This weekend, many of UNISON’s young members are coming together to talk about the future of our union, the future of public services and the future of our country.
The article Blog: Young members…Read more…
Workers need legal protection, not voluntary standards
An international standard for health and safety may sound like a good idea to a lot of people, but the current proposals for one would be bad news for many workers. The International Standards…Read more…
Making trade unions more agile
At the end of 2016, I took part in a design sprint looking at the unionfinder functionality on the TUC website. The tool matches thousands of people to TUC affiliated unions every month, but it could…Read more…
Re-electing Lyn Brown – Forest Gate, West Ham & Canning Town
Picture collage from canvass in Forest Gate North on Tuesday evening, West Ham ward on Wednesday evening and a Labour stall outside the busy West Ham Station tonight (which is confusingly not in West Ham ward but Canning Town North).
While we are camp…Read more…
Homelessness and the Housing Revenue Account
Swindon Council’s second raid on the housing account As Swindon Council faces the decline of central government Revenue Support Grant year on year, it has scrabbled around desperately looking for ways of saving money. Its imposition of parish councils on the town without a democratic mandate…Read more…
Barclays jobs stay pledge
Barclays is not considering moving British jobs to Europe because of Brexit, the bank’s chief executive has said. Jes Staley also said that any internal restructuring that would be needed…Read more…
Transforming Britain
A Labour government would re-nationalise the UK’s energy industry, railways, buses and Royal Mail, the party’s leaked draft manifesto states. In a boost for ordinary people, Labour would also…Read more…
‘Damaging’ school cuts
Unite has warned that damaging school cuts will increase if the Tories regain power on June 8. The warning was issued after education unions, including Unite, condemned plans by an academy…Read more…
Crane strikes loom
The likelihood of strikes this summer at HTC Wolffkran, the UK’s largest tower crane operator, have taken a dramatic step forward after peace talks collapsed in an ongoing pay dispute. Unite,…Read more…
Where’s the support for our mental health?
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, UNISON members share their experiences of the UK’s struggling mental health services
The article Where’s the support for our mental health? first appeared…Read more…
Hull Pride
Unite’s £17,000 sponsorship of a landmark UK Pride event in Hull – 2017 City of Culture – underlines the country’s largest union’s support for gay rights, whether in the workplace or in…Read more…
Friction-free access plea
In a major intervention, former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown this week warned that Britain’s world class automotive industry is under dire threat from a hard Brexit pledged by the Tories,…Read more…
Industrial Strategy: Which sectors should we focus our support on?
If industrial policy is suddenly so popular amongst politicians wanting our votes, why was it so controversial before now? The answer to that question lies in the fact that industrial policy has been based on an understanding that some business sectors…Read more…
Should DB schemes open to new members get special treatment? (and why DC schemes are so rubbish in comparison)
I had a name check in this interesting article below. Modern defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are the only way that ordinary working people will be able to enjoy a secure retirement.
I recently pointed out to a journalist that in the DB Local Gov…Read more…
Tories’ ‘hit and miss’ plans
Unite has blasted the Tories’ “ad hoc” “hit and miss” industrial strategy, after details of the government’s deal with Nissan emerged. The Times obtained a four page letter from Nissan…Read more…
Unite pioneers e-education
With adult education undergoing years of painful cuts, Unite is pioneering new online training and education to ensure that working people do not lose out on skills and development. Research…Read more…
‘Sensible bonus’ call
Unions representing construction workers at Hinkley Point are hopeful that the dispute over bonus payments can be resolved after fresh talks were promised. The unions involved,Unite and GMB,…Read more…
Top store in under pay shock
John Lewis has long been lauded for its staff-centred approach – their employee ownership model means workers share in the profits and so have a direct connection to the value they create. But…Read more…
Strike ‘pane’ in windows row
The strikes over pay and shift patterns at Sierra Windows in Paignton, Devon could spread to another company in Newton Abbot, part of the same Specialist Building Products group. A total of 44…Read more…
Why all the political parties should be talking about pay, jobs and rights?
What’s at stake for working people in this election? Economic issues increasingly risk being the dog that didn’t bark in this election. The 2015 campaign saw a fierce debate about the figures, whether on the scale of the cost-of-living crisis or the size of the deficit, at the centre of parties’…Read more…