Unite video demolishes BA’s ‘fire & rehire’ claims

A Unite video explaining BA’s finances ‘demolishes’ the airline’s claim that it must fire its workforce and rehire those that survive on inferior contracts. 

The in-depth analysis of British Airways’ financial position reveals the true extent of BA’s plan to use the health crisis as cover to slash jobs, pay and conditions in order to transfer ever greater sums of money to its Spanish parent company IAG and its shareholders.

The union will be meeting IAG financial analysts in the coming days to explain why IAG can afford to see out this crisis without such drastic cuts.

 Quite incredibly, while the airline is claiming poverty, its parent company IAG is ploughing ahead with the purchase of the airline Air Europa, for over 1 billion euros.

Unite executive officer Sharon Graham said: “British Airways is claiming to be in financial difficulties while its parent company IAG is still planning to spend close to one billion euros to buy Air Europa. Workers in Britain who made two thirds of IAG’s profits are being sacrificed for the benefit of shareholders.

“BA is using the health crisis to axe workers’ jobs, pay and conditions. We have asked BA repeatedly to remove the dismissal notices. No other company is firing and rehiring its workforce in this way.

“Our analysis of BA’s finances show why British Airways and its owners IAG can afford to see out this crisis without such drastic cuts. This is a company with a lot of cash, strong assets and sustainable debt. There can be little doubt that BA is viable. The company controls some of the most profitable routes in the world and is backed by the Qatar Royal Family.”

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Posted in Economics, European Trade Unions, International Trade Unions, Labour Party, Media, Politics, Trade Unions, Trades Union Congress, Unite The Union, Workers Uniting | Leave a comment

Labour Members – Speak Out to Stop Annexation

With the new Government in Israel threatening further annexation of occupied Palestinian land, now is the time for Labour members to speak up and support the global call from Palestine for “effective measures” to stop annexation.

We must stand firmly against such an act of aggression and – as an internationalist party – Labour must give real support to end the oppression of the Palestinian people.

In line with Conference policy, Labour must recognise that any just peace must be based on self-determination for Palestine, with equality and human rights for all.

This means opposing Trump’s one-sided so-called ‘deal of the century,’ and annexation. It means continuing to commit to immediate recognition of the state of Palestine and an end to the blockade, occupation and settlements.

Background – Why We Must Oppose Annexation

The new Israeli Government has said that it intends to annex large swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank, starting in July, land which was militarily occupied in 1967. This would be the culmination of years of appropriation of land – through the forced displacement of Palestinians, settlement and the annexation of East Jerusalem. Annexation, illegal under international law, is the forcible and unilateral acquisition of territory over which it has no recognised sovereignty and to make it an integral part of the state.

Palestinian civil society has made a global call for ‘effective measures’ to be taken to stop this annexation happening. If the measures are to be effective, this means the UK should now, at the very least, be adhering to an ethical policy on all the UK’s trade with Israel , in particular by applying international law on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and stopping any arms trade with Israel that is used in violation of the human rights of Palestinians.

In the midst of the Covid pandemic a number of organisations are cooperating to try to respond to the call from Palestine by making Annexation a live issue on the current political agenda. Israel’s timetable is to annex land quickly with Trump’s support – this means we cannot wait.

If you agree with this and want to support the Palestinian call for action, please indicate your agreement with the following statement.

Speak Out – Sign this Statement:

I am speaking out now in order to stop the threatened annexation of Palestinian land by Israel in July and I call on the UK Government and all UK political parties to support the call of Palestinian civil society organisations for Effective Measures by all States to Stop Israel’s Illegal Annexation of the Occupied West Bank.

Would you like to stay in touch with Labour & Palestine?


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ONLINE EVENT: Venezuela: Exposing UK complicity in Trump’s regime change plan Monday June 8th, 7.00pm.

  • Register here

  • Facebook RSVP, share & invite here – retweet here to spread the word!

With guests from Venezuela, investigative journalist John McEvoy, Dr. Francisco Dominguez, Susan Grey (VSC), Colin Burgon of Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America & Chair Tony Burke (Unite.)

Recent revelations of a ‘Venezuela reconstruction unit’ are just the latest in a long line of signals the British Government is working to Donald Trump’s agenda for regime change.

From hosting coup-plottter Juan Guaido to the Bank of England’s refusal to return gold held by the Venezuelan Government, Britain is again playing the role of the US’s chief ally in pushing for intervention against a sovereign country in breach of international law.

This meeting will hear from journalists, campaigners and others based in Britain and Venezuela on exactly how far Britain has gone in promoting regime change, and what we can do to build opposition to illegal intevention.

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TUC Statement on the murder of George Floyd, Trump and the US Crisis

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Murdoch closes regional and local titles – Microsoft replaces journalists with robots.

The mantra that post Covid19 “the world will never be the same again” has been repeated a million times. This last week we saw the effects, not just of the virus pandemic but a move away from printing of local newspapers, closures and permanent on-line editions along with the introduction robots to produced news content. The impact seems small but it will prove to be a watershed moment for those of us who have a long history of working in the newspaper and media industries.

Australia’s largest media group, News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch announced it is no longer going to print over 100 local and regional titles.

Never one to miss an opportunity Murdoch blames the collapse of his regional newspaper business on a collapse advertising, advertisers switching to online editions – made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.

News Corp, had already announced it was was stopping printing of around 60 community titles ‘temporarily’.

The decision will see the loss of hundreds of jobs. 76 titles are moving online-only by the end of June. The other 35 titles are closing down permanently.

New sCorp says it hopes to keep on 375 journalists who will “continue covering community and regional news”.

About 1,200 people are believed to be employed in News Corp’s Australia’s regional and community division.

The media wire service Australian Associated Press (AAP) announced in March that it will be closing down unless a last minute buyer turns up to save it from closing its doors.

“After 85 years of operation, AAP is set to close on June 26th with about 500 people out of work as a result. While most news consumers might not be greatly aware of AAP, they would be amazed to know that great chunks of the news they read and listen to originates from AAP stories.”

News Corp Australia’s executive chairman Michael Miller said the permanent changes has been: “Exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic which had impacted the sustainability of local publishing.The drop in print advertising spending, which contributes the majority of our revenues, has accelerated its decline. Consequently, to meet these changing trends, we are reshaping News Corp Australia to focus on where consumers and businesses are moving.”

In another blow, dozens of journalists have been sacked after Microsoft decided to replace them with artificial intelligence software.

Staff who maintain the news webpages on Microsoft’s MSN website and its Edge browser have been told that they will be no longer be required because robots can now do their jobs.

Around 27 journalists employed by the Press Association Media were told that they would lose their jobs after Microsoft decided to stop employing journalists to select, edit news articles on its homepages.

Employees were told Microsoft’s decision to end the contract with PA Media was taken at short notice as part of a global shift away from “humans in favour of automated updates for news”.

One staff member who worked on the team said: “I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs, and here I am – AI has taken my job. The decision to replace humans with software was risky, as the existing staff were careful to stick to “very strict editorial guidelines” which ensured that users were not presented with violent or inappropriate content when opening their browser, of particular importance for younger users”.

According to The Guardian journailsits working on the Microsoft site did not report original stories but still exercised editorial control, selecting stories produced by other news organisations – including the Guardian – and editing content and headlines where appropriate to fit the format.

The articles were then hosted on Microsoft’s website, with the tech company sharing advertising revenue with the original publishers.

Some of the journalists now facing redundancy had longstanding experience in the industry, while for others it offered a foot in the door and a job in the media industry. They now face a tough challenge to get jobs elsewhere when the whole industry is looking to cut costs. Other teams around the world are expected to be affected by Microsoft’s decision to automate the curation of its news sites.

In common with other news organisations, PA Media is facing hard financial challenges and has had to furlough some staff and ask other to take cuts in pay. The company recently expanded outside its traditional news agency business, recently buying stock image business Alamy shortly before the pandemic devastated the media industry.

A spokesperson for the PA said: “We are in the process of winding down the Microsoft team working at PA, and we are doing everything we can to support the individuals concerned. We are proud of the work we have done with Microsoft and know we delivered a high-quality service.”

Many tech companies are now experimenting with uses for Artificial Intelligence in journalism, with the likes of Google spending on research “to understand its uses”, although efforts to automate the writing of articles have not been adopted widely.

Click here to see the list of the Top Ten media companies in the world.

Click here to get your copy of ‘It’s The Media Stupid, the 2019 Election And The Aftermath’ (paperback)

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Review of ‘It’s The Media Stupid…..”

Download  the review of “It’s The Media Stupid….” published in ‘Cold Type ‘by clicking on the link.

 

 

 

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Chris Stephens SNP MP says Governments have turned a blind eye to what’s happening in Turkey

Chris Stephens, Scottish National Party MP for Glasgow South West, supporter of both Freedom For Ocalan Campaign and Peace In Kurdistan interviewed by journalist Erem Kansoy. Chris Stephens highlights the importance of Öcalan’s freedom for peace in Turkey and the Middle East.

He talks about the situation of political prisoners and the recent law enacted by the AKP-MHP under which murderers, rapists, drug dealers were released, but journalists, academics and political prisoners kept imprisoned. Stephens says he does not consider Turkey a democratic country. He insists that arms trade to Turkey should be stopped and that the economic sanctions should be imposed.

Chris Stephens sent his support and solidarity greetings to the HDP!

 

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Unions call for Covid-19 risk checks by Keighley firms

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Ces Hero’s Du Corona…Que Ni Paieront Pas Le Crise

Download by clicking here special document (in French) from IndustriAll Europe Annecy Group trade unionists on No Return To Business As Usual & Trade Union Demands Post Covid Crisis. The view from CGIL-FIOM, (Italy); CCOO, (Spain); Unite, (UK and Ireland); MWB – FGBT, (Belgium); CGT (France); CGPT (Portugal).

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Withering Assessment Of Johnson’s Bungling & How Starmer Got The Measure Of Him And The Tories

Paul Waugh – Huffington Post

By Paul Waugh, HuffPost UK. Monday May 11th

“Hope is not a plan”. That was one of the most candid assessments in the government’s new 51-page roadmap for easing the UK out of its seven-week coronavirus lockdown. For Boris Johnson, for so long the king of the sing-it-then-wing-it school of politics, it sounded particularly downbeat.

To Johnson’s critics, there’s been little hope and even less of a plan over the past few weeks. As well as a dire death toll and shortages of tests and protective equipment, their list of his failures now includes the newly chaotic public health messaging. Replacing the brutally effective ‘Stay Home’ mantra with the more confusing ‘Stay Alert’ alternative is seen by some as another faux pax, another blunder from the blunderbuss in No.10.

The new doubt sown in the public mind was evident at the Downing Street press conference when citizen questioners complained the new message was too ‘vague’. Could they see their mum and dad or just one of them? In the park or their garden? (The answer, despite some riffing from Dominic Raab, was one and not in their garden).

When even Philip Schofield declares on prime time TV that the government is starting to “arse it up”, you know something’s slightly amiss with your comms. ? Johnson does have a plan, however, and one that he hopes will give hope too. His roadmap, ‘Our Plan To Rebuild’ is shot through with carefully judicious conditionality. It’s also a reminder that the best laid plans often go awry.

It links to the original March 3rd ‘Action Plan’ that some people now view as an inaction plan on issues like the speed of the lockdown and the UK’s testing capacity. ‘Contain, delay, research and mitigate’ all seem like an age ago, technical terms rapidly swamped by the virus and the lockdown itself.

As ever, the PM is often his own worst enemy. The man who returned from his own brush with the illness to tell the nation to “contain your impatience” turned out to be the one whose impatience was the real cause of the comms errors of recent days.

If he hadn’t blurted out during last week’s PMQs that by this Monday the lockdown would start easing (and therefore avoided a detail-free Sunday night TV address), his PR problems would have been lessened.If he had decided to first make a statement to parliament today, followed by a TV address tonight, setting out how from this Wednesday some changes would begin (all backed up with detailed papers on everything from transport to schools to workplaces), he could even have won praise for a methodical, cautious approach?

Indeed in some ways, the real question is why many of these plans weren’t announced weeks ago. As the PM himself points out, construction and manufacturing workers (indeed anyone who can’t feasibly work from home) have been allowed to work since day one of lockdown.

So why has it taken this long to come up with rules or guidance on how to keep their workplaces safe? Why did it take so long to recognise that letting people sit on their own on a park bench (no, it’s not ‘exercise’ but it is great for their mental health) would not endanger anyone else.

Why so long to work out that face coverings may help on transport or small shops? ? The more important changes are set for June and July, with schools and key sectors of the economy in line for tentative returns. The government’s approach of phases and pilots to test things out makes eminent sense, as does its willingness to reimpose stricter measures if there are any spikes in local areas. ? Of course, any change to the Stay Home messaging would be fraught with difficulty for any government.

The nuance and complexity of all those phases and pilot schemes don’t easily fit into one slogan. ‘Stay Safe, Save Lives’ may have been slightly better, or ‘Stay Cautious, Save Lives’ (the new French motto which was curiously equated by the PM with his own ‘Stay Alert’ effort).

The PM told MPs today: “I think ‘Stay Alert’ is a valid piece of advice, and indeed so is ‘Stay at Home If You Can’.”

And despite, or perhaps because of, the kicking he has got in recent days, Johnson is once again displaying his political modus operandi of nicking the best of his opponents’ policies and discarding the worst. The man who once ridiculed ‘elf n safety’ as a Telegraph columnist, today set out plans to make every workplace ‘Covid-Secure’, with £14m for more staff for the Health and Safety Executive to make spotchecks. Bad bosses won’t be allowed to ‘get away with’ ‘forcing’ people into unsafe workplaces, he vowed.

When Johnson again said that “one of the differences between this crisis and 2008 is we really want to look after working people”, that was a political threat to Labour as potentially dangerous as all those red wall Brexit seats turning blue last year. ? He could even perhaps take up the idea of the centre-right think tank the Social Market Foundation for a new work-and-training guarantee programme. This would ensure anyone who cannot find a conventional job is paid by the state in the new ‘green jobs’ industry. Un-Tory? Maybe. UnJohnsonian? Not necessarily. The spectre of mass unemployment is certainly what keeps many Tory MPs in marginal seats up at night.

Keir Starmer is a wily opponent though. He was the one who demanded a national standard for workplace safety, and also the one who raised the issue of a lack of childcare for those now expected to go back to work.

His prime time BBC address was the product of some clever research by his team, who dug into the BBC Charter to find the precedent of Hugh Gaitskell delivering a response to the Suez crisis.

 That BBC address played to Starmer’s strengths too, with neat lines again linking the WW2 generation and the care homes they now live (and die) in, and the way care workers are treated like heroes but paid less than the living wage. And Starmer is capable of a bit of political cross-dressing of his own too, and not just by reclaiming veterans’ patriotism.

On China, Starmer is already sounding more hawkish, and on the need for a home-grown industrial strategy. He has already attacked Johnson for failing to get tougher on overseas arrivals at our ports and airports earlier in the Covid crisis.

On getting Britain back to work during Covid-19, the Labour leader is following the example of the best trade unions.

For years, pragmatic unions reps have negotiated furloughs or shorter working hours as a better option than redundancies in factories. During this crisis, it was shopworkers union Usdaw which actually led the way in negotiating new safe working in supermarkets. Starmer has shown he is a politician as much as a lawyer of late.

He has shown, to coin a phrase, that he likes to have his cake and eat it – sounding ever-so-constructive while being quietly destructive of the PM’s competence.

There is still more ammunition for him in the language used by some Tories, of ‘zombie jobs’, of ‘weaning’ those on furlough ‘off the drug’ of state aid, all of which sounds like a party that still doesn’t get how precarious life is for those earning modest wages.

Those on furlough are after all those most likely to get the sack once that Treasury help disappears. The PM’s own ill-advised line on Sunday that the UK “can be stronger and better than ever before” – in the wake of more than 30,000 deaths – sounded like some sub-Nietzsche nonsense (what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger?) that could leave a nasty taste in the mouths of the bereaved.

Starmer can rightly say Covid-19 has exposed the care sector crisis, (one spin-too-far in today’s document was the line that “the Government will continue to bolster the UK’s social care sector”) as much as it has exposed the digital divide in schools and the health inequalities among different classes and races.

He can also argue that far from fixing the roof while the sun shone, the Tories neglect of public services in the past decade is now why there’s a rainstorm of pain from this virus. No wonder the PM has finally drafted a plan. It will take a lot more than hope to get down his mountain path unscathed.

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