Crushed by bales of hay, trampled by a bull or run over by a reversing tractor – these are just a handful of the gruesome causes of death in farming, the most peril-fraught sector in the economy….Read more…
Unions are partners in productivity
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey today (July 3) urged the Chancellor to change gear in order to work with the UK’s unions and their six million plus members to renew the country’s…Read more…
Protect our futures
A call for a new asbestos eradication law requiring the safe, planned removal of all the asbestos that still remains in place was made by Unite at a conference in London today (July 3) to mark…Read more…
New MoJ figures reveal assault on access to justice, as spending cuts caused huge drop in legal aid work
The implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has resulted in “large reductions in legal help workload and expenditure”, reveal new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics. The statistics reveal that government reforms and spending cuts have led directly…Read more…
Iain Duncan Smith tears up the Child Poverty Act – and tells us he’s going to “improve” it
Well, after David Cameron prepared us for savage cuts to Child Tax Credit, lots of people expected that the government was going to change the Child Poverty Act substantially. After all, the last five years of cuts led the Institute for Fiscal Studies …Read more…
‘Act of betrayal’
Unite and the GMB union accused Nestlé UK of acting in ‘bad faith’ today (July 2) as the company announced plans to close its career average pension scheme in a move that unpicks pension changes…Read more…
The ever widening gap
The gap between low income family budgets and what they need for a decent standard of living is now much wider than before the start of the global recession which followed the 2008 banking collapse….Read more…
Could CDC hatch from NEST?
Legislation paving the way for new-style collective pensions was one of several achievements in Steve Webb’s tenure as the Coalition government’s Pensions Minister. Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pensions are a mainstay of the Dutch pensions system and have been used in other…Read more…
Living Wage demand
A 12-hour strike by Croydon drivers and escorts, who transport clients such as disabled children, will be staged tomorrow (July 3) against the tight-fisted Impact Group which refuses to pay the…Read more…
#TTIP news: 10 reasons why the latest #ISDS compromise is a bad deal
Yesterday the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament voted 56-34 to endorse a compromise amendment to the Parliament’s draft resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, the EU-US trade deal), covering the controversial issue of Investor-State…Read more…
Regional CCS clusters needed – UK is approaching a carbon policy black hole
I went to the launch of the Teesside Collective report today in London, on the case for an industrial CCS pipeline in the North East. So did a new DECC Minister (see below). The four ‘anchor’ companies leading the project are steel producer SSI, fertiliser producer GrowHow, plastics firm Lotte…Read more…
Poorest hit hardest by tax
The poorest pay a greater percentage of their income in tax than the richest people in the UK according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. And by far the biggest drain on the…Read more…
Loans threat to health staff
Nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (AHPs) form the bedrock of our nation’s healthcare. But their job is often thankless – they work long hours, for very little pay under incredibly…Read more…
One Size Does Not Fit All, Conquering the KS3 Cliff Edge
Anne Heavey is an Education Policy Adviser at ATL. For many children in this country starting secondary school can be a pivotal moment. The TES recently reported the following: “A range of studies…Read more…
Industrial strategy? What’s that?
Is any semblance of an industrial strategy about to go the same way as Lord Heseltine’s report No Stone Unturned (his report on creating a re-balanced economy) and George Osborne’s now disguarded…Read more…
We’re not in this together
Staff at Lloyd’s banking group (LBG) have been rewarded for their loyalty and struggling to bring the bank back into profit with an announcement of 700 job cuts. The news, which comes a week after…Read more…
Solidarity with Greek workers
On Monday evening, I addressed a rally in Trafalgar Square in solidarity with the people of Greece. Here’s what I said. I am proud to be here tonight to bring you best wishes on behalf of the…Read more…
Government: don’t let austerity get in the way of climate targets
Like an ominous poetic prelude to the UK’s hottest day of the year, yesterday the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) released its annual Progress Report on preparing for climate change and cutting the UK’s carbon emissions. If the 35°c heat felt in London today makes the ministers in the Department…Read more…
‘Enough is enough’
Angry workers at windscreen makers Pilkington in Birmingham are striking in a dispute over pay inequality with co-workers at another site five miles away. More than 130 workers at the King’s Norton…Read more…
Heathrow expansion green light would boost jobs by 70,000
Unite has urged the government to hurry over implementing the recommendations of the Airports Commission for Heathrow expansion or risk losing out to rival airports across the globe. Their report…Read more…