The closure of ticket offices on the London Underground will cost the taxpayer nearly £134m, according to figures released by Transport for London (TFL). The costs were revealed in papers from a…Read more…
Red Lines – How to start an Investment Governance Revolution
(this post was pulled in January since I didn’t realise that we had to wait until formal launch of Red Lines which took place yesterday. I will post further on this “revolutionary” proposal)
Picture is from last weeks workshop on “Red Lines” run joint…Read more…
Third of trains were late in 2014
Figures released by Network Rail reveal that over a third of trains were late in 2014. Many of these trains were on peak commuter services, such as the 7.29am Brighton to London Victoria service…Read more…
Stop union busting at the heart of government
Ministers have launched a campaign of union busting at the very heart of government, the UK civil service.Read more…
Amazon reportedly on way to taxpayer funded £66m+ development to bring bad jobs to Kent
Amazon.co.uk is looking to double its operations in the UK and is reportedly eyeing 12 new sites for their huge distribution centres. The next planned is Sevington, a tiny village just outside…Read more…
New Picturehouse to pay Living Wage: Let’s push for all of them!
Significant development in BECTU’s campaign to win living wages for all workers in the Picturehouse cinemas.Read more…
Radio 4 on illegal pay for home care
Some good news – over 10,000 people now have joined UNISON’s petition urging Vince Cable to name and shame the criminal care employers who are illegally denying up to 220,000 care workers…Read more…
Rail campaigners protest New Year fare rise and call for public ownership
On 2 January 2015, rail passengers were greeted with yet another wage-busting fare-rise. Union activists and campaigners gathered at London King’s Cross station to protest the unnecessary…Read more…
UK commuters spend more than twice as much of their salary on rail fares than most European passengers
As many people prepare for their first day back to work after the Christmas break, rail campaigners are today (Friday) warning that commuters on the UK’s privatised railways could be spending more…Read more…
Death toll among Qatar’s 2022 World Cup workers revealed
From the Guardian By Owen Gibson & Pete Pattisson Despite Qatar’s promises to improve conditions, Nepalese migrants have died at a rate of one every two days in 2014 “If fatalities among…Read more…
Wage-busting New Year fare rises…again
Passengers returning to work after Christmas will see fares rise yet again from 2 January. Since 2010 fares have risen over two and half times faster than wages, and increased by 27% under the…Read more…
Vince Cable: End the scandal of illegally paid care workers
220,000 care workers are being paid less than the minimum wage, thanks to their zero hours and temporary agency contracts. Sign our petition now!Read more…
Amazon: Decent Jobs needed!
15-21 December is Decent Jobs Week, when we try to shine a light on the UK’s growing jobs crisis.Read more…
Government sells East Coast ahead of election, despite record profits and high passenger satisfaction
In a short-sighted and purely ideological decision, the publicly owned East Coast main line franchise has been sold off to InterCity Railways Limited, a joint venture of private train operators…Read more…
Qatar 2022: Construction firms accused amid building boom
BBC Newsnight carried a superb piece on conditions in Qatar and international complicity in them. The iPlayer piece is (currently) here Below is an article with an embedded, shorter, video. By Sue…Read more…
Cross-party MPs say benefit delays cause hunger
A cross-party group of MPs have been conducting a wide ranging inquiry into hunger in the UK, and their report is out today.Read more…
Nepali man jailed after employer lets Qatar residency lapse
(above: David Cameron on a recent visit to Qatar University) From Doha news… “In an incident that once again calls the enforcement of Qatar’s labor laws into question, a Nepali…Read more…
Striking workers in Qatar find labour laws finally working – against them
If you ever needed proof of Qatar’s one-sided refereeing, this is it The reason “Play by the Rules” is one of our ‘Playfair Qatar’ campaign demands is that Qatar could make life better for its 1.5m…Read more…
Football Supporters’ Federation joins campaign
Our friends at the FSF have now publicly joined the campaign, and hosted this blog on their site. Qatar 2022 has sparked a building frenzy in the world’s richest country with an estimated 1,100…Read more…
Blundering CIPD official in the firing line
A top official of the professional body for human resources managers has found himself in the firing line after telling a conference that blacklisting of trade unionists is a “big fuss about very…Read more…