The Unite Community ‘Housing Crisis Roadshow’ reached the seaside town of Ramsgate yesterday, where local people said unaffordable house prices and a shortage of social housing has left them unable…Read more…
Knocking down the barriers
Migrant workers at Sports Direct (SD) in Shirebrook have praised Unite for assisting them with learning English. The union has established eight English for Speakers of a Second Language…Read more…
‘The best job in the world’
It is hard not to take it personally. Rarely a week goes by without some keyboard warrior with a newspaper byline telling unions how they ought to do this, that or the next thing better. …Read more…
The way we think about debt is stopping us from solving the problem
As many as 3.2 million households, and more than 7 million people may be struggling with problem levels of debt, according to a new Centre for Responsible Credit study we commissioned with Unison. A large number of those households face debt levels that they may never clear. This debt leaves them…Read more…
Remembering past victims of slavery is crucial, but it’s not over yet
The 23 August is the UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery – a day to remember the horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Estimates vary but around 11 million people…Read more…
The post-crisis consumer debt boom is less explosive, but even more unaffordable
It is well known that economic growth has still been excessively reliant on households, even in spite of the unprecedented falls in real earnings of recent years. Today the TUC publishes analysis that shows just how heavy pressures on some households have become. The ‘Britain in the Red’ report, by…Read more…
Standstill wages mean over a million low-income families struggle with extreme debt
Today saw the publication of our (The Centre for Responsible Credit) final report from the joint TUC and Unison commissioned ‘Britain in the Red’ project. The project has been looking at available aggregate and household survey data to track the extent of household over-indebtedness: particularly…Read more…
Steel: Still no gov’t strategy
Steel giant Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks is back in profit – but workers’ jobs still hang in the balance. Just six months ago the plant – Tata’s biggest UK steelworks – was making a loss of…Read more…
Tax cheat curb plans are useless
New plans to hit firms that sell tax avoidance schemes with heavy fines are useless – because the Tories have stripped HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of its resources for catching cheats, leading…Read more…
Services will go in cuts frenzy
Local government services in the historic city of Bristol will be shredded because of swingeing cuts imposed by the Tory government, trade unions warned today (Monday August 22). Care for…Read more…
Unite Scotland house build call
And from the south east of England to Scotland – Unite is out to defeat the UK’s housing misery crisis. Unite Scotland announced (August 19) it is backing calls for a national strategy to…Read more…
The shame of London hotels
Global hotel chains stand accused of making London one of the most ‘unethical’ tourist destinations in the world by its own workforce in a hard hitting report launched today (Monday August 22) by…Read more…
Taking housing fight to south east
Although the housing crisis has hit the entire UK to varying degrees, it has become an entrenched and alarming problem in the South East – earlier this year it was revealed that there is not one…Read more…
Sexual harassment: Not banter, not funny
Nearly two in three young women, and predominantly those in zero hours’ contracts or agency work, are sexually harassed at work, a TUC survey has revealed. The TUC’s research, in partnership…Read more…
Self-employment at all-time high, but earnings down 25% on pre-crisis peak
Yesterday’s labour market figures showed another rise in self-employment, of 94,000 on the quarter, with employee jobs up 73,000. As a share of total employment, self-employment is now at an all-time high – at 15.1% in 2016Q2, above the previous peak of 15.0% in 2014Q2. Though really a steadily…Read more…
Record employment and profits bode well for minimum wage increase
Some employers have been lobbying the government to slow down or stall its minimum wage target for those aged 24 and above. The argument made is that post-referendum economic uncertainty will make the target impossible to meet. This is palpable nonsense. First, the Low Pay Commission (LPC) is…Read more…
Timetable now call
The government’s continued incompetence in devising a long-term defence strategy has been again exposed after last month the ministry of defence (MoD) refused to set out a timetable for building its…Read more…
Unite: May ‘must re-double efforts’
If you happen to be a black or Asian ethnic minority (BAEM) person in the UK today, you’ll inhabit a vastly different world than the rest of the population – you’re much more likely to be jobless, to…Read more…
Profession under pressure
Overwhelming evidence proves that a child’s life chances are largely determined by what they experience between the ages of 0 and 5. If you’re a healthy, supported young child, you’ll be a healthy,…Read more…
Pizza Factory jobs threat
The threat to 350 jobs at The Pizza Factory in Nottingham was branded ‘a hammer blow’ for the workers and the local economy by Unite last night (August 17). Unite is due to hold talks with the…Read more…