Issues and campaigns: Trade unions

Workers’ self-defence starts with getting unionised at work. This section includes material on the trade union struggles and issues I am involved in and/or urge you to support!

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  • RMT
    • The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (UK). I have been a member since 1997, and served on the union's national executive 2011-13.
  • RMT Disabled Members
    • Janine was the founding Chair, and later Secretary, of transport trade union RMT's Disabled Members' Advisory Committee.
  • TUC Disabled Workers Committee
    • Janine was elected to this Committee in 2013 and each year since (except 2020-21), before leaving it in 2023.

NeurodiVERSE for the Fire Brigades Union

Fire Brigades Union DND 25

Janine provides poetic entertainment for Fire Brigades Union members at the union’s Disabled and Neurodivergent Members’ Forum in Leeds. Also performing will be neurodivergent poets Kate Fox and Rick Dove. Private event.

All the Rage: organising at work

All the Rage 2024

Janine will run a workshop on organising at work at All the Rage, an annual socialist feminist one-day event. All the Rage agenda   11:00am – 12:15pm All the Rage Plenary: Feminism and the Rise of the Far Right Speakers: … Read More

Court Win on Right to Strike

Right to strike: against anti-union laws

The UK Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday 17 April that UK law allowing employers to discipline (but not sack) workers for striking is in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Video: Job cuts

Job cuts

A poem in the Welsh poetic form of Clogyrnach (which is remarkably similar to a limerick), written in support of Unite the Union’s strike ballot of steel workers employed by Tata in South Wales, whose jobs are under threat.

Video: Steel workers’ jobs are on the line

Steel workers CF

A poem in the Welsh poetic form of Cyhydedd Fer, written in support of Unite the Union’s strike ballot of steel workers employed by Tata in South Wales, whose jobs are under threat.

LGBT+ Educators hold largest-ever union conference

NEU LGBT+ Conference 2024

Report from National Education Union LGBT+ Educators Conference by Janine Booth, delegate Published in Solidarity 698 Last weekend (2-4 February), 350 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other non-straight education workers gathered in Birmingham for the National Education Union’s largest ever … Read More

Work and menopause

menopause

Menopause at work hit the headlines on 22 February as the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued new guidance on the issue. However, the guidance only affirmed what the law has been for the last fourteen years, and the fact that news coverage trumpeted it as a breakthrough can only mean that employers have not been following the law.

International Women’s Day celebration, Ealing

Ealing TUC International Women's Day celebration

Janine’s annual poetic performance at Ealing Trades Union Council’s International Women’s Day celebration. There will also be speakers and music, and a good time will be had by all. Venue: to be confirmed  

RMT Neurodiversity in the Workplace training

This course introduces you to the Neurodiversity approach, accepting and embracing that different people have differently-wired brains! It equips you as a union activist with the knowledge skills and belligerent attitude you need in order to fight for inclusive, neurodiversity-friendly … Read More

RMT Neurodiversity in the Workplace training course

This course introduces you to the Neurodiversity approach, accepting and embracing that different people have differently-wired brains! It equips you as a union activist with the knowledge skills and belligerent attitude you need in order to fight for inclusive, neurodiversity-friendly … Read More

Cancer in the Workplace training, RMT

Venue: RMT National Education Centre, Doncaster RMT reps and activists can register for this course via their branch or the members’ section of the union’s website.