A hat tip to MJ at Unionfutures for posting up the forthright and reasoned response of Unison General Secretary candidate Paul Holmes in response to the placing of three London local government branches under Regional supervision....

As one of the Unison NEC members who (on the specific advice of a senior national official) takes seriously my responsibility to scrutinise the actions of union officials, I have been asking questions about the actions last Friday of Unison staff in Bromley and Greenwich. Although the pesky...

Over on twitter, I received a tweet suggesting that "File-Sharing Tools Could Put Personal Health Data at Risk"- a reasonable statement of fact, possibly, although not exactly an earth-shattering one. File-sharing tools could put any kind of data "at risk" if by at risk you mean available for sharing with other people, since that's kind of the point of them. You might equally write "postage stamps could put personal health data at risk" because if you inadvertently put a postage stamp or two on a repeat prescription form you could, you know, post it to someone. By mistake. read more

I made a presentation to a visiting delegation from the French National Institute of Labour today. They are a tripartite body not dissimilar to our own Scottish Council Development and Industry....

Sittings in the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament were cancelled today on the second day of a 48 hour UK strike by civil and public servants over cuts to redundancy terms. “The government claims it can do nothing about bankers’ bonuses because of contractual obligations, yet appears...

At the end of 2009 the East Midlands region had a General Political Fund bid agreed to run some Million Voices themed campaigning messages. The messages were based upon the “disappearing jobs” theme...

Just a quick plug for The Ownership of Enterprise if you're at all interested in patterns in company ownership. It's a very thorough study that looks at why different types of ownership arise in particular industries. As I blogged previously it comes at these issues from a dispassionate...

As part of the Million Voices for Public Services campaign this hard-hitting film about who could be hurt by public service cuts has been released. We need as many people as possible to see...

I had a stroke of luck this week, I've got a week on leave that coincides with the 2 days of strike action by members of the PCS. This meant I could spend two mornings out and about supporting the workers in my local job centre and in offices in the centre of Leeds who were out on strike to defend...

… John Wood’s short film about the union role in modern workplaces, has been nominated in LabourStart’s inaugural ‘Labour Video of the Year’. You can view all six videos nominated, and vote for the one of your choice, here.

SUCCESSFUL LCDTU MEETING IN DERBY The LCDTU organised a successful meeting of Shop Stewards and Supporters in Derby on Monday 8th March. Around 30 trade unionists attended the meeting to participate...

Why Trade Union Freedom Matters (By Barry Camfield, LCDTU National Organiser) The Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions is a campaigning organisation, dedicated to the struggle for...

LATEST figures from the European Liner Affairs Association, for January, show a strong recovery in container volumes to and from Europe on most trades compared with the same month in 2009, the lowest...

The European Parliament yesterday debated a financial transactions tax via an oral question put up by Sharon Bowles, a Liberal Democrat MEP who chairs the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, followed by a debate on a formal motion. The motion was, essentially, a shoo-in (the...

By Jessica Vascellaro in The Wall Street Journal: Google Inc. is testing a new television-programming search service with Dish Network Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, the latest development in a fast-moving race to combine Internet content with conventional TV. The service,...

The second day of industrial action in support of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme was well supported by PCS members in Shropshire. The latest photographs of the picket lines can be found...

"UNISON welcomes the ruling by the Employment Tribunal that the union did not discriminate against four members on grounds of their political beliefs when it disciplined them for producing and distributing a leaflet that was alleged to be offensive and racially discriminatory. The ET unanimously...

Dear Colleague, URGENT ASSISTANCE REQUIRED:- Passenger Focus consultation on South West Trains ticket office opening hours South West Trains (SWT) has announced proposals to reduce opening hours of ticket offices at 15 stations outside London, and 9 stations in London. From the 25th February...