Unite general secretary Len McCluskey will warn the government that it risks betraying steelworkers and their industry, if it fails to guarantee the use of UK steel in major infrastructure projects…Read more…
Unions unite across borders against Murdoch media merger
Last week the British and European trade union movement united to call on the European Commission to block the proposed 21st Century Fox bid for Sky. A similar process is underway in the UK, but this…Read more…
Don’t ‘rip off’ our youth call
Just days before National Apprenticeship Week – designed by the government “to celebrate apprenticeships and the positive impact they have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy” – an…Read more…
‘Radical action’ call
Unite, the largest union for construction workers, is calling on the industry to take radical action to reduce the high number of suicides among its workforce. New analysis by the Office for…Read more…
Pay deal rejected
Members of Scotland’s biggest offshore trade union have voted to reject a pay offer. In a consultative ballot, 81 per cent of Unite members voted to reject the latest deal put forward by their…Read more…
Don’t tolerate racism
More than a third of the UK’s Black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAEM) population have witnessed or been subject to racist abuse in the seven months since the referendum vote, a TUC poll has found….Read more…
‘Entirely inaccurate’
Responding to the claims made today (March 20) in the national media by Tom Watson MP, deputy leader of the Labour party, Unite’s acting general secretary Gail Cartmail said, “Tom Watson has made…Read more…
Battle of Grangemouth
The author of a new book on the Grangemouth refinery says it’s wrong that such an important national asset is in the hands of just one billionaire. In The Battle of Grangemouth, former…Read more…
Counting the cost of Brexit
Time was when nothing could be done by the Government or the European Union without a rigorously mapped impact assessment. Almost invariably wielded as a tool by deregulatory zealots to show that workers’ demands would lead to unacceptable burdens on business, I can remember exposing many of…Read more…
BP/Ineos talks spark jobs fears
Fears over hundreds of jobs and pensions were stoked last night (March 16), as it unexpectedly emerged that oil giant BP has been in talks with the petrochemicals firm Ineos – a company with a…Read more…
Fujitsu jobs battle
Striking workers at the IT giant Fujitsu are to step up their industrial action with a further two days of strike action on Friday, March 24 and Monday, March 27 as they battle to defend their jobs,…Read more…
Save Bromley libraries
The Bromley public has been asked ‘to rise up and make their voice heard’, otherwise the borough’s 14 libraries will be privatised, with expected severe cutbacks in services. The call to…Read more…
Stress – time to stop blaming the workers
Yesterday I attended the HSE stress summit in London for the launch of their new stress campaign. The conference went well and the main thrust of the conference was on the importance of prevention,…Read more…
Ageing members and reps: the demographics that threaten the future of unions
Most of the commentary on trade union decline concentrates on the fall in overall union membership and density (the proportion of workers who carry a union card). This is obviously cause for great…Read more…
Drop the MIC
Yesterday the TUC responded to the European Commission’s consultation on its plans to develop a global version of the notorious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS is the court system found in thousands of trade and investment agreements that foreign investors have used to sue…Read more…
‘End iniquitous practises’ plea
Lorry drivers across Europe and the UK have spoken out about exploitative working conditions and wage cutting in the industry, with some being forced to live in their cabs for months on end. A…Read more…
Emergency Brexit conference
With now daily reminders that a ‘hard’ Brexit will prove extremely challenging for the UK’s car manufacturing industry, Unite is building an alliance between the workforce and the industry to secure…Read more…
Sweet deal
Unite, the foremost experts on negotiating pay in Scotland have launched a blueprint for boosting workers’ pay amid rising inflation and slow pay growth in 2017. Unite negotiated an 8.7 per…Read more…
End ‘Brexit confusion’
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey warned that employers and workers would be left ‘reeling’ by yesterday’s (March 15) evidence given by the Brexit minister David Davis MP to the select…Read more…
Toyota confirms investment
Unite welcomed Toyota’s confirmation of a platform upgrade at its Burnaston plant today (March 16), but urged the government to state now, that it will secure tariff free access to the European…Read more…