low wages are on the increase, the Office of National Statistics reported today. * The number of employees outside London paid below the living wage has risen by 2 percentage points since 2012, Reaching 23 per cent by 2014. The increase in London has been much sharper though, with the latest…Read more…
Government abandons unworkable plan to make unions give 14 days notice for a tweet
News just breaking (via the FT) that the government may have just dropped proposals under consultation as part of the trade union bill, requiring unions to give employers and the police two weeks’ notice of any social media plans around strikes and pickets. The idea had been that unions would need…Read more…
End the violence
Unite expressed its outrage at the brutal attack on the demonstration for peace that occurred yesterday (October 11) in Ankara, Turkey. The blasts have left nearly 100 people dead and hundreds…Read more…
New research says EU regulation working.
Two years ago this week, the Prime Minister’s business taskforce said relaxing the European Commission’s rules on health and safety risk assessments would save £2.7bn. Meanwhile a piece by…Read more…
Episode 1: ‘I need a job’
Episode 2: ‘We love foreigners ha ha’ follows tomorrow
The post Episode 1: ‘I need a job’ appeared first on UNITElive.org.Read more…
Organise and change lives
A Tale of Two Cities – is a powerful graphically illustrated novel about the plight of bullied and exploited hotel workers – and how by organising together change can be brought about. Unite…Read more…
Plunged into poverty
In his address to the Tory Party Conference on Wednesday (October 7), prime minister David Cameron insisted that in order “to make Britain greater”, social problems had to be tackled including the…Read more…
Taking their struggle to the White House
Unite deputy convenor for Bentley in Crewe, who was also part of an IndustriALL delegation to the US, shares his experience below. A year ago this week, a small delegation of trade unionists…Read more…
Traffic warden strike off
The five days of strike action by traffic wardens working for APCOA Parking in Hackney, east London in a bid to get a proper sick pay policy has been suspended to allow talks to take place. …Read more…
Take action to free imprisoned garment union activists in Burma
On 8 November Burma will hold crucial general elections, which makes this is an important time to hold the government to account for the increasing crack down on trade union rights and repression…Read more…
On the brink of crisis
Ambulance response times in England have reached record poor levels, with ambulances arriving late to more than 2,600 life-threatening emergencies every day, figures have revealed. In the last…Read more…
School improvement is too important not to put parents in the driving seat
By James Croft Are parents really irrelevant to school improvement? You might think so, given the present behaviour of our political masters, but without them we’re not likely to get the education we…Read more…
‘Unprecedented’ guilt admission
Over 260 blacklisted construction workers are on the verge of securing damages, which could total tens of millions, after Unite won an unprecedented admission of guilt from construction companies…Read more…
‘Woefully inadquate’
Foot dragging by APCOA Parking in Hackney, east London has driven the traffic wardens to take five days of strike action from Monday (October 12) in a bid to get a proper sick pay policy. The…Read more…
What lies beneath?
Prime minister David Cameron has again announced in his Tory Conference speech yesterday (October 7) that his is the party of working people. It’s his latest in a number of attempts to stretch the…Read more…
Dave down the rabbit hole
‘Call me Dave’ has had a dream which he shared with me. It was when we were walking through the sunlit uplands of his unexpected election victory waving the Union Jack. At this…Read more…
Free Mahdi Abu Dheeb
In May last year I blogged about the disgraceful treatment of trade union activist, Mahdi Abu Dheeb, by the Bahraini authorities. Sadly the only developments since then have been negative. Mahdi…Read more…
‘Hard times are everywhere’
The darkness of austerity gathers all across Britain like the clouds of night while the Tory Party conference in Manchester celebrates its victory in May’s general election behind barbed wire,…Read more…
All-island fair pay victory
Unite today (October 8) hailed an all-island fair pay victory, after Lidl caved to union and public pressure and agreed to include Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland in its pledge to…Read more…
Thanks, George, for 900 solar energy redundancies
Solar energy firm Mark Group has announced over 900 redundancies, and it lays the blame on the doorstep of No. 11: “We are extremely disappointed that the draconian policy proposals made by the government in August will essentially eliminate the solar PV market in the UK and have made our plans…Read more…