Dual professionalism was meant to leap the chasm of teacher practitioner and industry expert. However, it did not spell out what ‘industry expert’ means or even attempt to develop what such a…Read more…
UNISON courses coming up
There are still places available on the following courses. To apply, get an application form here and contact your branch for approval.
Organising Stewards – Glasgow – 30 June-1 July (part 1); 4-6 August (part 2) – 2 spaces available
Discussion Leaders (residential) – Edinburgh – 3-5 July
This is the first course in the tutor training programme and covers the basics of facilitating discussionsRead more…
Newham Council AGM 2015
Picture collage from the Annual General Meeting of Newham Council (and 50th anniversary of the London Borough of Newham) at Stratford Town Hall.
The meeting started with music and song from local primary school pupils. At the meeting I was re-elected …Read more…
Call it “Community”. Sounds nicer than Slavery on the High Street
LONDONERS and South-East commuters must be very well-informed. We get regional news and features on TV, and free newspapers cluttering the tube. We even have a new regional commercial TV channel. We…Read more…
INDUSTRIAL ACTION CALLED! RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2015 – NETWORK RAIL
Our Ref: BR6/000115th May 2015 Dear Colleague, INDUSTRIAL ACTION CALLED! RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2015 – NETWORK RAIL Firstly I would like to congratulate you…Read more…
AMNT stall at Workplace Pensions Live 2015
On Thursday I went for a flying visit to Edgbaston, Birmingham to take part in a panel on the second day of Workplace Pensions conference.
The theme of the panel was “View from the coalfield – This session will explore the role of unions on trustee bo…Read more…
What’s coming our way with a new Tory government
As the Tories form a government at Westminster what are the issues likely to face Scotland and trade unions in particular? There are many, but the key issues are likely to be public spending,…Read more…
Just one simple step
When Cathy Cobbold goes to an airport people begin doing funny things. Although Cathy, who is profoundly deaf, shrugs her experiences off with a laugh, she has been working with Unite members…Read more…
Mental health and the working life #MHAW15
Being a young teacher has it challenges, four in 10 ‘quit’ within a year. But what happens when you are feeling so low and helpless that you contemplate ending it all?Read more…
A new normal in executive pay
A quick plug for the excellent report by the High Pay Centre on performance-related pay, No Routine Riches. This is the outcome of a year-long project looking at performance pay, and how it can be reformed.
If you read the report you’ll get a sense of…Read more…
What’s happening to pay?
Bringing back to real pay growth is a necessary condition for achieving sustained and balanced economic growth that gives people at work both a fair reward and the spending power necessary to keep business growing. CPI inflation is currently at zero, which at least gives some employees a temporary…Read more…
Blame game does not help Labour
Surveying the general election’s political rubble the airwaves are already thick with Labour grandees sharing out the blame. Blame Ed’s lack of appeal on the doorstep, blame the unions who put…Read more…
Len McCluskey on BBC Newsnight
Last night (May 14) Unite general secretary Len McCluskey was interviewed on BBC Newsnight. Questions included his views on Labour’s general election result , the Labour Party leader…Read more…
Only a minority of voters are feeling an economic recovery, and only a minority support continued cuts in government spending
Lord Ashcroft’s poll of 12,000 voters the day after the election gives some indications on the role of the economy in peoples’ decisions. Responses to question 9 support the view that in spite of recent positive economic news, the majority of the population are not feeling the recovery. Only 25 per…Read more…
Beware the “shy homophobe”: Pledge to support LGBT people everywhere on IDAHOBIT 2015
Beware the “shy homo/bi/transphobe” in thousands of workplaces, where colleagues reject the allegation that they’re prejudiced but continue to treat us through prejudiced stereotypes and routine…Read more…
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No right turn
I have previously referred to Ed the Moribund and I was openly critical of his circus act hustings at the last leadership contest surrounded by labour students – an earlier pre-cursor to Milifandom…Read more…
Where is the UK Parliament on the EU-US trade agreement?
This soon after a General Election, the short answer is that we don’t know. The Conservative majority, narrow though it is, suggests that the new House of Commons is more likely to support EU trade deals like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US and the…Read more…
Wealth inequality is even more extreme than income inequality
Sometimes it can be hard to get a handle on just how important wealth is and the difference it makes to have a lot or a little. As union activists, we work for higher pay and those of us whose main political concern is poverty know that the lived reality of poverty is an inadequate…
The post…Read more…
Mark Carney agrees: poor productivity not migrants fuel low pay
This morning the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney argued that migration was not to blame for low wages and living standards. Interviewed on the Today programme, he said that low productivity and lack of investment by employers, not migrant workers were to blame for the lack of wage…Read more…