This morning, the former Foreign Secretary and Conservative Party Leader, William Hague, has stepped into the debate about the nature of the UK’s industrial strategy. Hague’s intervention, in this morning’s Daily Telegraph, has been prompted by the new Prime Minister, Theresa May’s, welcome…Read more…
Protecting health and safety post-Brexit
Given the possibility that the UK may no longer be covered by EU regulations on health and safety in the near future, what protection will British workers have to a safe workplace? This is important…Read more…
UK real wages decline of over 10% is the most severe in the OECD (equal to Greece)
The decline in UK real wages since the pre-crisis peak is the most severe in the OECD, equal only to Greece. Both countries saw declines of 10.4% per cent between 2007 Q4 and 2015Q4. Apart from Portugal, all other OECD countries saw real wage increases, albeit mostly modest ones. (NB strictly the…Read more…
They think it’s all over … but there are 5 tests before we start negotiating Brexit
One of the strangest views you hear expressed about the result of the EU referendum a month ago is that the impact on the economy has not been as severe as the Remain campaign claimed. Apart from the political turmoil in both the Conservative and Labou…Read more…
Chinese sweatshops: they were the future, once
Once it was David Cameron’s jibe at Tony Blair. Then he used it self-deprecatingly to bid farewell to the Commons after the referendum. But it reflects an iron law that what was once seen as…Read more…
Privatisation fight
Unite and the local Bromley community stood firm in solidarity against cuts to council services and privatisation at a packed demo on Saturday (July 23), which was also attended by Unite general…Read more…
Electoral system is failing younger voters
There are three particular reasons– apart from the mandate given by Congress – why we need to have this conversation now. First, in 2015 we had the most reactionary government in possibly a hundred years elected with less than 25% of the vote. That cannot be right or good. Second, despite…Read more…
EU acts against exploitation of migrants. Bit late.
Last month, before the referendum, I took part in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation in Brussels. The European Commissioner for Social Affairs, Belgian liberal Marianne Thyssen, addressed the meeting and disc…Read more…
Powering ahead for Yorkshire and the Humber’s energy intensive industries
This week the TUC published a major paper on how UK industry can match Europe’s environmental leaders. Comparing UK industry with the Germans and the Danes is very timely given the Brexit vote on June 23rd and what this means for heavy industry across Yorkshire and the Humber. We are the most…Read more…
Positive talks
The prospect of industrial action by drivers at First Glasgow has been averted following protracted negotiations involving Unite officials. The union had conducted a consultative ballot of its…Read more…
Crunch decision
The meeting of the EDF board of directors on Thursday (July 28) to make the crunch decision on the financial go-ahead for the Hinkley Point nuclear power station has been welcomed by Unite. …Read more…
We will not be silenced
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey will be in Bromley this Saturday (July 23) to join the march against the cuts and privatisation to local services in the borough. McCluskey will warn the…Read more…
No excuse
University bosses should not use speculation about future EU research spending in the UK to avoid giving higher education (HE) staff a decent pay rise, Unite said today (July 22). Unite, which…Read more…
‘Not all budding entrepreneurs’
Nearly 90 percent of jobs created in the past three months have been in self-employed roles, prompting warnings over the spread of low-paid insecure work throughout Britain. In the most recent…Read more…
Proportional Representation – It’s Time!
I’ve not always been a fan of PR. I grew up in a tribal area where PR was portrayed as inevitably preventing Labour from winning back power. The strongest advocates of PR also seemed to peddle especially self-interested models that benefitted them more than anyone else and didn’t usually even seem…Read more…
Feet to the fire
The ‘Victorian’ employment practices of Sports Direct were condemned by a damning business select committee report published today (July 22), thanks to evidence given by Unite. The committee…Read more…
Powering Ahead – a Strategy for Sustainable Industry
Today, the TUC publishes ‘Powering Ahead: How UK industry can match Europe’s environmental leaders’. This report, based on new research from Germany and Denmark, considers both how to rebuild the UK’s industrial sector and how to align the needs of industry with the quest for a cleaner, greener…Read more…
Oil strike support
Hundreds of North Sea oil workers have received a boost ahead of industrial action next week with Norwegian energy unions pledging their “100 per cent support”. The Norwegian…Read more…
The new poor
Falling levels of home ownership and a reliance on state benefits mean that middle income families now have more in common with poor households than wealthy ones, with working families becoming the…Read more…
‘Reap what you sow’
An HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation into infamous employer Sports Direct for not paying its 3000 warehouse staff the national minimum wage is understood to have been widened to include the…Read more…