My post on today’s labour market statistics is up at Left Foot Forward – Once again we are remined this will not feel like a recovery for everyone
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Wages still won’t last the month
Chancellor George Osborne today (March 18) unveiled the government’s pre-election budget, calling it a triumph for working people. In an obvious attempt to pander to the electorate, with the general election being less than seven weeks away, Osborne has raised the tax-free personal allowance threshold to £10,800 to go into effect next year after […]
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The lowest gain in living standards in post-war history
According to the Chancellor today: To the question of whether people are better off at the end of this Parliament than they were five years ago we can give the resounding answer “yes” This is certainly questionable use of the word ‘resounding’. Real household disposable income per head…Read more…
After the Israeli election
We now know that despite the polls, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party has won the largest number of seats in the Knesset. As is the way in Israeli politics fragmented by proportional representation, he now has to put together a workable coalition. Given the political complexion of…Read more…
Unsustainable budget cuts leading to self-service policing
By imposing swingeing cuts to the budgets of police forces across the UK, the government has put policing in crisis and placed neighbourhoods and communities at risk. The growing, and increasingly public furor over the impact of spending cuts to police…Read more…
Good bosses want justice access
New research shows deep unease among employers over controversial tribunal fees brought in by the government just over a year ago. In the face of trade union protests ministers pressed ahead with prohibitive employment tribunal fees, effectively denying workplace justice to millions. The fees are set at £250 to issue a claim and £950 […]
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Web links for 17th March 2015
Standardisation: Are our regulations being privatised by the back door? Hugh Robertson writes for Stronger Unions on the increasing move towards industry led standardisation rather than regulation, and the problems this is causing. Building homes will …Read more…
Don’t ignore danger signs
Fears have been expressed that sign language interpreting services for the UK’s 100,000 deaf population could plummet, if further privatisation takes place, Unite has warned. The union is concerned that downward pressure on costs and standards could mean that staff with fewer – or even no – qualifications could make mistakes when a […]
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Osborne’s make believe “march of the makers”
In his 2011 Budget speech, George Osborne said he wanted “a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers.” However, the fact is that manufacturing’s proportion of GDP has flatlined at 10.1% of GDP for the past six years. Our evidence shows that manufacturing’s heartland is in…Read more…
Half a job George
“Mr Speaker, I have failed”, Chancellor George Osborne will tell the Commons on budget day. “Because I have failed we need five more years of austerity and massive cuts across public services.” That’s what Osborne would say if he was telling the unvarnished truth. Instead of having seen off the austerity measures brought on […]
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Union link not for sale
Asseem Allam, millionaire owner of Hull City AFC, wants to completely sever the link between Labour and the organisations that founded the party—trade unions. As the Sunday Times reported on March 15, Allam said he would offer a future one-off donation to Labour if it weakened its trade union ties, and pledged an […]
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STANDARDS – PRIVATISATION OF REGULATION BY THE BACK DOOR?
How do you think people would react if the Government passed a law that said that our traffic laws would be decided by motoring organisations like the AA or RAC, or if the European Commission…Read more…
Jobs, Fair Pay, Investment. Three things we need from Budget 2015
We recently set out our detailed, 35-page pre-budget statement. It sets out what we think working people in Britain need from this budget. At the core of it, there are three things we’re looking for. I’ve explained them briefly in the video below.
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Double-life of Tory MP
For years he said he never had a second job while an MP. For how long did Shapps carry on his double life as Tory MP and online marketer Michael Green? Tory Party chairman Grant Shapps, alias Michael Green, faced calls to resign after failing to record his second job as an online marketer […]
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Privatised cancer care – what could it mean for the NHS?
A leaked document exposed today by openDemocracy shows the potential impact that privatisation could have on cancer care services in Staffordshire. Four CCGs have combined to put a massive contract, worth £700m over ten years, out to tender. What makes this particularly concerning is the use of a…Read more…
NHS privatisation: no more doubts
In the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, the coalition government still insists that the NHS is not set for higher and higher doses of privatisation. But revelations over the last week have once and for all lain to rest any remaining doubts. In what’s being called the biggest NHS leak in history, […]
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Pay workers fairly plea
News that no high street chains are prepared to pay living wage seen has been condemned by Unite as “a bleak day for hard working Britain”. Millions will now “earn their own poverty” on our High Streets, as not a single major high street chain is prepared to commit to paying staff even the living […]
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‘A masterpiece of solidarity’
Attempts by the management of the Dulwich Picture Gallery to water down the visitor experience by axing 19 of the 36 gallery assistants have been brushed away. Unite said that attempts to get rid of the knowledgeable assistants at the world’s first purpose-built public art gallery and replacing them with apprentices on training […]
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Before it’s too late
Veteran anti-austerity campaigner and author Harry Leslie Smith speaks exclusively to UNITElive, following his address to a packed crowd at the University of Manchester NoVoteNoVoice event last week (March 11). It was the summer of 1945 and Harry Leslie Smith, then only 22, cast his first ballot in a general election. The Second World […]
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Unprecedented mobilisation
Workers across Northern Ireland engaged in a one-day strike to say ‘enough is enough – hands off our public services’. The strike on Friday (March 13) called in response to the Stormont ‘austerity budget’, saw an unprecedented mobilisation of public sector workers across a wide range of workplaces. “From our soundings over the […]
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