The Musicians’ Union has 30,000 members the majority of whom are self-employed and have portfolio careers: gigging, teaching, working in freelance orchestras, session musicians or composers and…Read more…
Is this Tory mental health proposal going to help?
The Conservative Party election manifesto includes a commitment to amend health and safety regulations, and many readers will be surprised and delighted to learn that, on this occasion, they are not…Read more…
Workers need legal protection, not voluntary standards
An international standard for health and safety may sound like a good idea to a lot of people, but the current proposals for one would be bad news for many workers. The International Standards…Read more…
Asbestos review shows shocking complacency
The HSE has published a review of the way that the 2012 Control of Asbestos Regulations have been implemented. There was a requirement on the HSE to do this within the first five years of the…Read more…
HSE needs to ground its research in the workplace
Unions have long been critical of the failure of the HSE to regulate and enforce on occupational health risks. For instance we have asked for specific regulations on stress, lower exposure limits on…Read more…
Personal Protective Equipment: the right fit for women?
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is there to protect workers from potential hazards to their health and safety; it must be used properly. However, the experiences of hundreds of women tells us…Read more…
Workers Memorial Day – Remembering the dead and fighting for the living
Every year more people are killed at work than in wars. Most don’t die in tragic “accidents”. They die because an employer decided their safety or health just wasn’t that…Read more…
Insecure work is like standing for election every week. We need a new deal for working people
MPs aren’t the only ones feeling insecure in their jobs right now. If nothing changes, by the 2022 election hundreds of thousands more Brits could be stuck in insecure work, being treated like…Read more…
Rana Plaza: Unions can save lives as well as livelihoods
As we approach the 4th anniversary of terrible tragedy at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, it’s important to hold on to the sense of shock we all had when we heard that over a thousand workers, full aware…Read more…
Making health and safety an issue for everyone
Men are almost twice as likely to suffer a serious injury at work as women, and for decades health and safety practice has reflected what has been seen traditionally as a problem most affecting men….Read more…
Four years after Rana Plaza, union action prevents a repeat
On 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed, killing over 1100 mostly women workers. Bangladeshi and global unions persuaded multinational enterprises to join the Bangladesh Fire and…Read more…
Brazilian unions protest for Lula and for justice
Last year’s legislative coup against the democratically-elected President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, was denounced by trade unionists in the country who predicted that the corrupt replacement…Read more…
1 in 3 experience racism at work after Brexit vote
When the topic of Brexit’s effects so far comes up in conversation, it’s hard to not talk about the rise in racist attacks since the EU referendum vote. Racism never went away of course, but the last…Read more…
International Transgender Day of Visibility
March 31st is the annual International Transgender Day of Visibility. In recent years, even a casual observer may feel that transgender people are already very visible, and query the need for it to…Read more…
Protecting the car industry after Brexit: a frictionless supply chain
Today, Unite is holding a major conference in Birmingham called Securing the future of the UK auto sector. It will bring together workers, employers and experts from the British car manufacturing…Read more…
Suicide – why it is a workplace issue
Suicides can be a tragedy both for those who attempt it and their families and friends. It can also have a huge effect on the lives of some groups such as train and tube drivers when people attempt…Read more…
Unions unite across borders against Murdoch media merger
Last week the British and European trade union movement united to call on the European Commission to block the proposed 21st Century Fox bid for Sky. A similar process is underway in the UK, but this…Read more…
Stress – time to stop blaming the workers
Yesterday I attended the HSE stress summit in London for the launch of their new stress campaign. The conference went well and the main thrust of the conference was on the importance of prevention,…Read more…
Ageing members and reps: the demographics that threaten the future of unions
Most of the commentary on trade union decline concentrates on the fall in overall union membership and density (the proportion of workers who carry a union card). This is obviously cause for great…Read more…
Union reps are good for workers and employers. And we can prove it!
The annual attempt by organisations like the misleadingly named ‘Taxpayers’ Alliance to provoke outrage about the ‘cost’ of paid release for union reps is a bit like hearing there’s going to be yet…Read more…