Robinson successfully defended his school from closure, fought for the unification of the teaching unions, mentored future trade union leaders and transformed teaching at the Marx Memorial Library, writes JOHN FOSTER

ON April 1 the so-called “trade union regulator,” more formally known as the certification officer, will assume the powers given to her by the Employment Act 2016 to impose financial levies on trade unions.
As a sop, employers’ associations as equivalent “social partners” are also included as being liable to pay the levy but they have successfully lobbied so that the major burden will fall on the unions. One suspects that they didn’t have to lobby too hard.
The certification officer has also been given the power to impose financial penalties on unions (or any other person) but employers’ associations are not included under these provisions.

It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR


