the next general election. But if Labour doesn’t radically change its direction it will face crushing defeat at the polls at the hands of the Tories. Unfortunately this message has barely sunk through to Labour Party conference in Manchester this week, least of all to the New Labour leadership who still imagine that they can weather the storm of the current capitalist crisis by pursuing the same Thatcherite policies that have alienated millions of workers who make up much of Labour’s core vote.
Sure we heard union calls inside the hall for the taxing of the rich and the renationalisation of the energy companies but nothing will come of it unless the unions link their demands to the financial support they give the Labour Party to keep it afloat.
The two issues are linked. The Tory offensive against the working class began when they returned to office in 1979 and it has largely continued under New Labour since 1997. The state and public sector was privatised. Collective bargaining was severely curtailed and vital services like the Health Service, public transport and local amenities have all become seriously underfunded.
Working people who can remember the 1970s look back nostalgically to the days of free medical treatment, affordable council housing, dole money as a right, pensions linked to average earnings, controlled transport fares and energy costs and a domestic rating system that didn’t crucify working class homeowners. It was paid for by the profitable sections of the public sector and through progressive income tax.
We must mobilise the class in its own defence to fight for the restoration of state welfare to at least the levels existing in 1979. This demand can easily be met by returning to the income tax levels that existed in 1979 and returning the privatised corporations to state control. We must make the rich pay for them by disgorging a fraction of the wealth they extort from the working class every year.
This can only be done by building fighting, militant trade unions with leaderships determined to fight to defend their members interests against the employer and willing to use their immense financial bargaining and constitutional power within the Labour Party to ensure that a future Labour government carries out the wishes of those it was established to represent.
At the fringe meetings the left social-democratic and Trotskyist “alternatives” are scrabbling around for yet another platform to challenge Labour at the next election. Some sects still seek the Holy Grail of the “correct line” which will miraculously win over millions of workers if only it is repeated again and again and again. Others believe that left unity can be built around a left social-democratic platform that specifically excludes the Labour Party and its affiliated trade unions.
They call for social-democratic reforms while campaigning against the only mass force capable of implementing reform, the Labour Party itself. They foster the illusion that there is a left electoral alternative to Labour when the reality is that the only alternative, in the current situation, is a Tory or a Liberal Democrat government.
None of them wonder why Labour lost London or why the Tories have a 20 per cent lead in the opinion polls. None of them ask why past attempts like the Socialist Alliance, Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party have all failed.
A Labour government, with the yet unbroken links with the Labour Party, the trade unions and the co-operative movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. The NCP’s strategy is for working class unity and our campaigns are focused on defeating the right-wing within the movement and strengthening the left and progressive forces within the Labour Party such as the Labour Representation Committee and the unions.
At the same time we must build the revolutionary party and campaign for revolutionary change. Social democracy remains social democracy whatever trend is dominant within it. It has never led to socialism. Our Party’s strategy is the only way to fight for the communist alternative within the working class of England, Scotland and Wales. We want day-to-day reforms and they can only be achieved by the main reformist, social democratic party in Britain, the Labour Party. We want revolution and that can only be achieved through the leadership of the communist party.

Messages from the Left to New Labour

by Mervyn Drage in Manchester

IT WAS stimulating to be a part of the national Stop the War Coalition/Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march last Saturday and to converse with comrades and friends from across Britain and the world.
There were many political, trade union, internationalist, peace and environmental banners on the march, which was called to put pressure on Labour Party delegates to end the predatory wars of occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The colourful, noisy and exciting march of around 5,000 men, women and children wended its way from All Saints, past the ring of steel around the Labour Party conference, the Midland Hotel and the GMex Conference Centre to end up in a rally in Castlefield.
Several New Communist Party members and New Worker supporters attended the march and rally and we completely sold out of papers.
The massive over-the-top policing of the event was most disturbing; we observed many Greater Manchester Police photographing demonstrators and taking notes. Police in military-style formations and mounted police revived memories of state oppression during the epic miners’ and printers’ disputes of the 1980s.
The Midland and Radisson hotels and the GMex Conference Centre and adjoining roads were sealed off to the public. Large metal bollards were used to close roads.
The right to protest peacefully is enshrined in law but it appears that protesters are being surveyed and monitored, and in effect criminalised, merely for exercising their democratic rights.
We need to know what the police, the security services and the state do with the information they are gathering on us. The worldwide capitalist crisis is intensifying and the Big Brother surveillance and database state is upon us.
A plethora of Labour conference fringe events took place but those meetings in the “secure zones” of the Labour Party conference were disgracefully off limits to the public. However it was possible to attend events at the nearby Friends’ Meeting House, the Mechanics’ Institute and local hotels.
New Workers were sold throughout the week at several fringe events and meetings, including the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) rally at the Mechanics’ Institute on Monday evening; the NO2ID public meeting at the Reynolds Building, University of Manchester on the Tuesday evening; and at the Question Time for the Left event at the Friends’ Meeting House on the Wednesday evening.
At the LRC rally, Karen Reissmann, the sacked psychiatric nurse, with 25 years’ work experience, gave an impassioned speech against NHS cuts and against private medicine.
John McDonnell MP, who chairs the LRC, spoke in favour of a radical anti-capitalist Labour manifesto and he announced that New Labour was on its last legs. He noted that right-wing Blairites are seeking to replace the current lame-duck Prime Minister Gordon Brown with David Miliband. Tony Benn also spoke at this meeting.
In the current global capitalist crisis, John McDonnell said that all New Labour could come up with was more privatisation of public assets and the introduction of more market mechanisms in the public sector.
He asserted that as New Labour was becoming increasingly irrelevant and there was a virtual coalition between Labour leader Brown, Tory leader Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Clegg on economic policies. He said it was imperative to articulate a socialist alternative policy to enhance and protect the lives of working class people and their families.
Other meetings are events during the week included a lunchtime Sinn Féin meeting on Sunday 21st September on the theme, “For a United Ireland”.
There was a demonstration outside the Marks and Spencer store in Market Street on Monday morning organised by the GMB trade union in defence of their member, Tony Goode, who was dismissed from this bullying global corporation for revealing to the media details of cuts in the redundancy terms of 66,000 Marks and Spencer workers in Britain.
On Monday at lunchtime the Communication Workers’ Union organised a march and rally on the theme: “It is Time to Deliver a Positive Future for the Royal Mail – Labour Must Listen”.
Also on Monday, at 5pm, there was a public meeting at the Friends’ Meeting House to support the five Cuban patriots imprisoned for 10 years in the United States for opposing terrorism. And on Wednesday there was a lunchtime public meeting at the Friends’ Meeting House organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, on the theme: “If they can talk to the IRA, why can’t they talk to Hamas?”

Labour conference 2008


‘Tax the bonus system out of existence’

DEREK SIMPSON, joint general secretary of the giant union Unite, last Monday at the annual Labour Party conference in Manchester, demanded that Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, should “tax huge city bonuses out of existence. In an emergency motion to the conference, Derek Simpson called on the Government to challenge the city bonus culture which he says is “out of control”.
He said: “The powerful mega elite with no connection to ordinary people, an amoral class without a care for how their reckless behaviour is now wrecking lives.
“Alistair, these people want ordinary people to share their pain but they won’t share their gain. If you can’t regulate the bonus culture then tax it out of existence.
“It’s time for internationally co-ordinated government action to rein in these finance pirates, take the lid of their secrecy and punish them when their actions lead to disaster for working people.”
The union is also demanding a windfall tax on the giant oil and energy companies to be used to help low income people to pay their rising fuel bills – and Unite backed the demand with full-page advertisements in national newspapers.
According to Unite, even a “modest” windfall tax on oil and energy companies would generate an immediate £3.6 billion – enough to provide nearly six million homes in Britain with an estimated £250 each this winter towards their fuel bills and still have money remaining to make homes across the country fuel efficient.
According to joint general secretary Tony Woodley: “Energy companies in this country have seen their profits leap by an incredible 538 per cent in five years, money they’ve used to line their shareholders’ and executives’ pockets. Yet all consumers have had is price pain.
“In homes across the country, people will be facing an inhumane choice this winter: that of whether to heat or eat. That is simply an obscenity in this the fourth richest country in the world.
“People are looking to Labour, the party of social justice to put an end to this. We say it can be done – it is affordable, it is moral and action must be taken to protect needy people this winter.”
Unite is also launching a Warmth Webline to collect consumers’ energy cases, which the union is promising to present to the Government as further evidence of the need for immediate financial assistance.
The union also tabled an emergency motion to the conference calling for action to protect finance jobs.
Derek Simpson said: “This crisis has a real human cost with thousands of hard-working families at risk of losing their homes. The big city bankers have been exposed, they are not the masters of the universe they are the masters of disaster.
“In the short term HBOS and LTSB must engage with the unions immediately and reassure staff that they will do everything possible to protect jobs. If the banks don’t the Government must step in, they have already intervened and we believe, if necessary, they should intervene to protect jobs in the financial services.
“Looking ahead, the Government must act and undertake a thorough review of the regulations covering the activities of the finance institutions. We can never allow greed and excess to damage our country like this again.”
Meanwhile the public sector union Unison was calling on the Labour Party to remember why it was set up. Steve Warwick, who chairs Unison’s Labour Link, told a packed fringe meeting on the opening day of the conference: “The Government needs to start taking bold steps that speak loudly and clearly about its values and priorities.
“And that means priorities like continued investment in essential public services, delivered by Unison members: public services like childcare, long-term care for the elderly, community health services, youth and community centres, adult education and employment advice, and affordable social housing.
“The return of the Tories to power would be disastrous for our members and for the services they deliver to the public,” Warwick said.
“That’s why we all need this Labour government to demonstrate authority and a sense of purpose and show this country whose side it’s really on.
“The events of the past week have shown what can happen when regulation is weak, when greed takes over and the wider public interest is lost from view.
“History is once again teaching us the importance of a strong and active public sector, acting for the greater good and accountable to the wider society.
“That’s Unison’s agenda. It should be Labour’s agenda.”
Unison also took a swipe at Labour’s privatisation policies. The union last week published a report showing how using private companies to provide public services is exposing all Britons to enormous financial risks and examining the impact of the £79 billion “public services industry”.
“This hard-hitting report shows that the Treasury is at risk of having tens of billions of pounds of liabilities heaped on it, because of the way public services are now delivered and funded,” said Unison general secretary Dave Prentis.

Thursday 18 September 2008

Only a left turn can save Labour

by Daphne Liddle

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown is facing a tough time at next week’s Labour Party conference in Manchester with increasing calls for a new party leader from right-wing Blairites, while Downing Street and the White House scurry around like desperate jugglers trying to shore up the great banking pillars of capitalism as they lurch and sway in the current economic hurricane.
The right-wing attack on Brown has clearly been carefully coordinated in the week before the Labour conference. Three Labour MPs – former whip Siobhain McDonagh, former vice chair Joan Ryan and former special envoy Barry Gardiner all broke ranks to call for a leadership contest – and promptly lost their jobs.
On Wednesday David Cairns, the Scotland Office Minister joined them, saying: “There are a number of ministers who have cautiously looked at the situation and say they are very uncomfortable with it. It’s been in my mind whether I should step down, and if so, when.”
These dissidents have not made a single coherent criticism of Brown’s policies; they are not opposed to privatisation, to pay caps or to the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are worried because they face losing their jobs at the next general election.

policies

But they will not stand any chance of saving those jobs unless a leadership challenge involves a thorough debate on policies leading to a decisive turn to the left.
John McDonnell MP, who chairs the Labour Representation Committee, wrote to the press: “Witnessing the faction infighting between Brownites and Blairites has been like watching a crew having a punch-up on the deck of the Titanic.
“Just to set the record straight, I am not part of this plot and have not asked for nomination papers. I am still up for a leadership election if there is one, but it must be based on a thoroughgoing, open debate about policies and nor personalities.
“The two New Labour factions currently slugging it out have barely a policy difference between them and have supported every New Labour policy over the last 11 years, which has led us to the brink of a Tory government.
In July I suggested a compromise to hold the party together: a structured and inclusive debate about the future of Labour. If this shows support for radical change, as I suspect, it is only in this context that the party should convene an election for a new leader.”
The rebels seem to have only a handful of MPs supporting them. To mount a real challenge they would need 71 willing to nominate one challenger – and so far no one has emerged as a challenger.
To take Brown’s place in the current political and economic climate – without new policies – would be a poisoned chalice for any youthful and ambitious challenger. Only a cynical old hack seeking simply to improve their pension prospects would want the position.
But the rebellion that would have caught the headlines under any other circumstances has been completely overshadowed by the economic crisis.
Capitalism is showing itself in its true colours – commentators are taking about mismanagement by banks and governments but this is the way capitalism is; it cannot be managed to eliminate risk and gambling by speculators.
The capitalists demand a free and unfettered market and moan about taxes and then gamble knowing that ultimately the humble working class taxpayers will pick up the bill as Governments bail them out because various banks, mortgage lenders and insurance companies are “too big to be allowed to fail”.
The US Treasury has run out of funds to bail out anymore banks after rescuing insurance company AIG; anti-competition rules are abandoned as still solvent banks eat up the failing ones.
And still the stock markets plummet. Capitalism is failing.
If this does not inspire the delegates in Manchester – the trade unionists and the constituency representatives – to put working class-friendly policies back on the agenda and the word socialism back in the vocabulary, then Labour cannot win the next general election.

PCS defends state welfare

MARK SERWOTKA, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, on the final day of the TUC conference in Brighton last week, attacked the Government over welfare reforms, accusing it of “dismantling the welfare state”.
Moving an emergency motion on the Government’s welfare reform proposals he said: “The Government’s proposals for welfare reform outlined in their recent Green Paper represent the most fundamental attack on the welfare state since Beveridge’s proposals established the welfare state in 1948. first time
“Just reflect on this, it is the first time since 1948 that any government has seriously proposed abolishing the ‘safety net’ benefit for those without any means of financial support. It began life as National Assistance – today it is known as Income Support.
“It is not generous, below real subsistence on any modern standard; it is never given without question. But we must always remember – with no basic safety net you don’t just deny the parent – you also deny support to children.
“The Green Paper represents a complete u-turn on ‘workfare’. In 1997 experiments with forced labour, such as that in Wisconsin, USA, were explicitly rejected.

New Deal

“Rightly, the government opted for The New Deal, increasing support for jobseekers and ensuring that people were better off in work both through the National Minimum Wage and targeting incentives either through Tax Credits or specific programme payments.
“PCS members in Jobcentres are proud of the success of the New Deal, and in particular the voluntary approach central to its most successful strand, New Deal for Lone Parents, that has enabled over half a million parents, mainly women, to break free of dependency on benefits and get sustainable jobs.
approach that works
“When this approach to worklessness is clearly the approach that works, the question we need to ask is, why is James Purnell so obsessed with the forced labour approach?
“It is an approach that goes where even Thatcher and Howe wouldn’t dare to go in the 1980’s; an approach which stigmatises and demonises people as work shy and evokes images of the Victorian workhouse.
“It is shameful that a Labour government are seeking to implement a benefits regime that unpicks the fundamentals of the welfare state, that strikes at the very notion of a safety net for those in need.”

Thursday 11 September 2008

Unions ready for pay battle

by Daphne Liddle

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling last week at the TUC conference in Brighton tried to pull off the impossible – to convince trade union delegates that if public sector workers could restrain themselves from fighting for fair pay the current economic crisis would be solved in a few months and everyone would be better off next year.
To cries of “rubbish”, he said that Britain was in a good position to ride out the global credit crunch, even though this would mean workers accepting below-inflation pay rises and big rises in food and fuel bills.
He warned that pay rises above the planned two per cent level would lead to inflation and unemployment.
Darling tried to appease delegates’ anger over huge bonuses being paid to City speculators. “A bonus should be for hard work, not big mistakes,” he said, “Excessive bonuses, which encourage traders to take excessive risks, at a time of easy global credit – one of the major reasons for the global credit crunch. We need to learn the lessons to prevent this happening again,” he added – as if this were the first capitalist crisis in history rather than a regular recurring cycle.
The unions were not taken in. GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said the performance was an effort to warm the delegates “but was only as warm as a toaster that had been unplugged for two hours”.
The big public sector unions had already agreed to coordinate a series of strikes for pay rises that at the very least should match the rate of inflation – PCS is already balloting. But they did reject a motion calling for a general strike.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke up for public sector workers: “We have shown that you cannot create world-class services with a workforce battered and bruised by change, sapped of morale by a thousand reorganisations, and crippled by pay awards that do not begin the reflect the true cost of living.
“And don’t let anyone tell us that the government can’t afford fair pay for public servants. If it can spend billions on consultants, billions on tax breaks for UK plc, then surely it can find the money to give Britain’s teachers, prison officers, civil servants and local government workers the fair pay they deserve.
“But let us be clear about this: working people are not the cause of inflation; they are the victims of it.”
The rank and file delegates backed the fight for better pay. PCS member Andy Reid said: “The pay settlement is simply insufficient. The real rate of inflation is five per cent or more. Unless the Government changes its minds, it’s going to become even more unpopular.
“We have to work together to change things. I wouldn’t have any problem with a wider strike. But we are all working together. If we are united the Government will have to listen. If they will not listen to the force of our arguments we will have to make them do so.”
Unison delegate Lisa Mannion said: “People are really angry. My colleagues and I are keen to come out in industrial action. There hasn’t been this sort of strength of feeling for years, when pensions were the biggest source of dispute. “Everyone is fed up with the situation. The unions have got to work together. The Government hasn’t been listening.”
Many delegates were angry that the Government was trying to blame workers for inflation. Aslef delegate James McGowan said: “The Government’s standpoint is not good enough. Blaming public sector workers for inflation is wrong. It’s driven by private sector pay and executive pay. It’s just a political football.
“I was in Warwick recently for Labour’s national policy forum and Gordon Brown didn’t give unions the deal they wanted. The Government will have to listen to us at some stage.”
Unison deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet moved the composite motion that demanded “days of action including a major national demonstration against the Government’s pay policy” and the delegates backed it.
Sonnet told the delegates: “We have a clear message for the cabinet meeting today in Birmingham: we demand fair pay for public service workers – we demand it.”

TUC 2008: Unions challenge Brown

by Caroline Colebrook

A PENSIONERS’ rally marking the centenary of the first Old Age Pension last Sunday kicked off the week of activity surrounding the 2008 TUC conference in Brighton and drawing attention to the continuing, still unmet demands for a significant raise in the basic state pension and the restoration of the link with average earnings.
Speakers at the rally included Kay Carberry, TUC assistant general secretary; Frank Cooper, president of the National Pensioners’ Convention and it was chaired by Unison general secretary and TUC president for 2008 Dave Prentis.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber opened the conference on Monday with a reminder of union successes in the last 12 months. These included the agreement on agency workers “removing one of the worst injustices from our labour market,” and a “major pensions reform” forcing all employers to contribute to their workers’ pensions.
“What better way for us to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the Old Age Pensions Act won through the campaigning of previous generations of trade unionists?” he said.
He continued: “In the past year we’ve also become stronger as a movement. We’ve recorded a welcome 65,000 increase in our membership and reached out to migrant workers in every corner of the UK.
“And signed a new Protocol with our American sisters and brothers to combat the disgraceful activities of union busters on both sides of the Atlantic.”
He mentioned union involvement in the fight against the extreme right and the British National Party and the fight to defend the NHS from “reckless privatisation”.
Then he touched on the battles to come: “Gone are the comfortable realities of the past decade: that the economy can be taken for granted; that prices will remain stable; that the Tories are a spent political force.
“With the credit crunch biting, with incomes being squeezed by rising food, fuel and energy costs, with the gap between the super-rich and the rest of us now a yawning chasm, the British people are crying out for fairness – and I believe the case for action is compelling.”
Barber added: “But let’s also be clear. The credit crunch is no random act of god – but inevitable; inevitable because governments listened to those preaching the cult of deregulation; inevitable because bankers worked out they could make money by irresponsible lending and selling on the debts; and inevitable because property price bubbles always burst.”

Fuel poverty

One of the major issues debated at the TUC was the demand for a windfall tax on the energy companies that have been making obscene profits as the costs of domestic fuel have rocketed, plunging many working class people into fuel poverty.
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the giant union Unite, presented a Dossier of Disgrace exposing the greed and excess of the energy companies and the compelling case for a windfall tax.
Since 2003 gas and electricity companies have increased their profits from £557 million to over £3 billion and raised prices by up to 35 per cent in 2008 alone. But for every 10 per cent increase in energy prices, an extra 400,000 people fall into fuel poverty.
The dossier exposes the huge price hikes, profits and share dividends of the oil and energy utility companies. While the industry spends just £50 million a year combating fuel poverty.
Derek Simpson, Woodley’s co-general secretary, said: “Winter is approaching and in the coming months low paid families will be forced to switch their heating off because they won’t be able to afford the bill.
“The heartless excuses from the energy companies for not fulfilling their social responsibilities have been swallowed hook, line and sinker by the Government. It’s time for action, the situation is dire.”
Tony Woodley said: “The greedy oil companies have made billions and in the next four years they will make an extra £15 billion from the British public. The Government must intervene and intervene now.
“Our case for a windfall tax is compelling. It is morally right. So I say to the Government, it’s time to do the right thing and protect the most vulnerable in society.”
Conference backed the motion, which also criticised Ofgem, the industry watchdog, for failing to control price rises and profiteering.
It said: “Congress notes that the Prime Minister, in his speech of 4th September, ruled out financial assistance for households struggling to meet their energy bills, in favour of help with home insulation. Congress believes this is an inadequate response to the current energy crisis.
“Congress also notes that the ‘big six’ energy suppliers had profits last year of £1.635 billion, whilst the average household fuel bill has risen by 42 per cent in 2008. Congress condemns the actions of these suppliers, and the phoney competition between the energy companies.
“Congress further condemns the failure of the Government and Ofgem to take any action to properly regulate the energy market, and curb the excessive price rises being imposed on hard-pressed consumers….”

The NHS

The TUC conference celebrated – and vowed to defend – the “enormous benefits” of the NHS and its “core values of equity, universality and care free at the point of use”.
Unison representative Lilian Macer told the conference: “Despite the attempts of various governments to reform the NHS beyond recognition, it is to the great credit of all in the union movement that the service the service remains overwhelmingly publicly owned and free at the point of use.”
And it is “continuing to deliver high-quality care in the fairest and most compassionate way possible,” she noted, moving a successful resolution that celebrated the NHS’s 60th birthday and outlined key campaigning priorities to meet the challenges ahead.
“Let’s be thankful that, after 60 years, we still have an NHS that continues to strive for equality and fairness,” Macer told delegates.
She welcomed the moves towards an NHS constitution that “should preserve the essential core principles of the NHS”, but warned “we must also remain vigilant in confronting the many new challenges from both home and abroad.”
She outlined two major areas of challenge: the EU directive on cross-border health care and the Government’s obsession with “patient choice” and “personal budgets”.
“Of course everyone wants patients to be able to get the highest-quality care which is the most appropriate for their needs,” said Macer.
“But the Government hasn’t grasped the fact that choice does not necessarily equal quality. And choice certainly doesn’t equal equality either.”
And when it comes to the proposed pilot of personal health budgets, she added: “For once, pilots have to do exactly what they say on the tin: test a policy to see if it works. And if not, scrap it.
“We have been absolutely clear that opening the NHS up to a co-payments free for all would be the first step onto the slippery slope of a two-tier NHS, where the rich got a business class service and the poor had to settle for the leftovers.”
Similar dangers exist with the EU directive – “another cynical attempt by the European Commission to import market principles via the back door” – Macer warned.
“Far from its stated desire of reducing inequality, the directive would do precisely the opposite, as only those who could afford to pay up front for their treatment abroad, and who could afford the travel costs, would have any realistic access to healthcare in other European countries.”

Tax

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public sector union Unison gave one of the keynote speeches. In it he backed the motion for a windfall tax on fuel companies and also called for higher taxes in general on the super-rich.
“And why stop there?” he said. “Our tax system is one of the most unfair in the EU – the lowest top rate apart from Luxembourg. Those at the top can and should pay more... pay more to help relieve the suffering of the very poorest in our society. A bold step to show whose side Labour’s is really on.

Workers’ rights

The RMT transport union drew the attention of Conference to the threat to trade union rights contained in recent rulings from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
“Anti-union decisions by the unaccountable European Court of Justice have undermined workers’ rights even further than the Thatcher anti-union laws still on Britain’s statute books and urgently need to reversed,” the RMT said adding: “recent rulings by the ECJ add up to the most serious attack on union rights since the Taff Vale judgement more than a century ago.”
The union called on delegates to back its call for the TUC to step up the campaign against Britain’s anti-union laws and to work for Europe-wide action with the aim of restoring the human right to strike enshrined in International Labour Organisation norms.
“The ECJ is an unaccountable and politically driven body which aims to extend the ‘internal market’ – that’s privatisation to you and me – and its rulings effectively render the right to strike meaningless,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.
“The Viking, Laval and Ruffert rulings have each undermined the ability of trade unions to defend their members against attacks on living standards, and the Luxembourg ruling even attacks the right of EU member states to set decent minimum employment standards.
“Together they mean that an employer’s right to ‘freedom of establishment’ trumps the right to strike, and are more restrictive than even the Tory anti-union laws still in place in new-Labour Britain.
“These draconian judgments and EU rules on ‘free movement’, which are enshrined in the renamed EU constitution, the Lisbon Treaty, represent a fundamental attack on trade union rights.
“Unless we roll back these ECJ rulings we will be left defenceless against the EU’s drive to liberalise markets and institutionalise social dumping.
“That means stepping up the campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Act and ensuring that any new UK Bill of Rights includes all ILO conventions, and it means working with unions across Europe to demand the reversal of the ECJ’s anti-union rulings,” he said.
In the Viking case the Finnish ferry company Viking Line attempted to re-flag one of its ships to Estonia and replace Finnish seafarers with cheaper Estonian labour.
When the Finnish workers decided to strike to stop this social dumping, Viking began legal proceedings and, after sitting on the case for three years, the ECJ ruled that the company’s “freedom of establishment” took precedence over the Finnish workers’ right to strike.
The Vaxholm (or Laval) case began after Swedish trade unionists attempted to prevent Latvian firm Laval paying poverty wages to Latvian builders working in the Swedish town of Vaxholm.
The ECJ ruled that the right to take action is superseded where an employer complains that the union is seeking terms and conditions in excess of the minimum provided by the Posted Workers Directive.
It claimed that as Sweden has no minimum-wage legislation in place the industrial action was invalid.
In the Ruffert case the court ruled that a German public body was not entitled to include a clause in a public works contract that required contractors to pay foreign workers the same rates as those set down in collective agreements.
In the Luxembourg case the court ruled that Luxembourg must remove labour laws putting national and foreign workers on an equal footing with local employees.
In all these cases the ECJ asserts that EU rules on the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour give private firms protection against collective action by trade unions.

Friday 5 September 2008

Unions co-ordinate pay fight

by Caroline Colebrook

THE LEADERS of Britain’s major public sector unions have been meeting and discussing plans to co-ordinate their battle against a Government pay cap of around two per cent – well below inflation – on all public sector pay rises in the run-up to next week’s annual TUC conference in Brighton.
The unions will set new strike dates as this pay battle intensifies that will bring out civil servants, local government employees, teachers and health workers at the same time.
Four key unions have tabled motions to the conference demanding the TUC’s ruling council co-ordinate strike plans, including Unison; PCS, which represents civil servants; the National Union of Teachers; and the University and College Union, representing lecturers.
One TUC officer said: “Public sector workers feel they’re languishing around the two per cent mark when inflation is at four to five per cent, and by any standards that is a pay cut. There is a political price to be paid for those people who feel the Government is punishing them.”
A Unison spokeswoman said that the major unions had already discussed how to co-ordinate strikes, adding: “It’s not easy to do, but it is something we have on our radar in terms of what might make action more effective.”
There have already been some coordinated strikes against the pay caps involving civil servants teachers, NHS workers and local government workers but they have never yet all taken strike action together at one time.
The unions are angry that the Brown government is expecting them to carry the can for the current deepening economic crisis that has been brought about by capitalist greed and speculation.
The workers, especially the masses of them on very modest wages, are being disproportionately hit by steeply rising food and fuel prices – basic necessities they cannot choose to do without. Meanwhile the inflation figures are misleading because they are kept low by stable prices for goods and services that are not essentials. The lower the wage, the bigger slice of it that has to be spent on essentials and so the poorest workers are hit hardest.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, said: “It’s time to stand up against pay cuts and pushes the message ‘public services not private profit’.”
He commented on the recently-published Deanne Julius report on privatisation, saying it made clear “something that I have been arguing for years – that New Labour has privatised more than the last two Tory governments combined.”
He said the report revealed that the privatisation industry has grown by 130 per cent since 1995. “Senior executives in the industry, like Serco chief executive Christopher Hyman with his seven figure salary, have clearly done well from this rapid expansion. What is far less clear is the benefit to the population as a whole,” said Serwotka.
“There is very little evidence to support the argument that services have improved – as the Julius report concedes.
Indeed, if one was to consider some of the areas most likely to have been privatised (or outsourced), a few questions might reasonably be posed. For example: catering operations – has school food improved? Security – are Government facilities and staff safer? Cleaning – are hospitals cleaner?
“We do know that outsourced cleaning and security is up to 17 per cent worse paid than when in-house. It is very hard to see how that ensures a better service.
“But there is a fundamental contradiction in public sector outsourcing. For those running public services the key question should be whether outsourcing improves the services provided to the public and society as a whole.
“For the outsourcing industry, though, the key is whether all opportunities to extract a profit have been fully exploited. There are those who would argue that these are not contradictory, but they seem to find it hard to locate the evidence to support them.”
Meanwhile in Scotland public sector workers are planning to build on their successful strike last month by announcing further strike dates in local government.
The unions say that Scottish local government employers have failed to improve their pay offer. Last week officers of the giant union Unite met with representatives of Cosla (the Council of Scottish Local Authorities) to try to resolve the outstanding issues of low pay and a below inflation pay offer which resulted in the recent strike across Scotland. Jimmy Farrelly, Unite regional official said: “Initially the employers indicated that they would offer a one year deal which would take the recent rises in inflation into account.
However, today they came back with a one-year deal of just 2.5 per cent which is exactly the same as their previous offer.
“This is a total misjudgement of local government workers’ commitment to fight for a decent living wage. We are extremely disappointed with their decision which will lead to an escalation of strike action.”
Unite, the GMB and Unison will be meeting within the next week to coordinate further strike dates.

PCS news

Acas staff to strike

CIVIL servants employed at the conciliation and arbitration service Acas last week voted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
PCS called on the Government to take immediate action to settle the row to avoid “embarrassing” industrial action at the organisation, which helps resolve disputes.
The union said that 59 per cent of those who took part in a ballot backed strike action, with 80 per cent supporting other forms of industrial action.
The industrial action ballot follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay remit submitted to the Treasury by Acas, which the union believes will result in real-terms pay cuts.
Workers are angry that pay negotiations for this year have yet to begin. The annual pay increase was due on 1st August. PCS says that this year’s delay follows a 10-month hold-up to last year’s 2007 pay increase.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Members have indicated clearly that they are not prepared to accept below-inflation pay or a repeat of last year’s 10-month delay.”

DVLA walkout

WORKERS employed at the Department for Transport (DfT) in the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) took strike action last Friday in a protest at pay inequality and a below-inflation pay rise in a 24-hour walkout organised by PCS.
The strike caused significant disruption leading to the closure of local offices and a restricted service in those remaining open.
The contact centre was also severely disrupted with the public being advised to contact the DVLA another day.
Picket lines across England, Scotland and Wales were well supported, with the Swansea headquarters seeing approximately 80 per cent of staff stay away from work and local politicians including Bethan Jenkins, Welsh Assembly Member, visiting the picket line.
In Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow, 90 per cent of staff stayed away from work, whilst elsewhere local offices were closed due to strike action.
The strongly supported action follows below inflation pay offers and widening pay gaps between the predominantly female staffed DVLA and the predominantly male DfT and related agencies.
With pay gaps of £2,524 existing between DVLA and the DfT, the union is pursuing equal pay cases.
A 10-day preliminary Employment Tribunal hearing starts on 8th September where the union will claim that women executive officers in DVLA are underpaid in comparison with male driving examiners in DSA.