ATTACKS ON SHARON GRAHAM

IN THE OBSERVER on Michael Savage reported on Sun 27 Jun 2021

The only woman running to be the next leader of the powerful Unite union has revealed that she received “disgraceful” online abuse for refusing to stand aside for two more prominent male rivals.

Sharon Graham, who has attracted an unexpected level of grassroots support, said she experienced a “rough ride” after refusing to end her campaign. She said troll accounts had mocked up pictures of her as Margaret Thatcher, and she had warned her family that she might lose her job because of the row.

Graham has been criticised for refusing to engage in talks to agree on a single leftwing unity candidate to replace Len McCluskey, a key supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership. Howard Beckett, a vehement critic of Keir Starmer, has pulled out to support the frontrunner, Steve Turner. The left is determined to defeat Gerard Coyne, seen as more supportive of Starmer. Graham, however, remains in the race.

“Being a woman in the trade union movement, and obviously a woman who has gone up against some of the most hostile of employers, I’m really used to being in difficult situations – so it takes a lot to rock me,” she said. “But I can understand why people don’t run against the establishment. We’re not in a playground picking football teams. This is the leader of one of the most significant unions in Britain and Ireland.

“I was never going to be involved in doing deals. This is the problem we have in the movement. There’s a moment in time, right now, where the union needs to be doing what I’m suggesting – it needs to go back to the workplace. And I believe that the membership wants this choice.”

Graham, who received a surprising 349 nominations from some of the union’s most powerful branches, said that none of her supporters had asked her to pull out. She said troll accounts had been sending her abuse, including disparaging mocked-up pictures, after her refusal to stand down. “I thought it was disgraceful,” she said. “If you’re a woman in a leadership role, it’s all the usual sexist stuff that you hear. It will never deter me. Maybe they’re a bit worried I might win.”

Graham said that the union movement had reached a “crisis point” and a non-established figure was needed to return Unite to its main cause of representing workers and end “an obsession” with the Labour party.

“I absolutely feel that we are at a crisis point in the trade union movement,” she said. “I don’t think I’m over-egging that. The union movement is on life support. For way too long, and it has happened over years and years, we have moved away from our core business. We have got to get back to the workplace. It is absolutely critical that we get back to doing what is on the trade union tin. If we cannot do that, then I think the union movement will be irreparable in years to come.”

She added: “I don’t have any regional secretary backing me. That’s the machine,” she said. “Every person supporting me has gone against their region. They’re doing it against the regime. We’re in this to really make change.”

Unite remains Labour’s biggest donor. Graham said that there would be no “blank cheques” for Labour under her leadership, but that the party would have “no problem with me” if it pursued policies that improved the condition of workers.

“This obsession at the moment with the Labour party, almost like we’re a branch of it, has made us weaker, unfortunately. Yes, politics matters. But the Labour party has effectively almost become the centre of discussions, when in fact jobs, pay and conditions should be the centre.”

She said women had been “let down” by unions, who had failed to adapt to the new industries in which women are over-represented. “This is not pin money that women are turning out for,” she said. “They’re often doing more than one job. Without a shadow of a doubt, in the post-Covid world, they will essentially lose their jobs more [without union help]. I genuinely feel that we have let women down.”

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Unite Sharon Graham's plan for a new workplace politics by Brian Bamford

THE UNITE ELECTION for GENERAL SECRETARY

Playing Politics or having control in the Workplace?

At the end of June the fringe website WORKERS' LIBERTY announced:

'Unite General Secretary candidate Sharon Graham’s proposals for “a Workers’ Politics” point in the wrong direction. In many respects they are a regression from Unite’s current political strategy.

'The wider output from Graham’s campaign says little about political struggles and largely disparages political trade unionism in favour of “returning to the workplace”. She has denounced rival left candidate Steve Turner and his new backer Howard Beckett as “the Westminster Brigade” (“the Westminster Brigade versus the Workplace”). In fact Graham lumps Turner and right-wing candidate Gerard Coyne together as the Westminster Brigade, as if Coyne rather than Turner winning would not matter!'

The website continues:

'Effective working-class politics does need to be rooted in strong workplace and community organisation and struggles, as opposed to just senior union officials hobnobbing with politicians or social media output; but Graham's stance is reactionary populist posturing.'

This small leftist body WORKERS' LIBERTY focuses here upon the spirit of syndicalism in Sharon Graham's strategy and calls it 'a regression from Unite’s current political strategy'.

They argue 'Graham’s campaign says little about political struggles and largely disparages political trade unionism in favour of “returning to the workplace” and that she 'has denounced rival left candidate Steve Turner and his new backer Howard Beckett as “the Westminster Brigade” (“the Westminster Brigade versus the Workplace”).'

In her own election address Sharon says: 'I am not supported by any clique of MP's. I don't have the machine of the current regime.'

THE HISTORICAL TRADITION of BRITISH SYNDICALISM

THE program set out clearly by Sharon Graham today has roots that go deep in the history of British, and indeed, European trade unionsm. It encompasses ideas that stretch back to the foundation of the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union in the 19th century and was popular before the First World War in 1912 when 'The Miners' Next Step' was formulated and articulated as a project for workplace syndicalism and workers' control.

The Guild Socialist and historian G.D.H. Cole has described how British trade unionists tend to return to militant workplace activity in periods when parliamentary politics fails. If Sharon Graham's message today is anything to go by we may well be entering one of those phases. As I read through the addresses of the candidates for the Unite General Secretary today there seems to be an air of disillusionment with party politics and politicians.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that Sharon Graham is cynically drawing upon a 'reactionary popularist posturing' as the hole-in-the-corner Marxists of the 'WORKERS' ALLIANCE' seem to be suggesting in their critique above. Reading her address it seems to me that she is drawing upon her own insider knowledge and experience to articulate a narative of what could be called modern workplace syndicalism. It is not surprising that the politicians are in bad odour right now. They seem to lack common decency and that goes for the Labour Party as well.

Blacklisting & LABOUR'S Defence of the Boss's Right to Vet

IT not surprising that I note that the Manchester UNITE EPIU Contracting Branch North West/1400 have nominated Sharon Graham. This Manchester branch spearheaded the campaign that led to the exposure of the Consulting Association blacklist in the British building industry in 2009. The reason that the Manchester electricians would be sceptical about professional politicians can be found in a letter sent in 2008 to Graham Brady, then a Conservative MP representing one of the blacklisted Manchester electricians; in this letter dated 30th, April 2008, the then Labour Minister for Employment Relations & Postal Affairs, Pat McFadden wrote:

'Employers often vet the people they hire. It is not the policy of the Government to make it unlawful for employers to undertake such necessary vetting in a systematic way, conferring with previous employers as required. However... the Government is aware that irresponsible vetting can lead to abuse...' Then he reassures Mr. Brady MP and his blacklisted constituwent by sternly declaring: 'The Government remains vigilant in this matter and my Department monitors the evidence that information about trade unionists is being misused to discourage employers from hiring them.'

In truth we now know for sure that blacklisting in the Britsh building trade flourished under Labour Goverments because a year later in 2009, the Consulting Assocation and its blacklist files compiled bt Ian Kerr were sucessfuly confiscated by Dave Clancy, the Infomation Commisiioner. It is with our current knowledge of politicians of all governments have a habit of looking the other way and allowing lives to be ruined by blacklist files. With her knowlege of the BESNA in construction and the leverage campaigns she is able to state: 'We can't rely on politicians and I won't be signing any blank cheques for any party [and] I will stop us becoming a branch of the Labour Party, by moving beyond factions and focusing on policies.'

It is this refreshing down to earth approach to the everyday reality that makes Sharon Graham the ideal candidate for those of us who are sick of the fashionable addicion to virtue signaling and delight in someone who has the spirit of everyday reality about her. The alternative candidates Gerald Coyne and Steve Turner both seem to have a flavour of the political factionalism of current mediocre politics.

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TRIBUNE on Union Blacklisting Complicity

STATEMENT FROM BLACKLIST SUPPORT GROUP

When the campaign over blacklisting started, we concentrated our efforts on exposing the conspiracy by big business and the police. It was directors of multinational corporations who ran the notoriously anti-union Economic League and Consulting Association blacklists, in an operation that lasted five decades and involved a two-way sharing of intelligence about union activists between company executives and Britain’s most secretive political police units.

Over the past twelve years, the exposure of corporate and state wrongdoing has led to new legislation, a select committee investigation, record compensation and a public apology in the High Court, and a dedicated union strand in the ongoing public inquiry into undercover policing. The Blacklist Support Group acknowledge the important role played by the trade unions in our campaign for justice.

But there remains unfinished business. It was known from the very beginning that some blacklist documentation included entries where full-time union officials were recorded as the source of the information. blacklistMultiple files include the entry ‘EETPU says NO’, a fact so appalling that the select committee investigation even discussed it. Witness statements prepared by blacklisting managers for the High Court trial claim that some union officials provided them with information.

In his statement, Trevor Watcham—a former chairman of the Consulting Association—claims to have shared a table at an Economic League event with ‘Leon Brittan of the Conservative Party (who had been the main speaker) and Eric Hammond of the electricians’ union together with some members of his union executive’. Norman Tebbit’s recent revelations about secret meetings with the EETPU General Secretary only add to the growing pile of evidence that union collusion in blacklisting took place at the highest levels. This is totally unacceptable, and the union movement needs to face up to this unsavoury aspect of its past.

But this treachery did not occur in a vacuum. To understand why this happened it is necessary to appreciate the industrial relations context of the construction industry. For decades, the leadership of the construction unions adopted strategies that concentrated on winning favour with employers rather than mobilising supposedly ‘self-employed’ workers to take action.

In their hunt for members, the union bureaucracy made sweetheart deals with employers that abandoned the most basic principles of trade unionism. The right wing EETPU was expelled from the TUC following their support of Rupert Murdoch during the Wapping dispute that saw over 6,000 unionised print workers lose their jobs overnight. Branches that opposed the leadership were closed down and leading left-wing members repeatedly disciplined or expelled. As an aside, the Labour MP John Spellar was the Political Officer for EETPU throughout this period.

But it was not just EETPU: other construction unions also adopted overtly business friendly strategies. Bulk membership agreements — where a union official strikes a deal with a manager to pay a set amount of union subs each month without ever talking to the workers—might sound like gangster-style protection money to buy industrial peace, but they were common in the sector.

The phenomenon of appointed convenors, where a union regional secretary and a major employer would jointly agree on who the full-time union representative on a project should be, in the vast majority of cases without any election by the workforce, has existed for decades and continues to this day. Companies guilty of blacklisting union activists were often the most vocal in their support for appointed convenors, who became incorporated into corporate industrial relations and safety structures. The lack of democracy and potential for favouritism in the opaque appointment process is obvious and has no place in any union that claims to be member-led.

To be clear, it is not every union official in construction. Many are honest, value-driven trade unionists who have stood up for workers’ rights. But it is beyond doubt that over a fifty-year period, some general secretaries, some senior union officials, and some appointed convenors formed overly cosy relationships with employers.

Enjoying hospitality in pubs, restaurants, and hotels, or attending sporting events with industrial relations managers from blacklisting firms was viewed as acceptable practice. Press reports from the 1990s actually name UCATT and TGWU officials accused of taking bribes and other inducements from employers, including procurement of prostitutes.

A revolving door exists through which, upon leaving the union, officials regularly take up positions as industrial relations consultants working for the very construction firms they previously negotiated against. It is in this context that gossip about ‘troublesome’ left-wing union activists gets discussed – and appears on blacklist files.

While many cases may be ‘loose talk’ encouraged by alcohol, in some cases the collusion in blacklisting appears more premeditated. It was documentary evidence that forced blacklisted union members to write an open letter in 2016 calling for a fully independent investigation into potential collusion by union officials in blacklisting their own members. The letter states that ‘every union activist in construction knows who the named officials are, as does every major employer’, and describes potential collusion as an ‘open sore’ within Unite.

Branches flooded the Unite Executive Council with motions and in 2019 an independent QC led investigation to look into possible collusion was set up by Len McCluskey. Blacklist Support Group applauded the Unite independent investigation, encouraging anyone with documents or oral testimony that may be relevant to contact lawyers collating evidence.

Solicitors have travelled the country taking witness statements from blacklisted workers who have made serious allegations, including claims that some officials gave evidence at Employment Tribunals in support of the employers, rather than in support of sacked union members. And this is only the beginning, even more documentary evidence has been presented to the investigation by activists.

This includes Subject Access Request disclosures that show that a number of senior union officials were blind copying internal emails about union activists to third parties – including to industrial relations consultants working for blacklisting firms. Searches of Companies House database have discovered that some construction union officials were directors of consultancies providing services to the industry while they were employed by the union. This needs to be fully investigated at the very least.

Yet despite making good progress early on, the Unite investigation appears to have ground to a halt during Covid-19. Jane McNeill QC, the independent lawyer who will write the final report, has only just been formally appointed, and a full search of the Unite ICT system and the archives of predecessor unions has yet to take place. Everyone accepts that the unions and lawyers have been exceptionally busy during the pandemic. But if courts and public inquiries are operating, the investigation into possible collusion should also be able to continue.

The election for the next general secretary of Unite is now underway. The Blacklist Support Group calls upon every candidate to publicly pledge that the investigation into union collusion will continue under their watch, and that if any officials currently employed by the union are criticised in the final QC written report, that they will face appropriate disciplinary action.

The investigation into union collusion in blacklisting is a key battle in the long-term struggle over the very soul of trade unionism in construction. It begs the question: what kind of trade unionism do workers deserve?

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'Fire and rehire': National day of action

TODAY, 26 April, we’re holding a national day of action, demanding the government end fire and rehire now.

While the pandemic continues to create misery, unscrupulous employers – many in profit and some even claiming government financial support — are cynically exploiting the crisis to force workers to sign up to thousands of pounds of wage cuts and worse conditions or lose their jobs.

It’s estimated that one in 10 workers have already been threatened with fire and rehire, and many more will be as furlough comes to an end.

We need Unite members to come together, up and down the country, to show solidarity with members under threat of fire and rehire and make clear to bullying bosses that we won't stand for it.

Businesses have been supported by government. Workers should be treated fairly too. Yet although some government ministers have described fire and rehire as “bully-boy” tactics, it’s still legal. That’s why Unite is calling on the government to bring legislation to outlaw fire and rehire.

We will be working with the Unite group of MPs to maximise all available opportunities in Parliament. With your support your MP will get the message loud and clear – this intimidation should be banned.

There are a number of ways that you can support this campaign:

1) A socially distanced, covid-safe group photograph with a banner/posters – materials are available in regional offices.

2) Distribution of leaflets within workplaces

3) Share images and videos on social media using #EndFireAndRehire hashtag and tag @UnitePolitics

4) Invite your local MP/Councillor candidate to visit demonstrations to show solidarity

7) Write to your local paper

8) Email your MP and get them to sign this Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament.

Resources such as leaflets will be available on www.endfireandhire.com

Please do get involved, and help us show that Unite members are front and centre of the fight against this abhorrent practice.

We are winning the fight in workplaces, now let’s win it in Westminster.

Workers fighting fire and rehire

Aerospace members refused to be bullied

Strikes at the aerospace parts firm SPS have been called off after a deal was reached to end ‘fire and rehire’ threats that would have resulted in staff losing up to £3,000 a year.

Read more.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts bosses acting like they’re in Victorian times

Despite a forty per cent increase in profits, bosses at coffee-makers Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) are threatening their workers that they could be fired and rehired. They are now trying to stop workers from taking summer holidays to thwart industrial action taken in response to these threats. Read more.

Elections across the UK on 6 May

With last year’s elections postponed due to the pandemic, polling stations will be open across the whole of the UK on 6 May as directly elected mayors, councillors, London assembly members, the Scottish parliament, Welsh Senedd, and police commissioners are all up for elections.

This is a huge set of elections, please make sure you vote and have your say. Unite Hospitality's political power

Ahead of the Scottish parliamentary elections, our hospitality branch in Glasgow provided a great example of just what can be achieved through member-led organisation that uses politics to achieve industrial aims. They organised a hospitality hustings, inviting politicians from across the political spectrum to talk about what they, and their parties, will do if elected to support hospitality workers.

Caitlin Lee, Chair of Glasgow Hospitality and Service Industries Branch said: ‘Getting those politicians in a room and pledging support for our Charter will make the industry a safer, fairer and better industry. Organising in this way gives us so much more power and clout. As trade unionists, we should be engaging politically.

“It was so important this was a member-led, member-organised hustings. It was us, as workers, who are bringing the pro-active change towards our industry.

“Our industry is one that we struggle for equality, health and safety, and this year financially, and the only way you can get accountability for these situations is to get the stories out there and get politicians to understand. We got all six candidates to sign up to our Charter, and we can now move forward in making Glasgow a Fair Hospitality city by 2022.” Workers Memorial Day

Workers' Memorial Day, held on 28 April every year, brings together workers and their representatives from all over the world to remember the dead and fight for the living. This year’s theme is: Health and Safety is a fundamental workers' right

Read more about how to get involved on our website

Thanks for reading this month's update! For more updates, follow Unite Politics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Hinkley Point: Deskilling Dispute & Dodgy Training

by Brian Bamford

ON THE 1st, March this year Construction News reported on the deskilling dispute at Hinkley Point in Sommerset, that the creation of two training standards at the nuclear plant would according to the Unite union ‘undermine’ the role of electricians.

There is an industrial conflict which is ongoing at the Hinkley Point C plant after it was discovered that two training standards had been introduced by the Engineering Construction Training Board (ECITB) that would undermine the role of electricians, without Unite, the UK’s construction union, input or agreement.

The matter has been raised directly with the client of the French company EDF, who have reacted to Unite’s concerns. All training in this area has been postponed until the problem is resolved.

Dilutees & Sub-standard Training

The disputed training standards relate to cabling and containment work, which is ‘bread and butter’ work for electricians on new build construction projects.

Unite was alerted to the substandard training standards at an early stage. There are no electricians working at Hinkley Point C, currently undertaking cabling and containment work, as this phase of the project is yet to start.

Owing to the rapid intervention of Unite, the training of any worker or apprentice at Hinkley has not been disrupted as no one has begun to be trained on the ECTIB’s defective training standards.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has said “The undermining of the role of electrician has been attempted for more than 30 years, most recently in 2011/12 when eight of the major mechanical and electrical (M&E) construction companies promoted the use of non-electrical personnel to carry out skilled electrical tasks under the so called BESNA agreement.

“Unite defeated the BESNA agreement then and we will defeat this latest attempt to deskill electricians.

“Our message to the industry is clear. Unite and its electrical membership will oppose any and all efforts to weaken the skill set of the trade which will undermine the industry by introducing non-skilled operatives.

“Any deskilling of electricians would result in a race to the bottom and would be highly damaging to industrial relations across the sector.”

From the last week in March there have been weekly pickets outside Balfour Beatty’s offices in Bromborough, on the Wirral. Balfour Beatty has been contracted with EDF on the Somerset nuclear power plant. And another implicated contractor NG Bailey, has had its offices in Salford picketed on Fridays, and its sites at Manchester University and Manchester Town Hall have faced demonstrations by local activist electricians from the Manchester Contracing branch of Unite.

An Unholy Alliance of cheap-jack training

EDF and its partners are building the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The firms there have introduced new installer grades that undercut industry terms and conditions.

The bosses’ MEH Alliance at Hinkley Point C is a consortium made up of Altrad, Balfour Beatty Bailey, Cavendish Nuclear and Doosan Babcock. It is calling the new rate-busting grades Electrical Support Operatives (ESO) and Engineering Construction Operative.

Their grand plan is to run short courses for electricians on how to install containment or cabling. There are 9,000 km of cable and 404 km of containment to install on the Hinkley project.

Hinkley Point C is due to open in June 2026—a year late and so far at a cost of £23 billion, some £5 billion over budget.

In February,Simon Basketter in the Socialist Worker wrote:

'Unite has enthusiastically supported the building of the nuclear plant. While it was proud to sign up to an agreement for apprentices which appears to have been broken, it also seems to have sleepwalked into the creation of ESOs.

'The dispute has echoes of the electricians’ Besna dispute in 2011. Originally eight companies had planned to impose a new agreement and grade on workers to undercut wages and organisation.

'That [dispute] saw an escalating campaign of direct action on construction sites. Electricians protested, occupied and struck unofficially for six months.'

The contracting electricians will have to be on the ball to fight off this assault on standards in the industry.

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Unite members have won the first battle in their war against deskilling electricians.

BLACKLIST SUPPORT GROUP:

When was the last time you heard of employers’ proposals for a training course leading to UK wide direct action led by the workers themselves?

Big contractors at Hinckley Point nuclear power station want safety critical electrical work to be carried out without the need for a qualified electrician. Sparks have got other ideas.

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UNION NEWS:

The UNITE union stepped in after it was discovered two training standards had been introduced at Hinkley Point by the Engineering Construction Training Board (ECITB) that would undermine the role of the electrician, without the union’s input or agreement.

Rank-and-file members occupied the offices of EDF Energy, and threatened to blockade the Somerset nuclear power station site. As a result of the protests, EDF has announced it has put the plans on hold.

A statement from Unite’s Electrical and Mechanical Combine said: “We welcome the news from Hinkley Point that all training courses will cease until our dispute has been resolved. We also appreciate the statement of support from our general secretary, Len McCluskey. This does not mean that this dispute is almost over, far from it.

“Our focus now turns to NG Bailey and Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick. We will be targeting these companies on a weekly basis at their offices, their sites, their supply chain and their governance, both here in the UK and overseas.

“We demand that a statement is sent out from Baileys and Balfours with a clear and unambiguous proclamation that they will withdraw from the training standards CPSO1 and CCSO1 at Hinkley Point, and that they will cease their immediate attacks on the skillset of electricians and other trades immediately and forever.

“For over 30 years we have had to endure the deskilling agenda of major electrical contractors. Each time we have responded and each time these companies have been forced into retreat. But they keep coming back.

“We will not tolerate these attacks any longer. If this statement is not unequivocal, then Balfours et al will become legitimate targets for further indiscriminate actions. We will not go away.”

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BUS DRIVERS UNDER fire and rehire attack!

Unite the union February 2021

IN the next two weeks we need your help.

Bus drivers in Manchester are being bullied and threatened with the sack if they don’t agree to work more hours for less pay in a fire and rehire attack. They've voted to strike and will launch an all out strike later this month.

That gives us just over two weeks to pile the pressure on the company, Go North West and the Go Ahead Group to stop with its fire and rehire threats and get back around the negotiating table.

Will you join us in emailing the CEO, David Brown? The email’s all ready to go. You just need to click and add your name

.

Email the the Go Ahead CEO

Our members have worked throughout the pandemic, risking their lives to keep Manchester moving. The last thing they want is to strike, but being bullied and threatened with the sack for refusing to sign new contracts on inferior terms, and losing their sick pay too was the last straw.

With your help we can keep the pressure on. Join us in calling on the CEO of the Go Ahead group David Brown to act. He’s the top chief of the entire group and our best bet of getting the company to take fire and rehire off the table.

Please email him now. You just need to click here and add your name.

Email the CEO

Thank you

Ritchie James

Unite regional secretary

Unite union leader condemns Starmer decision!

YESTERDAY the UNITE union general secretary, Len McCluskey said: “I am astonished at the decision to withdraw the Parliamentary Labour Party whip from Jeremy Corbyn.

“This is a vindictive and vengeful action which despoils Party democracy and due process alike, and amounts to overruling the unanimous decision of the NEC panel yesterday to readmit Jeremy to the Party.

“This action gives rise to double jeopardy in the handling of the case and shows marked bad faith.

“The unity of the Party around the need to implement the EHRC recommendations in full is being recklessly undermined.

“The continued persecution of Jeremy Corbyn, a politician who inspired millions, by a leadership capitulating to external pressure on Party procedures risks destroying the unity and integrity of the Labour Party.>

“I urge Keir Starmer in the strongest terms to pull back from the brink.”

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Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest union with members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Len McCluskey.

Regulator: On Censoring Carillion Slowly! *

by Brian Bamford

YESTERDAY the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it intends to take further action against the failed outsourcer Carillion for 'misleading' shareholders with false information.

In a warning notice published the watchdog said that a number of senior executives were 'knowingly concerned' in numerous breaches of market rules, and had acted 'recklessly'

The FCA, had in fact issued warning notices to the company that 'certain previous executive directors' over a series of breaches of the financial rules before the business collapsed into administration in 2018 with liabilities of almost £7bn after a series of financial troubles caught up with the outsourcing giant.

This included giving 'false or misleading signals as to the value of its shares'; 'failing to take reasonable care to ensure that its announcements were not misleading, false or deceptive' and 'failing to take reasonable steps to establish and maintain adequate procedures, systems and controls'.

Yet the FCA has so far failed to as yet issue 'a financial penalty' or comment on possible sanctions against the guilty men et al or to even name the directors involved, because the case is ongoing. The FCA insisted that the warning notices were not final decisions and individuals might appeal against any decisions to its upper tribunal.

Meanwhile, Pro. Prem Sikka from Sheffield university and a member of the House of Lords, told the Financial Times: 'There are 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises who have lost money, thousands of employees who have lost jobs and pension rights, and the regulator has taken two years to do little or virtually nothing.'

Carillion, which had 43,00 employees including 19,000 in the UK, was liquidated in January 2018 with £29m in cash and £7bn in liabilities, leaving the goverment to step in and pick up the pieces to ensure delivery of vital services including school meals and cleaning hospitals and prisons.

An inquiry into the collapse carried out by MPs described the collapse as 'a story of recklessness, hubris and greed', and said that the firm’s business model was 'a relentless dash for cash'.

For the individuals in question, the FCA has recourse to a number of additional penalties.

Carillion and the individuals in question will have 14 days to make representations to the Regulatory Decision Committee (RDC).

At the same time we can name some of the culprits because MPs haave demanded that Richard Adam, a former finance director, Richard Howson, a former chief executive, and Philip Green, a former chairman be held to account for their role in the biggest UK corporate failure in recent years. It is also the case that the Financial Reporting Council is investigating the conduct of Mr. Adams as well as another former Carillion finance director, Zafar Khan.

During their tenure, the company ran up debts and sold assets so that it could continue paying dividends to shareholders. It also paid 'performance-related bonusess to executives just months before its collapse' according the today's Financial Times.

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* SOME HISTORY OF THE CARILLION COLLAPSE

ON Tuesday 15 January 2019, Northern Voices reported: All Carillion's victims.

AFTER a year the fall of Carillion is still having consequences with many sub-contractors having lost huge amounts. Today in Construction News Rob Davies spoke with some of those affected to find out why:

In the aftermath of Carillion’s failure, there were concerns that its liquidation would lead to multiple collapses in the contractor’s supply chain.

Unite union criticises lack of action

Unite, Britain’s largest trade union, bemoaned a lack of action taken against former Carillion directors, who were accused by a committee of MPs of “recklessness, hubris and greed”, reiterating calls for a criminal investigation.

The Unite assistant general secretary, Gail Cartmail, said: 'It is staggering that a year after the biggest corporate failure in modern UK history the government has carried on as though it is business as normal.

'The fact that no one involved in Carillion has yet had any form of action taken against them, demonstrates either that the regulators are failing to do their jobs or that existing laws are too weak. If it is the latter then we need better, stronger laws.

'A year on from Carillion’s collapse the government needs to stop prevaricating and start taking effective action to drive bandit capitalism out of the UK.'

The government has introduced measures to make companies in charge of major public sector contracts draw up “living wills” to ensure the smooth operation of the services they provide in the event of financial failure.

But Unite said the measures did not go far enough to reform the system of public procurement. A spokeswoman for the Cabinet Office, which manages the outsourcing of public sector contracts and faced criticism over its role in the administration of the bust of Carillion, said the government had put in place measures to prevent a repeat.

She said: 'This government has taken great strides to improve how we work with the private sector, including requiring companies to demonstrate prompt payment to suppliers and piloting "living wills" for critical contracts, allowing contingency plans to be quickly put into place if needed.'

The accounting watchdog Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which was criticised by MPs for being 'chronically passive' over the audits of Carillion by firms including KPMG, is still investigating the circumstances of its failure.

Rolls Royce: Barnoldswick Dispute

From Unite the Union:

#BattleforBarnoldswick & #SaveOurSite

OUR members are due to start strike action at Rolls Royce Barnoldswick on Friday 6thNovember 2020, they are taking this courageous action to fight for the future of their site and their community. We have provided notice that we are taking a number of key departments out for at least 3 weeks, after our members returned a huge 94% yes vote for strike action.

The dispute is over compulsory redundancies as 83% of the world wide job losses made at Rolls Royce have come in the UKand the company has announced it will transfer Fan blade work fromthe site to Singapore,this is dispite the fact the Government has used tax payers money to;•Provide a £1.6bn government Guarantee for £2bn loans to Roll Royce•Is due to provide a further guarantee for £1 bn of refinancing support•Provided a £300m coronavirus loan•Invested over £600m in research and development over the last 20 years, whilst off shoring over 20,000 UK jobs•Contributed a further £75m + in furlough payments• & there couldbe a loss of £9m a year just from the tax and NI from the workers employed at the site. A number of branches have been in touch to ask how they can show their solidarity and our members would like you tokeep checking the campaign page,complete the actions sign the petition, watch the full (updated) video or email your MPhttps://unitetheunion.org/RRSaveourSiteand share this link.

They have had great support on social media with people using #BattleforBarnoldswick & #SaveOurSite if you wish to do the

same. Our members have a dispute fund so they are not asking for financial donations for the strike but if you do want to send a donation to their branch they will use this to make a donation to local food banks as the area is struggling with job losses,the impacts of Covid-19 and the local Tory MPs recently voted against extending free school meals for children living in povertythe Pendle constituencyhas 37% child poverty. The branch and the workforce regularly donate to charitable causes including foodbanks and the local cancer hospice, all of which will not be possible if the site is closed, this will also highlight the knock on effects of loosing employment beyond the immediate factory gates.Cheques can be made to NW 2B 0062 Branch.

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Labour Party suspends Jeremy Corbyn!

WHIP REMOVED FROM FORMER LABOUR LEADER

MARGARET HODGE said on Radio Four today at 1pm that 'I don't want to hear about that irrelevant man' and 'I think there is still a culture of anti-semitism' in the Labour Party. Meanwhile, Angela Rayner, the Deputy leader of the Labour Party also told us: 'Jeremy Corbyn has a blind spot'.

While later on the The Canary, a leftist website, Sophia Purdy-Moore wrote as follows:

'Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended, “in light of his comments” in response to an investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s investigation, published on 29 October, found Labour responsible for “unlawful acts of discrimination and harassment” in its handling of allegations of antisemitism.'

In his statement following the release of the report, Corbyn said he regrets it took “longer to deliver that change than it should,” but that:

"the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated."

This comment led to his suspension from the party. Corbyn told followers that he will “strongly contest” Labour’s decision to suspend him.

One Labour party member described what has happened to Jeremy Corbyn with the withdawal of the Labour whip and his suspension amounted to a 'witch-hunt' and a 'political assasination'.

Len McCluskey, the leader of the Unite union, has said this will lead to 'chaos' in the party.

Looks like more fun to come from the people's party! Watch this space!

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Unite launches campaign to stop Go Ahead Group

using COVID 19 as cover to slash pay and conditions

UNITE, Britain's biggest union, has launched an international campaign to stop the owners of the Manchester bus company Go North West from using Covid 19 as cover for making savage cuts to bus drivers' pay and conditions, while victimising and gagging a Unite union representative.

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey has written to Go Ahead Group's CEO David Brown to warn him that Unite will be using all available resources to provide "immediate assistance to our members".

"In addition to industrial action this will mean exposing your company’s behaviour to all of your stakeholders, partners and associates. This will include mobilising all of our allies and contacting our significant political network in the Nordic countries, Germany and Australasia."

Despite continuing to make millions in profits, Go North West's parent company, Go-Ahead is trying to use COVID 19 as cover to make savage cuts to bus drivers' pay, terms and conditions in Manchester. The company is intending to ‘fire’ the entire workforce to get what they want and then ‘rehire’ those that agree to accept inferior contracts. At the same time management is trying to ‘gag’ and sack Colin, a Union Rep who refused to agree the company’s demands.

Unite is calling on the company to stop 'fire & rehire’, stop the bullying and stop the cuts and enter into constructive negotiations with the drivers' union Unite. The drivers are currently being consulted on industrial action.

The company is demanding that drivers accept cuts to terms and conditions, including changes to their scheduling agreement that will cost each driver £3,500 per year on average, an unpaid increase in working hours and slashing sick pay arrangements. But Go Ahead PLC is a profitable company. The company expects its overall operating profit for the year ending June 27 2020 to be between £63m to £75m. There is no need to cut the pay and conditions of workers. This is being done out of greed - purely to increase profit.

After refusing to sign away the terms and conditions of his members, union Rep Colin, is being threatened with the sack on trumped up charges. As the only union Rep not ‘furloughed’, Colin was singled out and repeatedly, bullied by senior managers who wanted him to agree cuts without talking to his members. As part of Colin’s suspension notice the company included a ‘gagging order’, banning him from speaking to anyone who worked for Go Ahead including family members.

Unite executive officer, Sharon Graham said: "Despite continuing to make millions in profits, Go head are trying to use COVID 19 to ‘fire and rehire’ their drivers and make savage cuts to pay, terms and conditions in Manchester. The company has targeted, bullied and victimised our union rep to try to bulldoze through its plans. This is the tip of the iceberg. If Go Ahead get away with this in Manchester they will try and roll-out ‘fire and rehire’ elsewhere. Unite will not allow bad employers to use COVID 19 to attack their workforce.

"Go North West's managing director Nigel Featham has put the company on course for an unnecessary conflict. His actions could lead to lasting damage to the reputation of Go Ahead both throughout this country and overseas. Our message to the company is fair and simple - drop the disciplinary action against our union representative, drop your ‘fire & rehire’ threat and get around the negotiating table. Unite will not let profitable firms like Go Ahead use the pandemic as cover for cuts.”

For more information contact Ciaran Naidoo 07768 931 315

Twitter: @unitetheunion Facebook: unitetheunion1 Web: unitetheunion.org

Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest trade union with members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Len McCluskey.

Unite's Len McCluskey & the lucrative libel lawyers

THE current PRIVATE EYE's TUC NEWS column reminded the Unite union's membership of 1.1m that though they may be worried for their jobs or in fear of Covid-19, their union is assuring the libel lawyers that they can count on bounteous harvest of refreshers following the lucrative case of Turley v Unite the Union.  Totting-up the costs of the trial which took up 7-days of court time, legal experts have told Private Eye 'the premium would be around £200,000' and the 'final bill to its luckless members members [of Unite] may be not far short of £2m.'

The Eye concludes:  'London's libel lawyers won't be going hungry any time soon.'  


However, only last January Ms Anna Turley was claiming on twitter that:

'Unite and Skwawkbox have failed to pay the damages and costs following my libel trial last month as ordered by the court. My solicitors are starting enforcement proceedings in the morning.' pic.twitter.com/pS8wpwIekF

— Anna Turley (@annaturley) January 16, 2020

At that time Guido Fawkes reported these developments on his Blog:
'In the latest development, the former MP has published a letter from her solicitors declaring given Unite’s failure to pay up, “The only conclusion we can draw is that your clients have deliberately chosen to cause further distress to Ms Turley or they are incompetent. Which is it?”, going on to say'

“We have prepared enforcement papers that will permit bailiffs to attend at your clinets’ premises to enforce the two final judgements. We shall issue these when the Court opens on Monday morning if the full judgement debts, together with ongoing interest, have not been satisfied.”

Guido Fawkes claimed:
This is much more entertaining than the Labour leadership contest…
UPDATE: Unite and Skwawkbox have finally coughed up

And Private Eye described the squabble as 'even by Labour's internecine standards it was a vicious fight.'

And then Ms. Turley was to announce on twitter:

'Unite & Skwawkbox have belatedly paid the damages and costs as ordered by the court. Proving after all that they are not above the law. What an avoidable waste of members’ money. Lesson is... don’t break the law.'

— Anna Turley (@annaturley) January 21, 2020

The judgement of Justice Nicklin J held that Unite was responsible for the defamatory statement because its Director of Communications sent the Second Defendant [Skwawkbox] a press summary fully aware that he intended to publish an article which would identify the Claimant and contain substantially the same defamatory sting about her 'being dishonest'.

The Defendant's Unite and Skwawkbox had claimed the Claimant “should have known” she was ineligible for Unite Community membership, but his Lordship emphasised that, even if that had been so, “negligence is unlikely to provide an objective basis upon which to reasonably suspect dishonesty” [134].

Skwawkbox the website that published the offending report had claimed that Turley, then Labour MP for Redcar, had called the leader of Unite an 'arsehole' and had joined Unite at cut price rate reserved 'exclusively for the unwaged' so she could 'undermine Jeremy Corbyn'.  Steve Walker, who runs Skwawkbox  according to the Mail Online 'Mr Walker, .... is the sales director and CEO of a company called Foojit, which provides mailing solutions to the NHS.'

Meanwhile Ms. Turley managed to lose her Redcar seat at last December's general election when the Labour Party backers Unite had declared in the High Court that she was 'not fit to be an MP'.  The £84,500  paid to Turley in aggravated damages, should help ease the pain of this defeat.  Probably Unite and its leader, Len McCluskey, now wish they had settled out of court when Turley's solicitors offered a settlement last June, if Unite agreed to pay her £25,000.  Now because the union refused this compromise it must now pay interest of 8% on the costs.  By rejecting this offer, it also lost the right to demand that Turley's legal advisors prove their costs were reasonable.

Ms Turley, MP for Redcar before losing her seat in the General Election, has said she was 'thrilled and relieved' after winning the case

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Jennie Formby quits as Labour General Secretary

 Matt Honeycombe-Foster of POLITICS HOME

JENNIE Formby is standing down as general secretary of the Labour Party, it has been announced.

The longstanding ally of Jeremy Corbyn, who took on the top Labour job in 2018, said it was the “right time to step down” following the election of Sir Keir Starmer as Mr Corbyn’s successor last month.

She said: “When I applied for the role of General Secretary in 2018 it was because I wanted to support Jeremy Corbyn, who inspired so many people to get involved in politics with his message of hope, equality and peace.

“It has been a huge privilege to be General Secretary of the largest political party in Europe for the last two years, but now we have a new leadership team it is the right time to step down.

"I would like to thank Jeremy, our members and my staff colleagues who have given me so much support during what has been a very challenging period, in particular when I was suffering from ill health.”
Ms Formby added: “I wish Keir and Angela the very best of luck in taking the party forward and leading Labour to victory at the next General Election”.


Ms Formby, previously a senior official at the Unite union and a long-serving member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, took on the role in 2018, in a move that was seen as significantly strengthening Mr Corbyn’s grip on the party.

She saw off a challenge from rival candidates including Momentum boss Jon Lansman and former NUT union boss Christine Blower to become only the second woman ever to hold the key party post.

Ms Formby announced last year that she had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer - but said in January that she was now “hopefully” cancer free after her treatment ended.

In a statement, Sir Keir said:   "I would like to thank Jennie for her service, and for the personal and professional efforts she has made in advancing the cause she has fought all her life for.

“Jennie has led our party's organisation with commitment and energy through a period of political upheaval, including a snap General Election last year. I wish her the very best for the future."

The party’s new deputy leader Angela Rayner meanwhile said: "As a trade unionist and party activist as well as General Secretary, Jennie has been a great servant of our movement for many years and blazed a trail as one of our highest achieving women. 

“She goes with our thanks and gratitude, and I've no doubt she will stand squarely behind us as we continue to fight for social justice and the Labour government our country so desperately needs.”

Labour sources said Ms Formby's resignation was with immediate effect, and her exit tees up the race to be Labour’s next general secretary, with the party saying a meeting of its NEC officers would be convened soon to discuss a timetable for the contest.

The vacancy comes amid a bitter row in Labour ranks over a leaked report into the party's handling of anti-Semitism allegations, with Labour last week naming barrister Martin Forde QC to head up and investigation into the dossier.
The document, prepared for party bosses amid an investigation into Labour by the Equalities and Human Right Commission, alleged that anti-Corbyn sentiment among staff at its headquarters had hindered efforts to tackle anti-Jewish abuse.
Responding to news of her exit, pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum argued that Ms Formby had taken on the role of general secretary “at an incredibly difficult time”.

A spokesperson said: “She inherited a party bureaucracy that was often hostile to Jeremy’s leadership, with senior staff members allegedly misusing party funds and attempting to sabotage Labour’s General Election campaign in 2017. 
“Struggling against this while undergoing chemotherapy must have taken a herculean effort. 
“We thank her for everything and wish her well for the future.”

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*   INTERESTINGLY ON the 16 April 2020  GMB union members at Labour HQ backed a no-confidence motion in the general secretary, Jennie Formby.

It follows the leaking of an internal report, which included emails and private WhatsApp messages.
The motion calls on Ms Formby to "personally apologise to the current staffers named in the report".
Among its findings, the report claims factions opposed to former leader Jeremy Corbyn hampered efforts to tackle anti-Semitism.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has ordered an inquiry into why the report was commissioned, its contents, and how it came into the public domain.
But in its motion, the GMB, which is the largest union at Labour Party headquarters, accuses Ms Formby of leaking the report, the BBC's Iain Watson reports, and criticises current, as well as former, party managers.
The motion says that by "trawling the emails and instant messenger logs, the general secretary has effectively unilaterally placed all members of staff under investigation" without due process.
And it adds: "Staff can no longer be confident that the general secretary has the safety and welfare of staff as her top priority, and [she] has allowed the mental and physical wellbeing of staff to be put at risk with the creation and leaking of this report."
The motion also refers to a "hostile environment created post-2015", when Jeremy Corbyn was first elected leader, "in which staff who did not appear to support the new leader were marginalised, ignored, harassed and hounded out of the party".
The Unite union, headed by key Jeremy Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, also has a branch at Labour HQ.
It has released a statement saying the report should not have been released unredacted, according to the LabourList website.
But the branch describes as "shocking" the allegations in the report that an anti-Corbyn faction at party HQ worked against a Labour victory at the 2017 general election and warns against the investigation being "kicked into the long grass".
The GMB and Unite branches have previously clashed over their respective responses to the leaked report's contents.

Unite resolves bin worker distancing row

from Joe Bailey

UNITE in Scotland has welcomed an agreement with Perth and Kinross council that should reduce the risk of coronavirus exposures in bin workers.  The union said it had received numerous reports that refuse workers’ health and safety was being put at risk at the council’s Friarton depot.  This was due to the council's insistence on maintaining three operatives in a bin lorry.  Most local authorities across Scotland have now moved to a maximum of two operatives in a lorry, while others have been operating with just the driver in the cab with the rest of the crew following behind in separate vehicles.  However, Unite said following constructive talks with Perth and Kinross council, an agreement has been reached to move to a maximum of two operatives in a lorry and one operator following behind in a separate vehicle.

Unite regional industrial officer Susan Robertson said: “Unite fully appreciates that Perth and Kinross council wants to continue to provide its excellent waste collection service to the public.  However, this can’t come by putting in jeopardy the health and safety of the bin operatives which was happening. We are pleased that following productive talks we have now been able to find an amicable solution, which puts the safety of the workers first, while providing this essential service.”
Unite news release.

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Unions welcome Welsh social distancing rule

forwarded to NV by Joe Bailey

UNIONs have welcomed the decision by the Welsh Assembly to enforce new social distancing rules at work. Peter Hughes, Unite Wales regional secretary, said: “Unite in Wales applauds this move. We have been repeatedly raising our members' safety concerns during this health crisis, and airing our fears that some employers are not respecting the two metres distance, so it is good that the Welsh government is listening.”  He added: “We hope that employers will understand the intention behind this law and act now to take every possible step to keep workers safe at work, rather than wait to be hit by a fine. Unite will work with our members to promote this new law and with employers to ensure that they adhere to these new regulations.”    

Howard Beckett, Unite's assistant general secretary for legal affairs, added: “This law will send a clear signal to bosses that they are now required by law to put their workers’ safety first.  Our members are putting themselves on the line to keep public services and businesses functioning during these extraordinary times, so we say to employers, keep them safe, provide them with the protective and sanitation equipment they need, or find yourselves in legal conflict with Unite because we have vowed to do whatever it takes to keep our members safe.” 

Dan Shears, GMB health, safety and environment director, said many employers have been ignoring the 2-metre stipulation.  “Those companies will now need to fall into line or fear the consequences,” he said.  Nick Ireland, a divisional officer with the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said:  “Our communities need shops, but we need to keep all workers in the food supply chain safe so they can stay open. So we are pleased that the Welsh government recognises the heroic efforts our members are making and have introduced these new social distancing rules.” David Evans, Wales secretary for the teaching union NEU Cymru, said “we would urge our members to stick as closely as possible to the 2-metre rule where practicable.  It will be difficult, but ultimately, we need to ensure educators and learners are as safe as possible, and of course we should continue to ensure that as few students and staff as possible are in school.”

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Construction must change to end modern slavery

 forwarded to NV by Joe Bailey

THE construction union Unite is calling for fundamental changes in the way that the construction industry is organised and for the introduction of licensing of gangmasters.  The union call came in response to an investigation conducted jointly by Construction News and BBC Three, who used undercover journalists from the UK and Romania to reveal the extent of modern day slavery in construction.

Unite said it believes the way that the industry operates means that there is a real potential for exploitative practices occurring on even the largest projects.  The union repeated its all for the gangmasters licencing regime to be extended to construction. The licensing requirement currently only covers agriculture, food processing and shellfish collection.

Companies which operate in the sectors where licensing exists are also required to ensure that they are only working with licensed gangmasters.

Unite national officer for construction Jerry Swain said: “The revelations about the extent of modern day slavery and how it operates in construction must be a wake-up call to the industry and government. This is not simply a problem on smaller sites, even the largest sites have the potential for modern day slavery.  Major contractors simply don’t know who is supplying labour on their sites, how they have been recruited and if they are being coerced.”

He added: “Until the unnecessarily long labour supply chains are tackled the potential of modern day slavery will exist in every area of our industry. One major way to help tackle the problem is to extend gangmasters licencing to construction and to force the rogue employers out of the industry. The industry needs to be honest, if a labour supply company needs to get a third party to supply the labour, they are not really a labour supply company.”
Unite news release. Construction News. BBC Three.

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Len McCluskey slams Corbyn's 'London mindset'!

THE Unite union leader Len McCluskey, while he trained his fire on Remain-backing members of the Shadow Cabinet, as well as centrist MPs who 'hankered after the New Labour past', the Unite general secretary claimed Labour needed 'a new leader early in the near future" who could "understand the communities that gave birth to the Labour movement.'
 
The comments - in a piece for HuffPost UK - are highly significant as Unite is Labour's biggest financial backer and the general secretary has previously been a staunch ally of Mr Corbyn.
It comes after Labour lost 60 seats in its worst election performance since 1935.

Mr Corbyn has vowed to quit after a 'period of reflection', and earlier on Friday said:  'The responsible thing to do is not to walk away from the whole thing, and I will not do that.'

Mr McCluskey reserved the majority of his criticism for senior Labour figires who had advocated for a pro-Remain position and led the party into a 'slow-motion collapse into the arms of the People’s Vote movement'.

He said:  It is pretty obvious where the essential reason for Thursday’s hugely disappointing result can be found.
'When our losses are concentrated in former coalfield constituencies and other post-industrial communities that voted heavily "Leave" in the 2016 referendum, and yet we happily retain our position in London more-or-less unscathed, it is staring us in the face.

'Others will try to make a different case, either because they have volubly hankered after the New Labour past throughout the years of Corbyn’s leadership of the party, or because they lack the honesty to accept the consequences of their advocacy of keeping Britain in the EU at any political price.'

But he also acknowledged 'mistakes' made by the party's leadership throughout its campaign, including what he called an 'incontinent rush of policies which appeared to offer everything to everyone immediately'.
 
Taking direct aim at the Labour leader, Mr McCluskey - who has previously backed the party's handling of anti-Jewish abuse - said Mr Corbyn's 'failure to apologise for anti-Semitism in the party when pressed to do so' had capped 'years of mishandling of this question'.

While he said Labour's Brexit position, backed at its party conference earlier this year, was 'the right and honourable one' he said it had been 'fatally undermined from the outset by leading members of the shadow cabinet rushing to the TV cameras' to promise to back Remain in a future referendum.

The Unite chief said:  'Both Labour’s target seats, and the ones most at risk in the north and the Midlands, were preponderantly in Leave-voting areas with very small Liberal Democrat and Green votes.  Put bluntly, there were far more coalfield seats to lose than there were Canterburys to win.

'As it is, a year of worrying about and placating exclusively Remain voters has produced the backlash which some of us predicted.  Better by far that we had stuck with some updated variation of the 2017 Brexit position, rather than its negation.'

Urging the party to 'rebuild, reflect on what went wrong and inevitably elect a new leader early in the near future', Mr McCluskey said:  'Corbyn has borne the brunt of one of the most sustained and unpleasant character assassinations in political history and done so with dignity.
'But alas some of the mud stuck and his leadership became an issue on the doorstep.'

And, in a thinly-veiled dig at Mr Corbyn, he said:  'The next leader needs to understand the communities that gave birth to the Labour movement, and realise that the whole country is not very like Labour London.
'As important as it is, too often, Labour addresses the metropolitan wing of its electoral coalition in terms of values – openness, tolerance, human rights – and the "traditional" working-class wing simply in terms of a material offer, as if their constituencies did not have their own values of solidarity and community.  That must change.'

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Unite drop dishonesty allegation against Turley.

Anna Turley

UNITE the UNION have withdrawn the allegation of 'dishonesty' that they made against Anna Turley who has brought a High Court libel action against Unite and Stephen Walker, who runs the blog, Skwawkbox.  Unite has now withdrawn a claim that Ms Turley lied about receiving union mail.

Anthony Hudson QC, representing the union and Mr Walker, told the judge that he had been instructed to withdraw an allegation that Ms Turley had lied about receiving mail from the union.

Turley, the then Member of Parliament for Redcar, had  incorrectly applied to join the union under a Community membership category, which is for people not in paid employment. Mr Hudson, told the court that Turley would have known this, but she has told the court that she thought she was entitled to join.

Ms Turley said:  'My reputation for honesty and integrity are of the upmost 'importance to me.'

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Building Our Local Democracy:

 Building Our Local Democracy (BOLD)

AN Open Meeting of Building Our Local Democracy will be held next Thursday.  

BETTERS BUSES MEETING:

To let you have your say on how our bus services could be improved. Chance to see the Consultation Document on getting our bus services regulated. Speakers include John Boughton, Unite Union, Marie Douglas, Greater Manchester Older Peoples' Network and others. 

 Time: 7.30pm Thursday 14th. November 2019.

 Venue: Function Room, Middleton Archer Pub, Kemp Street, Middleton M24 4UA

Please try and support this event which is promoted by Better Buses for Greater Manchester and locally by BOLD (Building Our Local Democracy).

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