Unite is demanding to see the financial figures to justify the loss of 389 jobs at Muller’s milk plant at Chadwell Heath in east London. Muller Milk & Ingredients bought Dairy Crest’s milk…Read more…
‘Strongly supported’ strike
The two-day strike at IT giant Fujitsu in Manchester, which started earlier today (November 7), has been strongly supported by about 300 workers in the continuing dispute over pay, pensions and job…Read more…
Pensions betrayal
Workers at AWE Plc – the Atomic Weapons Establishment – will stage a 24-hour strike on Monday (November 14) in the dispute over the threat to close the defined benefit pension scheme and…Read more…
Quintuple reasons for the triple lock
The State Pension triple lock has taken another bashing. A committee of MPs released a report calling for the picking of the so-called triple lock, dating back to 2010, which guarantees that pensions will rise by the higher of inflation (measured by the Consumer Prices Index), average earnings…Read more…
Young worker’s Challenge #3: Lack of training opportunities
This month we’re counting down the ten most significant challenges faced by young workers. If you think about it, you’d expect younger workers to get more training than older workers – after all,…Read more…
The Econocracy: the stunning new book from Rethinking Economics
The ‘rethinking economics’ student movement has been one of the few highlights of the dismal years since the financial crisis. In their new book The Econocracy: The perils of leaving economics to the experts, three of their number – Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins – set out in full…Read more…
The independent review of online voting for trade unions is finally happening
As someone working in digital services in trade unions, the legal ban on using online voting for union statutory ballots has always wound me up. So I’m very pleased at the news that the government are finally starting their promised independent review into online voting for unions. Sir Ken Knight,…Read more…
Welcome announcement
Caving in to pressure from all sides, including lobbying and campaigning from Unite, the UK government has finally announced today (November 4) that work on the long-awaited Type-26 frigates would…Read more…
Public oil investment call
Scotland’s biggest offshore union is calling on MSPs to back a Holyrood motion calling for public investment in the oil and gas industry. Unite is to ask every MSP to support a motion by North…Read more…
‘Shameful’
“Downplaying serious toxic fume events on board aircraft as ‘odour events’ smacks of spin and an attempt to manipulate official statistics to downplay how widespread the problem really is in the…Read more…
Transport strategy for all
“We think transport is at the heart of our communities and transport workers are at the heart of our communities”, explained Unite assistant general secretary for transport Diana Holland. …Read more…
Results against the odds
While the numbers of people illegally being paid below the minimum wage is a relatively minor phenomenon, in the West Midlands the problem is a more worrying one. That’s because it tops the…Read more…
‘Plane truth’ on toxic fumes plea
Unite has told British Airways to stop classifying the release of toxic fumes into plane cabins as ‘odour events’ and warned that downplaying such incidents risks masking an industry-wide problem….Read more…
IT workers strike again
Up to 300 workers at IT giant Fujitsu in Manchester will be staging a further two days of strike action next week in the continuing dispute over pay, pensions and job security. The workers,…Read more…
Young worker’s Challenge #2: Poor quality jobs
This month we’re counting down the ten most significant challenges faced by young workers. Number two is poor-quality jobs. Ever heard of the shrinking middle? No it’s not the latest weight loss fad,…Read more…
Fuel poverty rising
Unite says politicians need to support public ownership of energy companies if they are serious about tackling the country’s fuel poverty crisis. Yesterday (November 3) Scottish Housing…Read more…
Action on tribunal fees is key test of Theresa May’s commitment to workers’ rights
Figures we published today show that with each passing month thousands more workers are being priced out of justice by employment tribunal fees. In the year before fees were introduced (2012/13) on average 16,000 people a month took a claim against the…Read more…
High court puts #Brexit ball back in Parliament’s court
Today’s decision by the High Court that the decision about whether and when to trigger Article 50 and start the formal process of negotiating Britain’s exit from the UK will now go to the Supreme Court. The government does not want Parliament to have the decision-making power, so it is…Read more…
How many legs does a horse have, if you call its tail a leg?
Answer: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one! On 8 July 2015, George Osborne – then Chancellor of the Exchequer – dropped a budget speech bombshell: the introduction of a statutory…Read more…
Like a criminal
From a Unite Community member’s real-life ‘Daniel Blake’ benefit sanctions experience: “I asked how I was supposed to survive for the week with no money and having to live on…Read more…