The Prime Minister’s speech on Brexit today has raised more questions than it has answered, and in particular, the TUC wants to know what exactly the Government has planned for working people before Parliament votes on the EU-UK deal she intends to negotiate. Her commitment to protect…Read more…
‘On the edge of collapse’
GPs, already facing unconscionable workloads working for an underfunded and understaffed NHS, were threatened by prime minister Theresa May at the weekend (January 14) with even more cuts to their…Read more…
More than just one ‘blue’ day
Yesterday (January 16) was Blue Monday, officially the most depressing day of the year and it falls each year on the third Monday of January. For many the end of the Christmas period is hard –…Read more…
Don’t throw our jobs under a bus
It is time to stop the posturing. Far too many people in public life are discussing Brexit as if it is a parlour game all about political positioning. It is not. Jobs are at stake and with…Read more…
Organising using health and safety just got easier
There is a brand new resource available from today for anyone who wants to consider how to make their workplace safer through building a strong union. Last year the TUC published a guide to…Read more…
Minimum Wage – how we can catch the cheating employers.
More than 250,000 UK workers are paid less than the legal minimum wage – let’s put this right. At a conservative estimate, minimum wage underpayment affects 250,000 people, but we fear that the true figure could be higher. For instance, we have heard that the forthcoming official…Read more…
Colombian trade union leader free at last
Three and a half years ago, Colombian agriculture union leader Huber Ballesteros was on his way to the British Embassy in Bogota to collect his visa to visit the UK to speak at the 2013 TUC Congress….Read more…
Tackling precarious work & addressing migration concerns
Last week I spoke at a conference organised by the TUC and Exeter University on ‘Confronting change: Globalization, Migration and Precarious Labour in the Age of Brexit.’ This is a summary of my speech. As conditions have become more insecure for workers since 2006 – a recent TUC report showed 1 in…Read more…
Hunt ‘come clean’
The cash-strapped NHS could be spending up to £15m on management consultants for advice on the secretive shake-up of the health service in England, Unite has warned today. Unite, with 100,000…Read more…
Credit debt blues
As millions of Britons settle back into the first few weeks of work following the festive season, we know all too well that the party’s over, the feasts have been eaten, the presents opened and we’re…Read more…
Hammond reveals a stark choice: single market or deregulated tax-haven
While Prime Minister May was engaged in a second weekend of mixed messages about whether she will advocate a hard or soft Brexit, her Chancellor was telling German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that if we don’t get to keep full access to the single market, Britain will indeed be likely to become…Read more…
Working people will judge the PM’s Brexit strategy on whether it protects jobs and rights
After hearing for months that Brexit means Brexit, we may be about to hear what it actually means. As Theresa May gives her big speech to diplomats at Lancaster House on Tuesday, on how she intends to negotiate our exit from the EU, working people will be watching to see if her strategy will do…Read more…
What has globalisation ever done for the workers?
These remarks are an edited version of a speech I gave on union responses to globalisation at a joint seminar organised by the TUC and the University of Exeter on Brexit, globalisation and migration…Read more…
MPs right to call for a Brexit that protects working people
The first report of the Brexit Select Committee, published this morning, is right to call on the government to set out its plans for Brexit, including membership of the single market and the Customs Union, among other things. The TUC believes that thes…Read more…
‘No time to waste’
As prime minister Theresa May continues to ignore the mounting funding problems faced by the NHS — whose ongoing crisis was most shockingly exemplified by the story of a sick baby being treated on…Read more…
Decent basic rights call
Angry dock workers at Liverpool’s Seaforth container terminal working for Peel Ports have had enough and pictured today (January 13) are Unite members protesting over the atrocious poor conditions…Read more…
Justice fight goes on
Up to 300 workers, members of Unite are continuing to take strike action today (January 13). But in a goodwill gesture, Unite is suspending the strike action scheduled for Thursday (January…Read more…
Anti-austerity’s frontline fighters
Volunteer benefits adviser John Kelly has got used to seeing people on the breadline in distress because their welfare has been stopped or sanctioned, but that doesn’t make it any easier in the heart…Read more…
Globalisation isn’t a ‘given’
Thanks to Geoff Tily, who co-authored this blog. The impact of globalisation on working people’s wages, jobs and prospects emerged as one of the key themes of 2016, following the seismic political developments in both Europe and the US. 2017 sees no sign of the debate going away. The policymaking…Read more…
Members fight on for pay justice
British Airways’ ‘mixed fleet’ cabin crew working on long and short haul flights out of Heathrow Airport will be taking part in a three day strike next week in their dispute over poverty pay, Unite…Read more…