The first regional GVA figures for 2014 show the usual story of growth shared across the country but disproportionately skewed toward London, which continues to account for an ever greater share of UK GDP. Ominously though, in London, the acceleration …Read more…
Long-term job security call
Staff at Legal & General’s flagship site in Kingswood, Surrey, have moved closer to strike action in the New Year with the launch of a final industrial action ballot. This follows September’s…Read more…
Votes at 16 Voted Down
Last night MPs rejected an attempt by the House of Lords to give 16 and 17-year-olds a vote in the planned referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. The amendment put forward in the Lords…Read more…
If you #heartunions join our week of action against the trade union bill
The campaign against the trade union bill is at a critical stage. The parliamentary process has moved into the House of Lords, where we have our best chances of defeating it or getting changes pushed…Read more…
Fundamental to prosperity
Unite has called on MPs to support a third runway being built at Heathrow Airport, highlighting the project’s fundamental importance to “securing our country’s long-term economic prosperity”….Read more…
‘Divorced from reality’
UK manufacturing output fell by 0.4 per cent in October from the previous month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found. These figures compared with a 0.9 per cent increase seen in…Read more…
The rollercoaster path of government spending on flood defence
In the media coverage of the flooding in Cumbria and Lancashire there has been some scrutiny of government spending on flood defence, with a claimed cut this year of around of 15% (eg). This is basically true (capital spending is likely to fall by 17% and total spending provision is down 14%, both…Read more…
#VotesAt16: Giving young people a greater say on their future
Today the House of Commons will be placed in the ironic position of being asked by the Government to reject a democratic reform proposed by the unelected House of Lords. And the TUC is backing the…Read more…
Government lands NHS students with massive new debts
England is short of 2,600 midwives and has been thousands short for at least a generation. The national midwife shortage has proved a really hard nut to crack. The NHS continues to need every midwife it can get. Successive governments have tried to dri…Read more…
Ebook revolution threatens jobs
The ebook revolution in reading habits has put 225 jobs at risk at the Penguin Random House (PRH) UK distribution centre at Rugby in Warwickshire. PRH has announced it wants to close the…Read more…
Close the net on tax avoidance
Unite highlighted today (December 7) that the case for chancellor George Osborne “closing the net on corporate tax avoidance” is further reinforced with reports that Cadbury’s owner, Mondelez…Read more…
#COP21: Unions call for ‘fair and ambitious Paris agreement’
Trade union delegates at the Paris COP21 joined with others today to protest about the threat to human rights. This includes the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, intergenerational equity, a just transition, food security and the integrity…Read more…
#COP21: UK austerity out of step with Paris climate talks
The French Presidency has finally got to grips with the UN climate negotiations, setting up a Paris Committee aiming to conclude all outstanding matters by 6pm on Thursday. All further negotiations will be closed and focused on brokering deals, includi…Read more…
Make or break time for the voluntary sector: NCIA goes out with a challenge
When do you know it’s time to call it a day? For the past decade the National Coalition of Independent Action (NCIA) has been sounding an alarm bell: voluntary groups are failing in their democratic job as an independent force for positive change, and must fight back. Now, after 10 years, we have…Read more…
Are you a Non Safe Festive Worker?
Christmas parties at work are a great chance to let our hair down, and to see a different side of the people we spend more time with than our own families. But they can also wreck the work…Read more…
#COP21: Put just transition back into UN climate treaty
This morning at the Paris climate change conference the UN has released a further draft text, which as we had feared places references to Just Transition of the workforce and the ILO principle of decent work in the relegation zone. It seems clear from …Read more…
Cuts by a new name
After months of criticism from all sides, Chancellor George Osborne finally caved in on tax credits in his autumn statement last week, pledging to reverse cuts that would see Britain’s poorest…Read more…
Save ‘jewels in the crown’
Unite Community members in Huddersfield have vowed to “keep fighting for properly funded public libraries” after Kirklees Council pushed through major cuts in the service. In…Read more…
#COP21: UN accused of washing its hands of labour and human rights in Paris Treaty
The ITUC joined a block of five leading human rights bodies here at a press conference at COP21, in a call to the UN to put peoples’ rights back into the draft Paris Treaty on climate change. The rights organisations have brought together their networks from around the world to support the…Read more…
EU must back Just Transition in Paris Treaty, not drop it
As trade unionist from across the world gather together at the COP21 climate change talks in Paris, we are all too aware of the various attempts being made to downplay the rights of workers in any prospective agreement. It is clear from the outset that…Read more…