Well, after pondering last week as to why the BNP wanted to set up their own union, it’s become clear in a very welcome way. They aren’t going to be getting into any others anytime soon.

The European Court of Human Rights has just ruled today that unions can legitimately expel BNP members, thanks to a case brought by ASLEF. You can see (download, print, frame…) the ruling here.

They found that whilst BNP members did have a right to freedom of association, this worked in reverse too, and didn’t need to compromise the rights of those who wanted the freedom not to have to associate with people whose aims were directly opposed to the aims of their union.

Plus ASLEF get €53,900 compensation from the UK Government, which goes some way to redress after the UK tribunal made them take back their expelled BNP member, or face a fine of up to nearly twice that sum.

Result! I for one will be raising a glass of something suitably European this evening.

Further to my recent post on the BNP union, Solidarity, and Skuds’ comment, I was interested to find this old news release (”Solidarity’s right wing friends“) from South African union federation COSATU, concerning South Africa’s own Solidarity union, and accusations that they are trying to maintain old “whites-only” job policies.

I’d thought the BNP union was a bit of a slur on the Polish Solidarity (Solidarnosc) pinching both their name and their logo (Odd given that the party aren’t that keen on Polish workers coming here, just their union!) . Maybe though they’ve found another Solidarity to draw inspiration from.

I visited Solidarnosc in Gdansk last year, and was rather taken by a display in Gdansk’s Lech Walesa Airport (the only union GS I know of with his own airport!). It has a picture of newsreel footage on the faces of dominoes, with 25 years of oppressive regimes around the world tumbling in the face of people power, and the very neat slogan: “Today was born in Gdansk”. Inspiring stuff, and a very long way from anything their ignoble new namesakes are likely to achieve.

Okay. 5.48pm, so only a few minutes late, I can live with that in terms of working my proper hours.

If you’re still in the office, what are you up to, you fool? Knock it on the head now - Flee whilst you still can!

**With the important caveat that if you’re just reading blogs in the office, you’re hardly working**

Anyway, now it’s time for that pint…

Starting work - 9.12AM
ETA in pub next door - 5.42PM

It’s Work Your Proper Hours Day!

This weekend, the BNP’s trade union, Solidarity, gains its certificate of independence, and can practice as a union. It’s an interesting move, but I really can’t work out why they are trying to do this.

For starters, their members will never get the full benefits of being in a union. Crudely put, there are three levels of membership, with increasing benefits - first off being the only member in a workplace, where you can get advice from the national union and have someone represent you in disciplinaries, kind of like joining the AA for work. Second level is getting a good group of you, to get safety in numbers when dealing with management, which counts for a lot in enforcing your rights. Third level is recognition, with a properly established local base in the workplace, and rights to negotiate collectively with the employer.

No real company in the UK is going to recognise them voluntarily - the press would be horrendous, and an employer in such a situation would probably immediately voluntarily recognise any other union, as the ‘lesser of evils’. They’ll never get down the statutory route, as that’d involve getting over half the bargaining unit in the union. The BNP is an actively divisive force, so even if they do get a clique together, they will be severely handicapped in the majority numbers game if they’re alienating groups of potential members even before they start.

Unions are expensive to run if you want to do it at all properly. Even more so if you’re setting up and trying to build. In their case it’s more of a recipe for losing money than for making any to pass on to the BNP as a political fund. Now this is just wild speculation, but I think someone coming out as a BNP’er in a workplace is going to be stirring up a lot of trouble for themselves with management, and coupled with the unpleasant pasts of lots of their activists (probably their only members for a while), the union will probably end up fighting loads of expensive cases they can’t win, draining their cash and making themselves look impotent to prospective members.

Some people think it’s a way for the BNP to gain legitimacy, in being closely identified with a useful organ of mainstream civil society. Seems odd though that they’d choose a type of organ that their political platform seems fundamentally opposed to as ‘marxists’. If they want to build themsleves closer into their members’ communities, there are easier and cheaper ways - set up youth schemes, credit unions, neighbourhood watches. Hey, for the same money they could probably go for a city academy!

Only immediate benefit I see for them is that this is a potential way for them to try to keep some of their nastier people in jobs they might otherwise lose, as they wouldn’t be given the support of a proper union.

On top of all this, I love the fact they’ve ripped off the Solidarnosc logo for their own. Never guessed they’d be so mad keen on bringing all things Polish into the UK workplace.

Welcoming a top new addition to the left-blogohemisphere - Tom, and his labour and capital blog. Tom is a proper hen’s tooth, a good unionist with a real insight into the murky world of big finance (and a very good chap to boot).

I’ll be following his new blog very keenly, as corporate governance and shareholder action is an area where unions could make some very big gains, and I’m ashamed to admit it’s currently all Greek to me (I can just about order a bottle of retsina and a kebab, but that’s as far as it goes!)

I’m normally very good at minding my hours, so shall make a point of being down the pub on time this Friday for Work Your Proper Hours Day.

I tried this quiz for myself as I am now, and again as I was in my last job, where I did do some silly hours (and ended up giving myself RSI, which wasn’t very clever). I’m currently a “Chaos Theorist” (in other words, when I do unpaid overtime it’s often my own fault for being disorganised), but that’s a big improvement on my previous life as a wretched “Desk Junkie”.

Have a go, and see who you are and what problems you need to fix. It gives you some quite good advice on where you’re going wrong and what you need to tackle about it.

There are loads of different reasons for overworking, which combine to make a pretty whopping £23bn of free overtime done in the UK every year. Don’t make yourself one of the thousands who suffer every year from stress, broken relationships, work related illnesses, or even just a miserable social life. Even the best job in the world shouldn’t take up your life to the exclusion of everything else. See you in the pub 5:30 sharp on Friday!