UK News

The reform that breaks the camel’s back?

Trade union leaders have been warning for some time now that it would be pensions reform — not pay freezes or job cuts — that could prove the trigger for widespread public sector strikes this year.

Now activists, eager to punish the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, have all the ammunition they need in the Hutton pension review.

Few can argue that pensions do not need to be reformed. People in Britain are living longer, making it more expensive for the government and taxpayer to fund pension payments.

And private sector workers have long grumbled that the public sector has it too good when it comes to retirement.

Hutton’s recommendation to remove the final salary scheme was expected and hardly surprising.

But its consequences could be huge.

If the government adopts the suggestions of this former Labour minister, do not expect the unions to take it lying down.

Should stiletto heels be banned in the workplace?

A call by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists asking employers to work with unions to conduct risk assessments and if necessary allow workers to replace high heels with comfortable shoes in the workplace created a controversy this week.******Unions passed a motion at the Trades Union Congress conference demanding that women have the right to comfortable footwear in the workplace.******Defenders of the stiletto claimed that unions were attempting to ban the shoes in the workplace, but the podiatrists defended their position, stating that high heels can cause such foot problems as blisters, corns, calluses, damaged joints, knee and back pain.******Some women argue that stiletto heels give them a power advantage in male-dominated workplaces because the shoes make them appear taller and enhance their sex appeal.******Others consider the shoes demeaning and symbolic of the sexist subjugation of women and their health to satisfy male whims and fantasies.******What do you think? Should stilettos be banned in the workplace?

UK unions fear future with the “enemy”

After more than a decade of railing against a Labour government that they feel has betrayed their shared socialist roots, British trade unions are now starting to fear what a future with a Conservative government will be like.

“They’re going to come after us like rabid dogs,” said Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association said — dubbing the Conservatives “the enemy”.

Activists may be disenchanted by a Labour government that they believe has pursued a pro-business agenda and failed to roll back anti-union legislation, but that is suddenly starting to look a whole lot better than a Conservative administration.

“God help us,” said John Thompson, President of UCATT, the construction workers’ union. “We’ll have never seen anything like it if this mob do get in.”

And a fear of more restrictive regulation and big public spending cuts is not encouraging the movement to offer an olive branch to the centre-right Conservatives, who are well ahead of Labour in opinion polls with an election due by mid-2010.

At a fringe meeting at the Trades Union Congress conference, GMB union chief Paul Kenny called Conservative leader David Cameron, pictured, a “clown”.

Even the most powerful of the union bosses are not afraid to admit that a Conservative government looks likely.

BA attempts to talk its way out of trouble

British Airways has become a real chatterbox of late.

Chief Executive Willie Walsh is attempting to stage a recovery from a year of record losses and a business-class focus that has proven rather ill-suited to a recession. He has been scaring staff and shareholders rigid with his ‘fight for survival’ rhetoric, but how does he plan to wage this battle?

By talking.

He talks to pilots, he talks to engineers, he talks to ground staff and cabin crew. He talks to trade unions, he talks to shareholders – and apparently he talks to his allies over at Spanish rival Iberia. Today’s annual general meeting was dominated by news of these talks – they are making progress, apparently — all of them are making progress.

But are they really? It is true the pilots have been amenable to Walsh’s silver tongue. On Monday they agreed to pay and productivity changes in order to help save the airline cash, in return for some future equity. But that’s about the limit of the carrier’s achievement to date.

Trade union members representing cabin crew loitered outside the London meeting, handing out leaflets to attendees. These detailed proposals — rejected by BA – for a 2.6 percent pay-cut, plus 4,000 job losses so long as they are voluntary. We don’t know what BA has offered in return — Walsh uncharacteristically  keeps saying he doesn’t want to talk about it — but as the deadline for these negotiations was the end of June it’s safe to say things are not going well. “We don’t know what else we can do,” said one 20 year cabin crew veteran. Strike action is a distinct possibility.

Then there are the talks with shareholders. These ones centre on plans to raise more cash. BA is hoping to have 1 billion pounds in the bank by next March, but this would involve burning money at a slower rate than some analysts predict. It wants to raise money in the bond market — something that will no doubt involve plenty of late night discussions in the City.

Can you train a teacher in six months?

As the recession closes one door for bankers, another quickly opens.

The government’s latest educational wheeze is to allow teachers to qualify in just six months, half the current one-year time period.

Schools Minister Jim Knight wants to attract “more outstanding people” to the profession and hopes the scheme could help those such as bankers, who were excellent mathematicians and had been made unemployed, switch careers.

Predictably the unions are less keen on the proposal, arguing the truncated training period is too short to prepare new recruits for such a demanding profession.

“I think it demeans the position of people who are teachers at the moment. It doesn’t seem to be a sensible idea at all,” said Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT.

But before signing on the dotted line, ex-bankers interested in taking up the government’s offer might think about taking a trip to the cinema and watch the Palme d’Or winner “The Class”.

Laurent Cantet’s cinematic tour de force portrays a Parisian middle school teacher’s struggles to educate a fiesty group of inner-city kids. If you thought the trading floor was a bear pit…….

Privatising Royal Mail

The government is trying to defuse anger over its plans to part-privatise Royal Mail. Postal workers are protesting in Westminster after it was announced that 30 percent of the company is to be sold off. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces a large backbench rebellion as 145 MPs – more than a fifth of all members of the House of Commons – sign a motion rejecting the move.

Ministers argue that Royal Mail simply cannot survive in its current state and must be part-privatised to fund modernisation and fight a growing pensions deficit which, the Royal Mail pension scheme trustees have warned, could be “significantly larger” than the 5.9 billion pounds estimated last year.

Royal Mail Chief Executive Adam Crozier told MPs he expected the deficit to grow to between eight and 9 billion pounds when it is revalued. Crozier also pointed towards a “rapidly declining” number of letters posted, with an 8 percent drop predicted next year.

But one Labour MP has said that it would be “political suicide” for the party to effectively go back on its election pledge to keep the Royal Mail in public hands. Unions are also against the plan, saying it could lead to job losses and open the door to full privatisation.

Opponents have also argued that the Royal Mail made a significant profit of 255 million pounds in the last nine months of 2008 and, as the government has agreed to take on the pensions deficit, it would be foolish to give away the part of the business that is actually turning a profit. MP Michael Connarty described the move as political suicide and warned that it would split the Labour party down the middle dangerously close to a general election.

The bill is due to be introduced to Parliament on Thursday. Do you think this is something the government should press ahead with or is there a more worthwhile solution? Can you stand the thought of parts of Royal Mail being sold off or is this only going to lead to further privatisation of a national institution?