An investment group worth £14.5 trillion has taken the unusual step of joining Unite and MPs in calling for an independent review and “fundamental reform” at rogue employer Sports Direct. …Read more…
Songwriting Talents Old and New(ish). Edinburgh Festivals 2
My first compilation piece from Edinburgh is in the Morning Star today. It includes the Angel review in last Thursday’s blog, and also a review of Road – Jim Cartwright’s slice of Lancashire life…Read more…
NHS: staff slam Hunt plans
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s own staff are worried that his deeply unpopular plans for a “seven-day” NHS service bring dangerous “risks”, leaked department of health documents reveal. The…Read more…
No smoking for street sweepers
Aberdeen’s refuse collection staff and street sweepers are being threatened with fines if they smoke within or outside their own depots. Unions say staff have been told that anyone caught…Read more…
‘No justification for cuts’
Campaigners against cuts to Bristol City Council will be holding a ‘snap’ protest from midday on Saturday August 27 at the water fountains, Broad Quay, BS1 4DA in Bristol city centre. The…Read more…
ONS migration statistics show action on low pay and deregulation needed across Europe and at home
The Office for National Statistics today published figures on the number of migrants in the labour market up to the end of June. Given that this only captures information from a few days after the referendum, it’s not possible to read from these findings any impact of Britain’s vote to leave the…Read more…
Global youth unemployment to rise to 71 million in 2016
Global unemployment is expected to rise to 71 million in 2016, an increase of ½ million from 2015. The unemployment rate is expected to reach 13.1% in 2016, up from 12.9% in 2015 and close to the 20-year peak of 13.2% in 2013. The ILO expects no improvement in 2017. The global youth unemployment…Read more…
Finding Something Magical about Private Ownership and Control of Social Property
Reject Neo-Liberal Ideological Assault – K.C. Adams – Ideological pressure on the people from the ruling imperialist elite is constant. Their star performers, one could say their…Read more…
Sitting on the floor of a Virgin train? Luxury…. #traingate
Okay, this is the “silly season” but the fuss about Jeremy Corbyn and “did he or didn’t he” have to sit on the floor during a Virgin train ride from London to Newcastle is still going on.
I was not on that Thursday train journey but last month I …Read more…
Landlords: Raking in the rent
Private landlords pocketed £9.3bn in housing benefit last year, a shocking new report has revealed – double the amount claimed 10 years ago. Analysis by the National Housing Federation (NHF),…Read more…
What are Political Forums talking about?
History, recent history, shows that there are no “external models” for building socialism, though there is a wealth of past experience for us to draw on; us working people have to do it ourselves….Read more…
Roster change bus strike
Unite London bus members working for Tower Transit will be staging the first of two 24-hour stoppages this Friday (August 26), over the imposition of roster changes and a failure by an increasingly…Read more…
There must be a level playing field for career and pay progression
Four decades after the Equal Pay Act and with a vast array of equal rights legislation on the books, this shouldn’t still be happening. Yet there’s ample evidence that women with children are denied…Read more…
‘Things have got to change’
London’s hospitality workers protested with outrage over the ‘unethical’ working conditions of the capital’s hotel industry yesterday evening, following the launch of Unite’s hard-hitting report…Read more…
Yemen: The Forgotten Front in the ‘War on Terror’
BY ANDREW MURRAY Andrew Murray: ‘This is a British war as much as a Saudi war’ It is more than 35 years since I first worked alongside Yemeni workers in Britain. Migrant workers from…Read more…
Take Action! Stop the Government of Ecuador shutting down teachers’ union
The teachers’ union UNE of Ecuador (Unión Nacional de Educadores), an affiliate of global union federation Education International (EI), is facing the threat of being shut down by the…Read more…
NHS: Room at the top?
Race discrimination is alive and kicking in Britain’s workplaces two new reports have found, with black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAEM) workers suffering underemployment across the economy as well…Read more…
Housing crisis in Ramsgate
The Unite Community ‘Housing Crisis Roadshow’ reached the seaside town of Ramsgate yesterday, where local people said unaffordable house prices and a shortage of social housing has left them unable…Read more…
Knocking down the barriers
Migrant workers at Sports Direct (SD) in Shirebrook have praised Unite for assisting them with learning English. The union has established eight English for Speakers of a Second Language…Read more…
Women penalised financially for having children
Women with children face a wider gender pay gap, says a new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies
The article Women penalised financially for having children first appeared on the UNISON…Read more…