We should not get too carried away by the Treasury’s claimed improvement in the public finances. Borrowing in the current financial year to date (April to June) is £25.1bn, down from £31.3bn in the same period of 2014-15. This indeed amounts to a gain of £6bn, but: 1. this gain over one quarter is…Read more…
#ImInWorkJeremy
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has been slammed for his out of touch approach to the NHS. Not only was he the man who vetoed a paltry 1 per cent pay rise by the pay review body meaning nurses…Read more…
‘Special’ solidarity
Speaking to Unite Community coordinator Dave Condliffe on this dreary Monday morning it was clear that he was one person who definitely didn’t have the Monday blues. Dave was still buoyed up…Read more…
NHS – safe in Tory hands?
Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt launched a 25-year plan for the NHS but failed to mention how he would fill a £822m hole in NHS finances. He also failed to address how he was going to lift morale…Read more…
What does austerity mean?
“What is austerity?” was one of the most common Google searches during the televised leaders’ debate during the general election campaign in May. To many, public finances appear as a stream of disconnected data, huge numbers and percentages trotted out during budgets and spending reviews that seem…Read more…
Defending workers’ rights defenders: Andy Hall in Thailand
I’ve blogged several times over the years about the harassment of British workers’ rights advocate Andy Hall, who faces a number of charges – some with terrifying jail terms or…Read more…
World conference on funding development: much ado about little
The Third International Conference for Financing for Development ended on 16 July in Ethiopia’s capital with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA). The four-day event was organised by the UN in collaboration with the World Bank, IMF and developed and developing nations. It had, according to…Read more…
At the summit: fans keen to support FIFA reform
The fans got stuck in to our panel at the football Supporters’ Summit today, where the Football Supporters’ Federation had invited the TUC’s Playfair Qatar to talk about FIFA reform…Read more…
Coca-Cola backs global union call for an independent review of FIFA
The global trade union movement’s campaign for workers’ rights to be a key element of mega-sporting events is often obscured by the cesspit that is FIFA. Migrant construction workers…Read more…
BBC funding settlement is a disaster but far from a done deal
Did the 29 celebrities who wrote to complain about the BBC’s funding settlement this week initiate their letter to the PM or did they not? Who cares?! We very much doubt that Daniel Craig or Stephen Fry were forced by the evil BBC to sign or die! But the spat this threw up in the…
The post…Read more…
NI NHS staff: pay us properly
Understaffing and underfunding are the main barriers to a seven-day NHS in Northern Ireland, Unite said today (Friday July 17) – and not staff costs for working unsocial hours. The…Read more…
Not so sweet
Ministers should introduce a sugar tax and ban the advertising of sugary drinks and food, as the obesity crisis amongst children grows, Unite, the country’s largest union, said today (Friday July…Read more…
Just can’t take it anymore
Unite is at the forefront of Ireland’s Right2Water campaign, which has mobilised hundreds of thousands of people in the Republic against yet another austerity tax: water charges. Although…Read more…
Government takes a swipe at Safety Representatives
The Trade Union Bill is a particular worrying Bill with implications for anyone at work. There have been lots of really good blogs on this site about it so I am not going to repeat these. I just want…Read more…
Planning to let the Greek horse bolt before shutting the stable door
There have been many reactions to the deal forced on the Greek government and its people at the weekend by Eurozone Finance Ministers, mostly outrage or despair. Even the IMF, which bears a lot of the responsibility for imposing an austerity-fuelled re…Read more…
Burma: unions, global brands & NGOs back minimum wage for all
Things are changing in Burma, once a by-word for breaches of ILO core conventions, a no-go country for trade unionists (except for the ones in the military junta’s jails) and home to the…Read more…
NHS Pay Review Body echoes health union views on 7 day NHS
A week after the Chancellor effectively sidelined the NHS Pay Review Body by imposing a 4 year “deal” on pay, the PRB has published its long awaited report on seven day services for NHS staff. The report sets out the conclusions and observations of PRB members who gathered written and…Read more…
Unsocial hours payments should stay
The independent Pay Review Body (PRB), which recommends pay for NHS staff, released a report today (July 16) examining the viability of delivering healthcare services seven days a week. Unite,…Read more…
Coasting schools: why the Education Bill proposals will harm the most disadvantaged
The designation ‘coasting’ severely disadvantages maintained schools – and is designed to do so. Schools with deprived pupil intakes will struggle to meet the threshold to avoid being deemed to be…Read more…
An ‘asinine logic’
In an act of political doublespeak, business secretary Sajid Javid described the purpose of Trade Union Bill – which has its first reading in the House of Commons today – thus, “Trade…Read more…