The labour aristocracy sells the jerseys again

[Keaney Michael <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Penners

GMB General Secretary John Edmonds won notoriety a few years back when he
addressed a TUC conference and referred, in his speech, to fat cat chief
executives as "greedy bastards". Typically, the rightwing press had a field
day with this, playing up the supposed return of "bad old" 1970s union power
politics. Unfortunately for them, however, Edmonds' comments appeared to
chime with a lot of public feeling about increased income inequality in the
UK under Thatcher, Major, and now Blair. Now Edmonds is being singled out
again for abuse, although it's a fair bet that Unison, under Dave Prentis
and Rodney Bickerstaffe, will be closely behind the GMB's rather more openly
critical stance. I'm not so sure about Bill Morris at the TGWU (where
earlier he was able to defeat the Blairite candidate Jack Dromey, husband of
Harriet Harman, one-time author of seminal studies of the Grunwick dispute
of the 1970s and total sell-out). As for the rest, absolutely pathetic.
"Sir" Ken Jackson carries on the finest fifth column traditions of Frank
Chapple, Eric Hammond, Gavin Laird and Bill Jordan. John Monks makes Norman
Willis and Len Murray look like rabid dogs by comparison.

The neat insertion of Tebbit boot-boy Ian Duncan Smith's apparently hopeless
comments actually serves to remind the true trajectory of Blair's "reforms"
-- the transformation of state monopolies into private ones, underwritten by
the state.

====

Unions accuse GMB of behaving like cowboys

CATHERINE MacLEOD and MICHAEL SETTLE

The Herald
29 June, 2001

Splits erupted amongst trades unionists yesterday as senior figures accused
GMB
officials of "behaving like cowboys" after the round-table discussions with
the prime
minister on public service reform on Wednesday night.

As the most aggressive opponents of the government's plans accused trade
union
colleagues of "selling the pass" in the face of the prime minister's charm
offensive, the
trades unions hoping to build a partnership with the government criticised
their most
hostile colleagues.

Yesterday trade union leaders sent out mixed signals but there was general
sense that
"the unions knew what they're against but the government weren't sure of
what they
want". Unison's Dave Prentis maintained the meeting had resolved none of the
issues,
but he positioned Unison firmly behind reform while not giving way on
anything other
than a marginal role for the private sector.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's world at One, he said: "My union, Unison, has 1.25
million
members providing services to the public. If the government is to achieve
its objective, it
needs the support and goodwill of our members in order to do that. It is not
a threat. It is
a fact of life."

A GMB spokesman was less emollient. Disclosing that the prime minister had
failed to
give guarantees on specifics like pay, investment and staffing, he said: "We
agreed to
meet again to discuss the issues but obviously the clock is ticking and if
we cannot
resolve them through direct negotiations, we may have no other option but to
attempt to
resolve them on the floor of the party conference."

The differences among the unions emerged as the participants at the Downing
Street
meeting vented their anger at reports in yesterday's press which described
the unions
and the government on a collision course.

Trades union sources insisted that five trade union leaders, including the
TUC's general
secretary John Monks, believed Tony Blair accepted that the unions, and
public sector
workers, had to be involved in any process of reform.

They also said that John Edmonds, the GMB's general secretary, sat at one
end of the
table "being difficult".

One trade union official said: "What we read in the papers bore no
resemblance to what
happened at the meeting. Quite frankly the way John Edmonds and his aides
are
behaving is making it more difficult to achieve reform. They need to stop
behaving like
cowboys. This is grown-up, serious politics."

The TUC plainly did not want to be drawn into a public row but other trade
union officials
disclosed that there is a general disenchantment with particular GMB
officials who were
being blamed for undermining the negotiations.

A TUC spokesman said: "After the meeting the general mood was one of
reassurance,
profound misunderstandings were addressed and there was a clear recognition
that the
public sector unions should be involved in reform."

An experienced trade union-friendly MP said: "The first problem with John
Edmonds is
that he has been spoiling for a fight with the government for the last three
years. The
second is that he thinks he should be running the country, not Tony Blair."

Later Tory leadership contender, Iain Duncan Smith, weighed into the debate
on public
service reform calling for an end to state-run monopolies like the NHS.

Full article at:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/29-6-19101-0-22-15.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx