TGWU

Transport and General Workers Union

TGWU backs boycott of Israel

The Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU section of Unite voted on Wednesday 4 July to support a "boycott of Israeli products and goods". Workers' Liberty members delegated to the conference had argued against the boycott as a token and in fact counterproductive form of action, for reasons explained elsewhere on this website . But the boycott campaign is now plainly "on a roll", with victories (in various forms) at the NUJ (journalists), UCU (lecturers), Unison (public service workers), and TGWU conferences this year. We'll carry a fuller report from the conference as we get more...

TGWU fires warning shot in battle over the rights of Labour conference

A statement from the General Executive Committee to be put to the Biennial Delegate Conference of the TGWU section of Unite on Thursday 5 July calls for "an end to the manipulation of [Labour Party] conference by the party leadership and the ignoring of conference decisions by ministers". It also says that "the right of party conference to make party policy needs to be upheld and respected." This represents a clear broadside from the TGWU against Gordon Brown’s proposals to abolish the right of Labour Party conference to discuss and vote on contemporary resolutions. The statement also calls on...

Refuse workers in Salford strike over casual labour

On 27 June refuse workers in Salford mounted a 24-hour strike action in protest at the council's exploitation of agency staff. Agency workers are paid less than their full-time colleagues and have no guarantee of work. Salford Council claims that it needs casual labour to fill in when full time staff are absent, although clearly this excuses neither their two-tier pay structure nor the fact that many workers are long-term casual staff who are relied upon by the council as an alternative to hiring enough permanent workers. Over 140 full time dustmen, recycling teams and road sweepers voted for...

Support the Tesco drivers!

BY Elaine Jones Following on from three days of strike action in late May, Tesco drivers based in the company’s Livingston depot are out on strike again for a 24-hour strike on 5 June in a dispute over pay, jobs and union recognition. Last March Tesco announced its plans for a new super depot in Livingston, located just 500 yards away from the current depot. Tesco took the opportunity of the eventual transfer of its staff from one depot to another as an opportunity to propose cuts in the terms and conditions of current and future drivers. Tesco wanted to slash Saturday and Sunday payments...

Super-union sells strikers short

by Dale Street STRIKERS at the Sunvic Controls factory in Uddingston near Glasgow, which manufactures controls for domestic and commercial central heating systems, returned to work last Monday (4 June) after ten weeks. The 42 employees, mostly women, and all of them members of Amicus and the TGWU (which have now merged into Unite), had been out on official strike since 21 March in a dispute over flexible working and lay-off pay. In the 14 months of negotiations which had preceded the strike, management had insisted on new employment terms which would allow them to enforce short-time working...

Big Brother at the Big Union

After agreeing to publish an article on TGWU’s position on the McDonnell Leadership issue for a recent edition, the left Labour Party weekly Tribune suddenly pulled apparently whilst at the printers. The article was written by Andy Erlam, who is Chair of TGWU Central London Branch. As a courtesy Tony Woodley was sent a copy of the article. Apparently the General Secretary’s political adviser, a former Tribune writer, demanded that they “spike” the article and the editor folded under pressure. It has subsequently emerged that the TGWU is an important Tribune shareholder and Ray Collins...

United trade union protest stops deportation

By THE No One Is Illegal campaign For the first time an alliance of trade union General Secretaries have come together in support of a refugee in detention and under threat of deportation. The refugee is Alphonsus Uche Okafor-Mefor. The General Secretaries are: Paul Mackney of UCU (the University and Colleges Union), Mark Serwotka of the PCS (Public and Commercial Service Union), Jeremy Dear of the NUJ (National Union of Journalists), Bob Crow of the RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport), Tony Woodley of the TGWU (Transport and General Workers). They have all written to the Minister responsible...

Case for a no vote

The question on Jim Denham’s voting paper, and on mine, in the recent TGWU-Amicus ballot, was “do you approve the Instrument of Amalgamation?”, not “are you, in general, in favour of a merger of TGWU and Amicus?” I favoured voting no because I do not approve the Instrument of Amalgamation. Jim does not approve the Instrument, either. He believes that “the creation of a rank-and-file controlled accountable industrial structure must be our central task”. The scheme outlined by the Instrument of Amalgamation is anything but. So, if anyone is taking a paradoxical, contrary-to-common-sense view...

Tony, Why Don't You Back John McDonnell? An open letter to Tony Woodley

To Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of TGWU-AMICUS Dear Bro Woodley, "Should [Labour] party policy be put into practice by [Labour] government, and if not, why not?", you asked in your article in the Guardian on 5 March . "For example, it is Labour’s policy to return the railways to public ownership... The party conference has repeatedly voted for limits on the use of the private finance initiative... "Labour delegates voted for a radical reform of employment law... Labour has voted for equal funding treatment for council housing". As you well know, the Blair-Brown government does just...

Cuts protestors storm Lambeth council

BY Faryal Velmi, TGWU 1/1148 branch Despite the biggest demonstration seen in Lambeth (in South London) for a decade and an attempted occupation of the council chambers, savage cuts to Adult Social Services were voted through on Wednesday 28 February. The Labour-run Lambeth Council voted to cut £736,000 from the ASS budget for frail and isolated older and disabled people, adults with learning difficulties, and people with mental ill-health and carers. Charges for homecare are to rise by 132% – from £7.55 to £17.50 an hour in May 2007 and to £20 in April 2008. Lambeth’s charges will be the...

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