In an important week for global affairs, Chinese president Xi Jinping has given a major speech at the United Nations in Geneva, arguing that the world must not allow the Paris climate deal to be “derailed”. Demonstrating the neat turn of phrase associated with his predecessor, Deng…Read more…
Act now to defend food worker unions in Egypt
In Egypt, twenty-seven edible oils factory workers and leaders and members of their union face crippling fines and jail terms for the ‘crime’ of striking to defend their wages, with…Read more…
First-class pay deal
Pay for thousands of Virgin Atlantic Airlines crew has taken off after constructive negotiations between Unite and Virgin delivered a pay deal worth more than double the current rate of inflation…Read more…
Workforce betrayed
Unite’s general secretary Len McCluskey will tell striking workers at AWE plc – the Atomic Weapons Establishment – tomorrow (January 19) that defence secretary Michael Fallon needs to honour…Read more…
BA strike goes on
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP will be joining British Airways’ mixed fleet cabin crew on picket lines at Heathrow tomorrow (January 19), on the first…Read more…
Welcome wheelchair ruling
Unite called on bus companies to put in place guidance and procedures for bus drivers following today’s (January 18) Supreme Court ruling over wheelchair spaces on buses. While welcoming the…Read more…
Yet more uncertainty
Prime minister Theresa May gave her clearest picture yet of what the government will be seeking as it leaves the European Union yesterday (January 17) in a landmark speech. But still more…Read more…
Higher pay growth in lower paid industries
There are countless reasons to not get carried away by today’s pay growth figures – with regular pay in the private sector hitting 3 per cent in November. (To recap: with accelerating inflation, real pay growth has stalled at 1.7% and is likely to get worse. We’ve been here before: with nominal…Read more…
Keep your pensions promises
Tomorrow, 600 workers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) will start staging two 48-hour strikes this month in the long-running ‘broken promises’ pensions’ row. To fight for…Read more…
Empowering workers
Unite has launched a powerful new online tool to help workers across Britain protect themselves from attacks on their pay following the fallout from Brexit, and rising inflation. Rising…Read more…
May’s Brexit: working people need more detail about what PM has planned for their rights
The Prime Minister’s speech on Brexit today has raised more questions than it has answered, and in particular, the TUC wants to know what exactly the Government has planned for working people before Parliament votes on the EU-UK deal she intends to negotiate. Her commitment to protect…Read more…
‘On the edge of collapse’
GPs, already facing unconscionable workloads working for an underfunded and understaffed NHS, were threatened by prime minister Theresa May at the weekend (January 14) with even more cuts to their…Read more…
More than just one ‘blue’ day
Yesterday (January 16) was Blue Monday, officially the most depressing day of the year and it falls each year on the third Monday of January. For many the end of the Christmas period is hard –…Read more…
Don’t throw our jobs under a bus
It is time to stop the posturing. Far too many people in public life are discussing Brexit as if it is a parlour game all about political positioning. It is not. Jobs are at stake and with…Read more…
Organising using health and safety just got easier
There is a brand new resource available from today for anyone who wants to consider how to make their workplace safer through building a strong union. Last year the TUC published a guide to…Read more…
Minimum Wage – how we can catch the cheating employers.
More than 250,000 UK workers are paid less than the legal minimum wage – let’s put this right. At a conservative estimate, minimum wage underpayment affects 250,000 people, but we fear that the true figure could be higher. For instance, we have heard that the forthcoming official…Read more…
Colombian trade union leader free at last
Three and a half years ago, Colombian agriculture union leader Huber Ballesteros was on his way to the British Embassy in Bogota to collect his visa to visit the UK to speak at the 2013 TUC Congress….Read more…
Tackling precarious work & addressing migration concerns
Last week I spoke at a conference organised by the TUC and Exeter University on ‘Confronting change: Globalization, Migration and Precarious Labour in the Age of Brexit.’ This is a summary of my speech. As conditions have become more insecure for workers since 2006 – a recent TUC report showed 1 in…Read more…
Hunt ‘come clean’
The cash-strapped NHS could be spending up to £15m on management consultants for advice on the secretive shake-up of the health service in England, Unite has warned today. Unite, with 100,000…Read more…
Credit debt blues
As millions of Britons settle back into the first few weeks of work following the festive season, we know all too well that the party’s over, the feasts have been eaten, the presents opened and we’re…Read more…