Unite is backing delegations by Stand Up To Racism the first of which will travel to Calais on Saturday (5 September). The group is calling for “concrete solidarity” with migrants and refugees…Read more…
No energy delays
A decision is ‘desperately’ needed on the financing of the building of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, if the lights are to remain on in the years ahead. The French energy giant –…Read more…
ONS show just how hard ‘well-being’ is hit by low incomes and wealth
The ONS report ‘Relationship between Wealth, Income and Personal Well-being, July 2011 to June 2012’ may not be hugely surprising , but vividly shows the how dependent personal well-being is on a decent standard of living. For the ONS, well being has four aspects, ‘life satisfaction’, ‘sense of…Read more…
Dots on the map?
We have come to the Harry Lime moment in the latest refugee crisis. In the film, The Third Man, Harry Lime – played by Orson Welles – has been brutally exploiting a post-war drug shortage resulting…Read more…
The tipping point?
Champagne corks have been popping over Pizza Express’s decision to scrap the eight per cent administration fee on tips with Unite hailing a victory in its ‘fair tips’ campaign. The union has…Read more…
Living Wage not all it seems
Welcome news for workers – a pay rise is on the way via the new National Living Wage. Sadly though all is not quite what is seems. New research from the Resolution Foundation of George…Read more…
Stringfellow slammed
Unite has slammed strip club owner Peter Stringfellow after he admitted scantily clad waitress at his venues in central London only get to keep around half their tips. Stringfellow became…Read more…
Fairness call on agricultural pay
Unite has warned the Scottish Government that thousands of agricultural workers are set to swell the ranks of the working poor. Wage rates for 2015/16 were determined at the annual meeting of…Read more…
Unions and investors unite to oust Sports Direct Chair at AGM
Ahead of next week’s Sports Direct company AGM, the company’s Chair Keith Hellawell is coming under increasing pressure from unions and minority shareholders
The post Unions and investors unite to oust Sports Direct Chair at AGM appeared first on ToUChstone blog.Read more…
Choose life
Life expectancy at birth has increased by three years for every decade according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics. For men life expectancy at birth has increased from 51…Read more…
New Nissan model welcomed
Nissan’s decision to go-ahead with the next generation Juke car is ‘another positive step in the renaissance of the British car industry’, Unite has said. The estimated £100m investment in the…Read more…
Q1. Is Canada in recession because of China? Q2. Will their newly-published ‘Federal Balanced Budget Act’ help?
Yesterday, as market volatility continued, GDP figures were issued showing Canada now in ‘technical’ recession. It was a close call, with quarterly growth in 2015 Q2 at -0.1 per cent, following a fall of -0.2 in Q1. But few seem in doubt that conditions in this G8 economy are a worry. The chart…Read more…
Government must act on energy
Unite is calling on the government to investigate the adverse impact of the planned closure of the Eggborough coal-fired power station in West Yorkshire which will bring job losses in the region’s…Read more…
Zero hours jobs leap
At least 744,000 jobs in the UK come with zero hours contracts, a 20% rise in the last year alone, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. The TUC estimates there are…Read more…
No to funding cuts
Unite has condemned the Northern Ireland Executive over the implementation of its budget which has forced brutal cuts on the Higher Education sector, resulting in almost 200 job losses at the…Read more…
Backing Corbyn – put on your tin hats
Every day seems to bring a new media-generated hoo-ha about what Jeremy Corbyn may or may not have said. As Owen Jones warns, we’d better get used to it. The vast armoury of the Tory press is trained…Read more…
Part-time poverty
Earning below the living wage is the norm for part-time women workers in more than 130 parliamentary constituencies, according to new research carried out by the TUC to mark Part-time Equal Pay Day….Read more…
Cameron’s EU workplace rights strategy pleasing no one
The Financial Times reported last night that David Cameron had dropped plans to demand widespread exemptions from European Union workplace rights. The TUC has been warning that those demands were on his agenda for months (often pooh-poohed by ‘experts’), and we have been arguing that…Read more…
Chancellor discarding £33bn solar power industry?
Over 100 organisations have appealed to the Prime Minister over the Chancellor’s plans to cut support for the solar power industry. The government, strangely shy about the employment impact of hazarding a £33bn industry. All DECC will admit to in its consultation paper is: “There is likely…Read more…
Osborne Voodoonomics
The Chinese stock market bubble has burst and China has had its own “Black Monday” (on 23 August). Its economic growth is slowing down and the after effects of the turmoil in its stock market and…Read more…