The Green Party Trade Union Group has noted the decision by the Labour Party leadership to sack Sam Tarry MP, their former shadow Transport Minister, following his appearance on an RMT picket line.

This is a disgraceful move by Keir Starmer’s Labour, that shows he is more willing to crack down on trade union solidarity in his own ranks than he is to crack down on the Tories.

The irony of dismissing someone from post for taking part in trade union activity appears to be lost on Keir Starmer. This is behaviour we expect from the worst of bosses, not someone who claims to lead the labour movement.

This episode provides yet more evidence that the Labour Party leadership is incapable of standing up for working people. The cost-of-living emergency is tearing up our collective living standards, and people will suffer and die as a result. Workers and the trade union movement need strong, consistent political leadership that understands the importance of collective action.

Labour’s diet of platitudes and posturing will not address the crisis. Only empowering workers to take on employers and the Government to demand better pay and conditions through their unions will do that.

If Labour will not provide the independent political leadership workers need, the Green Party will.

The Greens have been consistently supportive of RMT and CWU strike action to demand better pay and conditions. We support all workers taking strike action to defend our collective living standards in this crisis.

We urge trade unionists and socialists to join the Green Party and be in a party that understands solidarity and the importance of workplace collective action.

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The Green Party of England and Wales has a long-standing policy to replace Ofsted and so we welcome the launch at the National Education Union Conference this week of a petition to do exactly that. Ofsted is the source of much stress for education workers and closely tied to high-stakes testing that distorts the curriculum and stifles creativity.

The NEU website has a variety of tools to spread the word about the campaign and we urge Green Party members and supporters to make full use of them. LINK

The petition says:

Teachers and leaders work under the shadow cast by Ofsted. An unfair and unreliable inspectorate. 

As Ofsted approaches its 30-year anniversary, now is the right time to examine what effect its inspections have on the quality of education that teachers and leaders are able to provide and, in particular, for our most disadvantaged pupils. 

 In 2017, the National Audit Office concluded that: “Ofsted does not know whether its school inspections are having the intended impact: to raise the standards of education and improve the quality of children’s and young people’s lives.” 

Ofsted has never published any research to prove that its inspections accurately reflect the quality of education schools provide. Comprehensive, independent analysis of Ofsted judgements show they discriminate against schools in deprived areas – awarding ‘outstanding’ grades to four times more secondary schools with better-off pupils than schools with students who are worse off. A major research study showed that, even when schools in deprived areas are making excellent value-added progress, they are still more likely to be given poor Ofsted judgements.

Teachers and leaders know that working in disadvantaged areas is likely to be harmful to their careers because of the unfairness of Ofsted judgements. It is harder to recruit and retain teachers in these schools. Poor children, who most need qualified and experienced teachers if they are to fulfil their potential, are least likely to get them. 

School inspection must be fair. It should be supportive. It should not be, as too many Ofsted inspections are, punitive. 

The stress and unsustainable workload generated by Ofsted is a major factor in the appalling teacher retention rates that blight English education. Nearly 40 per cent of teachers leave the profession within ten years. No education system can improve while it haemorrhages school leaders and teachers. We must create a new approach to school and college evaluation which is effective and fair.

We are calling on the Government to:

• Replace Ofsted with a school accountability system which is supportive, effective and fair.
• Work with teachers, leaders and other stakeholders to establish a commission to learn how school accountability is done in other high performing education nations.
• Develop an accountability system which commands the trust and confidence of education staff as well as parents and voters.

Sign the petition HERE

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The Green Party Trade Union Group on Friday expressed its solidarity with UCU members at Richmond upon Thames College, who are fighting against management plans to fire workers and rehire them on worse pay, terms, and conditions.

The bosses’ plans mark another occasion on which administrators at educational institutions are using the pretext of difficult times to impose swingeing cuts on their workforce.

In a message to the UCU branch at the college, the Group’s membership officer Pete Murry said:

“No workers deserve to be treated with contempt by management through the threat of fire and rehire. Further Education is vital to prepare for a future low carbon economy, it cannot be properly run on such a shambolic and exploitative basis.

“GPTU hopes that UCU at Richmond upon Thames College will prevail against this threat.”

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The Green Party Trade Union Group expresses our disgust at the dismissal on Thursday of approximately 800 seafarers by P&O Ferries. We stand in solidarity with the workers and their union, RMT.

The decision by P&O bosses, taken secretly and communicated to the workers remotely and with no notice, is a shameful example of an unscrupulous practice that has become all too common in modern Britain.

That the company was able even to contemplate this action testifies to the rank insufficiency of the UK’s workers’ rights protections. Such actions should not be possible.

P&O’s actions clearly fly in the face of employment law, disregarding the consultation period among other requirements.

The episode has also revealed the extent to which the UK’s economy facilitates and encourages tyrannical management practices. P&O’s parent company, DP World, has paid huge dividends to shareholders in the past two years. It availed itself of the UK’s furlough scheme to sustain itself through the pandemic. Its owners have spent over £140m on a golf competition alone, while depriving the P&O staff pension scheme of a similar amount.
Now, the company is pleading poverty and claiming this decision is ‘necessary’ for P&O to survive. This claim is utterly without basis and below contempt.

No worker should have to suffer such dreadful treatment. In place of the sacked employees P&O now seeks to exploit a new group of workers, who on the grounds of their status as migrant agency staff will be denied fair pay and conditions. We resist any attempt to make this issue about so-called “British jobs” or “foreign workers”: workers of all nations will only win real security and dignity by uniting and refusing to be divided by borders. Fraternisation and organisation with potential agency workers is essential, to ensure they do not cross pickets and replace union workers.

We applaud the decision of the workers, supported by the RMT, to sit-in on their vessels and refuse to accept the company’s decision. We call on the wider labour movement to meet the RMT’s requests for mobilisation in support of the workers at P&O, and call on fellow Green Party members to offer their support in turn.

Finally, we call on the UK government to take urgent action to protect each job and prevent any detriment to the workers involved. The UK should be prepared to nationalise P&O Ferries, without compensation, and reform the company to hand workers greater power over their working conditions.

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The Green Party today voted to extend solidarity to the Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) and support their ‘Fight for 15’ campaign for a £15 minimum wage.

The BFAWU disaffiliated from the Labour Party in September 2021, citing the Labour leadership’s refusal to campaign for a £15 minimum wage. The breakaway marks a first for the union, which was a founding member of the Labour Representation Committee in 1902 and had been affiliated to the Labour Party ever since.

The motion passed at Green Party conference, which was supported by the Green Party Trade Union Group and secured almost unanimous support among party delegates, called on the Green Party’s co-leaders to extend solidarity to the BFAWU and committed the party to supporting their £15 minimum wage campaign.

The motion’s main proposer, Alexander Sallons, said:

“Working as a hospitality worker in one of the most expensive cities to live in outside of London, you’re lucky if you can take 50% of your pay after rent and bills.

“We desperately need a £15 minimum wage and we need strong trade unions that are fighting for that like BFAWU, especially in some of the jobs most at risk of climate change like mine – coffee – and I’m glad that the Green Party has supported my motion.”

Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group Matthew Hull said:

“I’m delighted that Green Party Conference has extended solidarity to the BFAWU following their disaffiliation from the Labour Party, and backed their campaign for a £15 minimum wage workers can truly live on.

“With the Liberal Democrats nowhere to be seen, and the Labour Party failing workers at every turn, the Green Party must step up and truly represent working people in the face of this Tory government’s brutal attacks on our living standards. This motion is a statement of intent that workers and their unions have home in the Green Party.”

Following the passing of the motion, the BFAWU responded on Twitter saying: “Many thanks for your support and solidarity. We need to build a society that we can all afford to live in.”

The motion is just the latest intervention by the Green Party seeking to improve the living standards of workers, as price inflation rises and a winter of increasing fuel poverty looms. On the Conference’s opening day the co-leaders pledged a one-off winter fuel payment of £320 to each household, funded by a land value tax on private landlords.

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Green Party members came together at their Autumn Conference in support of the private members’ bill to stop ‘fire and rehire’.

The bill would make the practice, in which workers are dismissed and rehired on worse terms, illegal in the UK. It is proposed by Labour MP Barry Gardiner and supported by a cross party group including Green MP Caroline Lucas.

Greens congregated as the bill was being heard in the House of Commons, in a show of support and solidarity with workers fighting the abhorrent practice.

But despite widespread condemnation of the practice the government whipped its MPs to oppose the private members bill by denying a vote on the practice.

Speaking after the demo, Trade Union Group Communications Officer Martin Francis said:

“I’m proud that the Green Party stands against the practice of fire-and-rehire, and express my full support for Barry Gardiner’s bill in parliament today.

“This struggle will continue beyond today, and it is vital that the labour movement and its allies remain steadfast in the fight to eliminate the abhorrent practice of fire-and-rehire once and for all.”

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Green Party trade unionists and allies congratulated Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay on their election as the next leader of the Green Party of England & Wales.

Green Party Trade Union Liaison Officer Kefentse Dennis said:

“With this new leadership team, we hope the Green Party will strengthen its work with the labour movement and trade unions. The party must listen to workers and their unions, and be a steadfast voice in defence of workers’ interests and for a just transition to a zero carbon economy.

“As the party’s Trade Union Liaison Officer, I look forward to partnering with Carla and Adrian to further this cause. Together we can make our party a new home for working people.”

Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group Matthew Hull added:

“This was a hard-fought leadership contest, and we would like to thank each candidate for their hard work over the campaign period.

“Now the real work begins. With the Labour Party in a tailspin and the Liberal Democrats nowhere to be seen, the Green Party must be the real voice of grassroots opposition to the Tory government. With new leadership, it’s up to us to seize this opportunity with both hands.”

The new co-leaders will take the helm at a time when the Green Party is growing in popularity. A recent YouGov poll revealed 9% of the UK public would vote Green at the next general election.

Voting in the election took place between 2nd and 23rd August 2021. A total of 11,525 first preference votes were cast.

Notes

Green Party Trade Union Group officers are available for comment.

Bright Green have published the full election results here.

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The Green Party Trade Union Group extended its solidarity to the Bakers’, Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) as it took the momentous decision to disaffiliate from the Labour Party.

Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group, Matthew Hull said:

“The decision by BFAWU delegates to disaffiliate from the Labour Party is a momentous one, and shows how far the party’s current leadership has gone to alienate working class supporters. This is a brave move by a union determined to put its members and the working class first.

“We also recognise how difficult this decision must have been for BFAWU members and officials who have given so much to the Labour Party over decades, only for the party to be taken in a direction they simply cannot support. We salute this decision to put independence and principle first, and we look forward to working with the BFAWU to advance their vital campaigns including the Right to Food, £15 and a union, and for climate justice.”

Billy Wassell, a young McDonald’s worker and BFAWU member said:

“Workers in the food industry have worked through the pandemic to feed the nation, but this past year so many of us have struggled to feed ourselves. Our union takes orders from no-one, and the Labour Party leadership has shown that it will not value our voices or fight our corner. As a McDonald’s worker, I feel especially betrayed by Keir Starmer, who stood with my colleagues on the picket line when he was seeking election but now seemingly doesn’t want to know us.

“Food workers are also highly exposed to the effects of the climate crisis, and building a just and sustainable food supply chain is critical to tackling the climate emergency. BFAWU has led on this issue for years, in 2017 proposing a successful TUC motion calling for a just transition to a renewable energy industry, energy democracy and recognition of environmental reps.

“As a Green member of BFAWU, I’m proud that my union and my party both recognise the scale of the ecological crisis. I hope that we can work together more in future to achieve our shared aims of ecological justice.”

The BFAWU was founded in 1847, and has been affiliated to the Labour Party for 119 years. The decision to disaffiliate comes amid growing anger at the direction taken by the Labour leadership under Keir Starmer, including a failure to offer clear political leadership. A survey of the BFAWU membership earlier in the year returned a majority for disaffiliation.

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We are extremely disheartened that the motion to Labour Party conference backing proportional representation in government has failed. We are confident that the ‘no’ votes cast by trade union delegates do not reflect the principles or considered beliefs of the movement rank-and-file.

The labour movement has a proud history of originating struggles for greater democracy – in the workplace, in the community, and in society at large. From the Chartists to universal suffrage, the tradition of organised labour is a tradition of growing popular power.

This growth of popular power has never been linear, and it is so far from complete. Millions still live in this country without the vote. All of us labour in a bourgeois democracy that restricts our right to organise and strike. The list could go on.

Nonetheless, driving that arc of growth onwards is our task. This will sometimes challenge particular institutions and organisations within our movement, and their particular interests. Progress is not simple.

But it is in the general interest of our class that limitations on the ability of working people to organise and attain political representation be removed. We believe rejecting this motion fails to serve that interest.

We will continue in this fight and we are confident that we will prevail. We recognise that this task is huge, and that we won’t win unless we organise to hold our leaders and representatives accountable.

The post Statement on Proportional Representation motion at Labour Party conference appeared first on Green Party Trade Union Group.

As Sharon Graham was elected General Secretary of Unite the union, the UK’s second-largest trade union, Green Party figures congratulated Graham on her victory.

Commenting on the result, Green Party Trade Union Group Chair & Unite member Matthew Hull said:

“Sharon Graham’s election as General Secretary of my union, Unite, is a tremendous result for the labour movement. Her firm commitment to putting industrial organising first is much needed amid the twin crises of climate and Covid. Her campaign showed that she understands what our movement needs if it is to recover its power, reverse declining private sector membership, fight for a just transition and take on the goliaths of 21st century industry.”

Green Party Work, Employment and Social Security spokesperson Catherine Rowett said:

“Sharon Graham’s election as Unite’s General Secretary – the first woman to hold the office – is fantastic news. This bodes very well for the future of the Union and its members. We look forward to working with her towards ending the UK’s parasitic dependence on jobs in fossil-fuel-related industries, while protecting workers’ pay and conditions and preventing offshoring of jobs and emissions.”

“Graham’s frank and realistic appraisal of the political situation is a breath of fresh air. While Labour remains in opposition, organising for industrial power and bargaining effectively are the keys to success. I also look forward to working with Unite to bring electoral reform to the top of the labour movement’s agenda, to ensure the movement’s priorities can be advanced more effectively on the political stage.”

Reports on Tuesday afternoon suggested a handy victory for Graham’s campaign, and the union confirmed her election in a press release on Wednesday morning. Graham received 46,696 of the 124,147 votes cast – a 37.6% share on a roughly 12% turnout.

Graham began her working life at the age of 16 as a silver service waitress, leading a walkout to improve pay and conditions. Before taking office as General Secretary she headed up Unite’s Organising & Leverage Department.

Notes

• Read the Green Party Trade Union Group’s interview with Sharon Graham during the campaign by clicking here: Sharon Graham: “Our obsession with the Labour Party needs to end”
• Read Unite the union’s press release here.

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