Construction output fell -2.6% between December 2014 and January 2015, the fourth monthly decline in the past six months. The main factor behind the decline in January was a sharp fall in house-building of -5.1% on the month. There has been only one la…Read more…
More than a Budget needed for our Foundation Industries
If the Coalition’s last Budget has anything to offer the real economy, immediate relief for energy intensive industries from the cost of renewables on their energy bills has to be a top priority. This charge alone, not paid by EU competitors who support their industries, adds £8 to a tonne of…Read more…
Hire and fire free for all?
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has stoked up a firestorm after saying he would scrap laws that protect workers from discrimination. Laws which protect workers from a range of discrimination by employers should be scrapped, UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said. His comments have been condemned by Unite as “dangerous and crude”. […]
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After the crisis: is gender equality back on track?
Women’s employment is at a record high and the full-time gender pay gap is narrowing. But is the steady progress towards greater gender equality in the UK’s workplaces really back on track? The headlines mask some significant labour market changes for women in the years since the financial crash…Read more…
Saving Our Safety Net Fact of the Week: life expectancy in the poorest parts of the country is up to 9 years less than in the richest
In this series I’ve mainly concentrated on inequality between individuals and the poverty that affects classes of people, like disabled people or women. But our society is divided geographically too and statistics released last week revealed that the more disadvantaged an area is, the lower the…Read more…
No muck and bullets
‘Quality and equality’ were the recurring themes during the launch of Thinking about an apprenticeship, Unite’s guide for young women considering a career in engineering and science. The booklet sparked a debate around gender, jobs and education when it was unveiled this week (March 10) at Solihull College. Currently just seven per cent of […]
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Universal Credit: its impact on women experiencing financial abuse
This afternoon at TUC Women’s Conference, Women’s Aid CEO, Polly Neate, will launch a new TUC and Women’s Aid report on women’s experiences of financial abuse and how the introduction of Universal Credit will affect women in abusive relationships. We can’t say for sure how prevalent financial abuse…Read more…
Standing on the shoulders of giants
In a sincere plea for a reformed, inclusive democracy, author and commentator Owen Jones implored a Festival of Debate audience (March 9) to commit to actively taking part in uniting against the Establishment. Speaking at a packed University of Sheffield meeting, he said, “I want to address this culture of redirecting our anger to our […]
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A true union daughter
Julia Varley is the subject of the second in a series of short books on great men and women who feature prominently in the history of Unite and its predecessor unions. Born in Bradford 1871, Julia was influenced by her great grandfather. Joseph B Alderson had supported the 1830s Chartist working-class movement that agitated […]
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100,000 work cancer deaths: time for action
The former head of the EU’s Safety and Health at Work Agency Jukka Takala has sounded a wake-up call: cancers induced by working conditions kill over 100,000 people in the European Union each year….Read more…
Poor still paying price
The wealth of top earners has risen sharply while the wealth of the poorest has slumped dramatically, according to a new report. The wealth of top earners rose by two-thirds at the same time the wealth of the lowest paid dropped by nearly the same amount. Debts owed by the highest earners have […]
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2 not 4 per cent continuous pay growth – the ONS response
We are grateful to the ONS for their response to yesterday’s piece on pay growth for those in continuous employment. Our concern is that the 4.1 per cent figure has been widely used as guide to central, average or underlying experience in the economy. For example, in the Autumn Statement the…Read more…
Seize your destiny
Anti-austerity campaigner and war veteran Harry Smith urges students at Manchester University (March 11) to register and use their votes as part of the No Vote, No Voice campaign For me politics is personal because in my lifetime the defining moments in our country’s history have been decided by elections. I have always seen free […]
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Apprentices locked out
It’s the government’s own National Apprenticeship Week – a week celebrating the positive impact training schemes can have for those seeking a way into skilled, well-paying work. While many apprenticeships are little more than exploitative work arrangements, there are some on offer that truly change lives. Building Lives, a construction apprenticeship sponsored by the Construction […]
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Panto dames don’t fool us
You may have thought the pantomime season was over. Oh no it isn’t. Panto dames Scam and Ossie have been hard at work. It’s election budget flash the cash time. Like magic, money which has been scarce will suddenly start appearing. The next budget on 18 March will be the last show of […]
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Brewing up for change
On the #NoVoteNoVoice bus we’re asking those to vote who usually don’t get asked. We paid a visit to Ty-Phoo tea in Moreton, Chester, to register the people behind 120 million cups of tea per week. Speaking to this well organised workforce it’s clear that there is a lot of interest in the upcoming general […]
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What impact does outsourcing have on public services?
It has been a mantra of successive governments that the public do not care who provides their public services, only what works in practice. But surveys and opinion polls are pretty consistent in demonstrating public unease and scepticism about the role…Read more…
Maude’s missing the point on facility time
Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude yesterday made an impromptu statement to Parliament. He claimed to have delivered for the tax payer by reducing civil service union facility time. While this may play…Read more…
Largest decline in the production of capital goods for six years
ONS figures today show manufacturing output falling -0.5 per cent between December 2014 and January 2015. Overall, the index of production (which includes energy use and extraction) fell by only -0.1 per cent, because mining and quarrying rose by 2.0 per cent (related to the extraction of crude…Read more…
ONS now say that nominal pay growth is 2 not 4 per cent for those in continuous employment – with real pay stagnating
The Prime Minister recently claimed that everyone who had been in work for more than a year had had a 4.1 per cent pay rise (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2840753/Britain-gets-1-pay-rise-Weekly-earnings-just-0-1-unless-work-year.html) ON…Read more…