Unscrupulous banking bigwigs are treating ordinary workers like a “cash cow”, Jeremy Corbyn told business bosses yesterday (Thursday March 3). The Labour leader’s accusation was backed up by…Read more…
Jeremy Corbyn – a threat?
Jeremy Corbyn’s election, winning with a mandate which dwarfed anything previously given to any other leader of a British political party in a generation or more, will, I believe, be seen as a major…Read more…
Not a ‘political football’
Unite has warned UK government ministers against using defence workers as a ‘political football’ and jeopardising jobs. The move came as it emerged that a House of Commons vote on the…Read more…
UNISON targets human trafficking in Wales
Union says ‘governments across the world must do more to protect women’ ahead of conference in Cardiff
The article UNISON targets human trafficking in Wales first appeared on the UNISON site.Read more…
Interested in a fairer food system? Bring your NGO 07/03 #PLENTY #ScotFoodCoalition
There’s a new coalition in Scotland working for a just transition
to a new food system.
UNISON is hosting a
workshop on Monday, 7 March, at which the Scottish Food Coalition will launch a new report, ‘PLENTY’. A few places remain for interested NGOs and networks across all
sectors.
PLENTY: Food, Farming and
Health in a New Scotland describes a food system that is environmentallyRead more…
The threat to our democracy you didn’t see coming
04 March 2016
By Stephen Devlin, the New Economics Foundation
Yesterday, the government announced it intends to cut so-called ‘red tape’ for businesses by a further £10 billion.
read moreRead more…
Morning Star: 50th Anniversary Gig, 100 Club, London
Forest Gate North Labour Party Branch Special meeting
Results from the 2nd Forest Gate North AGM/special meeting held last night.
West Ham Constituency Officers nominations.
Chair: Charlene McLean Plaistow South
Secretary: Alan Griffiths Forest Gate South
Treasurer: John Saunders Stratford
V…Read more…
Councillor Report to West Ham Labour Party branch 3 March 2016
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Normal 0 false false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE …Read more…
SAVE THE ‘PINK BOOK’
Youth workers have lobbied the Local Government Association over threats to tear up their ‘pink book’ protecting pay, terms and conditions. Unite – which represents thousands of youth,…Read more…
Steel: tougher tarrifs call
The UK’s steel industry unions, Unite, Community and GMB along with steel companies, trade associations, politicians and ministers attended the first meeting of the government’s newly…Read more…
Beat the bullies
As a UNISON survey reveals rampant bullying in the police service, Maureen Le Marinel explains how she got through her own ‘awful’ experience
The article Beat the bullies first appeared on the…Read more…
Brexit won’t raise wages: why Sir Stuart Rose is wrong
We got an object lesson yesterday in why workers and their representatives need to play a more prominent role in the EU referendum campaign. Sir Stuart Rose – former boss at non-union Marks & Spencer, and now chair of Britain Stronger in Europe – appeared to suggest that leaving the…Read more…
Ireland: Communists back Britain to leave EU
THE Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) has called on working people in Northern Ireland and Britain to vote to leave the European Union in the coming referendum. “A vote to leave can be a vote for a…Read more…
The Deane Review of Self-employment
03 March 2016
By Professor Mark Freedland
In May 2015, the researchers of the House of Commons Library identified the United Kingdom’s ‘self-employment boom’ as one of the key issues for the 2015…Read more…
Fight to save youth workers’ future
Hundreds of youth workers are today (March 3) lobbying the Local Government Association in an effort to save the ‘pink book’ which protects their pay terms and conditions. Unite – which…Read more…
Reduction in the Working Week Guards/Commercial Guards– South West Trains
To All Branches, Regional Offices & Regional Councils Circular No IR/049/16 3rd March 2016 Our Ref: BR2/0004 Dear…Read more…
Dublin: Cadbury Strike begins tomorrow for indefinite duration
The strike action will begin at 7am SIPTU and Unite members will begin a strike of indefinite duration at the Cadbury production plant in Coolock in Dublin at 7am tomorrow in a dispute concerning the…Read more…
UNISON has empowered me to speak up
Polly Smith, homecare worker
Once I was in a care home and a man took out a knife. The non-trade union members didn’t act on it – they thought if they told anyone about it, managers would think they were complaining and they’d lose their jobs. But I thought that there must be a reason behind the behaviour, and I rang the office and told them about it.
I work in homecare now as part of a re-enablement programme, which means we try to get people to regain independence so they can do things for themselves.
The oldest person I went to visit was 104 at the time; she did everything for herself. She had trouble bending over, but she could boil an egg. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you can’t do things for yourself.
Nowadays I see a lot of harm being done. Employers are getting away with a lot and non-union members are letting them. For example, not letting homecare workers have breaks: some start work at 6.30am and finish at 10pm.
It doesn’t have to be like that – it leads to stress and sickness. You’ve got to stand up for yourself, and unions help you do that. Unions are insurance (with a small ‘i’); if you want assistance, if you want advice, the union can do that for you.
Homecare workers have a lot more responsibility than people give them credit for. People think homecare workers are just ‘the help’ who go in and do a bit of cleaning, but we can see when people are getting really ill. We see people once, maybe four times, a day so we notice the change in people – in a way doctors can’t.
The saddest thing is the impact of the cuts. For example, in the past someone who was incontinent was given pads and an inco sheet (which absorbs urine) for their bed .
Now they only get one or the other, so I’ll go in to see people in the morning and their pads are soaked, their beds are soaked, their mattress, even the floor. If they’d had an inco sheet it would have absorbed it.
In the end, it turned out the man with the knife was on the wrong medication. They only realised because I rang up. It was changed and he was completely different; he didn’t hurt anyone, or himself.
That’s what being in a trade union does – it empowers you to challenge things.
Engineering Construction Protest:
GMB Engineering Construction Workers Protest In Scotland, Wales And Yorkshire On 1st March About Undercutting On Power Station Sites Unscrupulous construction companies are exploiting non UK workers…Read more…