Trade unions

Thursday

Mark Lehain

Obstruction overruled

The Spectator’s Schools Revolution conference is being held on Tuesday next week. One of the speakers, Mark Lehain, writes below about his experience setting up a free school. Other speakers include Michael Gove, Michelle Rhee and Barbara Bergstrom, all of whom will take questions from the floor. There are still tickets available: to book, click here. When I’m asked why I’m setting up a free school, or why I think they’re necessary, I tell a story about a Trades Union Congress meeting on the subject that I went to in December 2010, a few months into our campaign to open a new school in Bedford. I knew the teachers’ unions

Monday

David Blackburn

Miliband’s union problems deepen

Ed Miliband must be livid. He has a sizeable lead in the polls, has taken ground on the economy and watches the government lurch from one self-authored disaster to the next. And then, and then, the trade unions engineer a very public row with the centrist think-tank Progress (which is funded by former Labour donor Lord Sainsbury) over the ‘soul’ of the Labour Party. Jackie Ashley observes in today’s Guardian that this silly spat has grown out of all proportion. Lord Mandelson was asked about it on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday, and he reiterated many of the points made by Denis MacShane in this Coffee House post of the

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Why are the unions frightened?

Labour has only ever won a general election from the autumn of 1974 onwards when its leader has been called &”Tony Blair”. Four other leaders tried, but they were not called &”Tony Blair,” and Labour paid the price. I find it hard to credit the left’s failure myself sometimes, and, equally, find it easy to understand how Labour supporters became riddled with self-hatred and self-doubt as they saw ‘their’ Blairite government in action. But it is going a bit far for Paul Kenny of the GMB to deal with the compromises of the past by calling on Labour to declare the Blairte think tank Progress an anti-party organisation and ban

Saturday

Denis Macshane Mp

Another voice: It is time for new trade unions

The attack on Progress by the GMB union at its annual conference is odd and reflects the uncertainty of trade unions as they try and work out their role and status in a 21st century which is proving very unfriendly to trade unions across the world. In the United States, only 7 per cent of the private sector workforce is unionized. The figures in France are similarly low. In Britain, TUC membership has shrunk for the fourth year in succession.   Union bashers may rejoice, and certainly there are Tory MPs who think the last great bit of Thatcherite unfinished business is the extirpation of organized labour. But workers are

Wednesday

David Blackburn

The doctors’ strike

No public sector strike is easy to sell to the public. I recently did a stint of jury service and witnessed the chaos caused by court staff, members of the PCS union, striking over pensions. It’s one thing working around the inconvenience of jury service, but it’s quite another being kept on the premises when there is little chance of the courts actually sitting, as proved to be the case. But, the BMA have it doubly difficult. Today, doctors decided to strike for the first time in more than 40 years. Doctors have a reputation for being well-paid, a reputation that is ingrained and, when one examines the NHS pay structure,

Thursday

Jonathan Jones

Gove takes on private school dominance and trade union opposition

The Education Secretary gave a very pugnacious speech this morning on the need to improve the country’s state schools. ‘It is remarkable,’ Michael Gove said at independent school Brighton College, ‘how many of the positions of wealth, influence, celebrity and power in our society are held by individuals who were privately educated’. He cited the various professions — politics, law, medicine — where private schools are ‘handsomely represented’. That’s certainly not a new observation. Gove could have, if he’d wanted to, cited the Sutton Trust’s statistics (below) showing the proportion of judges, Lords and CEOs who come from independent schools. Instead, he chose a more novel — and effective — way

Sunday

David Blackburn

The politics of taking big money out of politics

Ed Miliband is nothing if not persistent. Party funding has been a running theme of his leadership, necessitated by his cosy relationship with the unions. He has returned to the subject today, with a blog post and an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. The news is that Miliband wants to cap donations from individuals, organisations and companies at £5,000. That is £5,000 less than was recommended by Sir Christopher Kelly, and £45,000 less than the Conservatives propose. Miliband claimed that this would dramatically reduce Labour’s funding from the trade unions, forcing his party to diversify its revenue sources. Obviously, it would also reduce the Tories’ funding sources. This is

Saturday

Alex Massie

Ambulance Crews: The Enemy Within

I know no-one is allowed to say that public sector workers are “cosseted”. And of course no-one can ever say anything nasty about anyone who works in the emergency services. Salt of the earth types, heroically serving the public good each and every one of them. We scarcely deserve these Little Jesuses, don’t you know?  That’s the official line. The truth is a little different. Some of the time anyway. Some people would rather let people die than interrupt their tea-break. Yes they would. Really. Look: Union members have rejected the latest deal to resolve a dispute over rest breaks for ambulance staff in Scotland. Fears that patients’ lives could

Thursday

James Forsyth

Unions hit government on pension changes

The coalition’s plan to leave the Public and Commercial Services Union isolated in its opposition to the proposed changes to public sector pensions has had several setbacks today. The Unite union, which is a major Labour donor, has declared that the government’s offer on NHS pensions is inadequate. This suggests that Unite members in the health service, of whom there are 100,000, could go out on strike again soon. Another worry for the government is that the British Medical Association, the doctors’ trade union, is indicating that it might hold a strike ballot once it has canvassed the views of its members. Ultimately, I think the government can win the

Wednesday

Johnnie Kerr

In the middle of the march

Walking through Parliament Square this afternoon, you’d be forgiven for wondering whether some kind of bomb threat had been made on Westminster Palace. The fleets of police vans and hoards of fluorescent-jacketed officers seemed absurdly disproportionate to the motley pickets of public sector strikers gathered serenely outside parliament’s gates. ‘Actually, I shouldn’t be working today,’ one officer told me, chuckling. ‘It’s my day off. That’s ironic, isn’t it?’ As Pete remarked this morning, there wasn’t a huge amount to see along the Westminster picket lines, apart from the policemen. ‘There’d be more of us, but we’re only allowed to gather in groups of five or six,’ a woman from the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ed Miliband’s Strange Political Judgement

I know Ed Miliband isn’t trying to persuade me or, for that matter, many Spectator readers but I still don’t understand what he’s up to or trying to achieve. At PMQs today he had an obvious choice: attack the government on the economy or on today’s strikes by government-paid workers. Bafflingly he chose the latter, wrapping himself in the red union flag. Not for the first time, one’s left questioning Miliband’s political judgement. The easy answer, much-used by the Prime Minister today, is that Labour is paid by the Trades Unions without whose contributions the party would be bankrupt. Plainly there is some truth to this and perhaps Miliband has

Peter Hoskin

A day of disruption

Another testing day for the government, as we shift from the autumn statement to a national strike. It will certainly be more noticeable than the industrial action in June. Some 2 million public sector workers will be involved. According to the schools minister Nick Gibb, around 75 per cent of state schools will be closed. And on top of that, airport queues will lengthen; non-emergency operations will be cancelled; and today’s parliamentary proceedings will go untranscribed. The government’s attitude towards the unions — or, rather, union bosses — appears to have been hardening. The brothers will not have liked yesterday’s forecast that 710,000 jobs will be shed from the public sector by

Wednesday

David Blackburn

The paymasters’ conference

What a lot of unions there are. I walked around the exhibition stands at the Labour conference yesterday afternoon and counted 10 stalls devoted to trade unions: 10 displays out of the 72 that weren’t directly associated with the Labour Party in one of its guises. The unions’ stands were unlike the ramshackle boxes of lesser campaigners that clung to the walls of the conference centre; as the pictures above and below attest, they took centre stage to match the grand baronial pavilions at a medieval fair. This tells you all you need to know about who is lobbying the Labour Party at present. Although perhaps lobbying is the wrong

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Alexander’s balancing act

Remember that merry dance between the government and the unions over public sector pensions, a few weeks ago? Expect a minor reprise today, and much more over the summer. The government today announces how much extra public sector workers will have to pay to maintain their pension levels, and already the Telegraph has the numbers. When it comes to the 40,000 best-paid public sectorees — all on considerably over £100,000 — their contributions will rise by around £3,000 a year. And then it’s a sliding scale all the way down to the 750,000 least well-paid workers, who will face no increase at all. The unions, who will rejoin the government

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Boris takes on Dave over London’s strikes

The Telegraph’s James Kirkup has already highlighted Boris’s suggestion, yesterday, that the coalition is being “lily-livered” over strike laws. But, as there has been no let up in the Mayor’s rhetoric today, we really ought to mention it here too. “The government needs to get a move on,” is how he put it this morning, in reference to the sort of legislation that might hinder the RMT and their persistent Tube strikes. Boris’s latest broadsides against the coalition are all the more notable because he and Cameron were united, arm in arm, against the unions only a few months ago. In a joint piece for the Sun in January, they

Saturday

James Forsyth

Miliband is marching to the wrong drum

Ed Miliband’s decision to address today’s anti-cuts march is a strategic mistake. It makes him look like the tribune of an interest group not a national leader. He’ll also be tarred by association, fairly or not, if these scuffles we’re seeing turn into anything more serious. In his speech, Miliband tried to place the march in the tradition of those for female emancipation, civil rights and against apartheid. But this rhetoric doesn’t work as, given Miliband’s commitment to the Darling plan, we are talking about relatively modest differences about the pace of cuts. One other thing that was striking about the speech is Miliband’s attempt to accuse Cameron of practicing

David Blackburn

Marching with no alternative

Thousands have converged on London today, to march against the monolithic evil of ‘cuts’. They have not stated an alternative, a fact that led Phil Collins to write an eloquently savage critique in yesterday’s Times (£). That the protesters are incoherent beyond blanket opposition to the government is not really an issue: as this morning’s lead article in the Guardian argues, the Hyde Park rioters of 1866 weren’t brandishing drafts of the Second Reform Bill. But it’s intriguing that Ed Miliband has decided to address this rally, thereby endorsing it. The Labour party hierarchy recognises that it is taking an enormous and perhaps totally unnecessary risk. First, Ed Miliband’s oratory

Thursday

David Blackburn

The threat of a general strike increases

As expected, John Hutton’s review of public sector pensions has recommended that final salary schemes end. Hutton was across the broadcasters this morning, explaining that he was reflecting an “inescapable reality”: “The solution to this problem is not a race to the bottom, it’s not to hack away at the value of public service pensions. It’s to manage the risks and costs sensibly. The responsible thing to do is to accept that because we are living longer we should work for longer.” Beside realism, Hutton’s guiding principle has been fairness. Final salary schemes encourage a “massive cross-subsidy from low-paid public servants to high-paid public servants” to pay for the “sudden

Wednesday

Blair Gibbs

Tackling the last great unreformed public service

The Home Office has an ambitious police reform agenda and is overseeing challenging budget reductions, but they are also forging ahead with plans to introduce real workforce modernisation.  The serious and credible reviewer, Tom Winsor, will publish his independent report next Tuesday.   Winsor’s review will cover pay, conditions and other aspects of employment that will set the framework for a new settlement when the current 3-year pay deal expires. Expect police overtime and shift patterns to be another major focus of the review.   David Cameron himself, who once boldly described the police as “the last great unreformed public service” is firmly committed to this agenda. As a special

Sunday

David Blackburn

Unite turns back the clock

Len McCluskey has won the race to lead Unite, Britain’s largest union. McCluskey will therefore have a major role in how the left respond to cuts in public spending. It would premature to label McCluskey but he comes with a reputation for militancy. He cut his teeth at the Transport and General Workers Union in the 80s and was a confidant of Derek Hatton’s. And he hasn’t forsaken childish things – being an integral figure in the long running and wholely counter-productive BA dispute. So, impeccable credentials for a man of the old left; akin to the roll call of Wellington, Sandhurst and the City for those on the right. But McCluskey must resist temptation.