Unite - Who said What?

MICHAEL OVITZ 1946- ; President, Walt Disney Company
The new media age lowers barriers to entry. It unleashes vast energy but also potentially undermines standards of reliability, accountability, trust and accuracy. • 1998?

Judge for yourself.
Below are a selection of quotes following the launch of Unite.
[You can click on the headings to see the complete articles.]



Organisation and solidarity across frontiers are the future
A revived trade unionism requires much more than consolidation. Neither of us wants to be running a union that is big but shrinking from the outset.


Global firms, be warned: new giant and powerful unions are on their way
If they bring this off - the Unite-USW merger is still a year away and subject to all the complications of American law - we will have, for the first time, a union capable of taking on the multinationals on their own turf. The question is: which way will the new body jump politically?




NEW SUPER UNION WITH POWER TO CRIPPLE BRITAIN
In a warning that will ignite fears of a return to the “Winter of Discontent” strife of the ’70s, the new union called Unite also declared it would not be afraid to take on big employers if it had to


United again
"Amalgamate! Be united in Heart, Hand and Deed and set up an organisation for Heroes to fight with," proclaimed Harry Gosling, secretary of the London Society of Watermen, Lightermen and Bargemen in 1922 as fourteen unions merged to form the 350,000 strong Transport and General Workers union. More than 80 years later, the unions are embarking into equally unknown territory, hoping that the call centre workers, the IT employees and the vast service economy will join up in the way that the watermen and bargees did in the last century to keep a red flag still fluttering on May Day.



Merger creates new Unite union
ATGWU regional secretary in Ireland Mick O'Reilly said the new union will be "progressive and organising" and would "fight back" against the focus on "industrial giants".



Millions Unite Under New Union Banner
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The pooled resources of the two unions offer a real opportunity for the movement to grow in both influence and membership in the years ahead."




Noble ideal of a global workers' union may be too little, too late
The barriers to more fundamental transatlantic co-operation are substantial, including different labour laws, political systems and employers.



Unite, in One Big Union

It’s far too early to tell whether this will be a positive or negative for Irish workers. On the one hand, larger unions can be less responsive to democratic control and more bureaucratic. Both unions have paid little attention to developing in Ireland over the years in comparison to their work in England, Scotland and Wales.





Unions try global tact

It won’t be easy, just as it was not easy to organize unions in Great Britain or the United States. And there are substantial cultural issues even between American, Canadian and British unions. But a global approach, in response to increasing global dispersion of capital, stands a much better chance of success than trying to put the capitalist genie back in the bottle.



UNION TELLS LABOUR TO FIND ROOTS

Tony Woodley said the party was struggling in this week's elections and there needed to be a change of direction once a new leader took over.

PRETTY PICTURES

The visual identity is simple and clear and will be accompanied by a set of brand guidelines to ensure continuity in its application across the entire union