Putting the boot in

by New Worker correspondent

One of Britain’s oldest and most effective trade unions recently secured an important legal victory which could pave the way for workers they represent securing huge pay rises. The ruling overturns an attempt by the bosses to impose caps on workers’ earnings.
The issue in question was actually that which led to the creation of the union in 1907. For the union is the 4,000 strong TUC affiliated Professional Footballers' Association.
    Originally founded as the Association Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union (AFPTU) in Manchester’s Imperial Hotel it succeeded a short lived Association Footballers’ Union (AFU) formed in 1898 and dissolved in 1901. The AFU had tried and failed to relax restrictions on players moving from one club to another and to prevent bosses introducing a maximum wage of £4 per week for players in the Football League.
    Two years after its foundation, bosses, in the shape of the Football Association (FA) withdrew recognition of the Union, a threat of strike action in response was met by the FA banning altogether players belonging to the union. Membership fell as players put their jobs before their union card, but Manchester United players stood firm, forcing the cancellation of a 1909 match. A prominent player, Tim Coleman of Everton gave his support shaming the FA, which encouraged members to return to the union and forced the FA to allow bonus payments.However, a later botched court case on the transfer question nearly broke the union.
    During the slump in 1922 clubs arbitrarily cut the maximum wage from £9 to £8, a move successfully opposed by the union. But major successes had to wait until the 1950s.
    When Jimmy Hill, footballer and later commentator became secretary of the Players' Union in 1956, it became the PFA. In 1957, the League’s maximum wage of £20 was scrapped, and the first £100 a-week player came in 1961. The age of footballers making the front pages for their drunken antics in sunny climes and tumbling out of nightclubs at 4 am finally dawned.
    In 1963 the PFA won a High Court case which declared that the “retain and transfer” system was an unreasonable restraint of trade. The commercialisation of sport clearly has its downsides, but unions are primarily there to get good deals for their members.
    Never very militant the union registered under the Industrial Relations Act 1971, which caused its departure from the TUC, but it returned in 1995. In the late 1990s it found itself in court for banning a woman football agent from its annual dinner. The case eventually cost £200,000.To compensate it now actively promotes women footballers so that they can in future misbehave in posh hotels just like the men.
In the same spirit of promoting inclusion, last month the PFA pointed out that although Asian and Asian British people make up almost 7.5 per cent of the British population, in the 2019/2020 season just eight players made first-team appearances across the Premier. To remedy this it launched its Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme (AIMS).
    In November 2018 the PFA had a revolt from its members over its management practices,which is presently unresolved with the much complained about CEO still in post.
    On the matter of the present dispute PFA’s CEO, Gordon Taylor OBE no less, said: “We were disappointed that the EFL decided to introduce salary cap proposals, which were voted through without the proper consideration or consultation with the PFNCC. As a result, in August 2020, the PFA served a Notice of Arbitration on the EFL stating the introduction of the new rules were in breach of obligations under the constitution of the PFNCC. We are pleased the panel upheld the PFA’s claim".
Needless to say not all players are in the multi-millionaire category. Comparatively minor injury can end a playing career, which in the best cases comes to an end decades before the pension age. To help get non-playing players it funds several education programmes for ex and current players. One is a physiotherapy degree course at Salford University. Media-savvy footballers can even be taught to be sports journalists.
    In line with ancient trade union practice it provides medical care including paying for injured players to attend the Lilleshall Sports Injury Rehabilitation centre in Shropshire for physiotherapy and sports injury.
    PFA is also a campaigning union. Recently it took up the problem of racist abuse directed at black players. Unfortunately some football fans are like Trotskyites and SNP supporters in the level of abuse they hurl at their enemies. Writing to the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter it pointed out that “The language used is debasing, often threatening and illegal. It causes distress to the recipients and the vast majority of people who abhor racism, sexism and discrimination of any kind. We have had many meetings with your executives over the years but the reality is your platforms remain havens for abuse”.
    PFA demands that the social media giants block racist or discriminatory material with an approved verification process for users and they urge co-operating properly with the police in such matters.
    It is also demanded more research into neurodegenerative disorders as the affect footballers, an a issue recently highlighted by the fact that many prominent footballers from the 1960s and 70s have been diagnosed with dementia, perhaps caused by frequent heading of footballs which were much heavier than now. The PFA is now funding such research.

News round-up

Bus strike brings chaos to London

THOUSANDS of London bus drivers took strike action on Tuesday 13^th January, bringing transport chaos throughout the capital as people were unable to get to work and people have been unable to get to work.

The drivers, members of the giant union Unite, are demanding a single pay and conditions agreement covering the whole of London.

London buses, privatised by a Tory government in the 1990s, are run by a number of different companies and each of them has different wages, terms and conditions.

Pay can differ by up to £3-an-hour, making over £100 difference in the weekly pay. Unite said with no collective pay deal there were 80 different pay rates for drivers doing the same job.

One driver explained his current pay was not enough to allow him to continue living in London.

He said: "My rate of pay is £9.30 an hour. I just want something that's a bit better.

"It depends on the shifts I get per week whether I can take home £300 and rent in north London is like £1,000 a month."

Wayne King, London regional officer for Unite, said: "Strike action is the last resort. We've been forced into this position by the operators' refusal to even meet with us.

"Passengers sitting side by side on the same route expect to pay the same fare, so why shouldn't drivers expect to be paid the same rate?

"The bus operators need to stop pleading poverty in defending pay inequality and collectively start negotiating about a fairer deal for London's bus workers."

But London Mayor Boris Johnson, who does not have the same power over the bus network as the London Underground, defended the differential pay rates.

A spokesperson for Metroline, one of the bus companies involved, said: "Unite is seeking to move to a common rate of pay across all bus companies in London and we have challenged this on the grounds that it would be illegal for us to agree to their demand."

Another driver told the on-line campaign Counterfire: “Bus routes come up for tender every couple of years. When Livingston was Mayor of London he encouraged contracts to be based on quality not just on the cheapest bidder. With Boris the emphasis is based upon the lowest bidder.

“This also affects people’s pensions. Over 20 years I could work for five different companies and end up with five different pensions, all not adding up to very much.

“No one's taking these sorts of things into consideration, with companies closing down final salary pensions, taking full advantage of the Government's scheme.

“They shut down the Money-Purchase Pension and went to the new Government compulsory pensions standard which was lower than the pension that they had before. The Government didn't say you had to make the pension lower but the companies took advantage of it. They want to increase their profit margins.

“Every time the bosses sit down in a room and we say we need a better deal they tell us TFL's 'contract price adjustments' will only give them a tiny return. They tell us they are not making enough of a profit to raise our pay. We’ve got to a stage where we’re fed up.

“This is the most successful era of London busses ever in terms of passenger numbers, the amount of journeys and so forth and now we want to be rewarded for our labour.

“What's the solution to tacking pay disparity? We believe that the only way we are going to get a better deal and a fairer deal is to have London-wide standards that, regardless of what company you work for, you know what you are going to get for your pension and wage.

“Here’s the problem: every time the governor wants to get an increase in his profit he comes after my wage. My wage seems to be the biggest variable. Their petrol costs what it costs, their busses cost what they cost but it seems like they can always do something with my wage….

 “If they’re going to bid on contracts they should bid on their own money, not on my wages.”

  Charlton Athletic LGBT fans lured into attack

HOMOPHOBIC thugs attacked gay football supporters after duping them into thinking they were meeting a similar group of fans from a rival team.

Members of Charlton Rainbows – a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group of Charlton Athletic followers – believed they had been invited to join up with LGBT supporters from Brighton and Hove Albion.

But some of the group were ambushed and assaulted when they arrived at the meeting point before the Championship clubs played each other on Saturday.

No one was seriously injured and there was no suggestion the attackers were associated with Brighton or Charlton football clubs.

Charlton Rainbows tweeted: “Before yesterday’s match, we were told to meet a group equivalent to ours.

“Unfortunately, this was a hoax and some members were attacked. An investigation’s ongoing with CCTV and statements being taken.”

The statement added: “We would like to say that the fans involved were neither BHAFC nor CAFC.

“Our members shaken, but OK. We can’t give more info as this is a criminal matter, but the thugs will be caught.

"We would also like to thank the public who helped and the emergency services for their quick response and actions.”

Clapton Ultras defy fascists

CLAPTON FC is a small football club in a very diverse area of East London, playing in the Essex Senior League. For three seasons now they have gathered an enthusiastic and dedicated following calling themselves the “Clapton Ultras”.

This dedicated anti-racist, anti-fascist and pro-working class group of fans has resulted in Clapton seeing some of the highest turnouts for matches in their league, drawing in people fed up with the extortionate price and soulless atmosphere of many major-league clubs.

The “Ultras” have also got involved with the local community, supporting the Focus E15 mothers, anti-immigration raids campaigns and collecting donations for local food-banks.

Somewhere along the line this development attracted the attention of the extreme right-wing internet group of wannabe football hooligans “Casuals United”, who, taking great objection to there being a group of overtly anti-racist, anti-fascist football fans, started encouraging their internet followers to go and attack the Clapton Ultras.

Far-right groups and individuals are trying to shut down the anti-fascist Clapton Ultras, following a largely successful campaign at Bristol-based non-league club, Mangotsfield United.

In December 2013, fascists made six complaints to Mangotsfield United FC about the use of pyrotechnics and displaying of political symbols, leading to a ban of both by the club.

The tactics used in the campaign that saw Mangotsfield United FC's “Inter Village Firm” effectively shut down, have failed against the Clapton Ultras, so fascists have started turning up at games.

Fascists had hoped making complaints to the chief executive for Clapton FC, Vincent McBean, would lead to a similar outcome, but McBean has not given in to fascist intimidation.

In a statement posted on the Clapton FC website, McBean said: “We have a strong ethos in the club of not tolerating discrimination or racism of any kind.”

Realising they needed to change their tactics, a number of fascists from across the country travelled to the ground in October this year in an attempt to intimidate supporters.

The group visited Nathan’s Pie & Eels on Barking Road, prior to arriving at the Old Spotted Dog ground on Upton Lane half an hour before kick-off.

They posed for photographs with a flag outside the ground and put up a racist sticker before police made them disperse and leave the area.

Afterwards the fascists re-grouped and headed into central London where they carried out attacks on several individuals attending the Occupy event in Parliament Square.

Co-ordinated by the “Pie & Mash Squad” Facebook page, the fascists present were mainly from the South East Alliance and EDL but also included some ex-members of Casuals United.

In December a car load of South East Alliance activists launched a disastrous attack on Clapton supporters going to an off-licence during half-time at their game against Southend Manor.

The altercation ended with leader of the South East Alliance, Paul Pitt being hospitalised.

There was a further bungled attack on anti-fascists in a car-park during the second half, when a seven-seater taxi pulled up containing a group led by a mixed race member of Huddersfield EDL.

Posts on the “Pie & Mash Squad” Facebook page show the group is trying to put Clapton FC out of business by creating a policing bill the club is unable to pay.

The fascists are now trying to organise further attacks on the Clapton Ultras, who are calling on anti-fascists to turn up to coming matches and give their support.

The next home games are:Tuesday 20th January 19:45 Saturday 24th January 15:00 at The Old Spotted Dog ground on Upton Lane, London E7 9NP.

Millwall FC bans racist fan

 A MAN claiming to be a Millwall supporter who shouted racist abuse at Leeds United striker El-Hadji Diouf has been fined £425 and banned for life by Millwall Football Club.

Gerrard Scanlon, 53, from Enfield, North London, pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence at Bromley Magistrates' Court.

He was fined £425 and ordered to pay £85 costs plus a £15 victim surcharge, and was banned from football matches for five years by the court.

Millwall have however banned Scanlon from the Den for life. He may not enter the London boroughs of Lewisham or Southwark when Millwall are playing at home for the next two years, nor go to any city where Millwall are playing away that day.

Scanlon launched his abusive rant during the Championship clash at the Den on 18th November.

In a statement Millwall said: "The club had already decided to ban Scanlon for life from all matches at The Den. "We are pleased that the behaviour of this individual came to notice, and that the police and the courts have now taken action against him.

"Millwall Football Club will continue to operate a zero tolerance policy to target and ban any fan guilty of displaying racist behaviour and we look forward to developing even closer links with other agencies, including those in the media who share our determination to eradicate racism from our game."