Today, Monday 20 February, is UN world day of social justice, with the global theme of preventing conflict and sustaining peace through decent work. So it’s appropriate that grassroots…Read more…
Remembering Eric
Last week there was a packed memorial and celebration service for UNISON President and London Ambulance branch secretary, Eric Roberts, who died unexpectedly aged 67 on November 24 2016. Eric had been elected the President of UNISON in June 2016 for a …Read more…
Labour Local Government Conference 2017
I arrived in Coventry yesterday evening for my second Labour LGA conference. This year it is the biggest conference they have ever had with 370 Councillors attending. There was a conference buffet dinner with deputy Labour leader,Tom Watson MP, as gues…Read more…
Do the Democracy in UNISON guidelines apply to paid staff? (Yes)
As you may imagine, the hearing before the Assistant Certification Officer (ACO) heard a fair bit about some matters not of direct relevance to the specific issues to be decided by the ACO – the extent to which these may (or may not) be relevant to the judgements which the ACO has to make about…Read more…
Len McCluskey: Speech to Unite EWC Reps
Febuary 10th, Esher, UK Colleagues, I’m delighted to be here. I hear you’ve had positive and instructive debate over these two days and that’s something that will feed into our union’s work on Brexit…Read more…
LOBOs “Newham to save up to £94 million on its debt portfolio”
Well I never. Hot off the press. I will ask for further details (it is inaccurate in some respects) but I am really happy that it appears that some of the problems with LOBOs can be sorted.
“Newham Council could save up to £94 million in future after the council’s Cabinet today (Thursday 16…Read more…
Where are the workers?
The LSE has produced guidance on company reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. So I searched it for references to various issues. Guess what? Like most RI/ESG initiatives, labour issues get very little attention.
Shifts in the UK corporate governance model
I’ve blogged a bit recently about what appears to be a significant shift in thinking about corporate governance. There are signs all over the place that faith in shareholder primacy is faltering. There have been plenty of think pieces on this subject o…Read more…
Thieving bosses ‘named and shamed’
Retail giant Argos faces a £1.5m fine after it was revealed yesterday (February 16) that 37,000 of its current and former workers have been illegally denied the minimum wage. The revelation…Read more…
Can a workforce strategy solve the NHS’ staffing crisis?
Staff shortages in the NHS are nothing new. It has been a chronic issue affecting the NHS since cuts made to training budgets in 2010 and 2011; heightened by existing pay restraint, staff morale and workload issues. But recent events and detrimental go…Read more…
Flush with cash?
Pensioners earn more than working-age people for the first time ever, newspapers declared earlier this week (February 12). It’s a shocking headline to be sure, but just how true is it? The…Read more…
Recognise hard work call
Electricians, mechanical engineers and plumbers working on the new Whitechapel Crossrail station will receive productivity payments worth £867 a month thanks to their union Unite, the UK’s largest…Read more…
NHS cuts: turn down ‘the noise’
Expensive ‘guerrilla marketing’ tactics are to be used to persuade people in Yorkshire, Humber and north Lincolnshire that ‘the noise’ about NHS cuts needs to be ‘turned down’. Marketing and…Read more…
Resist ‘predatory’ takeover call
Unite said today (February 17) that it was seeking an urgent meeting with Unilever bosses and that the company should continue to resist takeover attempts by Kraft Heinz and its venture capital…Read more…
Women’s conference condemns child marriage
Delegates debate emergency motion that triggers shocking emotional testament and call for ILO action to stop girls vanishing from child labour statistics because they are ‘married’
The article…Read more…
Assurances ‘not nearly enough’
A flurry of updates have come in quick succession after news broke suddenly on Tuesday night (February 14) that Peugeot owner PSA was in talks with GM over a potential sale of GM’s European Opel…Read more…
A day without migrants: 20/2
On 22nd Sept 2016, a social media campaign was launched in Egypt by the International Organization for migration: ‘A Day Without Migrants,’.
The aim was to highlight the real and positive…Read more…
UNISON’s Gareth Snell in final stages of high profile election
Stoke by-election candidate says his union experience has informed his campaign
The article UNISON’s Gareth Snell in final stages of high profile election first appeared on the UNISON National site.Read more…
Blog: Heart Unions, Heart Palestinian workers rights
I am proud that UNISON supported WAC-MAAN to organise Palestinian workers in the illegal Israeli industrial zones, and we stood with them in their fight for justice for Hatem and the workers at the…Read more…
Budget blog – an economy that works for nurses?
Our economy should work for everyone, but if your pay has stagnated for several years in a row and fixed items of spending keep going up, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you Theresa May, Conservative Party conference, October 2016 Yesterday our budget blog set out our case for investment in…Read more…