All the union news that's fit to blog...
What will leaving the European Union mean for social security policy in the UK? In this post I’m going to explain why we should prepare for social security cuts as part of any move to introduce a new austerity. In a few days I hope to return to this subject and look at some of…
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TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has co-signed a letter in the Sunday Telegraph today building on the joint statement that she made with CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn last week, calling on the government to guarantee that EU migrants already in the UK can stay no matter what…Read more…
Still scarred by the effects of the 2008 financial crash, working people and their communities must not be asked to pay the price – again – of economic uncertainty following the vote to leave the EU. The TUC does not agree with the Chancellor that the fundamentals of the UK economy are sound. Only…Read more…
Boris Johnson is at least the bookies’ favourite to become Conservative Party Leader and therefore Prime Minister, and, as the leading Conservative on the Leave side, he fulfils one key criterion for PM in post-referendum Britain (“you broke it, you bought it!“) So it’s…Read more…
Apologies for the clickbait headline, but you really won’t. In the last week, someone called on the government to: ensure annual pay rises for public sector staff; introduce mechanisms to get profitable companies to raise wages by more than inflation; and push workers from insecure work…Read more…
The result of the referendum is, of course, a disappointment for the TUC. We campaigned hard for Remain, because we believed that was the best option for working people’s jobs, wages and rights. But the British people have spoken – and they have voted to leave the EU. As the representatives of 6m…Read more…
This morning I was having a look at the Office for National Statistics’ new Population Estimates (as you do) when I came across a reference to a report they published at the end of last month, which I’m ashamed to say I missed at the time. UK Perspectives 2016: The UK in a European…Read more…
Today is National Women in Engineering Day, but for many women it will be another day of coping with ill-fitting and uncomfortable PPE. A new online survey run by Prospect tapped into a deep vein of frustration. Only 29% of the more than 3,000 respondents reported that the PPE they wear is designed…Read more…
It’s the final day of campaigning for the EU referendum and the focus must be on the economic realities of tomorrow’s decision. Today I’ve published a joint statement with Terry Scuoler, the CEO of EFF the manufacturers’ organisation. In it, we say: “Leaving would be a terrible gamble,…Read more…
This morning I woke to a Brexit mantra that the EU economy is a “miserable failure”, with “low growth”. (*) On the latest GDP quarter-on-quarter growth figures, in 2016Q1 the EU moved marginally ahead of other economies regarded as important in this type of comparison. GDP:…Read more…
A dominant theme in the referendum campaign is the unwillingness of the public to listen to expert advice. The economics editor (Chris Giles) of the Financial Times despairs: “Economists have never been more united in supporting a vote to remain, yet the profession increasingly appears incapable of…Read more…
“We were travelling on a Southern train from Shoreham by Sea to Southwick just after 11pm one night when the train suddenly stopped just short of Southwick. Someone had got onto the track, so the power was cut. The guards announced that the lights would be turned off to keep some power in the…Read more…
Undeclared work, if not properly confronted, threatens to undermine employment, wages and conditions for workers across Europe. The launch of the European Commission’s ‘Undeclared Work Platform’ was a long overdue initiative to tackle the exploitation of workers and unfair competition for…Read more…
Women who put in long hours for the bulk of their careers risk life-threatening illnesses, including heart disease and cancer. Work weeks that averaged 60 hours or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women, according to new research…Read more…
The latest monthly jobs figures confirm the picture of a cyclical employment recovery that has been strong in some respects but shows worrying signs of running out of pzazz. The last thing we need right now is a vote for years of uncertainty putting a …Read more…
Today I’m proud to be joining NHS staff and supporters at a rally at Congress House. We’re coming together to say don’t risk a leave vote – Don’t risk our NHS. And there’s a lot to concern us, whether we work in the NHS or rely on it for our families’ health care. To start…
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By the latest HSCIC statistics almost 10,000 doctors and over 18,000 nurses have been able to come from the EEA area to work in the NHS – that’s about 9% of all doctors and 6% of all nurses. 10,000 more EEA migrants are employed as support staff. While migrant workers should not be used…Read more…
One of the strangest sights in this referendum has been the line of Brexit leaders queueing up to piously claim they’re really in this to help save the NHS. From early on, they’ve touted that leaving the EU would free up £350m a week to spend on the NHS. It doesn’t take long to debunk…
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A couple of weeks ago the IMF caused a minor sensation with a short article headed ‘Neoliberalism: Oversold?’. While the critique was limited in scope, its existence speaks volumes –front page news as far as the Financial Times was concerned. Something is now very obviously wrong with the economic…Read more…
Earlier this week, the former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson made a speech in which he argued that leaving the EU would improve our environment. The speech was little reported, even less debated, which is a shame. The economy, immigration and sove…Read more…