trade unionism

‘We cannot walk on by as we witness the Gaza genocide’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/we-cannot-walk-we-witness-gaza-genocide

 Heba Shakura mourns her son Islam Abu Mahdi who was killed in an Israeli army air strike, during his funeral at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, April 28, 2025

STUC to call on British government to end arms sales to Israel and the Scottish government to end enterprise grants for weapons manufacturers

THE final session of this year’s STUC passed seven motions in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Gaza today.

After attempts at compositing the motions failed, each passed individually, meaning the STUC will now call on the British government to end arms sales to Israel and the Scottish government to ensure no more Scottish Enterprise grants are handed over to weapons manufacturers.

More than £3 million of Scottish government cash has been handed over to manufacturers such as BAE Systems, Leonardo and Raytheon since 2023, while the firms continue to supply the Israeli military’s assault on Gaza. PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote told delegates: “We cannot be bystanders, we cannot walk by on the other side as we witness what is now widely accepted as a genocide. “The ICJ has ruled there is a plausible case, and Amnesty International have now confirmed that.“Fifty-eight years of illegal occupation, decades of settlement building, an ethnic cleansing, Israel’s Gaza onslaught has killed at least 60,000 people since 2023, and the Lancet has estimated the real figure could be 180,000 dead.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/we-cannot-walk-we-witness-gaza-genocide

UK Labour Party government Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are participants and complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide providing Israel with army and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are participants and complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide providing Israel with army and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
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Yes to workers’ rights, no to the far right: join the May Day march

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Join the traditional march from Clerkenwell Green, which will bring together countless international workers’ organisations in a statement against the far right

THE history of London May Day is rooted in the call for an eight-hour day by the Second International in 1890, and is marked by working-class activism and evolving political agendas. Several attempts to detach May Day from the labour movement, rejecting its roots in class struggle, have failed. May Day marches in Britain and London continue to be held annually.

One hundred and thirty four years later, on Thursday May 1 2025, London May Day marchers will assemble in Clerkenwell Green and march to Trafalgar Square led by the Big Red Band, where a rally will be held bringing together thousands of workers from many different unions and communities. Traditional, maybe, but more importantly, a gesture of class assertion, an assembly of trade unionists uniting on a working day, joining up with working-class organisations assembling in support of this year’s theme, Yes to Workers Rights, No to the Far Right.

Ismara Vargas Walter, Cuban ambassador to Britain, will address assembled crowds on the steps of the Marx Memorial Library where the march will assemble and then march to Trafalgar Square to hear speakers at the rally including Eddie Dempsey, recently elected RMT general secretary, Jackie Peckham (deputy general secretary of the NASUWT), Dr Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to Britain, Tubisam Ahmed from Unite, a striking worker and representatives from community organisations.Many different organisations will be welcomed by trade unionists on the march, including representatives from Tamil, Kashmiri, Turkish and Kurdish, Cypriot, Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi communities and groups and many others too.

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Trade unionists to take part in workplace day of action for Palestine

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People take part in the National march for Palestine in central London organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, August 3, 2024

TRADE unionists across Britain are to take part in a TUC-backed workplace day of action for Palestine next Thursday.

Workers are calling on the government to ban all arms exports, immediately recognise the state of Palestine, ban the trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements and ensure Palestinians can access humanitarian aid.

After thousands of people took part in workplace days of action last year, workers are again being encouraged to organise acts of solidarity, which could include a two-minute silence, a stall outside their workplace, a bake sale or simply wearing the colours of the Palestinian flag.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/trade-unionists-take-part-workplace-day-action-palestine

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Tens of thousands of Asda workers on track to receive historic payout

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/tens-thousands-asda-workers-track-receive-historic-payout

General view of an Asda sign at the supermarket’s head office in Leeds

TENS of thousands of Asda workers, mostly women, could be on track to receive a historic payout after a decade-long battle in a landmark case for pay equality.

An employment tribunal has ruled that most shopworkers involved in the case have jobs of equal value to higher-paid positions in Asda’s warehouses.

GMB union, along with legal firm Leigh Day, brought the case against the supermarket, arguing that the predominantly female retail workforce is paid up to £3.74 per hour less than their mostly male warehouse counterparts.

The tribunal compared the jobs of 14 women lead claimants working on the shop floor with 17 warehouse roles.

It found 11 claimants to be in jobs of “equal value” to at least some of the warehouse roles, with the tribunal describing it as a “mixed picture.”

One other claimant, a section leader, was found to be equal to all of them.

The outcome means that the Asda workers have clinched victory in two out of three stages of their equal pay claim, first launched in 2014.

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1984: how the miners saved Christmas from Thatcher

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Picketers decorate a Christmas tree outside Rossington Colliery, while police transit vans line the roadway, December 11, 1984

CHRISTMAS 1984 was potentially a desperate time for the families of miners who had been on strike against pit closures for nine months. It turned out to be the opposite for many striking mining communities.

France’s communist-led union group CGT sent a convoy of 30 lorries, driven by volunteers and packed with food and toys, across the Channel. The union had mounted a “toy drive” among its members, and thousands had flooded in.

The convoy arrived at Dover, and the lorries journeyed to struggling mining communities in Wales and northern England.

Hundreds of miners’ support groups across the country redoubled their solidarity efforts — and the public responded generously.

The result for many striking miners and their families was the best Christmas they had ever had. And the solidarity is remembered today across the former coalfields.

In the north-east, Ian Lavery, now Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington, was a 20-year-old miner at Ellington Colliery in Northumberland. He lived with his parents and siblings. His father was a striking miner, as were two of his three brothers.

He told the Morning Star: “It was one of the best times of my life.

“At Christmas time 1984, none of us had a ha’penny — no money at all. But one thing about miners and working-class people is that they will do anything to make sure the kids have a good Christmas. Whatever the situation — on strike for seven or eight months — we would not let the kids down.

“It was fabulous to see the juggernauts arriving from France. They provided every striking miner’s kid with a toy at Christmas. Honestly, there was juggernaut after juggernaut come all the way from France. Absolutely amazing. Then there were the chickens and the turkeys. They were on the Christmas table of every striking miner. It was just fabulous.

“There were Christmas parties in every village and community.

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