The Tory election campaign has been built on one premise and one premise alone – that it was their government who was responsible for an economy now bouncing back, and that it was their austerity…Read more…
Examining the reactions to our flagging GDP (a.k.a. the slowest recovery on record ever getting even slower)
A number of themes emerged in the different media commentaries on yesterday’s poor GDP results that are worth further examination: the idea expressed that the figures are highly uncertain and will be heavily revised; that weaker UK growth is in the context of ‘rising instability abroad’ (an…Read more…
Remembering those we have lost
Unite members in North East Lincolnshire have played a major role in today’s International Workers Memorial Day (WMD April 28) events in their area. This is the 13th year in which…Read more…
I predicted this catastrophe in teacher supply. It should have been avoided.
And here’s another thing… Our new weekly blog by ATL general secretary Mary Bousted. Tristram Hunt has pledged that Labour would reform School Direct, the school based ITT model introduced by the…Read more…
What do health workers want from this election?
Health and social care continues to dominate the election. Party manifestos have been published promising more funding, more services and more staff. As you might expect, a detailed look at these…Read more…
Never forget
Today (April 28), International Workers Memorial Day, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey dedicated a bench in Red Lion Square, London, to never forget those who have died at work. To hear…Read more…
A really clear choice
“We’ve got a brilliant, diverse community here – everyone from retired miners to young families call Midlothian home, and my job is to fight hard for a better future for everyone.”…Read more…
Line in the sand
A Unite workplace rep – blacklisted by his employer, Interserve Industrial Services because of his union activities while working at a power station at Runcorn, Cheshire – has won his…Read more…
Hope is back on the agenda
Let us finish the job. “These,” Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said, “are the scariest words in the English language.” These words are also the Tories’ favourite mantra – a…Read more…
New evidence nails the “no NHS privatisation” lie
The government habitually dismiss accusations of NHS privatisation. However a new analysis of NHS contracts produced by the NHS Support Federation shows how they will have to confront reality. Ministers say that very little NHS money goes to private co…Read more…
Fighting ‘culture of fear’
Last night (April 27) hundreds of thousands of viewers watched Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, The secrets of Sports Direct, which exposed a zero hours contract workforce in constant fear of losing…Read more…
Tory win could see HSBC leave UK
Not even the sound and fury of a general election campaign could obscure the magnitude of worry in recent days over HSBC’s future in this country. The banking giant has indicated it is giving…Read more…
The slowest ever recovery slows down again
Quarterly GDP growth is estimated at only 0.3% in 2015 Q1, half the rate of 0.6% seen in both Q3 and Q4 of 2014, and only a third of the 0.9% growth seen a year ago in 2014 Q1. The median view of commentators was for 0.5%, and 0.3% coincided with the most pessimistic of those…
The post The…Read more…
Working UK-style 2015
Some of the stories coming out of billionaire Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct warehouse are barely credible. But the stories remain undocumented because many of the staff – most of them from…Read more…
Incalculable human cost
On Workers Memorial Day we remember the dead and fight for the living. With only days to go for the most important general election in a generation today’s (April 28) Workers Memorial Day has…Read more…
We will remember them
A Unite member who won an International Women’s Day award from Manchester City Council for campaigning for safer workplaces wants her fellow union members to participate in today’s…Read more…
Will working families lose most again if the Conservatives cut £12bn from welfare?
The Institute for Fiscal Studies is set to release analysis tomorrow looking at the £12bn of welfare cuts that the Conservatives are proposing. We know already who the favourite targets were for George Osborne, the Conservative Chancellor, and Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative Work and Pensions…Read more…
Zero-hours contracts just the tip of the iceberg for low-paid and insecure jobs
While zero hour contracts have dominated the media headlines recently, short hour contracts, along with other forms of insecure work are also making the lives of many workers difficult. Our recent analysis shows that in addition to the 700,000 workers …Read more…
Save our bus services
First West Yorkshire bus workers at the First Bradford bus depot are taking part in a two-day strike (April 27 and 28) in a protest over services. Click here to see a short clip from earlier today….Read more…
£2 an hour priests win pay justice
Sikh priests who were paid only £2 an hour and were victimised when they complained have won a stunning victory at an industrial tribunal, last week. The Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara temple in…Read more…