Just a few weeks ago on October 4th, more than 60,000 people took to the streets of Manchester to protest at David Cameron’s austerity policies and attacks on the rights of working people and…Read more…
Strong medicine
Junior doctors are not known for taking strike action. In fact it is over 40 years since they last did so. But today (November 19), junior doctors have delivered the biggest ever vote in…Read more…
European Commission puts its foot in it!
The European Commission have just published an information sheet on their new better regulation agenda. A lot of that is just saying that they will concentrate on the big things and not the small…Read more…
Tax credit cuts: hunger rise
Tax credit cuts – which will see millions of the nation’s poorest families lose more than £1000 each year – have not yet even kicked in, and food bank use continues to soar each year. Figures…Read more…
2016 Tax credit cuts will worsen regional inequality
A new TUC analysis of the tax credit cuts the Chancellor plans for next April shows that the worst impact will be felt in the regions and nations of the UK that already have the lowest average incomes. In his summer Budget Mr Osborne announced that the…Read more…
Galvanising a generation
With only 10 per cent of Unite’s 1.4m membership aged under 30 the race is on to recruit young workers and get them active in the union. Anthony Curley will be key to developments. Aged…Read more…
Saluting our community nurses
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey spoke at the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association (CPHVA) conference this morning (November 18). In his address, he hailed members who…Read more…
“Energy security and affordability” bump climate change into third place
When respected commentator Prof Paul Ekins describes the government’s energy “reset” as, “Lose-lose, for the consumer and for the climate. What a shambles!” we had better listen. Phasing out unabated coal maybe the right thing to do, as the TUC said today. But an untested “dash for gas”…Read more…
Episode 23: Picnic against poverty
Sounds familiar? If you work in the hospitality industry you can join www.unitetheunion.org – if you earn less than the Living Wage (£9.15ph in London, £7.85 outside) for just £2.10 per week. …Read more…
Pay and house prices
New figures show that house prices have been going up more than twice as fast as earnings since the recession. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings came out today. ASHE is the most important source of information about earnings and hours worked and we’re always interested in what it shows about…Read more…
Fiscal framework has the potential to make or break the new devolution settlement.
Deputy First Minister should refuse to sign up to Fiscal Framework unless the right block grant adjustment can be agreed.
STUC General Secretary Grahame Smith today warned that key new powers…Read more…
‘Draconian assault’
The battle against the Tory trade union Bill will shift to the House of Lords in the next two weeks after the Commons voted it through with some minor amendments. The Bill remains a draconian…Read more…
The Reading Race
As part of ATL’s Union Learning Fund project, ATL Midlands have organized their first English and maths week. This week we’ll feature three blogs from Joanne Miles about embedding…Read more…
How teachers can use learners’ errors to develop their accuracy with language through a classroom activity
As part of ATL’s Union Learning Fund project, ATL Midlands have organized their first English and maths week. This week we’ll feature three blogs from Joanne Miles about embedding…Read more…
Bad job
For more and more people, bullying does not simply end in the schoolyard – it continues, too, in the workplace. As part of National Anti-Bullying Week this week, the conciliation and…Read more…
Episode 22: ‘What do we want?’
Sounds familiar? If you work in the hospitality industry you can join www.unitetheunion.org – if you earn less than the Living Wage (£9.15ph in London, £7.85 outside) for just £2.10 per week. …Read more…
Rock bottom deal?
Boasts by George Osborne that the £13bn sale of former Northern Rock mortgage loans have resulted in gains for the taxpayer are being questioned by industry experts with Unite calling for answers and…Read more…
Workplace bullying of LGBT people remains unacceptably high – but we can challenge it
Are LGB and T people more likely to be bullied? The evidence is clear but seems to contradict studies of changing social attitudes. The figures for bullying on grounds of sexuality or gender identity are grim and they always have been. For decades the …Read more…
We know what would solve global inequality: so why isn’t anyone doing it?
I wrote yesterday about the outcome of the Turkish G20 summit, which got close to addressing the gathering economic storms of global recession, but fell short of the action needed. But one area where the G20 did indeed get things right was identifying inequality as one of the main things holding…Read more…
G20 almost rises to the challenge of the next global recession
The G20 summit in Antalya, on Turkey’s southern, Mediterranean coast, ended today with a communique that almost rises to the challenge facing the global economy. The main headlines are about terrorism and the refugee crisis, hardly surprising given the events in Paris and Antalya’s…Read more…