With wholesale gas price close to hitting record lows, will the energy giants pass on savings in lower bills or bank higher profits? For some, it might still be a question of ‘heat or…Read more…
‘Teetering on edge of abyss’
Workers from nine sub-contracting companies will be staging a wave of industrial action in the escalating dispute at Sellafield in Cumbria to improve health and safety and productivity at the nuclear…Read more…
Small gains, big pains
A newly issued briefing from the influential Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has said that the potential gains from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would…Read more…
Get up and galvanise!
Unite Community activist Maureen Lenehan-Ferguson springs up from the settee to illustrate her point. “I won’t let them grind me down. I am 80 years old and I can touch my toes. So…Read more…
Carnival with a message
Bridport’s Unite Community Group got into the spirit of Carnival recently – and took the message “Save the NHS” to the thousands of people lining the streets in the Dorset market town….Read more…
TU Bill: No concern for workplace democracy
Strike action, fox hunting, the BBC, Europe, migrant benefits – never underestimate the Tory capacity to identify things that aren’t problems and then attack them. The number of days lost to…Read more…
Poorest hurt most – again
After the announcement that maintenance grants will be scrapped by the government next year, students will be dealt a double blow as the cost of student accommodation soars. Between 2010 and…Read more…
The sad kids’ nation
Ask any parent what they want their child to be and I am sure happy is top of their list. As a parent sending your children off to school can be a painful experience. It is about so much more…Read more…
One in four offered insecure work
As the government attempts to downplay just how pervasive zero-hours contracts (ZHCs) have become, a new report released today (August 20) has revealed that one in four unemployed adults have been…Read more…
Shameful act
Benefits sanctions, in which welfare claimants are stripped of their benefits for often spurious reasons and so deprived of their only lifeline, became the hallmark of the previous government’s…Read more…
TU Bill: no justification
IndustriALL, the world-wide trade union, has hit out at the government’s trade union Bill, calling for it to stop the attacks on trade unions and start a dialogue. IndustriALL warns the…Read more…
Fares still unfair
Regulated rail fares are set to rise by 1 per cent in January, after inflation figures released today (August 18) show an unchanged Retail Price Index (RPI) in July. Over the last two years,…Read more…
‘Guilty’ young exiled to bootcamp
What does the word bootcamp conjure up for you? Military recruit training? A type of correctional facility or penal system? Imagine being a young person, fresh out of school, trying your…Read more…
Tip top tunes?
American actress, jazz singer and author Molly Ringwald, who is performing at Pizza Express in London this week, has been asked to back Unite’s campaign against the company’s controversial ‘tipping’…Read more…
When two rights make a wrong
It’s taken 35 years for the disaster of the Tory sell off of council homes known as right to buy to fully evolve as the hidden hand behind our current housing crisis. It turns out that now the…Read more…
All through the night
Working nights has become a new norm, a recent TUC survey has found. More than 3m people now regularly work through the night, an arrangement that can have a devastating impact on not only…Read more…
Parallel pay universe
As the average worker languishes on stagnating wages and ever increasing living costs, those at the top are enjoying unprecedented levels of pay, new research has found. Pay for chief…Read more…
‘Causing a stink’
Bromley residents face the prospect of uncollected rubbish as about 100 refuse collection staff employed by waste disposal giant Veolia gear up for three days of strike action in a pay dispute….Read more…
Boon for business
Workers in the hair and beauty industry are more likely than others to be stiffed of their entitled National Minimum Wage. That’s why in July, the HMRC launched a campaign specifically targeting the…Read more…
Hitting the gangbusters
Jim Sheridan, the former Labour MP whose law targeted illegal gangmasters exploiting migrant workers and ripping off the tax and benefit system says the law must be updated and extended. Jim…Read more…