Unite (UK) and the USW to Merge

Reports from LabourStart today highlight the imminent creation of truely international trade union, with Unite, which has 2 million members in the UK and Ireland, and the Unites Steel Workers, which represents 1 million workers in the USA, Canada and the Carribean, announcing their plans to merge. One cannot help but compare the formidable prospect of a 3 million strong trans-Atlantic union with the sorry state of union fiefdoms in Australia and New Zealand.

Unite’s Working Students Campaign (Part I)

The Unite, the largest United Kingdom trade union, is campaigning directly to organise thousands of student workers across tertiary campuses in the UK. The Working Students Campaign (‘WSC’) is an innovative way of  organising a new generation of workers, and is something that should be implemented by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The campaign basically involves allowing students to join Unite on-line for £10 per year, and organising students into campus societies who can campaign for respect, rights and better conditions in the workplace while using the collective resources of Unite.