A report from the Public Interest Research Unit on behalf of Disabled People Against Cuts shows the cumulative impact of the Coalition government’s policies on disabled workers in employment. Although the report’s author, Rupert Harwood, acknowledges the self-selecting basis of his study of…Read more…
Finely in the balance
What did last night’s Question Time with the “three leaders” tell us? Certainly that the public likes it political meat raw and there remains real anger out there at the “political class”. …Read more…
Shock redundancies
Over 300 workers from the Markinch paper mill Tullis Russell met in Glenrothes yesterday (April 30) with emotions running high following 325 shock redundancies earlier this week after company…Read more…
Another world is possible
“The biggest assault on workers’ rights for a generation” is how Katy Clark characterises the past five years of Tory-led government. “Measures such as tribunal fees and cuts to health and…Read more…
May Day 2015: Justice at work
Today is International Workers’ Day, the first of May. Since 1890, May Day has seen trades unionists come together to celebrate the core values that we stand for. It’s a day for us to strengthen our…Read more…
Over a million visits to food banks
In the 2014-15 financial year, Trussel Trust foodbanks helped feed families over one million times. As Michael noted when he blogged about this last week, that figure only covers Trussel foodbanks. If you include the ventures run by churches, charities…Read more…
May Day in distress
It seems that Governments around the world are cracking down on trade union activities on international workers’ day more than usual. From Bahrain to Swaziland and from Iran to Somalia and…Read more…
Redundancies resistance
Rolls-Royce’s continued failure to offer guarantees over compulsory redundancies is leading to mounting anger that raises the possibility of industrial action, Unite warned yesterday (April 29)….Read more…
Spirit of Clem Attlee
The shining example of Clem Attlee in rebuilding a battered Britain after the Second World War and her belief in Christian Socialism inspire Rachael Maskell (pictured left) in her bid to become the…Read more…
Only if it works for workers
“I’m on the left” says Michael Connarty with an obvious degree of pride about his deep roots in Labour and the trade union movement going back to the 1970s. First elected to Westminster in…Read more…
‘Die-in’ protest to save NHS
Health campaigners from across the country staged a “die-in” today (April 30), gathering outside the Department of Health to deliver a petition to save the NHS. UniteLive spoke to Andy…Read more…
The great Tory jobs illusion
While the central weapon of the Tory’s election campaign – economic growth – collapsed yesterday, one of their claims does indeed hold water. The coalition government has actually presided…Read more…
Employment practices 1215-style
Unite member Reverend Mark Sharpe, like faith workers up and down the country, carried out duties on a full-time basis in exchange for pay – it’s what we in a modern democracy governed by the rule of…Read more…
Don’t gamble – vote Labour
It’s been interesting watching the Tory media over the election period as they panic more and more as the election draws near. Distortions give way to outright lies as they seek to sow the…Read more…
Choose hope over fear
`By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.’ So it says on my Labour party membership card, the card I’ve carried with me throughout my adult life, nestling…Read more…
Manufacturing in the balance?
From the latest official figures, it looks as if manufacturing’s share of GDP is hovvering well below pre-recession levels. A TUC briefing, Manufacturing in the balance suggests that our ‘foundation industries’, the productive heartland of UK manufacturing, are losing businesses and jobs at a…Read more…
Stop London’s ‘social cleansing’
Unite Community is launching a London-wide campaign bringing together residents whose estates are threatened by regeneration schemes which divide communities and force families from the areas they…Read more…
Labour’s rural lifeline
Labour has pledged to replace the Agricultural Wages Board with a new taskforce – it revealed yesterday (April 28) in the launch of its new rural manifesto. Outlining how Labour would ensure…Read more…
House of cards
The Tory election campaign has been built on one premise and one premise alone – that it was their government who was responsible for an economy now bouncing back, and that it was their austerity…Read more…
Examining the reactions to our flagging GDP (a.k.a. the slowest recovery on record ever getting even slower)
A number of themes emerged in the different media commentaries on yesterday’s poor GDP results that are worth further examination: the idea expressed that the figures are highly uncertain and will be heavily revised; that weaker UK growth is in the context of ‘rising instability abroad’ (an…Read more…