Great Youtube video produced by the Institute of Employment Rights’ featuring Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC. I don’t think even trade unionists really understand that the most important thing we do is collective bargaining with employer…Read more…
After today – Prioritise Motion 106 to National Delegate Conference
The decisions of today’s Special Local Government Conference create a lot of further work. Our Service Group Executive (SGE) and our National Joint Council (NJC) Committee (which is accountable to our Service Group Conference) will both have to act on …Read more…
New housing book now available
What Future for Council Housing? Council Housing and the housing crisis A book by Martin Wicks There is much debate about the acute housing crisis in Britain though it is mostly the voices of housing professionals and academics that are heard, not to m…Read more…
UNISON Special Conference – reasons to be cheerful
Today, delegates at UNISON’s Special Local Government Conference took a small but necessary step in the direction of a member-led union which fights for our members.
The headline decision, taken when the Conference voted by 60 per cent to 40 per cent to support Composite C, was to submit a claim…Read more…
Longannet – three reasons why it’s closing early
The early closure of Longannet power station in Fife is a shocking blow to the workforce and the Fife economy. The causes are a toxic cocktail of company indifference, absurd regulations and an…Read more…
UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link AGM with Emma Reynolds MP
Last Tuesday evening we had our Annual General Meeting of Greater London UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link at the House of Commons. UNISON Labour Link members (also known as APF) choose to support and affiliate to the Labour Party
Our keyn…Read more…
Support Composite C at the Special Local Government Conference
I was very pleased this evening to attend the excellent eve-of-Special-Conference fringe meeting hosted by the Camden branch.The attendance at the fringe meeting was (in spite of the fact that so many delegates are not yet in London) more than enough t…Read more…
Police not immune to government’s ruthless austerity agenda
New UNISON report reveals that cuts to police scientific services are placing criminal investigations at riskRead more…
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island George Osborne’s Budget speech reminded me of the old saying, an empty vessel makes the most noise. He was talking about a fantasy island of his own imagining far removed from the real country in which all the victims of his austerity programme live. True, as journalist Paul…Read more…
History & Policy Group – Whatever Happened To Collective Bargaining?
UK Must Become Modern Manufacturing Economy Says TUC
The employers body Confederation of British Industry has set out its proposals for the first hundred days of the new Government – and it doesn’t make comfortable reading for the Tories. The…Read more…
The Manifesto for Change – Call for Trade Unionist’s to Vote Labour
Great video from Trade Unions for Labour (TULO) on the Labour Party “Manifesto for Change”. A quietly spoken, Paul Kenny, from the GMB asks trade unionists to “When it comes to Vote, Vote Labour, no other Party, No other movement is going to deliver th…Read more…
Warham and Wighton from Wells-Next-The-Sea Walk
This is off message and a little late but last month I went for a weekend in Cromer, Norfolk and went on this fantastic 8.5mile walk on the Saturday starting in Wells. The Norfolk coast and countryside is simply stunning.
The blue, big Eastern skies a…Read more…
Audacity and the Power of Union Education
Colleagues,
I’ve just finished an exhausting, but hugely rewarding weekend’s teaching on the MA in international labour and trade union studies (ILTUS) at Ruskin.
A huge thanks to all who contributed. On Friday this was:
Sue Ledwith (creator of the …Read more…
Composite A – lets have a “unified and positive climate” and pretend our leaders didn’t totally screw up our pay dispute?
UNISON’s Special Local Government Conference is now just two days away. It’s only the second time in UNISON’s history that a Special Conference has arisen from a branch requisition.This occurred because the gross mismanagement of the 2014 NJC pay dispute led us into the most catastrophic…Read more…
Questions worth asking
‘BLACKLISTED’ is a new book out exposing an old practice which has blighted the lives of thousands of workers and their families in this country, and despite breaching laws about data protection, not…Read more…
“Union representatives here to stay on trustee boards”
The “Local Government Chronicle” reports huge fights currently going on between trade unions and Council officers about representation on the new Local Government Pension Scheme Boards.
It is clear that some Councils are trying to openly s…Read more…
Greater London UNISON Labour Link Delegate Elections 2015
I was pleased last week to hear that I had been elected unopposed to this year’s UNISON Labour Link National Forum with Jonathan Slater and James Beckles.
There is still an election for female delegates to National Forum and Labour Party Conference.
…Read more…
World Water Day
Today is UN World Water Day. It’s a day to celebrate water. It’s a day to make a difference for people across the world who suffer from water related issues. It’s a day to prepare for how we manage…Read more…
West Ham Labour in Forest Gate & “Keeping it Co-op”
This collage is from today’s West Ham Labour Party stall in Forest Gate. Lyn Brown MP and local Party members and supporters handed out leaflets on Labour plans to save the NHS and rent controls. We also leafleted shoppers at our local Co-operative sto…Read more…