The 'Robin Hood Tax' campaign has been set up to gain support for a tax on financial institutions. The tax would be on all financial transactions at a rate of 0.5%. This could make around £250 000 000 tax revenue each year.
As taxation revenue was around £606bn in 2007/2008, an extra £250bn would help improve a lot of peoples lives
The BBC is currently carrying out a survey asking for views on it's coverage of LGB people and issues.
The survey can be completed here.
Tube Lines, whose late completion of upgrade work on the Jubilee Line has resulted in numerous weekend closures, has had a claim for £327m in compensation to complete the work rejected by an independent adjudicator. Tube Lines attempted to claim the money from London Underground. It felt LU was to blame for the work not being completed on time as access to the track was not sufficient.
I received an email today from 'Tube Worker' with a flyer attached urging ASLEF members to reject the pay deal as it stands.
The Tube Worker Leaflet is available to view or download here.
The Communication Workers Union's postal worker members were due to go on strike again today. However an interim agreement, announced last week, was reached between CWU and Royal Mail to postpone action. This video from www.cwutv.org explains the detail of the agreement.
David Ward, The Deputy General Secretary of CWU comments "There is no doubt that the strength of support from postal workers in the strikes has made Royal Mail think again. They have made significant concessions this week that are clear for everybody to see. Those concessions have allowed us to suspend strike action and work towards a full and final agreement."
It seems as though a sensible decision has been made, as it was announced this week that Metronet will remain under the management of LUL. It's recent transition to LUL had been on a temporary basis but will now be ongoing. The Department for Transport has a press release on this issue:
Unite are to ballot their members at LU over the current pay offer. Unite have 600 members in LU, working in areas such as maintenance and safety. Unite members recently decided two to one that a ballot for industrial action was the way forward.
Unite say their ballot will coincide with the RMT’s ballot of its members on the pay issue. Unite anticipate that any resulting industrial action would be co-ordinated with the RMT.
I just found this video over at the RMT website about the importance of all grades sticking together. I started work with LU on the stations and now work as a train driver. I'm often asked why I don't now join a single grades union and this video states clearly the answer to that and why we need to stand together.
Update: A 'Charter Convention' is being held in Camden on Saturday 21st November, Bob Crow among others will be speaking. Details here.
I just signed up to The People's Charter. A charter laying out a vision of what I would describe to be a fairer Britain. The charter lays out a number of aims. These include tight regulation of the banking sector and fairer taxation in order to ensure wealth is distributed more fairly, decent homes for all, renationalisation of key services such as transport, water and energy and other key areas where intervention could close the wealth gap in society and ensure everyone has a decent standard of living.
I use RSS or 'Really Simple Syndication' to keep an eye on certain areas of this site - be it news about London Underground disputes, or blog entries from my rep. However, many people don't know what it is or how to use it - so I thought it may be of interest or use to some of you for me to have a go at explaining it here.