South Korea is often held up as the poster boy for international development. A poverty-stricken country after the war with the North, and ruled by a military dictatorship from 1961 to 1987, it is…Read more…
Behind the blue lights: Life in the frontline of Cameron’s NHS
Dave, a paramedic from the Midlands, shares a frank view of life in NHS emergency services starved of funding and struggling to meet the demand Friday. Just started a 12 hour late shift. On again…Read more…
The NHS is changing before our eyes: #FullyFundOurNHS
Some things will always be the same. Since I started in my role 8 years ago, the passion, dedication and commitment of my team of radiographers is, and always will be, strong. The unwavering focus on…Read more…
UK proposals for EU renegotiation: Joint DGB-TUC statement
Reiner Hoffman, the President of the TUC’s German equivalent, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), has signed the following statement with me. It sets out our response to the Prime…Read more…
Soundtrack to protest: 5 of the best
Just a few weeks ago on October 4th, more than 60,000 people took to the streets of Manchester to protest at David Cameron’s austerity policies and attacks on the rights of working people and…Read more…
European Commission puts its foot in it!
The European Commission have just published an information sheet on their new better regulation agenda. A lot of that is just saying that they will concentrate on the big things and not the small…Read more…
Unions are looking up in the slave state of Qatar
GMB International Officer Bert Schouwenburg has just returned from a visit to Qatar with Building Workers International. This is what he found. I was last in Qatar with the ITUC nearly two years ago…Read more…
Court brings Home Office to heel over Cuban Five visa
In a victory for freedom of expression, the Home Office has been forced to climb down over its refusal to issue a visa to a leading Cuban campaigner, in a legal move that may also benefit trade union…Read more…
Solidarity with Greek unions on strike today
The Greek trade union confederations, GSEE in the private sector and ADEDY in the public sector, have called a 24-hour General Strike today (12 November) against the latest round of austerity…Read more…
Slave-state Qatar faces ILO investigation
Today, the UN’s workplace agency, the tripartite International Labour Organisation (ILO) voted to send a high level mission to Qatar to make an assessment of the real conditions faced by…Read more…
5 surprising things about the Trade Union Bill debate…and 3 unsurprising things
The government’s controversial Trade Union Bill was just debated in the House of Commons, before making its merry way on to the House of Lords. The Surprising Bits: 1. Some Conservative MPs…Read more…
Shrink the gender pay gap: Join a union #PayGapPledge
Today is Equal Pay Day, the day that the average woman stops earning compared to the average man because of the gender pay gap. To mark the day, the TUC has publicised figures highlighting what a…Read more…
Protect young workers’ right to strike
When you’re just starting out in a career, the idea you might one day be going out on strike is hardly likely to cross your mind. The right to strike is a last resort, and one you often don’t think…Read more…
European Commission says still no action on worker health
This year the European Trade Union Institute published a paper on work-related cancers in the EU. It showed that 102,500 deaths take place each year because of exposure to carcinogens in the…Read more…
Using agency workers to break strikes will threaten safety
I have already written about the effect that the Trade Union Bill will have on health and safety by restricting the right to strike and limiting the amount of time off that trade union health and…Read more…
Using agency workers to break strikes will threaten safety
I have already written about the effect that the Trade Union Bill will have on health and safety by restricting the right to strike and limiting the amount of time off that trade union health and…Read more…
Teachers form new Arab trade union bloc
Seventeen education unions and associations representing sixteen Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa met on 7-8 October in Beirut in Lebanon to establish a new Arab teachers’ trade…Read more…
Progress made on new safety fund by G7
In May I wrote a blog about a new fund that the world’s main industrialised countries (The G7) were setting up to help prevent workplace deaths and injuries. The catalyst for this was the large…Read more…
European Parliament latest to slam Thailand for harassing Andy Hall
Andy Hall, the British-born, Thailand-based migrant and trade union rights advocate, is back in court on Monday, 19 October. The latest court hearing is to decide whether to indict him for criminal…Read more…
Workers’ rights: no longer safe anywhere?
I’ve just come back from the annual meeting of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) general council, held ahead of the CUT Brazilian trade union movement’s congress in Sao…Read more…