Next Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow speaks to local UNISON Labour Link

Rushanara Ali, the Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow (BG&B) was the guest speaker at our Tower Hamlets branch UNISON Labour Link meeting. Cuckoo George Galloway, has “promised” not to stand in BG&B at the next election since he knows he will lose.

Rushanara spoke about local and national issues then we had informal but wide ranging “question and answers”. Some of the points we discussed with Rushanara were: -

A major local issue was the recent collapse of “1st Solutions” a money transfer service to Bangladesh from the UK. It would appear that many people all over Britain who thought they were sending money to their families may have lost everything. Incredibly it seems that such services are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

We also discussed the London Living Wage campaign. This campaign which is supported by London Mayor Ken Livingston, wants a higher minimum wage for London (currently £7.20 per hour) to take into account the higher costs of living in the Capital. Labour Boroughs want to make sure that all their directly employed workers and sub-contractors have this amount but are worried that if they specify a living wage in any tenders without specific legal authority, they could be sued by whoever failed to be awarded the contract. This could be challenged if the Labour Boroughs worked together.

We also talked about working together to lobby the government about re-introducing a “Fair Wages Clause” which was done away by Thatcher. This clause use to state that if any public service was privatised then new starters would still be paid the same amount as if they remained in the public sector. This would benefit low paid workers who work in privatised services nationally and not just in London.

Tomorrow I am off to UNISON Labour Link Forum in Manchester. Our branch has had its motion on the Living Wage supported by London Labour Link Forum. I hope it will be adopted by the National Forum then we can take it hopefully to the Labour Party Conference later this year.

The GLA elections next year and in particular practical support for Ken and our local hard working GLA member, John Biggs, was agreed. Also the local by-election in Shadwell following the resignation of the Respect Councillor. For the next few weeks the priority will be canvassing in the Ealing Southall Parliamentary by-election (Sedgefield is a bit too far)

Also at meeting we unanimously nominated Rachel Voller, to be the London UNISON National Labour Link committee member. Rachel is a nurse at UCL hospital and has been an excellent Labour Link rep for London.