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Issue No. 143 | 05 July 2002 |
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Bad Bosses
Interview: Media Magnet Bad Boss: Abbott's Heroes Technology: All in the Family International: New Labour's Cracks Economics: Virtuality Check History: Necessary Utopias Poetry: Let Me Bring Love Review: How Not To Get It Together Satire: NZ, UK Added to Australia�s Migration Zone
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Week in Review
 Lessons from Air DisasterBuggering the BushThe Great GiveawayDown and OutWhy I hate Telstra
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International New Labour's Cracks
*************** The latest development is that Deputy PM, John Prescott, has been thrown out of a union he has belonged to for 47 years. This week's New Statesman has run an article warning that the flying insults between Labour and unions are getting dangerously close to creating the final break in the historic ties. The Blair Government's Europe Minister, Peter Hain, penned the New Statesman article and called on both sides to draw back and stop trading insults. However Hain doesn't hold back from attacking what he calls a minority of far left union leaders, such as Bob Crow of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, trying to sabotage the relationship. It was the RMT who triggered off the latest fighting by withdrawing funding from 13 Labour MPs - who were members of the RMT - because they were not prepared to commit to a new union loyalty oath. Some union activists have floated the idea of some type of loyalty oath in Australian circles. They are angry that our own Labor MPs seem to too quickly lose their union loyalties when they get themselves elected into parliament - and want a new method to tie individual Labor MPs firmly to their roots.. However, almost since the re-election of the Blair Government the Labour Party has been in a fight with its union base - especially over public sector funding - with a little respite from this battle, in recent months.
New test of union credentials of Blair Government A real test of the Labour Government's relationship with the trade union movement will come in the wake of a European Court of Human Rights decision handed down this week ruling that UK laws violate trade unionists' right to freedom of assembly. The Government is under pressure to act quickly to show its bona fides. In a case first brought before the Strasbourg tribunal ten years ago the court ruled the civil rights of a former Daily Mail journalist and 10 Southampton dockers were violated when they were denied pay rises for refusing to sign individual contracts giving up collective bargaining. The seven judges found the government had permitted the discrimination in breach of article 11 of the European convention on human rights, guaranteeing the right to join a union. John Monks, TUC general secretary, criticised Labour for failing to act until now: "It is outrageous that UK law continues to allow workers to be penalised for trying to make use of their union membership through representation. "We now call on the government to change the law so that workers are able to have their voice heard through their union without suffering worse working conditions." Cap on trade union donations to political parties Meanwhile the Labour Party is seen to be trying to pick another fight with unions by floating the idea of state funding of political parties - and a cap on donations by trade unions.. The UK electoral commission has just started an inquiry into state funding with the chairman of the commission, Sam Younger, floating the idea that donations, including those from unions, should be capped at about $25,000. The Labour Party's biggest union affiliate - Amicus - bluntly warned against going down this path. The union's general secretary, Ken Jackson, normally seen as being close to the Blair Government, said that any move to cap union funding would disenfranchise union members and reduce the number of people involved in party politics. Loyalist unions such as Amicus fear their remaining influence with Labour policy makers would be obliterated if parties come to depend on state funds. Not all Left unions support the RMT stance. The general secretary of the Communications Workers Union , Billy Hayes, recently described people who advocate breaking the link between the trade unions and the Labour Party as suffering from "historical amnesia." Billy Hayes was speaking at a Left-organised meeting on the Future of the Labour Movement where most speakers seemed to advocate staying within the Labour tent - despite misgivings. " Breaking the link between the Labour Party and trade union movement will break the Labour movement, we'd be doing the Tories jobs for them. There is more going for us by staying in the Labour Party," Mick Rix the general secretary of the engine-drivers union, ASLEF, said at the meeting. And those on the Left worried about state-funding of political parties such as Jeannie Drake from the telecoms union warning that " breaking the link with the Labour Party plays into the hands of those who want state funding of parties." The RMT's loyalty oath The RMT wants their MPs to agree to a loyalty oath that could commit them to campaign on four key issues if they want to continue receiving funding for their local constituency parties. The four key issues are: � full rail renationalisation � opposition to the part privatisation of the London Underground, � a campaign for seafarers' jobs, and � a quest for strengthened employment rights John Prescott - who joined the Seaman's' Union at age 17, a precursor to the RMt - stepped down from the union accusing Bob Crow of attempting to subvert democracy and dictate to MPs. " As a long-standing MP and trade unionist it is unacceptable that my trade union, the RMT, should dictate how a member of parliament should vote," Prescott told The Guardian newspaper. He said the requirement of the new RMT leadership for a loyalty test was designed to do just that.
" I am convinced that this kind of policy will undermine the historic and important relationship between the trade unions and the Labour Party and will be detrimental to trade union members. " I am a trade union man, I will always be that way. Whether I have a membership card or not I'll still be doing what I think is right, what brought me into politics, to work on behalf of working people." Robin Cook - the House of Commons Labour leader - and also a member of the RMT, told Parliament he too has refused any money from his union on the basis of this oath of loyalty. While thirteen Labour MPs will now have funding withdrawn a new group of about 14 Labour MPs are to receive constituency support from the RMT after they agreed to campaign for the union's four key issues. Bob Crow denied that the RMT was trying to buy votes through union funding. "All we're saying is we want MPs to campaign in general on those issues. When it comes to a vote that's up to the MP how he or she votes."
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