Last month, before the referendum, I took part in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation in Brussels. The European Commissioner for Social Affairs, Belgian liberal Marianne Thyssen, addressed the meeting and disc…Read more…
Olympic Triathlon in Newham 2016 for UNISON “there for you” and Greek Solidarity Campaign
I have finally got my act together and am planning to complete an Olympic distance Triathlon with fellow West Ham Labour Councillor, Terry Paul, in Newham on Sunday 18 September 2016. We will invite all other Newham Councillors (and anyone else) to tak…Read more…
Sports Direct: investors now have to act or lose legitimacy
About a year ago, the group I’m involved in – Trade Union Share Owners (TUSO) – wrote out to major Sports Direct shareholders calling on them to challenge the company. Specifically we recommended that other shareholders join TUSO in signalling concerns…Read more…
Day 2: Have America’s two major political parties entered into a suicide pact?
For some time now, commentators have been talking about the Republican Party’s tendency to self-destruct. Every time Donald J. Trump said something stupid or outrageous, he won more support….Read more…
Powering ahead for Yorkshire and the Humber’s energy intensive industries
This week the TUC published a major paper on how UK industry can match Europe’s environmental leaders. Comparing UK industry with the Germans and the Danes is very timely given the Brexit vote on June 23rd and what this means for heavy industry across Yorkshire and the Humber. We are the most…Read more…
Labour Leadership Elections 2016: UNISON members
I am starting to get enquiries from UNISON members at my branch about whether or not they are eligible to vote in the leadership elections.
It is somewhat “complicated”.
There is a really useful page on the UNISON website here
“The Labour Party is…Read more…
Positive talks
The prospect of industrial action by drivers at First Glasgow has been averted following protracted negotiations involving Unite officials. The union had conducted a consultative ballot of its…Read more…
Crunch decision
The meeting of the EDF board of directors on Thursday (July 28) to make the crunch decision on the financial go-ahead for the Hinkley Point nuclear power station has been welcomed by Unite. …Read more…
We will not be silenced
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey will be in Bromley this Saturday (July 23) to join the march against the cuts and privatisation to local services in the borough. McCluskey will warn the…Read more…
No excuse
University bosses should not use speculation about future EU research spending in the UK to avoid giving higher education (HE) staff a decent pay rise, Unite said today (July 22). Unite, which…Read more…
‘Not all budding entrepreneurs’
Nearly 90 percent of jobs created in the past three months have been in self-employed roles, prompting warnings over the spread of low-paid insecure work throughout Britain. In the most recent…Read more…
New government must ‘reverse the trend’ of NHS privatisation
UNISON urges ministers to think again after the consultancy behind series of failed privatisations is shut down
The article New government must ‘reverse the trend’ of NHS privatisation…Read more…
Proportional Representation – It’s Time!
I’ve not always been a fan of PR. I grew up in a tribal area where PR was portrayed as inevitably preventing Labour from winning back power. The strongest advocates of PR also seemed to peddle especially self-interested models that benefitted them more than anyone else and didn’t usually even seem…Read more…
Day 1: A whiff of fascism in Cleveland
I arrived in Philadelphia last night, just in time to catch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Though I have to confess that after the first four hours of…Read more…
Time to debate LGPS changes as petition hits 100,000 signatures, says UNISON
Government proposals to force the 89 local government pension funds to invest in infrastructure projects have prompted over 100,000 people to sign a petition calling for a debate in Parliament, says…Read more…
Feet to the fire
The ‘Victorian’ employment practices of Sports Direct were condemned by a damning business select committee report published today (July 22), thanks to evidence given by Unite. The committee…Read more…
UNISON Northern Ireland wins battle over salary payments
Union calls off strike ballot, for now, after health minister halts damaging move to monthly payments for health workers
The article UNISON Northern Ireland wins battle over salary payments first…Read more…
Powering Ahead – a Strategy for Sustainable Industry
Today, the TUC publishes ‘Powering Ahead: How UK industry can match Europe’s environmental leaders’. This report, based on new research from Germany and Denmark, considers both how to rebuild the UK’s industrial sector and how to align the needs of industry with the quest for a cleaner, greener…Read more…
Cameron’s premiership saw least housebuilding since 1923
“David Cameron had the worst housebuilding record of any Prime Minister since 1923. An average of 123,560 houses were built in England and Wales during each year of his premiership, according to data released by the independent House of Commons library…Read more…
Meanwhile in the real world…
The HMRC investigation into Sports Direct exposes the nature of the “jobs” created in recent years almost as well as the legal action being take against Uber by drivers seeking to show that they are not self-employed.
As a public sector trade union act…Read more…