8th – 14th February 2017 is #heartunions week, celebrating the great work unions do, and paying tribute to the reps who are an important part of that. The Unsung Heroes series is running all week,…Read more…
HSE hits the right note
For many years the TUC has been arguing that successive governments have abandoned the health aspect of health and safety. Over 70% of work-related absence is a result of stress or musculoskeletal…Read more…
Pregnant womens’ safety – Government gets it half right
Yesterday the Government published their response to a report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee into pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Quite a bit of that original report…Read more…
Act now! Demand Bangladesh release 11 textile union leaders
Today we’re urging you to take online action calling on the government of Bangladesh to immediately and unconditionally release 11 textile trade union leaders detained in recent weeks. They…Read more…
Act now to defend food worker unions in Egypt
In Egypt, twenty-seven edible oils factory workers and leaders and members of their union face crippling fines and jail terms for the ‘crime’ of striking to defend their wages, with…Read more…
Organising using health and safety just got easier
There is a brand new resource available from today for anyone who wants to consider how to make their workplace safer through building a strong union. Last year the TUC published a guide to…Read more…
Colombian trade union leader free at last
Three and a half years ago, Colombian agriculture union leader Huber Ballesteros was on his way to the British Embassy in Bogota to collect his visa to visit the UK to speak at the 2013 TUC Congress….Read more…
What has globalisation ever done for the workers?
These remarks are an edited version of a speech I gave on union responses to globalisation at a joint seminar organised by the TUC and the University of Exeter on Brexit, globalisation and migration…Read more…
Commission says no to stronger protection on health and safety
The European Commission have finally released details of what they are proposing to do on health and safety regulation in the coming years. Yesterday they released a communication which contained…Read more…
Kazakhstan unions need our support
The TUC has joined a campaign launched by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to call on the government of Kazakhstan to respect the rights of workers in the country to form and join…Read more…
We need a new bargain to give working people a fair share of Britain’s success in 2017
When we look back, 2016 will be remembered as the year the establishment was shaken to its core. And yet the political turmoil has not benefited working people – and few feel they have taken back…Read more…
Bangladesh textile workers face layoffs & prosecutions: global corporates must act
Thousands of textile workers in the Dhaka suburb of Ashulia in Bangladesh have been sacked following protracted strikes this month over wages and other issues. The legitimate claims of workers in the…Read more…
A million Christmas workers
The arrival of the festive season is a well-deserved break for most of us from a busy year. It’s a good excuse to put our feet up, relax, indulge in our favourite food and drinks and spend it with…Read more…
The only connection between winter strikes is employers who won’t negotiate
Following industrial action in Southern Rail, Post Offices and other companies over the last week, the usual suspects have been coming out to denounce strikes. Some Conservative backbenchers have…Read more…
Theresa May should stop playing politics with people’s futures
This weekend the TUC and the British Chambers of Commerce issued a call to the Prime Minister to break the logjam on the #right2remain for EU citizens living and working in the UK, and take the bold,…Read more…
‘Organising after the Brexit vote’ event calls for solidarity to fight insecurity at work
Building solidarity between workers, no matter what passport or contract they hold, is a trade union priority after the Brexit vote. That was the message of the TUC event on ‘Organising migrant and…Read more…
No Mr Grayling, the #SouthernStrike is very much about safety
Chris Grayling and Southern Rail are trying to convince us that the Southern strike is not about safety. They insist that extending driver only trains, which is at the heart of the dispute between…Read more…
Let’s talk about racism at work
The increase in racist and xenophobic attacks post-Brexit created a public outcry and highlighted the fact that racism is still an issue in modern Britain. This came as no surprise for many Black…Read more…
New kitchen fashion is killing hundreds.
“Stone” worktops in kitchens are becoming very fashionable in Britain, yet how many people know that they are killing the workers who make or install them? I only found out it because I ordered a new…Read more…
We’re with Chuck: we’ll stand with him against Trump
Usually stories about online abuse are – as in this week’s case concerning Labour MP Luciana Berger – about threatening public figures. But in today’s topsy-turvy world, the…Read more…