Today (almost*) anyone over 55 can get their hands on their pension and take it as cash. It is all about “freedom” and “choice”, we are told. Those of us who are sceptical of the policy are therefore immediately labelled as opponents of freedom. We are the snooty…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: Taxing disability benefits would hit hundreds of thousands of low-paid disabled workers
There’s something (horrible) for everyone in the list of possible benefit cuts leaked to the BBC last week. In this column I want to concentrate on the proposal that people would have to pay income tax on their disability benefits if their incomes including these benefits were over the minimum…Read more…
Who does this country work for?
Nothing was more indicative of the Tories’ base of support than a letter published in the Telegraph yesterday, signed by 103 big business leaders, calling on the public to vote Conservative in May. Among the letter’s signatories were Bob Dudley, the American boss of BP, Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Prudential who received […]
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Supporting our reps
Pictured are some Unite Community members today (April 2) supporting Unite Smurfit Kappa members on their picket line. David Condliffe, Unite Community Co-ordinator for the East Midlands, said he was proud Community could be there in solidarity for our industrial members. “Community members from Leicester and Derby were supporting Smurfit Kappa comrades today. […]
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Workplace justice access hope
Unite has warmly welcomed an election pledge from Labour to scrap controversial employment tribunal fees brought in by the Tory-led government almost two years ago. The upfront fees – which have been heavily criticised by some bosses as well as trade unions – are believed to have denied millions their rightful access to justice. […]
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Attack on rural communities
Rural communities across Northern Ireland are under grave risk to their safety after Unite has discovered plans to severely cut road maintenance services. Unite representatives were informed that Transport NI management have proposed reducing the inspection of rural roads for potholes from three times a year to only once a year. Management has also […]
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Stop this calamitous course
This general election has been dubbed the most important in a generation and – it is for many reasons – not least the protection of our NHS. But another crucial reason that makes this election important and it’s our membership of the European Union. Back in 1975 Margaret Thatcher campaigned to […]
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Could you live on a zero-hours contract?
Labour announced yesterday (April 1) that it would clamp down on exploitative zero-hours contracts, by guaranteeing people who work regular hours the right to a regular contract. The video below features the decisive moment in last week’s ‘Battle for Number 10’ programme, in which presenter Jeremy Paxman presses David Cameron to answer a very […]
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A cautionary tale: pension funds and the infrastructure bandwagon
Infrastructure finance has risen to the top of the international financial policy agenda. Within the new infrastructure finance agenda emerging in such forums, the $85 trillion that institutional investors, and in particular pension funds, are estimate…Read more…
Rana Plaza: $9 million still owed to the victims with 23 days to go to second anniversary – tell companies to #payup
In 23 days time it will be two years since the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Savar district, Bangladesh killing 1138 workers, injuring thousands more and leaving 500 children orphaned. Shamefully…Read more…
Figures for 2014 change nothing: weak productivity is still caused by austerity
As many argued in the wake of the Budget, productivity outcomes remain a significant concern and major blot on the government’s economic record. Today ONS issued the first figures for 2014 as a whole, showing growth at only 0.5 per cent, up only marginally on 0.4 per cent in 2013 (left chart); they…Read more…
The curious case of yesterday’s living standards ‘good news’
Right from the off yesterday, ONS statistics triggered a celebration of rising living standards. Yet you were hard pushed to find exactly the reason for that celebration. In the newly-issued National Accounts, real household disposable income per head …Read more…
Stop the suffering
Imagine being a single parent struggling on benefits. You look long and hard for some sort of stable job – anything that will pay the bills and feed your child. You’re finally hired. It’s on a zero hours contract, but no matter. At least it’s something. Kelly, this young woman’s father, recalls how overjoyed […]
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The claim, the maths and the reality
As the general election campaign heats up, prime minister David Cameron made a startling claim on Monday night (March 30) – under his watch, he says, 1,000 jobs were created every day, an accomplishment he pledges to continue if a Conservative government were to be elected in May. Sounds great, but just how much […]
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Zero hours: Time to put a stop to this exploitation
Very few people in the UK today would not know about zero hours contracts. The Prime Minister himself said that he wouldn’t want to work on one…
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Resolute in purpose
Workers at the Northampton plant of one of the world’s largest packaging firms have begun a 48-hour strike over the dismissal of two Unite shop stewards. Unite members at Smurfit Kappa, who had previously been working to rule, walked out at midnight (April 1) calling for their colleagues to be immediately reinstated. Speaking from […]
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20 days to go. Are you one in a million? Don’t be
1 million people have fallen off the electoral roll since the government changed the way we register to vote back in September. Many won’t even know. If you’re a one in the million then you’ll miss out in the most important election in our times. But there’s still time to make sure that […]
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Modern Slavery Act
So the Modern Slavery Bill has finally become the Modern Slavery Act. Unfortunately however its inadequacies flagged-up in my blog of 25 February were not addressed. On the very same day following a debate in the Lords my colleague Owen Tudor was able to report that the Government was defeated on…Read more…
Where will the axe fall?
The Tories are refusing to set out how they are going to cut £12 billion from the welfare budget. But documents leaked to the BBC show they are looking to hit carers, children and the disabled in the next round of cuts. Labour urged the Tories to ‘come clean’ about where the axe will […]
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Striking for a fair deal
As UNITElive reported today, most of us expect our pay to stay the same this year or rise ever-so-slightly. Drivers who transport disabled children to school for Hackney council, however, face something else entirely – an astounding 50 per cent slash in their wages as the local authority embarks on vicious cost-cutting measures. […]
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