Lancaster Unity: The House of Lords has recently altered a section of a Government Bill that would have allowed trade unions to expel BNP members and other fascists from their ranks. In doing so, the Lords have actually made the situation for trade unions even more difficult. read more

One worrying thing that I picked up yesterday was that soon the House of Commons will be debating a clause that would make it very difficult to expel fascists from trade unions.  Section 18 of the Employment Bill was originally brought in by the government following the success of ASLEF in the European Court over the expulsion of a BNP member.  The House of Lords have amended the section...

by Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union It is well understood in the trade unions today, that the economic policy of the Coalition Government is a major assault upon working class living standards. Correctly, this has led the majority of trade unions to organise in opposition, in some manner or another to this

One worrying thing that I picked up yesterday at SERTUC was that soon the House of Commons will be debating a clause that would make it very difficult to expel fascists from trade unions. Section 18 of the Employment Bill was originally brought in by the government following the success of ASLEF...

The recent euro-elections are probably a good occasion to look at the potential and limitations of trade union intervention in electoral politics. Trade unions in Britain, tend to organise workers by trade, and include the full cross section of political beliefs in the workforce; what is more trade unions themselves occupy a political space that seeks

Aside from that peerage for Peter Mandleson, this is one of the more irritating things to happen in the House of Lords for quite a while. Back in 2002 the rail union ASLEF was taken to court by one of its members after he was expelled for being a member of the BNP. He won,

When you think about it, Trade Unions tend to be little more than shills for communism. Take this report which says that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has called on the Government to nationalise the Irish banking system as a means of addressing the current financial crisis and the lack of credit for small businesses. Trade unions said that nationalisation was their preferred option. So...

Let us begin with a startling observation: the House of Lords matters. Legislation is shovelled through the commons with timetable motions that ensure large sections of many bills are never scrutinised by MPs. Thank heavens for the Lords. Because there is no in-built government majority, the Lords have defeated the government on one amendment or another on more than 400 occasions since 1997. By co...

A strategy for trade unions and arts and culture could not be far away, artists, trade unionists and relevant organisations met yesterday to discuss an art and culture strategy for the TUC, all agreeing that this is an important area of trade union work. The trade unions have always had a long...

In 1997 the Labour Party manifesto outlined that under a Labour government the House of Lords would be reformed so that “the right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be ended by statute…“. It was clear that change appeared to be on the agenda and the House of