Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Read all about it...

The dear old Grauniad really didn’t quite get what was happening with the pensions dispute in Monday’s editorial, so it’s good that we got a serious response in to their confusion.

Contrary to what the Grauniad Leader writers may think, the Government's "offer" last week was no offer. It doesn't matter if they turn it into a "formal offer" - it's crap. It doesn't touch the immediate proposals in any way, and the "protection" for older workers is just an aspiration which we have to help the Government achieve at the expense of younger workers. "Offering" us 60ths in a future career average scheme (which will be much cheaper that our current final salary 60ths schemes) is hardly an offer!

To be fair to my favourite liberal paper they had provided a platform for an important expression of support for our struggle from young Labour Party activists yesterday. Wherever a serious attempt has been made to ask Labour policitians to back our cause they have agreed. The only areas where we don't have Labour Councils considering support for our struggle is where we have failed to ask. (Note to UNISON Labour Link - do some work!)

It’s key that we sustain support for the 30 November strike action across the whole movement – which means we need to rebut the argument that Danny Alexander has offered us anything and also that we need to welcome and value all support from within the Labour Party.

No comments: