Efforts to tackle the spike in racist hate crime following the vote to leave the EU must be redoubled, a new TUC report has concluded. Since the June 23 vote there has been a major increase in…Read more…
An impossible job
After being pummelled by years of a twin crisis in funding and recruitment, access to NHS care is now dangerously out of reach for patients up and down the country. The Royal College of…Read more…
‘Just the tip of the iceberg’
Almost 200 rip-off employers who broke the law by paying their staff below the minimum wage have been named and shamed by the government. A total of £466,219 was scammed by 198 companies…Read more…
We need a properly funded NHS – make your voice heard
This week’s news that United Lincolnshire Hospital’s NHS Trust will be closing its A&E department in Grantham in the evenings due to staff shortages is, in the words of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, “disappointing, yet unsurprising”. The TUC and health unions, campaigners and think…Read more…
Treat workers fairly
Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary is to meet with shop stewards from the oil and gas industry, in the middle of the biggest North Sea dispute for a generation. Blaydon MP Dave Anderson will…Read more…
Support for Jeremy
Unite last night (August 10) confirmed its support for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader. In a statement the union said, “Unite’s policy conference, made up of approximately 1,000…Read more…
Vote of confidence
The £1bn contract to build trains for the newly awarded East Anglian rail franchise by Derby-based Bombardier was hailed as ‘a vote of confidence’ in UK manufacturing by Unite today (August 10)….Read more…
‘Short sighted and short term’
Quality apprenticeships granting a proper qualification and offering pathways to high-skill, well-paid jobs – especially amid a sea of bogus training schemes for young people as they struggle…Read more…
Ongoing struggle
The 10th annual Leeds Pride festival and parade on Sunday (August 7) was supported by 40,000 people including many Unite lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members and their friends and…Read more…
Keep guards on trains
For many years’ train travel was a no-no for certain groups of disabled people, even when accompanied. Today as the system becomes more accessible, albeit slowly, disabled people are facing the prospect of new barriers replacing those that we had broken down. Gone are the days when the only way for…Read more…
Will digi-banks close branches?
Barely a month passes when Unite is not given notice that a bank is closing more local branches because customers are now increasingly banking online. In July 2016, Move your Money reported…Read more…
Sexual harassment is no laughing matter
For anyone who thinks that sexual harassment has been consigned to the past – a relic of the days of Benny Hill and Carry On films – new research from the TUC on sexual harassment in the workplace…Read more…
Cuts off the table call
Unite has called for urgent talks with energy company Wood Group in order to avert further strike action in the North Sea. Yesterday, (August 8), the union confirmed dates for further strike…Read more…
Unite slams RBS moves
RBS shares experienced their steepest fall in the FTSE 100 late last week after the bank posted a hefty £2bn half-year loss, as it also announced that it would be abandoning its project to spin off…Read more…
Drop the debt
Unite is calling on the Scottish Parliament to back a debt amnesty to help protect cash-starved council services. As part of its Drop the Debt campaign, the union has written to the…Read more…
Peace deal brings hope to trade unionists in Colombia
Colombia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a trade unionist. It has become a murder capital for trade union activists and continues to feature prominently on the International…Read more…
How the Bank of England has teed-up £40-70 billion of government spending (plus financing?)
While most commentators celebrated last week’s ‘Brexit monetary-bazooka’, they perhaps downplayed how well the Bank has teed-up actions from the Treasury. Between the lines, they are supporting increased government spending over the next two years of £40 to £70bn. Duncan Weldon hit the nail on the…Read more…
Southern Rail, ScotRail and red herrings
It’s often said that it takes two sides to make a dispute; it certainly takes two sides to end one. Last week during talks at ACAS, the RMT offered to suspend strike action at Southern Rail if the…Read more…
‘Phenomenal’ public support
Bus drivers in Weymouth and Bridport have been buoyed up by ‘phenomenal’ public support in their two-month industrial action against ‘poverty pay’. Unite also branded the claims of First…Read more…
‘Missed opportunity’
When Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley was hauled before MPs in June to answer questions about “Victorian” work practices within his company, Ashley said, “I would have no problem with an independent…Read more…