Keeping other peoples promises for them?

I remember when I heard about the death of John Smith (at the time Leader of the Opposition and likely future Labour Prime Minister).

I was sat with a Union member waiting - and preparing - for her appeal against dismissal on grounds of redundancy and she would not talk to me about the matter in hand, but only about how sad she was to hear the news.

I have no idea whether the party under Smith would have betrayed us as much as it did under Blair, but I remember that moment whenever dealing with the employment rights of workers with less than one year's continuous service (as I was today).

Before 1997 our Labour Party said that we would bring in employment rights from day one - but we never did. When setting out an agenda for Labour in its second term our General Secretary reiterated this demand. Two terms on and we have still failed to honour this commitment.

So as a local union activist I try particularly hard to resist injustices to those workers with less than one year's continuous service, because the Party of which I am still a member has broken our promise to them and left them without the legal rights of other workers.

We have to remember that we are not here as trade unionists just to get people their legal rights.

We are here to get our members what is right for them.