On 8 November the people of Burma (Myanmar) expressed their democratic right and voted in favour of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party. This victory will give Burma its first democratically elected government in decades after nearly 50 years under military…Read more…
Court brings Home Office to heel over Cuban Five visa
In a victory for freedom of expression, the Home Office has been forced to climb down over its refusal to issue a visa to a leading Cuban campaigner, in a legal move that may also benefit trade union…Read more…
Potash hammer blow
The north east economy has suffered another hammer blow with around 220 job losses announced at the potash mine at Boulby, near Middlesbrough. Unite, which has about 800 members at the UK’s…Read more…
Appeal Court rules René González can come to Britain
An historic ruling by the Court of Appeal has opened the door for Rene González to visit Britain despite twice being denied a visa last year by the Home Office. Gonzalez’s second invitation to…Read more…
Redundancies proof of manufacturing crisis
Unite has called on the Northern Ireland Executive to change its approach to manufacturing after a triple jobs blow. In the space of a few hours yesterday three major Northern Ireland…Read more…
Too Far Too Fast
The defence giant BAE Systems has been accused of cutting ‘too far, too fast’ after announcing that 371 jobs are to go at Wharton and Samlesbury in Lancashire. Unite is urging the firm to…Read more…
Solidarity with Greek unions on strike today
The Greek trade union confederations, GSEE in the private sector and ADEDY in the public sector, have called a 24-hour General Strike today (12 November) against the latest round of austerity…Read more…
TU Bill fight ‘far from over’
Despite fierce opposition from all sides, including trade unions, human rights groups, the business community and even some Tory MPs, the trade union Bill passed through its third and final reading…Read more…
Jobs or pay – we still haven’t got the hang of delivering on both
I have a post up at Left Foot Forward, looking at today’s labour market statistics. There’s some good news – though perhaps the first signs that self-employment is growing disproportionately again – but there’s also reasons to worry that pay rises are slowing down…Read more…
Bogus jobs recovery
Unite cautioned that the jobs ‘recovery’ was being fuelled by self-employment and low paid, insecure, part-time jobs as it responded to today’s (November 11) labour market figures. Warning the…Read more…
Action, not meetings
Steelworkers were bitterly disappointed following an EU steel summit, which was attended by leaders from across Europe, including business secretary Sajid Javid. A delegation of Unite…Read more…
Austerity is not a necessity
To govern is, we are told, to choose. This government chooses austerity. It does so not because it makes economic sense — it patently does not — but because it seeks to further tilt the balance of…Read more…
‘The heavens reflect our labours’
People lined Scunthorpe’s streets in solidarity yesterday, as hundreds of protesters marched through the town demonstrating against mass redundancies at a Tata Steel plant. 900 Tata jobs are…Read more…
Young Workers Month: Housing
As we enter the second week of the TUC’s Young Workers Month we turn to an issue that is a high priority for many unions’ youth sections: housing. The transition to living independently as an adult is becoming increasingly difficult: the supply of housing is clearly failing to keep up with…Read more…
Slave-state Qatar faces ILO investigation
Today, the UN’s workplace agency, the tripartite International Labour Organisation (ILO) voted to send a high level mission to Qatar to make an assessment of the real conditions faced by…Read more…
5 surprising things about the Trade Union Bill debate…and 3 unsurprising things
The government’s controversial Trade Union Bill was just debated in the House of Commons, before making its merry way on to the House of Lords. The Surprising Bits: 1. Some Conservative MPs…Read more…
Public safety threat
Plans to axe police community support officers (PCSOs) in the West Midlands could be a serious threat to public safety and will spell the end of community policing as we know it, Unite has warned….Read more…
Fiscal fallacies (2): accounting identities and the case for government loan-expenditures
Related to the fallacy of deficit spending are arguments around accounting identities and the ‘principle of sectoral balancing’. The economics is extended from the government’s balance (its deficit or surplus), to the balances for all ‘sectors’, i.e. households, companies and the rest of the world….Read more…
Stop tipping rip-off
Restaurant workers need ‘decisive government action’ to stop employers creaming off their tips, Unite has said in response to the government’s investigation into abuse of tipping which closes today…Read more…
Rally for steel
Hundreds of steelworkers gathered alongside their community in Scunthorpe today (November 10) to stand united in the fight to save their industry and jobs at Tata Steel. The rally steps up the…Read more…