Unite has called on the NHS to outlaw umbrella companies operating throughout the organisation. In April this year, the government introduced new rules which effectively outlawed agency…Read more…
Crane strike
Widespread disruption of construction sites across the UK is anticipated after Unite announced the first strike date at tower crane company HTC Wolffkran, in a dispute over pay. The initial…Read more…
Workers first
Unite has welcomed Labour’s announcement that it supports staying in the EU single market after the Brexit negotiations have finished. The policy would avoid a damaging economic cliff edge once…Read more…
Watered down
In the UK today, it takes a typical chief executive three days to earn what their employees earn in an entire year. Rising pay inequality has become front and centre in an ongoing national…Read more…
The Conservative corp gov calamity is an opportunity
I’ve blogged before about the political problem that executive pay has become. The Conservative government’s latest attempt to both look tough and do little is to my mind more evidence of it. I can see no positives in the outcomes for the government, t…Read more…
Reinterpreting the Milesians in Irish pre-history
Irish pre-history is a pain. Because Celtic culture was non-literary, it wasn’t until the arrival of Christianity that Irish myths and legendary history were written down. As a result, a lot of the myths were Christianised. St Patrick crops up a bit, meeting legendary figures like Oisín. One…Read more…
French Labour Law Reform – Why The CGT Says “Non”
In 2016, the French government, led by PM Manuel Valls, forced a law through Parliament, the so-called “El-Khomri Labour Law” (after the name of the then-Labour Minister). There is an article in the…Read more…
Radical Angles with a Cutting Edge – Edinburgh reviews 2
–> …And the second of the group reviews of both International and Fringe shows was published in the Morning Star on Saturday. It is available here. It covers reviews that I posted in my…Read more…
Ride to the Somme, Passchendaele & Arras 2017
The Battle of Passchendaele in the First World War took place from 31 July 1917 to 10 November 1917. There were an estimated 250,000 British causalities, killed or wounded during this battle.
The picture above on the left is of my maternal Grandfathe…Read more…
UNISON NEC 2017 at NDC
Great picture of elected UNISON National Executive Council members at our National Delegate Conference in Brighton in 2017. Read more…
Business rates review – tame but sensible reforms
The long awaited Barclay review of business rates hasn’t exactly set the heather alight, but its recommendations are, in the main, pretty sensible.
The reviews main recommendations are set out in…Read more…
Brave new world?
Receiving a parcel on your doorstep from Amazon or any of the number of online retailers often disguises what’s going on behind the scenes where your order is processed. But a quiet revolution…Read more…
Beholden to fat cats
Tory donors gave the Conservative’s £25m – more than double the £9.5m Labour received – before this year’s general election and the party still lost 13 MPs. Donor lists released by the…Read more…
Over-regulation is not the problem a post-Brexit Britain would face
Yesterday’s report The Economy After Brexit by Economists For Brexit includes a section by Tim Congdon on EU regulation, essentially blaming all the evils of the British economy on excessive red tape and inferring that our economy could do so much better if it were unshackled from it all. The…Read more…
‘Economists for free trade’ contradicted by today’s GDP data
In a provocative piece this week (‘From Project Fear to Project Prosperity’), Professor Patrick Minford made a number of claims about the post-referendum economy. Apparently “the devaluation brought on by Brexit is acting as a powerful stimulus to the economy …”. Here’s how: … switching demand away…Read more…
Blog: It’s time to raise wages for all public sector workers
This morning I was in Glasgow at the QE hospital to meet our biggest branch, who also happen to be one of our best. Glasgow Health branch epitomise the dedication of our activists around the country,…Read more…
First ever strike
Catering staff working for Baxterstorey at the Fawley oil refinery canteen in Hampshire are set to strike for the first time tomorrow (August 25) in a dispute over a below inflation 1.5 per cent pay…Read more…
Grant leads health visitors
Unite has warmly welcomed the appointment of broadcaster and presenter Carrie Grant as the new President of the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA). The CPHVA is…Read more…
Fair Fringe win
Edinburgh City Council has today (August 24) backed the Fair Fringe campaign, which will see the living wage and minimum hour contracts introduced at all Council-run venues including the Assembly…Read more…
‘Bogus apprenticeships’
School leavers receiving their GCSE results today (August 24) are looking forward to what the future holds in store. Unfortunately many young people are served a raw deal after they finish…Read more…