The announcement that new subsidies for onshore wind farms will end from April next year is ‘misguided’, Unite warned today (June 18) “The UK faces a serious energy supply problem in…Read more…
‘Fresh attack’
Cutting child tax credits to axe £5 billion from the welfare bill would hit far more people in work than out of work, according to a new briefing from the Resolution Foundation. The Tories…Read more…
Have your say
You’ll have no doubt heard by now that there’s election on the horizon. An election you can take part in. An election where your voice really matters. From August 14 you…Read more…
Guatemala: one of the terrible ten worst countries for workers’ rights
Murder, armed attacks and a lack of due process is the reality for Guatemalan unionists and their leaders. Throughout the last 12 months, leaders of the country’s various transport, municipal…Read more…
Public sector jobs – the regional dimension
Earlier today the Office for National Statistics published the quarterly Public Sector Employment figures. I suppose the headline was the fact that the number working in public sector jobs has fallen another 43,000 over the past year, but I was just as…Read more…
Defending community hospitals
Unite Community members from across Devon will be starting a summer long campaign tomorrow (June 18), to highlight cuts to community hospital beds with a protest outside County Hall in Exeter. …Read more…
Squeezing every last drop
As the UK oil and gas industry meets in Aberdeen today (June 17) for its industry conference, Unite has delivered a stark warning to the industry that squeezing every last drop out of the workforce…Read more…
No to ‘regressive’ austerity policies
As the Northern Ireland power-sharing government faces a £600m black hole in its budget, the Treasury has offered to plug the gap with a loan in exchange for cuts to welfare and the public sector….Read more…
Two simple messages for David Cameron on Europe
Today I’m meeting Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament. Tomorrow, he’s meeting David Cameron to talk about Britain’s future in the EU. I’m asking Martin to make two clear points to David Cameron: 1. Cutting workers’ rights won’t win…Read more…
Egypt: one of the terrible ten worst countries for workers’ rights
Egypt can be a tough place for workers with its cases of police brutality, mass arrests, abductions and attempted assassinations. In June last year, 500 workers of a national steel company protested…Read more…
Kicking the trade agreements can down the road
Trade deals are stalled due to popular pressure In both the European Parliament and Congress. What’s going on? When the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations were launched in 2013, veteran Tory politician Ken Clarke MP was at his most avuncular when he said that…Read more…
Triumph in solidarity
Following a two-day strike in April, Unite bus drivers in Bradford prepared for further strike action against their employer First Group last week over jobs losses and attacks to terms and…Read more…
Great British sell-off
Axing £12bn from the welfare bill was a prime Tory election pledge – one that’s proving so impossible that even senior officials within the party’s ranks itself are now pressuring chancellor George…Read more…
Wages growth mirage
Wages are expected to grow at the fastest rate since before the crash, many newspapers reported earlier this week. It’s good news on the surface, but read further down their columns and the reason…Read more…
CPI inflation: no surprises, not out of woods.
When the inflation numbers are moving from positive to negative territory it is difficult to avoid excitement about ultimately small changes, driven to some extent by erratic and exceptional factors. Today Britain moved out of deflation, alternatively …Read more…
High levels of underemployment still remain
Our recent analysis shows that underemployment (people who have fewer hours of work than they want) remains nearly a million higher than before the recession. The findings come ahead of new unemployment data to be published this week, which are expecte…Read more…
Colombia: one of the terrible ten worst countries for workers’ rights
Colombia is the world’s capital for murders of unionists. Despite fitful progress in the ongoing peace process between the government and the FARC guerrillas, Colombia’s trade unionists are…Read more…
‘These figures don’t add up’
The average London house price has broken above £600,000 for the first time in history, according to new data from online property website Rightmove. This is a rise of 5.8 per cent on…Read more…
Survivor pensions: the legacy of inequality continues
For pensioner couples, the death of a partner can lead to financial worry as well as grief for the one left behind. For this reason, many defined benefit pension schemes continue to pay a proportion of the pension to the survivor. But thanks to a littl…Read more…
Fundamental human right attacked
As the Government has confirmed plans to curve the right to strike, UNITElive spoke with Unite’s director of legal services Howard Beckett in an exclusive interview. Government…Read more…