BMW workers at the home of the Mini in Cowley and the Hams Hall engine plant in the West Midlands will be protesting tomorrow (March 15) over the carmaker’s plans to close their final salary pension…Read more…
‘Over the moon’
Yesterday afternoon couldn’t have been very productive in the Home Office as 500 campaigners stood outside banging pots and pans, blowing whistles and shouting out to make some noise for Orgreave….Read more…
Tipping the balance
As the government drags its feet over the publication of its consultation on tipping practices – now a full eight months overdue – restaurants continue to get away with brazen theft of staff tips….Read more…
Is #Brexit Britain at the front of the queue for a US trade deal, or the end of the line?
When Prime Minister Theresa May visited newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump in January, Brexit supporters were cock-a-hoop about how post-Brexit Britain would be at the front of the queue for a trade deal with the US Trade Representative (USTR – not that there was one when Mrs…Read more…
Union reps are good for workers and employers. And we can prove it!
The annual attempt by organisations like the misleadingly named ‘Taxpayers’ Alliance to provoke outrage about the ‘cost’ of paid release for union reps is a bit like hearing there’s going to be yet…Read more…
#Brexit bad news hidden in #Budget2017
Last week’s Budget speech by the Chancellor had very little to say about Brexit. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a Brexit angle – you just have to look at what wasn’t there, rather than what was. First, there was very little in the Budget to prepare for the…Read more…
Putting all our eggs in Empire 2.0 – risking rights & living standards
Ahead of Commonwealth Day tomorrow, Commonwealth trade ministers were in London last week, hosted by the UK international trade minister and leading Leave supporter Liam Fox. The media claimed that several Commonwealth countries were ‘first in the queue’ to do a trade deal with the UK…Read more…
Government risking ‘leap in the dark’ with no deal
The Government’s much-touted negotiating threat that ‘no deal would be better than a bad deal’ risks doing huge damage to the UK economy, our jobs, rights at work and living standards. Last week the all-party Commons Select Committee on International Trade made clear that…Read more…
‘Bitterly disappointed’
On the surface things are looking up for Britain’s future apprentices, who will keep the skills and knowledge needed for a productive and secure economy alive in the years to come. At…Read more…
Stop the exploiters
What with the budget shambles, the ongoing concerns over the future of the UK motor industry and the never ending Brexit saga, it was very easy to miss a very significant announcement this week by…Read more…
‘Stitched up’
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday (March 9) proposals that would threaten 400 jobs, as the firm put forward plans to shut a surgical suture manufacturing plant in…Read more…
Masking sickness at work?
Fear for their jobs has prompted British workers to take the fewest number of sick days since records began – only 137m working days last year were lost to sickness, equivalent to just over four days…Read more…
Fairness call
Unite members at the Faslane and Coulport naval bases on the Clyde have voted in favour of industrial action, in a dispute over worker rights. Unite says that Babcock Marine is carrying out a…Read more…
Precarious work – the union experience
What is insecure work and has it increased? This blog examines precarious or insecure work, how it manifests itself in the workplace and whether insecure work practices have increased. Insecure work includes: agency work or seasonal, casual, temporary …Read more…
‘Pensions’ betrayal’
BMW Group bosses were accused of ‘penny pinching’ and seeking to rob car workers making the iconic Mini and Roll-Royce motorcars of their future pensions today (March 9), as the carmaker reported…Read more…
Stop the decline spiral
In the wake of the sharpest and most sustained drop in the price of oil in decades, the UK oil industry is staring into an abyss as more than a hundred thousand jobs have gone in the last two years…Read more…
‘Best decision you’ll make’
When Nikita Taylor began her four-year electrical engineering apprenticeship at the Vauxhall plant in Luton she was one of only a handful of women working at the site. “Over the six years that…Read more…
Print jobs at risk
Unite said today (March 9) that it would mount a strong campaign to retain the estimated 120 jobs under threat at Suffolk book printer, Clays. “Clays is the heart of the local community…Read more…
‘Nothing more than PR’
Plans outlined today (March 9) by the embattled retailer Sports Direct, to choose a worker representative to sit in on its board meetings, drew a sceptical response from Unite. The union which…Read more…
OECD must involve workers in developing global rules on investment
On Tuesday I spoke at a conference held at the OECD in Paris on the costs and benefits of investment protection agreements like Investor-State Dispute Settlement. In the morning conference participants had heard something important – the experts gathered by the OECD had, in all their…Read more…