Has Brown been moved towards rights for Agency Workers?

Daily Mirror Today.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/02/23/pm-says-full-rights-for-temps-89520-20328546/
Not sure if this is believable. But I will ride along with it until confirmation. Like most on the left I fear a cobbled together arrangement like the weak compromise over working time a few years back.

Hutton sides with Employers over Flexible working.

One of the creditable gains of the Labour Government has been the right to request flexible hours.
You notice I highlight the word request. Some New Labour hacks actually spin it as an automatic right. Unfortunately it is a reluctant policy , giving in to the demands of the CBI ( you know millions of job losses, decline of civilisation etc etc yawn yawn)

Hutton though still remains with his head poised uo the CBI posterior as the link below shows.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/02/22/44533/cipd-dismay-over-government-caution-on-right-to-request-flexible.html

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/02/11/44358/cbi-says-no-to-flexible-working-free-for-all.html

Apparently its a balance thing. How much money do the Trade Unions give Labour?

Partnership in Power Newsletter

Just found this in my email tray from my local CLP organiser.You will notice that members have become stakeholders now.While I condemn the elimination of party democracy (albeit to be reviewed in a couple of years) last September, it is still important to take part in the NPF however flawed us lefties think the system is. If we dont , the New Labourites will continue to dominate the agenda.

'Dear colleague
At annual conference last year members voted on a raft of proposals to improve the way we consult, engage and involve party members in policy discussions. As part of these reforms I'm pleased to report that a new Partnership in Power newsletter - Dialogue - has been produced for distribution to all party stakeholders.
The first edition is available by following this link.
The newsletter details the work of our six policy commissions and the National Policy Forum as well as listing all the organisations and local parties who have made submissions since last September.'

http://www.labour.org.uk/images/uploads/200050/ae78461c-667f-f164-95c2-2f98fbbb9ad0.pdf

Just in case the link doesnt work

Action Mesothelioma Day, 27 February 2008

It is incredibly important to support Action Mesothelioma Day, on 27 February.Living in Southampton it is all too evident the damage done to workers health on sites like Fawley Refinery, the Docks and in the local ship building factories (those that still exist!!)
Local activities will take place nationwide to raise awareness of mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Unions and community groups must campaign vigorously for prevention of asbestos exposures today and better treatment and benefits for those affected by past exposures. If there are local events in your areas get in touch with your local union and get involved. Alternatively check the links below to see if there is something going on in your area.

http://www.asbestosforum.org/actionMesoDay.html

http://www.actionmeso.info/

Still though the ignorance prevails.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7256737.stm
Employers have to be made to take the issue much more seriously than they have been.The ignorance of the danger is no excuse. Asbestos can take years to be discovered in your system and by then it is too late.

It is a huge issue for unions to organise around. In the Construction Industry the increased casualisation of the workforce has led to Employers paying lip service to Health and Safety.
The threat hasnt gone away.

Agency Workers Bill

So far so good. In fact bit of a result. lobbying and campaigning can work sometimes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7258109.stm

Support the Agency Workers Bill

Brown could really do himself a favour here.To get the support of thousands of Trade Unionists this May, the Government could actually support something they agreed at Warwick.

Of course the reality will be different. The CBI are bleating that the bill, to give the million and a half odd Agency workers, equal employment rights will cause the downfall of western civilisation as we know it (remember their complaints about the minimum wage?)

This country is lagging well behind the rest of europe in the employment rights stake. The Agency Workers Bill would be , at long last , the first step in redressing that balance.

Fidel Castro retires

"We cant wait to get back there if George Bush has his way"

(piccy courtesy of CH4)

UK Strike Days lost.

Over a million for 2007. Second time in a decade apparently.

Not quite the haven of class peace the class distinction denyers of New Labour would have us believe.
http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/02/18/44478/number-of-working-days-lost-to-strikes-in-2007-is-second-highest-in-decade.html

Meanwhile back at the bank, there is a distinct threat of a huge job cull.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUKL1841570820080219

Just remember that this is not public ownership in the socialist sense of the word.

Australian Labor Party: Fairness at work legislation

Last year saw a united Australian Labour movement campaign to mobilise thousands of workers against John Howards Liberal government that apart from supporting the Bush/Blair campaign to flatten the middle east, introduced Work Choices to make Australia's rich even richer.

Aussie Trade Unionists slogged it out on the doorsteps to make sure Howards government was smashed. It was a great victory.

But what is Kevin Rudds Labor Government going to replace Work Choices with?

Below is a link to Forward with Fairness. Is it me or is Rudd going to do a 'New Labour' and keep some of the Work Choices legislation to appease the Employers?

http://www.alp.org.au/download/now/070828_dp_forward_with_fairness___policy_implementation_plan.pdf

Well done Barnsley!!

The FA Cup is the greatest Football competition ever. A great leveller as they say.

The result yesterday at Anfield should bring home to every football fan the romance and excitement of this competition. Lets for a few minutes forget about Scudamores blatant money making scheme of playing premier league games abroad. (Apparantley that idea now hangs in the balance)

Just look at Phil Thompsons face!!!!

For you number crunchers out there, here is how much both teams cost.

Liverpool

Charles-Hubert Itandje - ?

Finnan - £3,500,000

Carragher - Trainee

Hyypia - £3,000,000

Riise - £4,600,000

Benayoun - £5,000,000

Lucas - ?

Alonso - £10,500,000

Babel - £11,500,000

Kuyt - £9,000,000

Crouch - £7,000,000

Total - £54,100,000

Barnsley

Steele - Loan

Kozluk - Free

Foster - £100k

Hassell - Free

Howard - Free

De Silva - undisclosed

Ferenczi - undisclosed

Leon - Free

Souza - Free

Nardiello - Loan

Devaney - Free

Total - £100,000+(probably less than half a million)

Massacre in the Illinois and Bridgend

"A loaded gun wont set you free" New Dawn Fades, Joy Division.


I think I will start today with a few very sad press links.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6560685.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7133933.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7235671.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7247390.stm
Tragic Stories from a country where it is dead easy to pick up a handgun. This ‘right’ is defended as a fundamental constitutional freedom and it amazes me that as the body count builds up , as the BBC links suggest , how the great and good who manage US society cant see the problem they have created.

No one really gives an explanation of why this happens. Ever since Michael Moore’s brilliant ‘Bowling for Columbine’ which answered many questions for me and confirmed many others, the US government has allowed this kind of thing to continue virtually unheeded.

Even the most conservative must realise there is something seriously wrong with the most powerful capitalist nation on earth. Firstly it is not enough to say , no nation or system is perfect. The US has spent most of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st trumpeting about their superior values. They even want to export it to other countries in a ‘New American Century’ kind of way already experienced in the carnage of the Iraq/Afghanistan war. The US is very imperfect and the problem, I believe, lies in the free enterprise, anything goes philosophy installed in the population from an early age.

Secondly, there is this abnormal fear for change, not led by the great mass of the population but by the tiny minority of business/corporate interests that really control society. The constitution that they defend is a very different animal than the one laid down by the ‘founding fathers’ a couple of centuries ago. Only the poor working class can make the agenda in the US but for the ultra rich minority that run the show , it wont be allowed to happen.

To many in the UK , the US is seen as a razzmatazz, celebrity society driven. You only have to witness the travelling circus which tours the US in the run up to their elections. Anyone heard any policies yet, apart from the policy of continuing mediocrity. Would people really like that system in the UK or any other part of the world for that matter.

No wonder young people feel so alienated. The last thing you want is access to lethal weaponry.
There seems to be something in the ‘alienation of youth’ argument. It seems a very real thing in the UK as well. What the hell is happening in South Wales?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7248213.stm
On the one hand you have the current media driven agenda of lawless youths and ASBO culture. If you believe the millionaire press you would expect every ‘hoodie’ you meet to be tooled up just waiting for the next drive-by! Of course the reality is very different.

Over 10 years of a ‘New’ Labour Government, driven in my view by the same commercial interests as in the US, has evidently offered nothing for young people. Ambition has been completely driven out of the disenfranchised youth from an early age and you have to seriously question where all this could lead.

What if those unfortunate young people in Bridgend, sadly lost in very tragic circumstances, had access to cheap weaponry at the local supermarkets?

In both the UK and the US, conditions determine consciousness. Until we see a fundamental change in a society that allows extreme poverty on the one side and obscene wealth on the other we will see an escalation and deepening of the social crisis that the class divide permits.

Gradual slow change to address it has failed.

Agency Workers; Myths and Facts

Taken with thanks from the TGWU site

Join the campaign
Get your MP to back the bill
British employment law fails to protect agency workers. To ensure the equal treatment of temporary and agency workers Unite is calling for domestic legislation, as promised by the Warwick Agreement and backed by successive Labour and TUC conferences.
The Temporary and Agency Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) bill, promoted by Andrew Miller MP, would outlaw discrimination against agency workers. It is backed by Unite, the GMB, Unison, UCATT and the CWU as well as the TUC. Make sure your MP listens to the real voice of working people and comes out to support the bill. Get your MP to sign the early day motion, and demand that they turn up to the second reading in the Commons on 22nd February 2008.
Find out more on the Equal Rights for Agency Workers campaign.

There is also this link to the TUC site outlining the utter bollocks that comes from Gordon's mates at the CBI. Please lobby your MP before the 22nd Feb

http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-14263-f0.cfm

Check http://grayee.blogspot.com/2008/02/east-end-poverty-wages-for-vulnerable.html

for interviews with agency labour. Thanks for that John.

Premier League Football Abroad. Final nail in the coffin?

Hot topic at the moment. In the pursuit for bigger profits, and I expect, on the say so of the big sponsors, the idea has been floated of extending the football season to include games held in other parts of the world.
Big, big profits at stake here as the sport worshipped by millions becomes a part of the entertainment industry. Im sorry but I just dont see it as a sport anymore.
As usual, the views of the fans, already being stung by increasing ticket prices and being fed a diet of obscenely rich footballers to look up and aspire to, is a very low priority.

In an odd way I find myself in agreement with Gordon Brown on this issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7235912.stm

Football supporters give their view
http://www.fsf.org.uk/

Sign the petition
http://www.fsf.org.uk/petitions/no-to-game-39/index.php?ID=&di=#namelist

Build for the Anti Nazi Gig, 27th April

This could be huge. Lets hope the Union gets the detail out as soon as possible.Coaches need to be organised from every city and town. Get in touch with your trade union. Lets organise!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7235434.stm

Apart from the bands mentioned I am not sure who else will be performing.

On the subject of live performances I hear Billy Bragg isnt doing the Tolpuddle Festival this year. My sources tell me that he upset some of the organisers last year by playing a song popular to Bristol Rovers supporters. If anyone can confirm that it would be appreciated.

ACAS Boss Ed Sweeney says: Industrial Turmoil on the Cards

Self explanatory really
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/support_services/article3308323.ece
I note the comments of the CBI boss with interest.

Here are a few disputes happening today

Birmingham Council closed today – strike action over equal pay will hit at all council services after workers were told be sacked then re-employed on new contracts. “Ordinary people are losing a significant amount of money and the Council are not delivering the equality that they are claiming. Ordinary employees have voted to oppose this unfair imposition,” said Gerard Coyne. (BBC Online, Morning Star)


Argyll & Bute Council also shut – Sweeney may have a point as Unison and Unite unite to halt Scottish local services. (BBC Online)

And of course there is this one http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/PressItems.asp?NodeID=96579

There is another RMT dispute brewing up as well
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7227824.stm

'Flexicurity'. Frightening view of the future?

Found this website the other day. I found it odd that a site using the name Bevan would be covering a neo liberal experiment designed to break up the Trade Union movement even more.

http://www.myjob.bevanfoundation.org/

For a while now, this idea, which in my view is another benefit for employers, has gathered strength in Europe through various discussion/consultation papers. I think it strengthens the call for a referendum on EU membership with a campaign for 'No'.

The UK is 'flexible' enough thank you, thanks to Maggie's , still in place anti TU laws.

Agency Workers Bill. Lobby your MP now.

With acknowledgement to the Amicus website I have cut and pasted their call for all Trade Unionists to lobby their MPs. By all means remind them that a huge amount of TU cash goes into keeping them in their seats so they had better give something back!!

Trade unions welcome NEC support for agency worker legislation
1 February 2008

Trade unions have welcomed news that the Labour Party’s Executive Committee has given its backing to a bill for equal treatment of agency workers.
Yesterday the Labour Party’s ruling body voted to support a Private Members Bill being brought by Andrew Miller MP to ensure that agency workers have the same rights at work as permanent and directly employed staff.
Trade unions who are also backing the bill say the NEC vote is an important expression of the growing support across the party and wider movement for legislation to stop the growing abuses of agency workers.
The joint Labour Party trade unions are urging MPs to turn out at the second reading of the Private Members Bill on Friday 22nd February. They are confident that they will have the support of more than 100 MPs on that day which will mean the bill can proceed to committee stage.
Tony Dubbins, Chair of the Trade Unions for Labour Organisation (TULO), said: “We have been encouraged by the level of support that the campaign for legislation has gained among MPs and across the labour movement but this is further evidence of the need to act urgently to protect the growing number of agency workers from widespread abuse.
“The Labour Party committed to introduce UK legislation to protect agency workers before the last election and now we and the estimated 1.4 million agency workers in the UK. Now we need the government to act on that promise by backing Andrew Miller’s bill.”
The NEC’s resolution to back the bill will now proceed to the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum.
Note for editorsMPs supporting the bill will be meeting agency workers in the House of Commons next Wednesday, 6th February and will be available to be photographed and interviewed from 10 to 10.30 am in Jubilee Gardens in the House of Westminster.

Caroline Flint MP. How much lower can the Brownites sink?

This is sick.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7227667.stm

Where has that once socialist vision the Labour Party felt, finally disappeared to?
Kicking people out of council houses?
With people like Flint you wonder if she wouldnt look out of place in a party with John Redwood or Boris Johnson.
Such middleclassness is alien to the majority of working class people.
She gives me the creeps.

Tory Young Turks get angry

I have just noticed this Young Conservative makeover
http://www.ybf.org.uk/

Sorry if it is old news. Remember the Federation of Conservative Students?

Need to go back in history a bit to here

http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,1082720,00.html

Better Skills anyone?

How about better money to go with it. Super profits of the super rich employers need to be challenged in order to make one word of this publication attractive to the millions of young people being herded into low paid jobs and agency work.

http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/ready_to_work.pdf

I think it is pointless waiting for this Government to address the issue of the Low Wage economy and the race to the bottom.Platitudes about improving skills are worthless in an economy that can sack at the drop of a hat , with all the demoralisation amongst workers that can result.It is too late and the damage has already been done, to expect to clear up any mess with platitudes about educating the workforce to spring from job to job. Lets improve incomes first.

Trade Unions must increase the pressure on this issue in the workplace and wherever they still have influence in the so called New Labour government

On the Beer last night?

Found a brilliant hangover cure here http://www.margaretthatcher.org/

Guaranteed to make even the hardened drinker throw up.

Good morning fellow socialist bloggers!!

Haven’t been online blogging a lot lately so I thought I would comment on a few things that have happened.

The Conway saga has stirred up a hornets nest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7219040.stm
This is a deflection for Gordon Brown on all his dodgy donations problems. I heard a Tory MP the other day , on Radio 5, say that all MPs should be uniting together to deal with this problem. Pity they didn’t have the same attitude over Peter Hain!!
Expect the polls to show Labour cutting back the Tory lead. Labour cannot rely on Tory f*ck ups to keep them in power though

The obscene profits by Shell caused comment from the TU tops as well as on the forecourts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7219148.stm
The day of the announcements I was filling up when I caught the tail end of a discussion between two customers pissed off with the rise in profits while the cost of living keeps spiralling upwards.
Clearly working people are slowly drawing class conclusions. New Labour take note.

This shocked but didn’t surprise with some of the tensions in inner city areas.
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=elaonline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED30%20Jan%202008%2020%3A51%3A30%3A863
Recently my kids told me that a Holocaust survivor came to visit the school. This created a deep impression on the kids and is a type of living history that should be encouraged more. It is a million miles from the activities of the capitalist government in Israel.

European Trade Unions still continue to highlight the race to the bottom policy by employers in the EU.
http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/02/01/44233/workers-rights-under-the-spotlight-as-union-lobbyists-meet-with-eu-employment-ministers.html
Labour leaders and Leaders of the Social Democratic Parties need to make a break with the Capitalist Class or face a huge backlash at the polls. Hiding behind the word ‘Globalisation’ and the policies of partnership and class compromise holds no truck with the vast majority of workers in Europe.

Anyway, more thoughts later when I have a spare few minutes.