In the face of attacks from employers and government, there's a strong desire for unity from working people. This has manifested itself in many ways including support for mergers, the desire for coordinated action against pay restraint and some impressive examples of solidarity as well as local and national efforts to build cooperation between activists in different unions, spawning groups such as Public Service Not Private Profit (PSNPP), Organising For Fighting Unions (OFFU) and the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN).
Partly because our dispute at Fujitsu coincided with the rise of these various groups, I've ended up being involved to some degree in all of them. While the details differ, I think their goals overlap significantly, and they are all reflections of the desire for a more united, coordinated and vigorous response from the trade union movement to the problems faced by working people. They are all worthy of support.
In my neck of the woods, we have an OFFU dayschool in Manchester on Saturday 26th January which looks set to be a very interesting and useful event with a great mix of participants. Then on 2nd February we have an NSSN meeting in Liverpool to plan a north-west NSSN conference.
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment