Louise Nousratpour, in Bournemouth
Wednesday May 26, 2010
The Morning Star
More than 55,000 BT workers could walk out on strike next month unless the telecoms giant bows to their demands and improves its "derisory" pay offer.
Communication Workers Union delegates voted unanimously on Wednesday to give BT until June 4 before serving formal legal notice to bosses of the union's intention to ballot for industrial action.
The decision came just hours after BT's annual financial report revealed that its chief executive Ian Livingstone and three other directors had raked in bonuses totalling £2.7 million last year.
More than 1,000 delegates crowded into the Bournemouth conference hall to hear impassioned speeches calling for a united stance to see the fight through.
The CWU postal members took the unusual step of suspending their sectional conference nearby and joined fellow telecoms delegates in a defiant show of solidarity and strength.
Opening the charged debate, deputy general secretary for telecoms Andy Kerr said that he had "no doubt in my mind that we will win this fight," evoking a standing ovation.
Mr Kerr attacked the company's "double-standard" attitude to pay as it emerged that Mr Livingstone had received a bonus of £1.2 million last year on top of a salary of £860,000.
Company chairman Sir Michael Rake pocketed £670,000 last year for doing part-time work and former Labour Cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt, who is a BT director, was paid £128,000.
Mr Kerr argued that the union's 5 per cent pay claim accounted for a fraction of BT's £1bn profit in 2009 - up from a loss of £244 million previously.
"With a pay freeze last year and inflation now running at 5.3 per cent, BT's attitude to pay is insulting and the staff deserve more," he charged.
Members have already rejected the company's 2 per cent pay offer, arguing that it amounts to a cut and will have a detrimental impact on their pension.
CWU telecoms executive member Alan Eldred said: "They're offering us a pay cut and we're not having it."
East Midlands branch delegate Linda Woodings said that members' goodwill gestures last year to forgo a pay rise in light of BT's heavy losses had been rewarded with "a kick in the teeth."
She vouched for her branch members that "they will walk," not just over pay but in protest at "a workplace tyranny which has left them with a sense of aggrievement and mutiny."
Croydon South London delegate Steve Browett said that members were fed up with bosses' divide-and-rule tactics to break the union.
"When you keep kicking a sleeping dog, don't be surprised when the dog wakes up and bites you in the backside," he said to roaring laughter.
A BT spokesman insisted on Wednesday: "We have made the CWU a very fair offer."
And in a provocative move that laid bare BT's unwillingness to return to negotiation, the company confirmed that it has put contingency plans in place to deal with a possible walkout.
BT has asked its managers to provide details of their skills with a view to mobilising a scab workforce in case of a strike.
The last time BT workers walked out was in 1987 - three years after it was privatised.
louise@peoples-press.com
Tribunal for sacked staff
Louise Nousratpour in Bournemouth
Tuesday May 25, 2010
The Morning Star
Sacked postal workers are taking Royal Mail to an employment tribunal next month over management "victimisation" and unfair dismissal, a CWU conference fringe meeting heard on Tuesday.
A couple of months after the 2007 postal dispute, 12 CWU activists at Burslem delivery office in Stoke-on-Trent were sacked on what the union says were trumped-up charges.
The sackings triggered a five-week strike by CWU members at their delivery office, forcing bosses to agree to an independent appeals process which led to six of the affected workers being reinstated.
Of the remaining six, two have since left the industry for other jobs and the other four are taking their case to a tribunal, fully backed by the union.
One of the four, Paul Malyan, told the CWU fringe meeting in Bournemouth on Tuesday that his three-year battle for reinstatement was no longer just a "personal" issue but one that concerned all union activists.
He added that the ordeal had "solidified" his principles as a trade unionist fighting for workers' collective interests.
CWU deputy general secretary for the postal sector Dave Ward said that the workers had been targeted because they led a "strong and organised" workplace.
He noted that the primary aim of the tribunal was to "get them their jobs back," but admitted that the result could go either way.
The tribunal is expected to start on June 21 and will last three weeks.
Tuesday May 25, 2010
The Morning Star
Sacked postal workers are taking Royal Mail to an employment tribunal next month over management "victimisation" and unfair dismissal, a CWU conference fringe meeting heard on Tuesday.
A couple of months after the 2007 postal dispute, 12 CWU activists at Burslem delivery office in Stoke-on-Trent were sacked on what the union says were trumped-up charges.
The sackings triggered a five-week strike by CWU members at their delivery office, forcing bosses to agree to an independent appeals process which led to six of the affected workers being reinstated.
Of the remaining six, two have since left the industry for other jobs and the other four are taking their case to a tribunal, fully backed by the union.
One of the four, Paul Malyan, told the CWU fringe meeting in Bournemouth on Tuesday that his three-year battle for reinstatement was no longer just a "personal" issue but one that concerned all union activists.
He added that the ordeal had "solidified" his principles as a trade unionist fighting for workers' collective interests.
CWU deputy general secretary for the postal sector Dave Ward said that the workers had been targeted because they led a "strong and organised" workplace.
He noted that the primary aim of the tribunal was to "get them their jobs back," but admitted that the result could go either way.
The tribunal is expected to start on June 21 and will last three weeks.
Delegates prepare to fight mail sell-off
Louise Nousratpour in Bournemouth
Monday May 24, 2010
The Morning Star
CWU delegates have declared that they are ready to take industrial action to defend Royal Mail following news that a Bill to privatise the service will be in Tuesday's Queen speech.
The new government is risking an early collision course with the "battle-hardened" postal workers, less than a year after their national strike at Royal Mail resulted in victory.
The Bill may reach Parliament by next summer and CWU general secretary Billy Hayes insisted that this would mean "a summer of discontent as far as we're concerned."
Last year, a fierce CWU campaign coupled with a huge backbench revolt shelved former business secretary Peter Mandelson's plans to privatise Royal Mail.
The coalition government is reportedly seeking advice from the man behind Mr Mandelson's defeated plans, Sir Richard Hooper, to make the case for privatisation.
"This is old politics wrapped in new language. No-one wants it," Mr Hayes told delegates in Bournemouth.
"We have defeated Royal Mail privatisation three times and we will fight it again with all our might," he pledged, expressing confidence that the union could muster enough public and parliamentary support.
Pro-privatisation MPs might have a majority in Parliament, he said, "but they don't have a majority with the electorate."
CWU deputy general secretary for the postal sector Dave Ward gave the Tory-led government an "absolute guarantee that, if we need to take industrial action to defeat Royal Mail privatisation and secure our members' jobs and pension, we will not hesitate to do it."
He added: "We are battle-hardened, not battle-weary."
Mr Ward stressed that the three-year modernisation agreement struck between CWU and Royal Mail following last year's strike "demonstrates that the business can be successfully run within the public sector."
The union will launch a special campaign committee to raise public awareness about how the plans will "destroy" the post office network, curtail universal access and threaten workers' jobs and conditions, conference heard.
Monday May 24, 2010
The Morning Star
CWU delegates have declared that they are ready to take industrial action to defend Royal Mail following news that a Bill to privatise the service will be in Tuesday's Queen speech.
The new government is risking an early collision course with the "battle-hardened" postal workers, less than a year after their national strike at Royal Mail resulted in victory.
The Bill may reach Parliament by next summer and CWU general secretary Billy Hayes insisted that this would mean "a summer of discontent as far as we're concerned."
Last year, a fierce CWU campaign coupled with a huge backbench revolt shelved former business secretary Peter Mandelson's plans to privatise Royal Mail.
The coalition government is reportedly seeking advice from the man behind Mr Mandelson's defeated plans, Sir Richard Hooper, to make the case for privatisation.
"This is old politics wrapped in new language. No-one wants it," Mr Hayes told delegates in Bournemouth.
"We have defeated Royal Mail privatisation three times and we will fight it again with all our might," he pledged, expressing confidence that the union could muster enough public and parliamentary support.
Pro-privatisation MPs might have a majority in Parliament, he said, "but they don't have a majority with the electorate."
CWU deputy general secretary for the postal sector Dave Ward gave the Tory-led government an "absolute guarantee that, if we need to take industrial action to defeat Royal Mail privatisation and secure our members' jobs and pension, we will not hesitate to do it."
He added: "We are battle-hardened, not battle-weary."
Mr Ward stressed that the three-year modernisation agreement struck between CWU and Royal Mail following last year's strike "demonstrates that the business can be successfully run within the public sector."
The union will launch a special campaign committee to raise public awareness about how the plans will "destroy" the post office network, curtail universal access and threaten workers' jobs and conditions, conference heard.
Union learning at risk from college cutbacks
Louise Nousratpour in Bournemouth
Sunday May 23, 2010
The Morning Star
Incoming cuts to union education funding are a direct attack on the working class and will stop activists gaining the skills they need to fight for social justice, delegates at the CWU conference has warned.
Further education colleges in England face an average budget cut of 16 per cent for adult learning as part of "efficiency savings" worth more than £200 million between now and 2011.
Around 30,000 union activists are trained every year using union education programmes publicly funded through colleges.
But this could become a thing of the past as "catastrophic" cuts to adult education begin to take effect, the conference in Bournemouth was told.
Head of education and training Trish Lavelle called on the CWU to mount a "vigorous campaign" in conjunction with other unions to fight the cuts.
"Every single union is suddenly seeing their education programme either disappear or drastically reduced. That's going to have a massive impact on our ability to organise workers and to train the next generation of union leaders," she said.
Moving a motion on the issue, Ms Lavelle argued for "ring-fenced funds" for union education, pointing out that the current cuts are the legacy of Labour and do not include the new government's austerity plans for the sector.
"This is before the 'chuckle brothers' even got going on cuts," she warned.
Ms Lavelle also expressed grave concern about plans that in the future only courses that are fully supported by the Sector Skills Councils will receive funding.
"SSCs are employer-led quangos. So it will be only funded if it fits with employers' agenda and not in terms of wider education values for the individual," she warned.
Sunday May 23, 2010
The Morning Star
Incoming cuts to union education funding are a direct attack on the working class and will stop activists gaining the skills they need to fight for social justice, delegates at the CWU conference has warned.
Further education colleges in England face an average budget cut of 16 per cent for adult learning as part of "efficiency savings" worth more than £200 million between now and 2011.
Around 30,000 union activists are trained every year using union education programmes publicly funded through colleges.
But this could become a thing of the past as "catastrophic" cuts to adult education begin to take effect, the conference in Bournemouth was told.
Head of education and training Trish Lavelle called on the CWU to mount a "vigorous campaign" in conjunction with other unions to fight the cuts.
"Every single union is suddenly seeing their education programme either disappear or drastically reduced. That's going to have a massive impact on our ability to organise workers and to train the next generation of union leaders," she said.
Moving a motion on the issue, Ms Lavelle argued for "ring-fenced funds" for union education, pointing out that the current cuts are the legacy of Labour and do not include the new government's austerity plans for the sector.
"This is before the 'chuckle brothers' even got going on cuts," she warned.
Ms Lavelle also expressed grave concern about plans that in the future only courses that are fully supported by the Sector Skills Councils will receive funding.
"SSCs are employer-led quangos. So it will be only funded if it fits with employers' agenda and not in terms of wider education values for the individual," she warned.
The price of progress is eternal vigilance
Interview by Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday May 05, 2010
The Morning Star
As Mary Davis's local rabbi awarded her a cookery book for excellence in Hebrew, he intoned portentiously that a Jewish woman is "a queen in her own home."
Davis flung the book on the floor, protesting: "I don't want to be a queen in my own home."
This episode led the precocious schoolgirl to question her strong religious beliefs and, eventually, the whole basis on which society was founded.
"As I broke with the stultifying traditions of orthodox Judaism, a whole new world opened up to me," Davis tells me over a proper coffee in her immaculate kitchen.
She joined the Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND) aged 15, selling the group's Sanity newspaper in school and challenging visiting politicians to explain why Britain needed a nuclear deterrent.
"The Soviet Union was branded the enemy when all they were doing was contributing to the construction of a better world," she remembers.
So Davis honed her debating skills in YCND, where her questioning of Britain's nukes led her to a socialist perspective.
"When my history teacher referred to 'a capitalist society,' I thought capitalism was to do with capital cities," she laughs.
When Davis popped into her local library to look up "capitalism," she came across "a huge shelf of books by one K Marx and I thought: 'I didn't know the Marx brothers wrote books!'
"But once I discovered who Karl Marx was, I devoured his work."
Davis comes from a traditional working-class Jewish family who, like most in the east London Jewish community, were staunch anti-fascists and respected communists for standing up to Mosley's Blackshirts.
"Though they were not political, they saw that communism was the only force capable of defeating fascism," she says.
Still, when Davis joined the Young Communist League she was nervous about telling her mum that she had effectively renounced Orthodox Judaism and joined the "atheists."
"But when I told her, she said: 'Good for you. The communists have always been on our side'."
Davis' father, who died when she was just five, and uncles were involved in the 43 Group, a militant Jewish ex-servicemen's anti-fascist organisation.
"They were particularly active in Ridley Road - the confrontations often got physical. Everyone in that group had fought in the second world war and knew all too well how to deal with the fascists."
Taking issue with the tactics deployed by some of the current anti-fascist groups, Davis stresses the importance of organising at local level and around issues that the BNP preys on - unemployment, poor housing, and general social degradation.
"The 1940s street battles against fascism took place within the community.
This wasn't a rent-a-mob from outside. These were people who lived and worked in the community.
"It's about building up an opposition within the community - otherwise there is the risk of antagonising and alienating people."
Davis became more active in the Communist Party throughout her student years and quickly rose through the ranks, first as secretary of Manchester University students' branch then as the borough secretary of Haringey, overseeing eight branches, before being elected on to the London District Committee (LDC) and later the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) executive.
She was one of the 22 members of the LDC who were expelled by the Euro-communists in 1985.
The architects of Euro-communism sought to accommodate capitalism by abandoning a class perspective in favour of so-called new social movements, which defined the working class as but one of many social forces alongside others such as race and gender.
Davis, whose major contribution to the movement has been her devotion to women's right issues, believes that this divisive approach put many of those who went on to form the CPB in 1988 off the women's movement.
"I can understand people being suspicious of what we called the movements for equality, because they were presented in opposition to a class perspective," she says.
"But we must address this - we can't call ourselves a revolutionary party unless we pay proper attention to issues of race and sex."
Davis believes the time is ripe for a "third-wave" women's movement - one that clarifies the relationship between class, gender and race oppression.
She argues that the second-wave women's liberation of the 1970s was "very middle class."
Davis, who retired from the TUC Women's Committee at April's annual conference in an emotional send-off after 25 years of invaluable service, describes the TUC women's conference as "the parliament for women."
But she fears that this, along with other union equality structures, are under threat as unions cut back amid the recession.
"That is why I use my phrase which everyone now laughs about - 'the price of progress is eternal vigilance'," she says.
Davis even quips that we might need "women vigilante groups in every locality" to spearhead the fightback.
"The public-sector cuts will increase feminisation of poverty," she observes.
Davis labels the Single Equality Act, passed on April 1, a "lost opportunity" for Labour to show serious commitment to closing the pay gap.
But she welcomes Labour's new prostitution legislation - also brought in on April 1 - which criminalises those who buy sex from anyone deemed to be "controlled for gain."
She considers it "a step in the right direction" towards the Nordic model of criminalising all buyers and decriminalising the prostitutes, while offering them financial and social support to break free of what some see fit to describe as an "industry."
Davis dismisses the liberal trend which seeks to legitimise prostitution as "empowering" women.
"This is a setback for our liberation," she argues, warning: "If we don't combat this now, we'll end up having to fight the old battles again.
"We must challenge the patriarchal ideology that lies behind the degrading sexualisation of women and young girls on the one hand and the oppressive religious traditions on the other," she emphasises.
Though she has decided to relinquish her positions in the CPB and trade union movement following her retirement last September as the London Metropolitan University Professor of Labour History, Davis has no intention of retiring as a campaigner.
As the author of the Charter for Women, she is keen to put into practice the demands highlighted in the document and link them to the People's Charter - perhaps as a stepping stone towards that third-wave movement.
Davis, who has authored several books including Comrade Or Brother and Women & Class, also wants to devote more time to writing.
She has a new book coming out in July, Class & Gender In British Labour History, and she is already working on another about the 1910 women chainmakers strike leader Mary Macarthur and her vital role in advancing women's status in trade unionism.
"Hopefully I can continue to make a contribution to the movement," Davis says with characteristic modesty.
Wednesday May 05, 2010
The Morning Star
As Mary Davis's local rabbi awarded her a cookery book for excellence in Hebrew, he intoned portentiously that a Jewish woman is "a queen in her own home."
Davis flung the book on the floor, protesting: "I don't want to be a queen in my own home."
This episode led the precocious schoolgirl to question her strong religious beliefs and, eventually, the whole basis on which society was founded.
"As I broke with the stultifying traditions of orthodox Judaism, a whole new world opened up to me," Davis tells me over a proper coffee in her immaculate kitchen.
She joined the Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND) aged 15, selling the group's Sanity newspaper in school and challenging visiting politicians to explain why Britain needed a nuclear deterrent.
"The Soviet Union was branded the enemy when all they were doing was contributing to the construction of a better world," she remembers.
So Davis honed her debating skills in YCND, where her questioning of Britain's nukes led her to a socialist perspective.
"When my history teacher referred to 'a capitalist society,' I thought capitalism was to do with capital cities," she laughs.
When Davis popped into her local library to look up "capitalism," she came across "a huge shelf of books by one K Marx and I thought: 'I didn't know the Marx brothers wrote books!'
"But once I discovered who Karl Marx was, I devoured his work."
Davis comes from a traditional working-class Jewish family who, like most in the east London Jewish community, were staunch anti-fascists and respected communists for standing up to Mosley's Blackshirts.
"Though they were not political, they saw that communism was the only force capable of defeating fascism," she says.
Still, when Davis joined the Young Communist League she was nervous about telling her mum that she had effectively renounced Orthodox Judaism and joined the "atheists."
"But when I told her, she said: 'Good for you. The communists have always been on our side'."
Davis' father, who died when she was just five, and uncles were involved in the 43 Group, a militant Jewish ex-servicemen's anti-fascist organisation.
"They were particularly active in Ridley Road - the confrontations often got physical. Everyone in that group had fought in the second world war and knew all too well how to deal with the fascists."
Taking issue with the tactics deployed by some of the current anti-fascist groups, Davis stresses the importance of organising at local level and around issues that the BNP preys on - unemployment, poor housing, and general social degradation.
"The 1940s street battles against fascism took place within the community.
This wasn't a rent-a-mob from outside. These were people who lived and worked in the community.
"It's about building up an opposition within the community - otherwise there is the risk of antagonising and alienating people."
Davis became more active in the Communist Party throughout her student years and quickly rose through the ranks, first as secretary of Manchester University students' branch then as the borough secretary of Haringey, overseeing eight branches, before being elected on to the London District Committee (LDC) and later the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) executive.
She was one of the 22 members of the LDC who were expelled by the Euro-communists in 1985.
The architects of Euro-communism sought to accommodate capitalism by abandoning a class perspective in favour of so-called new social movements, which defined the working class as but one of many social forces alongside others such as race and gender.
Davis, whose major contribution to the movement has been her devotion to women's right issues, believes that this divisive approach put many of those who went on to form the CPB in 1988 off the women's movement.
"I can understand people being suspicious of what we called the movements for equality, because they were presented in opposition to a class perspective," she says.
"But we must address this - we can't call ourselves a revolutionary party unless we pay proper attention to issues of race and sex."
Davis believes the time is ripe for a "third-wave" women's movement - one that clarifies the relationship between class, gender and race oppression.
She argues that the second-wave women's liberation of the 1970s was "very middle class."
Davis, who retired from the TUC Women's Committee at April's annual conference in an emotional send-off after 25 years of invaluable service, describes the TUC women's conference as "the parliament for women."
But she fears that this, along with other union equality structures, are under threat as unions cut back amid the recession.
"That is why I use my phrase which everyone now laughs about - 'the price of progress is eternal vigilance'," she says.
Davis even quips that we might need "women vigilante groups in every locality" to spearhead the fightback.
"The public-sector cuts will increase feminisation of poverty," she observes.
Davis labels the Single Equality Act, passed on April 1, a "lost opportunity" for Labour to show serious commitment to closing the pay gap.
But she welcomes Labour's new prostitution legislation - also brought in on April 1 - which criminalises those who buy sex from anyone deemed to be "controlled for gain."
She considers it "a step in the right direction" towards the Nordic model of criminalising all buyers and decriminalising the prostitutes, while offering them financial and social support to break free of what some see fit to describe as an "industry."
Davis dismisses the liberal trend which seeks to legitimise prostitution as "empowering" women.
"This is a setback for our liberation," she argues, warning: "If we don't combat this now, we'll end up having to fight the old battles again.
"We must challenge the patriarchal ideology that lies behind the degrading sexualisation of women and young girls on the one hand and the oppressive religious traditions on the other," she emphasises.
Though she has decided to relinquish her positions in the CPB and trade union movement following her retirement last September as the London Metropolitan University Professor of Labour History, Davis has no intention of retiring as a campaigner.
As the author of the Charter for Women, she is keen to put into practice the demands highlighted in the document and link them to the People's Charter - perhaps as a stepping stone towards that third-wave movement.
Davis, who has authored several books including Comrade Or Brother and Women & Class, also wants to devote more time to writing.
She has a new book coming out in July, Class & Gender In British Labour History, and she is already working on another about the 1910 women chainmakers strike leader Mary Macarthur and her vital role in advancing women's status in trade unionism.
"Hopefully I can continue to make a contribution to the movement," Davis says with characteristic modesty.
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