A crunch meeting of shop stewards will be held on Friday (August 14) to discuss future industrial action at Sellafield in Cumbria in the growing campaign to improve health and safety and productivity…Read more…
Pizza protest
It was hotter than an American Hottest pizza last night (August 10) as Unite turned up the heat in it’s campaign to get Pizza Express to give staff their full customer tips – and to stop…Read more…
Jobs gaps – the forward march of egalitarianism halted?
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s monthly employment statistics (it’s an exciting life at the TUC) and I’ve been thinking about the employment and unemployment gaps between men and women. In some respects, the convergence of men’s and women’s employment opportunities that we’ve got used to over a…Read more…
What if Mao still ran China?
I’ve always been a sucker for those ‘What if?’ historical scenarios. What if John Smith hadn’t died in 1994? Would New Labour ever have happened? How would social democracy look today in the UK? Or: What if Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro had not been kidnapped and killed by terrorists in 1978?…Read more…
Using agency temps to replace striking workers will threaten the basic right to strike for all
Two years ago this September, workers at Hovis in Wigan took strike action and won a landmark victory over increasing zero-hours work in their factory, safeguarding an important source of secure…Read more…
Dave’s dining tips
When you tip your server at a restaurant, you’d expect the full tip to be given to the server, who works hard to ensure you have a good dining experience. While most restaurants do give their…Read more…
Sense of hope
Unite member Samantha Ritchie has been actively involved in the Labour party as a youth officer in her Constituency Labour Party, and signing up to vote in this year’s leadership election, is, for…Read more…
Clearing rush
Record numbers of students are rushing to get a university place through the Clearing system, as maintenance grants are set to be scrapped by the government and replaced by loans next year. …Read more…
Holiday hunger
For many families the six weeks holidays are a time to look forward to where children can relax, enjoy day trips and holidays abroad or try different holiday clubs. But for many the shocking…Read more…
Chutzpah on global migration from the Foreign Secretary
There were many things that made people’s blood boil about Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond’s statement that Europe’s social infrastructure was under threat from migrants fleeing war-torn or poverty-stricken countries in Africa and the Middle East, like the scaremongering…Read more…
Cracking down on migrants or on exploitation?
The Home Office Immigration Minister James Brokenshire MP (who, lest we forget, replaced Mark Harper MP in the role after Harper was exposed as having employed an ‘illegal immigrant’ as his cleaner) has announced a crackdown on those who employ illegal immigrants, promising Border Force…Read more…
The secret sanctions figures
The government is stopping payments to nearly three times as many jobseekers as their official figures suggest, according to new research by the Guardian newspaper. And the numbers being…Read more…
It just isn’t working
One of the present Tory government’s favourite mantras, that its “long-term economic plan” is “working”, is a classic example of effective propaganda – repeat it often enough and, in the minds of the…Read more…
Stranger danger
It’s a busy Friday night in Leeds city centre and thousands of people are enjoying the myriad clubs, pubs and restaurants on offer. Most are here to enjoy a social evening with their…Read more…
‘Hope finally on offer’
Liam McCafferty, postgraduate education officer for the University of East Anglia’s students union, is one of Unite’s newest members – he just signed up this week. McCafferty, 23, has been…Read more…
Carney-age at the Bank
As the Bank of England dumped a data reservoir of cold water over Osborne’s claims of a ‘motoring’ economy and economic miracle, the Governor is spinning in no man’s land between the two views….Read more…
Chancellor’s dead hand on community energy schemes
George Osborne clearly intends to put a brake on community-led solar power schemes just at the point when they are cutting carbon, reducing green energy costs, creating jobs and winning public support. Unfortunately, his Treasury-led, austerity-led pla…Read more…
Victory for community action
Unite community member Paul Rooney, a Bromley resident and full-time carer of his severely disabled daughter, has been granted a stay of eviction today (August 7) after being mistakenly served with a…Read more…
The Global Money Addiction (interest rate dilemmas in context)
“Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money”, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his inaugural address, 4 March 1933 Debate around UK monetary policy recognises all is far from normal through the idea that when rate rises finally come, they will be limited in extent….Read more…
Rural employment race to bottom
The National Farmers Union (NFU) of Scotland demanded yesterday (August 5) that the Scottish government abolish the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB). Unite has slammed the NFU warning…Read more…