Yesterday, Brussels was full of rumours that the European Commission had finally found a way to respond to the massive backlash generated by its proposal for a special court for US investors: a simple rebranding should do the trick. Currently known as …Read more…
Chancellor takes the high carbon road
Is the government about to take a series of high carbon decisions that will replace renewables with fossil fuels? Decisions are imminent on Cuadrilla’s fracking appeal, launched today, and Heathrow’s third runway. Meanwhile, the Chancellor is unceremoniously dumping green policies, while assuring…Read more…
The truth must out
Two years into the coalition government’s austerity programme in 2012, routine figures released by the department of work and pensions revealed a shocking phenomenon – in just one year (2011) more…Read more…
Our car workers are star workers
The news that automotive workers are the UKs most productive employees, each generating £100,000 a year in added value, will come as no surprise to Unite members working in the sector. …Read more…
Solidarity and freedom
The fight to reinstate the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) goes on despite the election of the most extreme right wing government since Mrs Thatcher, pledged Unite agricultural workers’ leader,…Read more…
Rent controls in Berlin: why not here?
When Berlin announced last month that it will introduce rent control because “we don’t want a situation like in London,” there wasn’t a renter in the UK who didn’t cry out in frustration: it’s the Germans, rather than our government, who are trying to avoid what’s going on in the capital, and all…Read more…
What can we do about shift work?
There has been a lot of research published in the past few years around the effect of shift work and our health since the World Health Organisation classified night shift work as a probable…Read more…
‘Green crap’ Tories ban solar and wind energy subsidies
That massive solar power subsidy the Tories want to cut? It costs the average consumer £10 per year on annual electricity and gas bills of £1,338 per year. There is no pledge in the Conservative manifesto to cut support for solar power – but they must have known this was coming. The Energy…Read more…
Counting the cost of the tax credit changes
In his speech the Chancellor said that “It’s because we’ve taken…difficult decisions….that Britain is able to afford a pay rise. Because let me be clear: Britain deserves a pay rise and Britain is getting a pay rise.” It sounds great but when you look at his plans it turns out that…Read more…
The impossible dream?
Find a job, marry, start a family, buy a home – even after rapid social and technological changes of the past century, traditional rites of passage have largely persisted to this day. But if…Read more…
Just not taking it
Residents on the Cressingham Gardens estate in Lambeth are celebrating a small victory in their three year-long campaign to save their homes from demolition after being granted a judicial review….Read more…
Migrants and benefits report: more hot air
A new report by MigrationWatch, a lobby group that seeks tighter immigration controls, has received much coverage in the press this week as it purports to show that some migrants claim more benefits than residents, or as the Express delicately put it yesterday: ‘foreigners more likely to claim…Read more…
Buy British-made cars call
Two MPs launched a debate in the House of Commons last week (July 16), calling on police forces to support the UK automotive industry by buying British-made cars – a policy that Unite has long…Read more…
‘Curtain of secrecy and fear’
Tory-led Bromley council has suspended a Unite rep in a bid to silence critics of its privatisation programme. The council suspended Unite rep Alan Brown on Friday (July 17). Details of the…Read more…
Not to be ignored
The workplace at present is full of uncertainties and insecurity. But one thing is certain. The workforce is getting older and workers, by choice or necessity, are working longer. So what are…Read more…
Solving the IMF’s concerns about stronger unions
I have blogged at Touchstone about this week’s bombshell news from the International Monetary Fund that declining unionisation leads to ballooning inequality (which the IMF accepts is damaging…Read more…
Want to reduce inequality? New IMF research says unionisation is key
Through gritted teeth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has this week issued a ‘staff discussion note’ which contains a bit of a bombshell. The ballooning inequality that results from rampaging top people’s pay is not, as previously thought, an unfortunate by-product of…Read more…
Courage of their convictions
After the Tories’ proposed welfare bill, which aims to slash child tax credits and lower benefit caps among other cuts, received its second reading yesterday (July 20), nearly 50 Labour MPs voted…Read more…
War on the poor
The Tories smash and grab raid on tax credits, benefits and the unemployed who are sick and disabled has been cheered on by its supporters. Families in desperate need of financial support to keep…Read more…
How Trade Union Bill will cap greenworkplace projects
Growing awareness of the impacts of climate change on our daily lives has spurred union reps and members to explore new ways to “green” their workplace. Just as unionised workplaces offer better pay and safer working conditions, so through employee engagement there is an added Union Effect in…Read more…