As the Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough with many, many thousands of constituents devastated by the SSI collapse, I plead with the government to consider my analysis. Now that the…Read more…
“A real workable alternative”
Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland in her capacity as Labour Party NEC member, spoke last week (September 29) at the Labour Party conference, moving an NEC statement and a commission…Read more…
Working grandparents, shared parental leave and care
Yesterday, the Chancellor announced that the government will extend shared parental leave (SPL) and pay to working grandparents from 2018 – another policy stolen from Labour’s election manifesto. It is easy to envisage some of the benefits this increased flexibility will bring and political parties…Read more…
Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral nomination at #CPC15 exposes the hypocrisy in the trade union bill
Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith has caused his fair share of headaches for his party since he entered Parliament in 2010. He rebelled over the lobbying bill. He opposed the government’s plans to sell off England’s national forests. He took a leading role in the campaign against Heathrow…Read more…
Trans-Pacific Partnership good for workers? The big lie
As the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, passes its final round of negotiations, the White House is going all out to portray the deal as a great gain for working people. US unions don’t agree, and they’ll be fighting the new generation trade deal between twelve countries around the…Read more…
UN edges towards union calls for Just Transition in Paris deal
The UN has adopted union calls for a Just Transition in a new 20-page negotiating text released today for the climate conference scheduled for Paris in December. Unions will be pleased that the UN’s Draft Agreement commits nations to holding global temperature increases to below 2 °C (or possibly…Read more…
Hunt’s ‘disgraceful insult’
Multi-millionaire health secretary Jeremy Hunt has ‘kicked millions of working people, struggling to get by in the teeth’ with controversial remarks that axing working tax credits is ‘an important…Read more…
From anger to devastation
The immediate future of 3,000 workers at the SSI steelmaking plant in Redcar is up in the air after owners SSI UK went into liquidation last Friday (October 2). The move followed an…Read more…
Don’t tell George
Chancellor George Osborne spoke today (October 5) at the Tory Party Conference, just hours after it was announced that the government will continue with its sell-off of its remaining 12 per cent…Read more…
Hammer of working people
George Osborne continues to be ‘the snake oil salesman’ of British politics, presiding over a phoney recovery, giving the rich an inheritance tax gift, yet bringing harsh cuts to millions of workers…Read more…
Downward track
One of the sharpest recessions ever has filled the labour market with low-paid insecure employment even in normally high-skilled, high paid areas of employment, a new report has found. The huge…Read more…
Tracking The Labour Market Recovery
Developing better economic and employment policies for the future depends critically on distinguishing between changes that are temporary and cyclical and those which are long term and structural. In a recent report for the TUC, Tracking the Labour Mar…Read more…
Come clean on wage rates
A public meeting to discuss the next steps in the six-month dispute to ensure an independent audit of wage rates is carried out at the £200m energy-from-waste plant being built at the Wilton complex…Read more…
Unite drives forward lifelong learning
Unite and logistics company Wincanton signed a learning agreement today (October 2) that sees the opening of a Learning Centre for staff at Lea Green, St Helens in Merseyside. This is…Read more…
Boat builders’ future at risk
A call for high-level talks has been called for over the future of Northamptonshire luxury boat builders, Fairline Boats, which has just laid-off a third of its workforce for up to five weeks. …Read more…
Keep Redcar coke ovens alight
Unite urged ministers to intervene and keep the coke ovens at the Redcar steelworks warm so that production could be resumed in the future and warned that its support package for SSI steelworkers was…Read more…
Safety first
Millions of workers are well aware of the potentially devastating impact of the government’s ideologically-driven trade union Bill which is currently going through Parliament. Their…Read more…
Len says wear red
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey is asking members and staff to wear red on Friday, October 23, in support of Show Racism the Red Card. Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) is the UK’s…Read more…
Justice for Colombia
Unite delegate Jim Kelly spoke on the last day of the Labour Party Conference this week (September 30) in support of Colombian trade unionists whose struggle goes beyond anything we could even begin…Read more…
Every childhood is worth fighting for
By John Cameron, NSPCC Head of Helplines Everyday our ChildLine volunteers are contacted by children desperate for someone to talk to about the growing pressures in their lives. Sadly they often feel…Read more…