Oct

16 October 2013: The day CWU postal members invaded the beaches of global capitalism

Today is a momentous day in the history of industrial relations between the 500-year-old (and now privatised) Royal Mail group, which is the British postal operator, and its postal workers, who are represented by the Communications Workers’ Union.

The result of a ballot by the CWU on industrial action was returned today, with a Yes vote of 78 per cent and a No vote of 22 per cent, the turn-out being 64 per cent.

The privatisation of the 500-year-old institution has been one of the most unpopular in recent times, both among employees of the business, reflected in a consultative ballot (96 per cent voting against it), and in the public outcry as expressed in various opinion polls. Even the Iron Lady, Thatcher, when she was privatising the whole of Britain in the 1980s wouldn’t privatise the “Queen’s head”; so it fell to a Liberal Democrat MP, Vince Cable, to hammer in the Tory neo-liberal nail.

The planning that has gone into the privatisation has been a disaster from the beginning. Since its flotation on the stock exchange, shares have soared, revealing that the business was massively undersold by about £1 billion. This means that the taxpayer has already lost that £1 billion in what can only be described as a bundled fire-sale. A tenth of the shares have been allocated to the Royal Mail staff as a “sweetener”; but given the result of the ballot, the employees are more concerned about their job security than about any bribe.

The chief executive of Royal Mail, Moya Green, claims that privatisation was necessary for outside investment; but it’s fast becoming obvious that the fire-sale was purely ideological, to line the pockets of faceless investors and the ruling class, with their bloodthirsty obsession with maximising profit.

To quote Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the CWU, “We will not accept people maximising individual profit on the back of minimising the value, terms and conditions of postal workers.”

The privatisation of the business has, however, taken place, and that battle has been lost for now. However, the fight of postal workers to protect their terms and conditions in the face of that privatisation continues. There was an offer from the business of a legally binding agreement with a duration of three years. This, however, has been rejected and the CWU is demanding a longer duration, with better job security for its members. Any such deal will be unprecedented; and, given the result of the ballot, Royal Mail would be well advised to get involved in meaningful negotiations with the CWU or face the determination of its postal workers.

The TULF extends its solidarity and support to these workers and their families.

October 16th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: CWU, global capitalism, Vince Cable

Oct

What would be a fitting tribute?

There could not be a greater opportunity to revitalise an ailing trade union movement than the commemoration and celebration of the 1913 Lock-out. We have seen, and commented on, how the state, in conjunction with parts of the movement, has initiated its commemoration; and we are unfortunately expecting a let-down in collective bargaining legislation, as Richard Bruton has been clear in his intention to reform the previous failed legislation and keep it within Ireland’s commitment to attracting foreign investment.

But how could the movement do justice to the men and women of the Lock-out?

Firstly, there would have to be a common understanding of what exactly the Lock-out was and where it came from. This is lacking at present within the movement.

The Lock-out was not just an industrial-relations struggle over union recognition. It was class struggle over a vision of how and for whom society should be organised, pitting against each other the two most prominent political fronts of the opposing classes in Ireland, William Martin Murphy and his employers’ groups on the one hand and Larkin, Connolly and the ITGWU on the other. It was also intrinsically of, and itself influenced, the rebirth of the national struggle that had been developing and that Connolly brilliantly saw in conjunction with the class struggle as two sides of the same coin.

The Lock-out placed class at the centre of Irish politics but also saw the formation of the Irish Citizen Army, which would play a central role in the Rising three years later, and would see the ITGWU, and many union members, play an important role in the popular revolutionary struggle for independence and sovereignty.

Simply put, the Lock-out was class struggle out in the open, related to the global changes occurring in capitalism and, in particular, in Ireland’s position within British imperialism. In that sense, the Lock-out was not only a national event.

This is the deeper understanding of the Lock-out that is required first for the union movement to appropriately recognise and pay tribute to this historic and hugely relevant event.

Secondly—and only if the point above is recognised—the formal movement can lead a national class awakening on a par with those times. The class nature of the struggle in 1913 should be recognised and celebrated as working-class pride and confidence in itself. This is a long way from the collaborationist and corporatist ideology of “partnership” but something that is necessary for revitalising the movement and shifting the balance of power in Ireland towards labour and working people.

To avoid the accusation of naïveté, we acknowledge that this will not happen overnight, and no-one should expect this; but resources and efforts need to be directed now towards class-conscious political education and organising. This centenary is the perfect opportunity for a willing trade union movement to do this. It can be done through shop-stewards’ courses, lunchtime seminars and weekend schools but also through union papers, web sites, annual events and social media and by linking with the many groups, parties and campaigns that push class-consciousness.

While talks of mergers, shared services and assets abound, this will do nothing to strengthen the movement, as Connolly pointed out, if it is not accompanied by a revolutionary ideology.

And finally, the movement should draw attention to the obvious and striking similarities that exist today and use the resonance that the Lock-out still has in working-class communities to build genuine campaigns to challenge imperialism in its modern guise and to fight on the street and in the work-place for democracy in all aspects of our lives—political, industrial, economic, cultural, and social. This should include marches and demonstrations but needs to move far beyond the usual “Grand Old Duke of York” demos and build a united class-conscious movement with a vision of socialism.

October 12th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: 1913 Lock-out, Connolly, ITGWU, Larkin

Sep

Reply to Trade Union Left Forum News Item of September 27th, 2013

The state commemoration on Saturday, August 31st, 2013, was the first official acknowledgement of the role of organised labour in the creation and development of the Irish state. It was secured in spite of intense opposition from business interests and it was important from our point of view both for its symbolic value and as part of the campaign to have legislation on collective bargaining passed during the life of the current Government.

This is the first time such a commitment has been secured in a Programme for Government, due to the Labour Party’s participation in that Government. This is not a statement of support for the Labour Party, simply a statement of fact.

The 1913 Committee has been involved in a wide range of initiatives to celebrate and commemorate the Dublin Lockout. It has done so in a spirit of co-operation and on the basis of finding issues of common ground with a wide range of civic society bodies and interested individuals.

While there are relevant points made in the Trade Union Left Forum blog it also contains statements that are inaccurate and damaging to its own credibility, as well as the objectives of the wider movement.

For instance:
1. It attacks the use of G4S Security in terms I will not repeat as they are potentially defamatory. Suffice to say that G4S Security received the contract to steward the event because it recognises unions, engages in collective bargaining in Ireland, and has a global union agreement. The people attacked in your blog are fellow workers and trade unionists.
2. The blog states that ‘400,000 Dubliners do not bring themselves to the point of starvation for trade union recognition or for any pay claim or terms and conditions of employments. They go to such extremes for a political vision of society – socialism’. The total population of Dublin in 1913 was only 300,000 and only one out of ten ‘Larkinite’ candidates was elected to the City Council during the Lockout. Wishful thinking is no substitute for serious historical analysis.

How the Trade Union Left Forum decides to commemorate Bloody Sunday and other events connected with the Lockout is a matter for itself, but it owes it to fellow trade unionists to base its critique on facts if it wishes to be taken seriously.

Padraig Yeates
On Behalf of the 1913 Committee

September 30th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News

Sep

Larkin laid to rest in state funeral

Saturday 31 August saw the state do its best to bury the soul and spirit of Larkinism through its official commemoration of the 1913 Lockout. While this was the official state event, there is no doubt it also had the support and the involvement of elements of the trade union leadership, although their level of involvement or control over the event is not clear.

Certainly this year has seen an array of excellent and worthwhile commemorations, in the form of new research, essays and books, new web sites, series of podcasts, radio debates, community television broadcasts, public meetings, events in local libraries, local history events and many more that reflect the resonance this heroic event has with working people today.

The state-led service (as this is what it felt like) failed to capture this mood. It deliberately had no connection with contemporary workers or struggles. It was deliberately apolitical. It did not celebrate Larkinism, because that would be to celebrate political, class-conscious, militant solidarity and trade unionism; that would be to celebrate a threat to the state itself.

The Lockout is less important as an industrial relations event than as the first time the working class in Ireland placed its demands at the centre and the heart of Irish politics and made itself the central actor. To celebrate that is to celebrate class struggle, something neither the state nor parts of the trade union movement are keen on, which could not avoid the political demands and challenges faced by working people today and the failure of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party to address these in any meaningful way. So they chose the safe and neutral option of wreath-laying, songs, readings, and re-enactments.

Even more disappointing, however, was the fact that G4S Security, a firm notorious for its use of precarious work and its horrendous prison conditions, is reported to have pulled from the crowd those daring to express a political view counter to those of Fine Gael or the Labour Party, having searched everyone on the way in—leaving the event with no need for people to dress as the DMP. Topped off with a VIP zone for the President, Fine Gael and Labour TDs, it left a feeling rather as if this was William Martin Murphy’s final victory over Larkin.

The state clearly sees the potential danger posed both by this commemoration and by those to come over the next decade. It sees the potential they have to mobilise and focus the anger and frustration of working people and to link the demands for better living and working conditions with the demands for sovereignty and control. This has set the tone for future state events: dull, disconnected, and unimaginative.

Crucially important for union activists to appreciate is that 20,000 workers do not bring themselves to the point of starvation for trade union recognition or for any pay claim or terms and conditions of employment. They go to such extremes for a political vision of society—socialism—that Larkin, Connolly and the unions involved represented. The Lockout was an intensely political event, pitting one vision of society against another, exposing the class contradictions within the national movement and radicalising what would later become the republican and socialist wing of it.

It is up to us, politically class-conscious trade unionists, to capture this mood and organise within our unions to reclaim the politics of Connolly and Larkin from those who seek to bury them.

September 27th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Jim Larkin

Sep

Solidarity with the members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland

The Trade Union Left Forum expresses its solidarity with the members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland in rejecting the Haddington Road Agreement despite the threats and bullyboy tactics of the government.

The threats to cuts allowances and enforce compulsory redundancies by the Labour Party Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn and by Labour Party Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin by using the draconian Financial Emergency Legislation (Fempi) against trade union members is a challenge not just to ASTI members but to all public sector workers.

All workers need to stand together and resist this governments bullying and intimidation and to build solidarity with the members of the ASTI and those teachers from other unions who may take solidarity actions in support of the position taken by the ASTI members.

“An injury to one is the concern of all” – This is still the bedrock of our movement.

September 25th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland, Haddington Road Agreement, Trade Union Left Forum

Sep

Will this Government guarantee the right to union representation for workers?

The Labour Party, in this centenary year of the heroic struggle of 1913, claims to be committed to providing the legal right to trade union representation and collective bargaining for workers with their employers. They claim it is part of the Programme for Government that they negotiated with their coalition partners, Fine Gael—though in reality all this commits them to is reforming existing legislation to be in line with recent rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.

The relevant minister, Richard Bruton (Fine Gael), requested submissions on this subject earlier in the year and has made a commitment to bringing forward legislation to reform the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act (2001) later this year that will “reconcile Ireland’s constitutional, social and economic traditions, and international obligations, whilst at the same time ensuring continued success in building Ireland’s domestic jobs-base and in attracting overseas investment into the economy.” (Richard Bruton in a letter to the Youth Committee of the ICTU.)

Already, however, it is clear that this Government will not legislate for collective bargaining for workers and for the legal right to be collectively represented by an independent trade union chosen by the workers themselves. What is likely to be introduced is a reform of the discredited 2001 act that will allow transnational corporations, Ryanair included, to continue to consult their own dependent staff associations and to avoid any efforts by workers to achieve recognition for their trade union.

So, while there may be great fanfare from the Labour Party and its representatives in various trade unions, the devil will be in the lack of detailed mechanisms for legal trade union recognition and collective bargaining.

But what would we want if we could achieve legislative recognition collective bargaining?

First of all, it’s important to state that legal union recognition would not be the panacea for the declining strength of the movement. Many countries have a variety of mechanisms for this, yet in virtually every country in the western world unions are declining numerically and in strength. Why? Because the unions have failed to adapt to new forms of control and domination of workers by employers and have dropped the broader social and economic demands of the class in favour of sectoral professional imagery. Where unions are growing they are allied to community demands and struggles and are challenging the political system—such as nurses in California and teachers in Chicago.

But nonetheless the right to union recognition and collective bargaining is a recognised human right and has the potential to strengthen both our movement and our class, and so it is well worth pushing for. So what demands should we make? What would constitute progressive legislation on this issue?

For this right to be meaningful and possible for workers to achieve, more than just a right to be represented is needed. Legislation should include the following:

Recognition of union membership and collective bargaining as a basic human right
A legal right and a mechanism for compulsory recognition of a trade union for employees by employers
Broad outlines of what constitutes collective bargaining and negotiating mechanisms and an avoidance of minimal consultation-style frameworks
A clear understanding of a trade union as an independent registered trade union and not a staff association established by the management
The right of trade unions to have access to workers in their work-place, to ensure that all workers are given the right to organise a union free from intimidation
The right to have access to existing members where collective bargaining already exists
Protection for union members from penalisation, discrimination or disciplinary action for carrying out legitimate trade union activity
Legal protection for the collection of union subscriptions at source
Economically harsh fines and penalties for companies found to be in breach of the legislation, so that it is not economic to illegally avoid unions

These are not unrealistic demands—indeed many of these kinds of rights exist in Australia, New Zealand, parts of the United States, Britain, and other countries in Europe. However, we may be certain that anything this Government proposes, so as to keep their friends in big monopolies happy, will fall far short of them.

Legal campaigns will not win us this result either: it will require unions themselves getting serious about this issue and making it an industrial and, consequently, a political issue.

September 11th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: collective bargaining for workers, Labour Party, trade union representation

Sep

Trade Union Left Forum Pamphlet

To mark the one hundredth anniversary of the 1913 lockout the Trade Union Left Forum has chosen to reprint a number of James Connolly’s important articles on the politics of trade union organisation and struggle.

Connolly is without doubt Ireland’s great working class intellectual and organiser. His politics were unceremoniously class politics. To his understanding of history and his choice of strategy and tactics for his day he brought class analysis rooted in the works of Marx. He unapologetically represented his class in all aspects of life and struggle including union organisation, national freedom and cultural expression. Everything he did was with the aim of furthering the cause of freedom for working people, in which he understood the need to overthrow imperialism and build socialism – a society based in the ownership of the means of production by working people.

Click the above image to download

September 2nd, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Trade Union Left Forum Pamphlet

Apr

Tadhg Barry Film – Saturday, 4th May – Triskel Arts Centre, Cork City

Saturday, 4th May at 2.00 p.m. in the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork City.

Using British Pathe film, historical photgraphs and documents an hour long documentary on the life of Cork trade union leader, socialist and republican fighter, Tadhg Barry, will be shown in Cork on 4th May.

The film covers his life from his birth place on the north side of Cork City, to his early years in the work force and his initial leap into journalism, and from there to his political enlightenment and work with the ITGWU, James Connolly and James Larkin to re-build the union in Cork and to fight for Irish Freedom.

Barry was active in the 1916 Rising and the film covers his transformation from military to political activist when he became an Alderman of the First Republican Council in Cork and Secretary of the ITGWU James Connolly memorial branch.

Jailed on several occasions, the film of Barry’s life also incorporates the burning of Cork and his final arrest and transfer without trial to Ballykinlar internment camp in county Down where he started the first ever Trades Council in a prison environment.

He was shot through the heart while waving good bye to fellow prisons sent out on release just three weeks before a general amnesty in 1921.

Footage in the film shows how Michael Collins left the ‘Treaty’ talks to attend his funeral.

Among the contributors to the to the film are SIPTU General Secretary, Joe O’Flynn, Tadhg Barry Galvin, great grandnephew of the late Tadhg Barry, Brenda Corcoran and other family members, Gerry White, Quarter Master and Historian with the Southern Command in Collins Barracks Cork and his biographer Dr. Donal O’Driscoill, the School of History, UCC.

The film is a joint production between the Cork Council of Trade Unions and Framework Films produced by SIPTU organiser, Trevor Quinn, Eddie Noonan and Emma Bowell.

April 26th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Brenda Corcoran, British Pathe film, Cork City, Dr. Donal O’Driscoill, Joe O’Flynn, Tadhg Barry Film, Tadhg Barry Galvin, Triskel Arts Centre

Apr

Mobilise against sacrifice!

Trade Union Left Forum
Statement on Croke Park II

The Trade Union Left Forum commends the unions that fought for a No vote on the proposed new agreement and the members in SIPTU who passionately campaigned and delivered a No vote against both their leadership’s and the Labour Party’s instructions. The proposed agreement, which in its current form is dead, does not protect workers but would have facilitated a further undermining of terms and conditions of employment, hours of work and the incomes of working families throughout this country. This agreement was clearly designed to further sacrifice workers to pay off the billions in corporate and private debt that was socialised by the previous government and is being honoured by this one.

But this agreement is not over yet and it is likely that the Government will seek to impose broadly its content if not worse via legislation. And so, the No campaign must continue to resist and organise its members to fight any potential imposition of the rejected Croke Park II terms.

The content of the proposals is not just about the public sector: it is also designed to give the green light to private-sector employers to continue to cut benefits and pay, attack pensions, impose redundancies, and increase working hours. In essence it is for continuing the flexibilisation of labour in Ireland, particularly to benefit transnational exporters.

Whether the trade union leadership supporting the proposals is aware of this or not, they are in fact participating in a restructuring of the Irish economy to the benefit of global capital and the detriment of labour. These effects will be seen in the long run, but the fight must be fought now if it is to be prevented.

Be sure to come along to the TULF’s forthcoming discussion on “The Political Economy of Croke Park,” being introduced by Colin Whitston, in the TEEU offices (6 Gardiner Row) on Thursday 9 May at 6 p.m.

And for regular updates on the campaign against Croke Park see Unite’s blog at http://crokeparkreport.wordpress.com.

April 16th, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Campaign against Croke Park, Colin Whitston, The Political Economy of Croke Park, Trade Union Left Forum

Mar

Campaign to Defend Trade Union Rights

A major campaign to defend trade union rights will be launched at the weekend with a rally in central London. Twenty-five national trade unions will unite on Friday to launch the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom (CTUF) organisation.

Thatcher-era anti-trade union legislation has left trade unions with their hands tied while the coalition launches unprecedented assaults on workers’ pay, conditions and rights with fierce cuts to health and safety and public services.

Labour failed to repeal the draconian legislation and in some cases actively tightened the laws.

Recent years have seen bosses exploit the law to prevent unions from taking effective industrial action in support of their members.

At the same time as workers’ protections are being eroded the coalition has also passed legislation which means that claimants at employment tribunals are forced to pay their own costs and restricted access to legal aid.

The new campaign aims to bring together workers from across all services and industries in both a head-on challenge to those politicians advocating further legal restrictions on union rights and in a mobilisation to roll back the anti-union laws.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said that for more than 30 years trade union rights have been cut away by successive governments “determined to silence the voice of ordinary workers.”
He warned that this had caused a growing gap between rich and poor and a dramatic decline in the wealth that goes into the pockets of working people.
He said: “The right to organise, strike and take solidarity action are fundamental tools needed for working people to attain a fair portion of the wealth they create.
“Only by winning back our freedoms can we win a fair settlement for working people. We support this important and timely campaign.”

CTUF director John Usher said that the campaign would fight for the introduction proper laws to give trade unions the right to protect their members and also seek to repeal the Thatcher-era anti-union laws.

John Hendy QC, a leading advocate for workers’ rights, said: “As the government slashes and burns everything that makes Britain a civilised country the trade unions have a vital role to play in Britain’s resistance. But legislation has tied them in red tape.

“The founding of the CTUF marks the next phase in the struggle to restore trade union rights and their freedom to lead the fight for working-class people.”

CTUF president and RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “After 30 years of Labour, Tory and Liberal governments taking the axe to trade union rights, and using mass unemployment as a weapon to shackle working people, the CTUF is about turning the tide and putting the right to take solidarity action back on the agenda.”

21 March 2013 by Paddy McGuffin Home Affairs Reporter, Morning Star

March 23rd, 2013 by TU Left Forum Admin | Type: Standard

Filed Under: News Tags: Campaign For Trade Union Freedom, John Hendy QC, Len McCluskey, Morning Star, Paddy McGuffin, Trade Union Left Forum, Trade Union Rights