the long-running battle by train crew to defend safety.
UNISON mounts a continuing campaign against the Private Finance Initiative and foundation hospitals in the NHS - but then instructs its officials to pull out all the stops to push through acceptance of the halfbaked "Agenda for Change" pay deal. This will means a pay cut in real termthis year, and seems set to leave tens of thousands of low-paid UNISON members worse off for many years to come.
Other unions stand by and watch the erosion of public services and the disappearance of jobs in industry with barely a pretence of opposition.
In part this can be put down to a failure of nerve by top union officials - but the problem goes deeper: there is also clearly a problem at the level of national executive committees.
Andy Gilchrist, for example, has been able time and again to win the Executive of and the tacit acceptance of Thatcher's dictum that "there is no alternative".
fall the differences between the British labour movement and the French, this is perhaps the most significant. While the French strikers and protestors can draw strength from the tumultuous struggles which rocked the government in 1995, the British unions have still not notched up any positive experiences to erase the bitter memories of the defeat of the miners' strike after the NUM was isolated by other unions in 1984-5.
The French strikes are driven by pressure from below: here cynical officials seeking to avoid conflict with employers and the government are able to count on a disorganised rank and file that often lacks confidence, and is looking for a lead.
The votes for left officials and general secretaries show that there is a widespread The FBU leadership is recommending firefighters accept of a 3-year 16 per cent pay deal with strings to its members, in an attempt to settle the stalled dispute. The pay fight has dragged on for a year, with many firefighters fed up and angry at the way the dispute has been handled by the union leadership. A recall conference has been called for June 12 where the Executive will recommend acceptance. The deal will give just 4 per cent this year, up to 7 percent next year and 4.2 per cent the year after. This has already been rejected in previous offers. General Secretary Andy Gilchrist wants to see an end to the dispute and argues that the wording of the offer is different from previous ones. But the deal ties firefighters into a three year deal with no real pay increase and modernisation.
If the union leadership manage to sell this deal, it will not just mean a three-year pay cut, it will mean John Prescott's threat to impose a pay deal by law will have succeeded in its goal of intimidating the union, despite continued strong public support.
A survey by the FBU shows that two thirds of the public would not support a pay deal being imposed on firefighters, and four fifths think the deal should not be funded by job cuts. In retreat: Andy Gilchrist
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4 soclast resistance June 2003