#unwc15 UNISON NEC member Jane Carolan writes in the Morning Star on the potential influence of the union’s women members on the outcome of the upcoming General Election: ‘The country can afford the…Read more…
Adding insult to injury – public service workers exempt from Tory call for pay rises
‘It’s time Britain had a pay rise’ the Tory Prime Minister told the British Chambers of Commerce on Tuesday. But Tory Ministers were quick to point out that Cameron’s Damascene conversion to fairness…Read more…
Does it matter which union is the ‘largest’?
Inter union rivalry has been a negative characteristic of British trade unionism for more than a century. The highly unionised teaching profession is strongly contested by 3 TUC affiliated unions and…Read more…
A Prayer for the Loners by Keith Armstrong
The dejected men,
the lone voices,
slip away
in this seaside rain.
Their words shudder to a standstill
in dismal corners.
Frightened to shout,
they cower
behind quivering faces.
No one…Read more…
Stop TTIP – the Trojan Treaty
#noTTIP Many hundreds of campaigners, including a contingent of UNISON activists, protested in Brussels over the past two days. The demonstration coincided with the latest round of talks on the…Read more…
Vultures circling over Police Staff
Metropolitan Police proposals to transfer 500 ‘business services’ staff in human resources, payroll and procurement to a new company Shared Services Connected Ltd, (75% owned by French multinational…Read more…
Labour’s public transport policy heading in wrong direction
When will the Labour Party learn a bit of municipal history? Announcements trumpeted as some kind of radical overhaul of bus regulations by the party appear to be yet another neo-liberal experiment…Read more…
To a Waverer by Bertolt Brecht
You tell us
It looks bad for our cause.
The darkness gets deeper. The powers get less.
Now, after we worked for so many years
We are in a more difficult position than at the start.
But the enemy…Read more…
MP’s confirm poorest areas are worst hit by cuts
Councils in the most deprived areas of England have been hardest hit by cuts to their funding, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has said. Austerity cuts have not been applied equally since…Read more…
The Nazi Holocaust – never forget, never repeat
#HMD2015 Today, International Holocaust Memorial Day, is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Angela Rayner, UNISON’s North West…Read more…
The lesson from Greece – austerity must end
Yesterday, the Observer presaged the outcome of the Greek general election – a victory for the anti-austerity Syriza coalition – with an emphatic statement that ‘the lesson of the Greek national…Read more…
T-TIP of the deregulation iceberg
‘It is not just TTIP, across the board the EU is bowing to business pressure to do away with ‘burdensome’ regulation – regulation that tends to save lives, protect consumers and ensure standards’…Read more…
The 7 Deadly Myths that control the world economy…
Global Justice Now has done a great job in highlighting the 7 arguments that are presented as the deepest wisdom by Global Leaders on why the world economy is the way it is. Like a force of nature or…Read more…
Mutually incompatible
At the end of November the Government announced that nine English NHS Trusts had been selected for the Mutuals in Health: Pathfinder programme – described in a UNISON briefing as ‘part of the…Read more…
Cuts are decimating not transforming local government
This is the headline message within an excellent piece on the impact of the cuts and on families in the north east from Gill Hale UNISON northern region secretary. Hale argues ‘Work is no longer a…Read more…
Tory plans will put public service unions in a legal straitjacket
Tory manifesto proposals to impose a minimum turnout (50%) and a minimum threshold of support (40% of all those balloted) will make it impossible for unions to conduct ‘lawful’ industrial action in…Read more…
Organising workers and the question of race
Within recent memory part of the substantive debate around trade unions and equality was centred on the question of the extent to which white workers were seen to benefit from racism and working…Read more…
The compelling case against TTIP
#StopTTIP John Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want, sets out the case against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – the proposed trade agreement between the European Union…Read more…
A Symphony for the New World by Sam Silva
Huge expressive violins
in symphonies of meat and work
and struggle
on the farm
or in the factory
made for the record player
to spin in sin
against tobacco smoke
perfuming night
while…Read more…
A Tale of Two New Year Messages
A comparison of the New Year messages issued by the CBI and the TUC reveals a far more assertive and upbeat mood from the employers organisation. The CBI Director General John Cridland sets his stall…Read more…