Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff

Colleagues,

Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff is the excellent title of a newly published volume on the history of films about the labour movement. There is some useful online material around this subject, but this is probably, currently the best book on the subject.

From Salt of the Earth to Roger and Me the book explores the fundamentally important role that film has played in exploring the challenges of organised labour and promoting its importance.

Although referred to all too briefly the book naturally includes one of my all time favourite trade union films, Matewan, which dramatises beautifully the plight of striking miners in the 1920's West Virginia Coalfields. Although brutal at times in its depiction of the savagery of anti-trade union tactics, the film is ultimately an inspirational testament to the need to collectively organise. There is a great write up of the background of the actual dispute and of the film itself at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan

The book is available for purchase via the LaborStart online bookstore:

https://ssl30.pair.com/unionist/ccp51/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?rrc=N&pg=prod&ref=movies&affl=labourstart

I'd really welcome feedback on the film that helped inspire your trade union activity and/or epitomises the best (or even worst)of the trade union movement.

Cheers

Ian

Haiti:The Trade Union Response

Colleagues,

The earthquake in Haiti demands an unequivocal global, humanitarian response - and as ever the trade union movement is at the forefront.

The ITUC has mobilised an international effort to respond to the disaster and is working closely with trade unionists in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. See here for more information: www.ituc-csi.org/haiti-earthquake-major.html.

As with other media organisations The Guardian is provising first class, first hand accounts of the aid response in Haiti and is providing details of how to provide financial and other assistance.

The Guardian live blog is at: www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/jan/19/haiti-earthquake-updates

Please continue to follow developments, particularly on the trade union front via the ITUC, and do all that you can to provide assistance.

Cheers

Ian

Happy New Year?

Colleagues,

I hope you all had a good rest over the festive period and I wish you all the very best for 2010.

And what a year it looks set to be. The Guardian helped set the forecast on the industrial front with a useful background peice from the industrial action front based largely on planned action across the public sector, not least arising from the restarting of suspended action by the CWU.

Go to this link for full details:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/31/strikes-unions-unrest-militancy

As you'll see/hear/read from the media we are now in the midst of the unofficial start of the election campaign and we can expect only further dire news for the public sector in particular with regards to expected pay squeezes and job cuts.

It will be a highly depressing period from now until whenever the election is for public sector workers as both mainstream parties attempt to out-cut one another in respect of deep cuts in public sector services and/or the transfer of services into the private sector.

I'll be exposing what all of this means, particular from a grassroots trade union perspective over the coming months, and hope, in my own small way, to contribute to the fightback from the educational front.

In the meantime however, I hope you find the slide back into work an easy one.

Any thougts/comments on what we can expect in the run-up to the election will be welcome.

Cheers!

Ian

International Migration Day

Colleagues,

Another year of challenges and successes for the global labour movement - and what a year ahead what with the UK's general election, the backlash over whatever comes out of Copenhagen, the start of the withdrawal from Afghanistan etc etc.

But before I call it a day and shut up shop for Christmas, can I give a plug for the ITUC's International Migration Day.

Further details of the event can be seen at:

http://www.ituc-csi.org/international-migration-day-a-new.html

Quite rightly the ITUC has put its day of action in the following context:

Within the framework of the international protection mechanisms provided by the UN and in particular the ILO, migrants should be able to exercise in full their rights to freedom of association and trade union organisation, of which they are too often deprived. They should also be entitled to an adequate social welfare system and more ethical recruitment procedures.

Sadly however the UK experience alone tends to portray a wholly different picture of the migrant experience.

And so, next year I look forward to working as project manager for the GFTU with several partners on a project designed to protect vulnerable workers, and in particular migrant workers, from workplace and social exploitation.

I'll use the blog to launch the project and provide periodic insights to progress/action etc.

In the meantime can I wish you all a very happy, peaceful and solidaristic holiday and the very best for a challenging, inspiring 2010!

Cheers

Ian

The Union Advantage

Colleagues,

Yesterday the TUC launched a handy new publication which I can see being useful to reps in their recruitment activity.

The Union Advantage is a contemporary review of all of the benefits that accrue from trade union membership particularly as it relates to pay and health and safety matters. Although these two have been traditional features of recruitment campaigns we can now, for example, add learning and skills matters to the list.

The report can be downloaded at:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/unionadvantage.pdf

Running alongside the new report is a leaflet, Want Better Pay, Conditions and Benefits at Work? which reps should be using alongside any material from their own union - although some unions prefer to use their own material.

The TUC press release doesn't say where you can get the new leaflets from but if you e-mail me I'll try and find out.

What I am particularly interested in is whether you feel you can add to the TUC's report from your own experience of the value of trade union membership.

I've used that term over the years particularly with new reps when I've asked them to consider what the average member thinks as they look at their wage slip and asks, looking at the deducation for union subs, 'what did I get for that'?

Unless reps can provide a clear, strong impression of what members do in fact get out of membership they can easily find themselves on the backfoot and having to argue hard to recruit new workers and retain exisitng members.

So, what do you say is the value of trade union membership?

All and any comments welcome.

Cheers

Ian

Neil Kearney: A Life on the Frontline

Colleagues,

The sad, untimely death of Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Tailor, Leather & Garment Workers' Union, is being mourned right across the global labour movement.

I remember Neil in particular through my work as a young trade union studies tutor with what was then KFAT (now part of COMMUNITY) and of the work that he was spearheading challenging the use of child labourers in clothing manufacture in Bangladesh.


Indeed, his impact, particularly in Bangladesh, through the pioneering creation of international framework agreements (IFA) to create a minimum floor of labour standards, based on ILO core labur standards, has resulted in the national declaration of three days of mourning in Bangladesh in the clothing sector.

On the front page of the ITLGW web-site the dedication to Neil reads:

Neil died of a heart attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the early hours of Thursday November 19. He was 59.Neil was a brilliant and passionate defender of the rights of workers who was equally at home negotiating at the highest level or talking with workers on the factory floor. In his 21 years at the head of the ITGLWF, Neil brought tireless energy and commitment to his work. Despite the pressures he faced and the scope of the problems he tackled, his sense of humour was never far away. He was an inspiration to all who knew him. With Neil’s death we lose an excellent General Secretary, a loyal colleague and a good friend.At this very sad time the thoughts of the ITGLWF and its members are with Neil’s wife Jutta and his two daughters Nicole and Caroline.More details on the funeral and the upcoming World Congress will be circulated shortly.

For those who hadn't met Neil before there's a really good YouTube clip (one amongst a large number) that gives a really good portrayal of the person and of the values that drove him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzkOawm8rOI

Neil will be greatly missed but at the same time he is someone who, working with grasroots trade union and political activists, will be remembered as central to the fight to place some of the most marginalised and exploited workers on the forefront of trade union campaigning and organising activity.

I am sure that Neil would have agreed with the famous last words words of Joe Hill who famously said before his death, 'don't mourn, organise!'.

Any comments/memories on the work of Neil that you are familiar with are welcome. Please do also add any comments/condolences to the ITLGW web-site (www.itlgw.org).

Cheers

Ian

A New Regime of Subordination

Colleagues,

This weekend I attended the 6th Critical Labour Studies symposium. The symposium this year had the title Crisis what Crisis: Forward to the Past? and brought together a first class range of speakers who focused on topics ranging from trade union responses to lean production in the UK car industry to the challenges of undertaking research around migration.

You can read further information about the Critical Labour Studies network at http://criticallabourstudies.org.uk/site/ you can also register for e-mail updates at:

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES

A summary of the work of the network:

Through CLS we have developed an open working group and discussion forum that engages with many of the challenges facing researchers and trade unionists within the current environment of work and employment. By 'labour', we anticipate, in the traditions of radical researchers over the ages, a broad understanding of myriad social, economic and political agendas.

I particularly enjoyed the discussion around the launch of a new book (pictured) which charted to trade union response to the introduction of lean production techniques in UK car manufacturing. The speakers Tony Richardson and Ken Murphy (ex and current car workers and TU activists) and Paul Stewart (Strathclyde Uni) presented an engaging analysis of how the trade union movement around car manufacturing had interpreted the distinct aspects of the emerging production regime and attempted to limit its most damaging aspects.

The book was launched last week at the BMW plant at Cowley, Oxford and can be bought from Pluto Press (for an extremely reasonable £15). Follow this link to purchase the book:

http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745328676&

I took the title for this post from the introduction to the book which essentially presents lean production as yet another exploitative framework from which workers are expected (as Ken Murphy stated) to 'give more for less'.

Interestingly, just prior to the session on the book the conference focus was on the introduction of lean managment methods within revenue and customs offices within the UK.

From a purely personal perspective I contributed to both discussions from the viewpoint that current education methodologies adopted by many trade unions limited (or explicitly excluded) the oppotunity for new trade union reps to develop a sufficient political consciousness to interpret and analyse these developments and so make historical and global connections.

The event was definitely one of those that I would strongly encourage colleagues to attend who want to engage in debate on topics that are thoughtfully presented and which pose key challenges/opportunities to the future of organised labour.

No question this time, just wanted to encourage interest in CLS and the new book.

Cheers

Ian