Yesterday the TUC released a report calling on the Chancellor to use the Autumn Financial Statement on Wednesday to significantly increase the amount going to a Migration Impacts Fund so that areas that have experienced industrial decline, cuts to services and significant recent increases in…Read more…
5 tips for union reps to support disabled workers
I have been a trade union rep for almost a decade and am now the policy officer for disability equality at the TUC. I have also had reasonable adjustments myself. Disability History Month (#UKDHM) is…Read more…
Women are being held back by unrewarding, low-paid, part-time work
Despite some progress, women still take the lion’s share of domestic and family responsibilities. Over 40% of women, compared to just 12% of men, work part-time. This is part of the reason that progress on closing the gender pay gap has been so painfully slow. There are far too few opportunities to…Read more…
Cutbacks leaving LGBT people without specialist mental and sexual health support
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are facing long waits for appointments at gender identity clinics and being denied specialist mental health counselling because of cutbacks, says…Read more…
Newham Co-op Party Votes NO to an affirminative ballot and YES to Open, Fair and Democratic Selection Process
37 NO and 36 YES. Well done to Newham Co-op Chair Gill Hay for chairing such a very difficult meeting so well. She did a brilliant job.
This result is amazing when you consider the recent history of the Newham Coop Party.
Times are ch…Read more…
The last Regional Local Government Committee…
Having told my branch that I won’t be seeking re-election as Branch Secretary in January, with a view to having a bit more of a life, I realise that tomorrow morning I will attend my last meeting of UNISON’s Regional Local Government Committee after more than twenty years.
More than nineteen years…Read more…
Ernest Bevin and three lessons for ‘Rethinking Economics’
(This post is the fuller version of remarks I made at the launch of Econocracy: The Perils of Leaving Economics to the Experts, by Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins of ‘Rethinking Economics, London School of Economics, 21ST November 2016.) Parallels have rightly been drawn between the…Read more…
The Defeat Of TPP Trade Deal Is A Tale Of Ants Slaying A Dragon.
By Leo Gerard, President of the Unite Steelworkers of USA and Canada It seemed a fearsome task, challenging the powerful behemoth that is Wall Street, Big Pharma, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Big…Read more…
Workers on boards would become part of a new, and better, normal
The Prime Minister used her speech to the CBI this morning to appear to dilute her previous commitment to put workers on company boards. If this is the case, it represents a huge missed opportunity to put in place a different model for British business…Read more…
Standing up to ‘corporate greed’
Workers at drinks giant Diageo have voted to take industrial action over plans to slash their pensions at a time when the company is making massive profits. Members of Unite voted by an…Read more…
Thanking those stars in every school, who shine so bright
I know that in schools up and down the country – in mainstream education as well as in more specialist schools – staff of all kinds provide vital support for our children. Whether it’s helping…Read more…
Bleak future?
On the eve of the government’s Autumn Statement on Wednesday (November 23), Unite has revealed the necessity of immediate state intervention following a survey of the offshore…Read more…
Young worker’s Challenge #7: Precarious working conditions
This month we’re counting down the ten most significant challenges faced by young workers. Young people’s experience of work is increasingly dominated by precarious working conditions. It might be…Read more…
The campaign to Save Our Local Services goes on
UNISON will continue to campaign for vital local services to be properly funded after successful day of action focused on social care raised awareness with MPs
The article The campaign to Save Our…Read more…
The vindictive policy that punishes children for having more than one brother or sister
Last year, in his summer Budget, George Osborne announced a couple of measures designed to penalise large low-income families. One was the reduction in the Benefit Cap, from £26,000 to £23,000 in London, £20,000 elsewhere. The limit mainly applies to people who need to claim Housing Benefit for…Read more…
ACT NOW! Freedom for Iranian teacher union leader Esmail Abdi
The international trade union movement continues to deplore the actions of the Iranian government in its heavy handed stance of imprisoning trade unionists on unjust, trumped up charges. One such…Read more…
This school is ready to celebrate – are you?
This week UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis went to Waverley school in Enfield to celebrate the school support staff
The article This school is ready to celebrate – are you? first appeared on…Read more…
Brexit means Brexit. Workers on boards means workers on boards
We’re looking forward to the Prime Ministers speech this morning to the CBI, and any detail on the pledge she made in her conference speech to build ‘a country that works for everyone’. Theresa May’s signature policy to date has been her plan to include workers on company boards. In her pitch to…Read more…
Public sector cuts are stalling progress on closing the gender pay gap
Now at 9.4%, the gender pay gap has barely budged in recent years. Since 2011 the full-time gap has fallen by just 0.2 percentage points a year. At this rate it will take over 40 years to achieve pay parity between men and women. This means a young wom…Read more…
Patients facing bed shortages and long waits because government not delivering on mental health funding, says UNISON
Patients facing bed shortages and long waits because government not delivering on mental health funding, says UNISON Mental health patients are facing bed shortages, longer waits for treatment and…Read more…