Friday, 11 March 2016
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Channel 4 News Coverage of Undercover Policing meeting in Hackney on 26 February
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMxOlVO8C90
Friday, 4 March 2016
Review of WOMEN WORKERS & THE TRADE UNIONS by Sarah Boston
WOMEN WORKERS & THE TRADE UNIONS
Sarah Boston
Lawrence and Wishart
£20.00
This is a revised version of a book originally written in 1980 and which now covers from the 1830s to 2010.
Sarah Burton reveals that at the advent of industrialisation much of the workforce, particularly within textiles, were women who, like those to come, were lowly paid, worked long hours and were more highly exploited than men.
It was a situation which trade unions, dominated by skilled tradesmen from the beginning, wouldn’t challenge and even supported for decades. Unsurprisingly, therefore, that when women became active trade unionists many formed separate organisations.
When struggling to improve pay and conditions some women workers took successful strike action such as the Matchwomen in 1888 (1) and then in 1910 the Cradley Heath Chainmakers, (2) who were led by Mary Macarthur, who denounced the lowly status and the lack of a living wage for women.
Women, backed by some male trade unionists, began campaigning across the labour movement for equal pay. The book contains numerous examples of where even when the principle was won it was not acted upon by unions during negotiations with employers.
The status quo was smashed in 1968 by a strike by women sewing machinists within the TGWU, one of Unite's predecessor union’s, that brought Fords Dagenham to a standstill. (3) Not only did the women win recognition to skilled status but they also heralded in the 1970 Equal Pay Act before later achieving a regrading that established they did work of equal value to their male colleagues and should be paid accordingly. This provided the opportunity for many other women to have their jobs regraded upwards.
Equal pay was important. Achieving it though required equal opportunities in training and education, paid maternity leave and child-care facilities. The response of many unions was, at best, lukewarm.
Women trade unionists then combined with the Women's Liberation Movement. Together they pushed unions into campaigning for better pay for cleaners, Meanwhile, an important survey by the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT) confirmed that despite the ACTT’s historical commitment to equality, women remained firmly rooted in the lower grades of the industry where the union was organised.
The ACTT 1973 conference instructed the union to tackle discriminatory practices with employers and appoint an officer to investigate and recommend action against discrimination. New initiatives encouraged more women to participate right across the union. It was a radical, encouraging development. It pushed other unions to draw up a set of broadened objectives for its women members that included health matters, sexual harassment and women’s portrayal in the media.
There was then good news. A survey revealed that between 1970 and 1976 there had been a fall in the gap between men and women’s gross hourly earnings such that women’s pay now averaged 74% of men’s. Women’s employment had also risen.
These gains though were lost over the following decade. The Conservative government, elected in 1979, adopted a harsh economic strategy in which “unemployment was a price worth paying.” The public sector, where many women worked, was attacked and maternity rights were also chipped away at. Women workers again fought back. There were nationwide nurses strikes in 1982, successful opposition against plans to weaken the Abortion Act and there was a continuous stream of TUC reports and statements on many women’s issues.
By the time New Labour was elected in 1997 major legal restrictions had been imposed on the trade union movement. The economy too had changed dramatically as the UK’s manufacturing base had been wrecked. With this came the decline in male employment that slashed trade union membership from 12.6 million to 7.0 million between 1979 and 1997.
Writing in the T&G Record in 1996, Margaret Prosser, the TUC President that year, recognised that where there was new employment opportunities these were mainly for part-time women workers in small firms. For unions to survive they must “become female or we will become fringe.” Even in unions who agreed with Prosser, a solution was difficult as it required massive changes to organisations that had been male-dominated for decades. Yet unless women were at the table when union policy was being negotiated then why join a union?
Burton ends her book by examining the period from 1997 to 2010. Aside from the welcome introduction of the national minimum wage, New Labour continued with the Tories policies including privatising public services and restricting trade unions’ legal rights.
Women trade unionists reacted by undertaking campaigns, negotiating and litigating over the gender pay gap. Within the public sector, trade unions fought continuous - often successful - battles, especially within the NHS and local authorities, to win women a fairer deal under the 1997 single status agreement. There was also some success by unions negotiating under Agenda for Change, which was aimed at harmonising basic service conditions on pay and working hours for NHS employees.
However, within the private sector the difficulties faced by trade unions in recruiting new members allowed employers to widen the gender gap. Many women remained segregated in a limited range of jobs, making it easier for employers to pay them less. Strikes over pay and conditions by mainly Asian women workers within the TGWU at Gate Gourmet and Lufthansa Skychef Catering Company were long running and courageous but failed to provide a satisfactory outcome. More pleasingly, there were bargaining successes on flexible working conditions for working parents and carers, which benefitted many women.
Burton’s book closes with an analysis of the trade unions, which despite now consisting of more women members than men still has too few women integrated at all levels of the movement. Burton contends that if unions are to successfully challenge inequality at work and in society they must eradicate inequality in their own organisations.
Burton ends this highly readable, informative book by praising the many women who over the years have spoken out to assert the needs of women workers.
1. Louise Raw: STRIKING A LIGHT - The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their place in History
2. For more on the Cradley Heath Chainmakers go to:-
Review of Northern ReSisters from Bernadette Hyland
Northern ReSisters
Conversations with Radical Women
Bernadette Hyland
Manchester's Bernadette Hyland quotes Eddie Frow, who cofounded the Working Class Movement Library with Ruth Frow, as the inspiration behind her decision many years ago to take up writing when he said: "There's workers history and there's bosses history."
Such advice was not wasted as Hyland has done an excellent job in Northern ReSisters, producing a highly readable 80 page book of workers history that combines contemporary interviews with nine northern England radical women - chosen due to their involvement in resistance movements - along with a selection of her own writings stretching back to 1988 and starting with a piece on the Irish in Britain Representation Group. (IBRG) The author was a highly active member of the IBRG, which campaigned for the Irish in Britain to be represented in all areas of society and for a peaceful and just settlement in the North of Ireland.
In 1991, Hyland conducted a highly informative interview with Bernadette Devlin (McAliskey), whose sensational election in 1969 as MP for the Mid-Ulster constituency marked a significant turning point in the fight against the ingrained discrimination of the Northern Irish State.
23 years later, Hyland takes as her example suffragettes who, using the motto "if women don't count, we won't be counted,” disappeared from their homes on census night in 1911. She asks “what would women vanish for in 2014?” in their fight to change a still increasingly unfair society.
Betty Tebbs was born in 1918, joined a union at aged 14, became active in campaigning against nuclear weapons in 1946 and even today regards "the struggle for peace as vital if we are to secure any quality of life for young people or future generations." Other women who are interviewed are involved in the trade union movement, the fight against the bedroom tax and the organising of commemorative events such as the one in Manchester each August for Peterloo 1819. All are seeking a better, fairer, more democratic society right across the world and the issue of internationalism rightly burns strong in Northern ReSisters.
Costing £5.95 the book is published by the Mary Quaile Club
Thursday, 3 March 2016
TESCO: Two years to pay supplier
Taken from current issue of Big Issue North magazine.
A farmers body has called for additional powers for the groceries watchdog as it investigates the relationship between the top supermarkets and their suppliers.The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) spoke out after Christine Tacon, the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), found that Tesco, already under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, had acted unreasonably and broken the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) by delaying payments to suppliers – in some cases for more than two years. According to Tacon, Tesco had “intentionally delayed” paying money it owed.
Disputed invoices
She ordered Tesco to “support the prompt resolution of disputed invoices by providing a single point of contact for suppliers” and to provide “a detailed implementation plan” on how it will comply with her recommendations.
But she was unable to fine Tesco as she only acquired this power in April 2015, after she began her investigation.
Tesco has since indicated that it has made changes to improve its code of compliance and Tacon
has reported that “the overwhelming majority of the suppliers I spoke to during my investigation told me that their relationships with Tesco were more positive today compared to during the period under investigation”.
has reported that “the overwhelming majority of the suppliers I spoke to during my investigation told me that their relationships with Tesco were more positive today compared to during the period under investigation”.
Tacon said she would be asking the other major supermarkets to make “sure that similar practices do not exist in their companies”.
Although TFA chief executive George Dunn welcomed the report he felt that it “scratched the surface of bad practice and underlines the need for the GCA to have further powers to investigate the true extent of retailer malpractice”.
The government is reviewing the GCA’s powers later this year but Dunn said that “must be brought forward in light of the report into Tesco, who somewhat frustratingly have escaped being fined as it took too long for the GCA to be given powers to do so”.
Dunn added: “Ofsted can investigate schools on their own initiative. The GCA should be given similar powers to investigate code compliance amongst retailers, who knowing they might be investigated at any time will have an incentive to ensure they are completely compliant at all times with the code.”
Dunn also wants Tacon to have powers to look at the whole supply chain, including food processing companies that sit between farmers and supermarkets.
Low prices
Dunn said the TFA had “concerns about how Tesco secured its milk and the impact this has on grassroots dairy farmers”, adding: “Low supermarket prices could result in the loss of a large part of our food production base and in the long term we will all be losers”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), said the department had “full confidence” in the GCA and had not seen the TFA’s proposal for Ofsted-like powers to be given to it.
The spokesperson added: “The government is establishing a Small Business Commissioner to help small businesses handle disputes with larger companies over issues like late payment. The Commissioner will have the power to name businesses if appropriate and this will help bring about a cultural change in the way businesses deal with one another.”
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