After years of protests and falling living standards for public sector workers, the government may finally be reversing its stance on public sector pay. The government today (September 4)…Read more…
Crane strike suspended
A planned strike by Unite members at tower crane company HTC Wolffkran has been suspended following pay negotiations held today (September 4). The pay offer will see workers receive a six per…Read more…
Brum bins: new ballot
‘Shoddy’ behaviour by Birmingham council has led to a fresh ballot of the city’s refuse workers, Unite announced on Friday (September 1). The union was shocked by the…Read more…
Enough about highly-paid footballers, let’s focus on the low-paid workers
The transfer window finally came to a close last Thursday. As ever, it was charactertised by a lot of headlines about wages. At the TUC, we’re a fan of wages being in the news – but in Premier League football, it’s not low wages that are making headlines. Real wages have been falling for…Read more…
Parents ‘exploited’
There’s nothing tougher than being a young working parent in the UK today. Young people are overrepresented in the lowest paid sectors such as retail, hospitality, and private sector health…Read more…
Let’s help families achieve the balance that works for them
Working Families and workplace solutions expert Bright Horizons track key issues for working parents in our annual Modern Families Index. In 2016, we highlighted how millennial parents are feeling at work (prone to burn out and desperate for a better work-life balance); and in 2017 we warned the…Read more…
‘Human catastrophe’
The treatment of disabled people under the Tories is a “human catastrophe” the United Nations has said. In a damning indictment, the UN Committee on the rights of disabled people said that…Read more…
‘Emoji con’
The use of touchpads with happy and sad faces to gauge worker satisfaction at Sport Direct’s warehouse in Shirebrook was branded an ‘emoji con’ by Unite today (September 1). Unite understands…Read more…
TUC joins calls for new elections in Brazil as illegitimate government tramples democracy
As Brazil’s CUT trade union confederation was meeting in the industrial capital of Sao Paolo, the TUC has called for new elections as the unelected government of Michel Temer continues its…Read more…
Bin strikes set to resume
News that Birmingham city council had cancelled tomorrow’s (September 1) cabinet meeting and would instead start issuing redundancy notices to refuse workers, would provoke the resumption of strike…Read more…
How I became a community champion and a union rep? – my story as a working mum
I work two part-time jobs with different retailers. I was only doing one before, but because my hours were in the evenings it was very difficult to balance work and childcare. I’d look after my son…Read more…
3 employment rights that aren’t working for young mums and dads. And 2 rights that they should have.
Today we’re publishing the findings from our research with over 1,000 young mums and dads. We wanted to know what young mums and dads thought about the workplace rights which are supposed to help them manage their childcare. We asked them: If they are aware of three key existing employment rights…Read more…
Juggling childcare and changing shifts – my story as a working dad
Before my son was born, I worked part-time but did as much overtime as I could to top up my wages. But that’s not possible when you have a baby to look after. My wife has a full-time contract and a…Read more…
A missed opportunity – the government’s corporate governance proposals
I have in a blog in The New Statesman, entitled Workers on boards was an enlightened idea – Theresa May should have stuck to it , which sets out the TUC’s comments to the government’s corporate governance proposals, after our initial response described the proposals as feeble. And in…Read more…
Govt slammed in disabled ‘shame’
The Tories blew £39m over a year in mostly fruitless efforts to block benefits for sick and disabled people, new figures show. The cash was spent contesting appeals from thousands of people…Read more…
NHS: £100m spend for agency GPs
As general practice faces a growing staffing crisis, the NHS has said it will pay up to £100m to agencies to recruit 5,000 new GPs, mostly from abroad. In a contract notice posted by NHS…Read more…
Unveiled
The basic design for the new Mini Electric car, which will be built in the UK, has been unveiled by BMW. Unite hailed the moment as “an exciting development on the road towards the widespread…Read more…
‘Come clean’ call
Royal Mail announced yesterday (August 30) that it would be flogging off property part of its central London Mount Pleasant sorting office to private developers Taylor Wimpey to build luxury flats….Read more…
Offshoring fears
Unite is deeply alarmed that Deeside based Witter Towbars appears intent on closing its manufacturing site in Deeside, north Wales and offshoring the work to Romania. Unite was informed that…Read more…
‘Stand firm’ call
Unite today (August 31) urged members of Birmingham city council’s cabinet to back the deal agreed with the leader of the council, John Clancy at the conciliation service Acas and bring the long…Read more…