Unite Port Talbot steel worker Mark ‘Pasty’ Turner was warmly received by the People’s Assembly marchers in Trafalgar Square on April 16 after addressing the packed throng . …Read more…
Owning the future: Public services for the 21st century
While attention is focussed on the growing financial crisis in the NHS, along comes another privatisation shambles to remind us all that the government’s funding squeeze is not the only threat to the future of our health service. The performance of non-emergency transport services since Coperforma…Read more…
Panama? Only this hat
Marching shoulder to shoulder with steel workers and anti-austerity campaigners from across the UK, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey made it clear Unite refused to accept there was no…Read more…
The power is in our hands
Tens of thousands of protestors descended on central London on Saturday (April 16) for the People’s Assembly March to demand better jobs, health, homes and education. A large delegation of…Read more…
Scottish Parliament elections – Grahame Smith’s speech to Congress
Congress, the election on 5 May is the most important to take place since the Scottish Parliament was re-established. The next Scottish Government will wield new powers on tax, welfare,…Read more…
Trade Union Bill – Pauline Rourke, CWU speech to Congress on behalf of STUC General Council
Congress, Scotland’s trade union movement meets this week here in my home city of Dundee to discuss and constructively debate a huge range of issues that affect the lives of ordinary working people….Read more…
Proud to protest
It seems that protest is out of fashion with some in our movement. It is not in keeping with a party fit for power, or so the argument from some in Labour goes. Well, I don’t agree. …Read more…
NHS Brexit bonanza fails to convince
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been hitting the Brexit campaign trail to claim that quitting the EU would free up the £350m a week they say we spend on the EU to give instead to the NHS. It’s hard to know which end of this one to doubt first. The BBC’s face checkers were…
The post NHS…Read more…
TUC backs Brazilian unions: no to the coup!
You may have seen some stories in the media about political developments in Brazil, where the forces who used to dominate the country while it was under military dictatorship and then in the years…Read more…
Austerity crisis
Food bank use has, for another year running, dramatically increased as more and more people – even those in work – bear the weight of government austerity that’s brought a crisis usually only…Read more…
Last chance to register
Less than a year after the general election, another set of elections are on the horizon – and the stakes this time are just as high. On May 5, the UK goes back to the polls in Scotland, Wales…Read more…
A perfect storm ahead
There is a global power elite that owe no loyalty to nation states. They owe no loyalty to our health service, our education system or even our industrial heartlands. They don’t use them and…Read more…
Defending what millions have died for
Receiving letters in the post can elicit a range of emotions – frustration at another overdue bill, delight that an old friend is getting married. But for Sharon, a simple letter precipitated…Read more…
Shareholders rebel
BP shareholders revolted yesterday (April 14) over the obscene £14m pay packet of chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Dudley. The revolt was the first of many expected by shareholders at major…Read more…
Leave to remain?
Many UK workers could lose some or all of their paid holidays if Britain leaves the EU warned the TUC, after it published new research that showed that a quarter of British employees got extra…Read more…
BAME workers with all levels of qualifications still face high unemployment
When you are young there is an expectation that if you gain higher educational qualifications it will lead to a decent job and higher wages but this is not always the case, especially when you are a Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young worker….Read more…
Black, qualified and unemployed: how the figures were found
Today the TUC released analysis showing that for each level of education, BAME adults are significantly more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts. In this post, I hope to provide a technical discussion about how these figures were calculated. For an important discussion of the…Read more…
TTIP very real threat to NHS
On March 9 Rachel Reeves MP sponsored an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to ensure “that the retention of sovereignty for decisions concerning the NHS will be a red line for future TTIP…Read more…
On our side
Responding to the speech today (April 14) by the leader of the Labour party, Unite said that voters could put their trust in Jeremy Corbyn’s view of Europe. “Ordinary people heard…Read more…
Beginning of the end
The announcement that 61 Crown post offices will be transferred to high street newsagents WH Smith was branded as ‘the beginning of the death rattle’ for a national high-quality post office network….Read more…