5 March 2015
By Thorsten Schulten, collective bargaining expert at the Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI).
Real pay and collective bargaining coverage are falling dramatically and…Read more…
Further Education budget: slashed by 24%
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) recently announced the 2015/16 funding settlement for adult skills in England. While funding for apprenticeships was largely protected, the adult further education (FE) budget is to be cut by 24%. This is an act of wilful vandalism against the principle of lifelong…Read more…
The decision to not pay the living wage at the IOW Council has to be reversed!
The recent pay talks between unions and the Council have reached a poor settlement. Low paid workers on the Council cannot afford to live on the pay packets awarded them for their hard work. The…Read more…
The time is now when it comes to housing
At a time of house price inflation, falling home ownership, more people privately renting and increased private rents, the recent English Housing Survey showed the proportion of people renting social housing remained steady at 17 per cent in 2013/14[1]. However, the number of people on local…Read more…
Voluntary services face bleak future as ‘servants of the Government’
The involvement of global corporations in the privatisation of public services is firmly on the nation’s agenda. But less well known is the way in which charities and voluntary groups have been seduced or cajoled by New Labour and Coalition governments into helping the outsourcing along. And, in…Read more…
The Backward Logic of Privatisation
Public sector workers are not a cost to the economy; quite the contrary, they are producers of value Those that want to get rid of our Council imply that others can do it better, that there is…Read more…
Major job losses on the horizon
As UNITElive reported last week, the taxpayer-owned bank RBS announced that a major restructuring program was on the horizon but failed to give any details. But two unnamed sources familiar with the matter revealed to the Financial Times March 3 that up to four out of five jobs in the bank’s investment division might […]
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SELF-EMPLOYED – GOVERNMENT MOVES, BUT NOT ENOUGH.
Yesterday the Deregulation Bill completed its passage through the Lords. According to the Government, this Bill will ensure a “reduction of burdens resulting from legislation for businesses or other…Read more…
Vote boosters!
The searing cold sun shone on the big red vote boosting bus today as we rolled onto Sussex University campus, Brighton. We weren’t sure what to expect from the student body at Sussex, as their university has become a hotbed of protest and mass occupation during the past few years. This is how our […]
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Public ownership of rail is not only necessary; it is the only realistic option
A recent article in BBC News Magazine asks the question Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways? Using as a premise the recent passing of the East Coast main line from public to private hands, the article provides an interesting insight int…Read more…
Productivity: no puzzle about it
TUC work issued today contests widely-held views that weak growth in productivity is down to failures of skills and/or other defects with the structure of the economy. Our research shows instead that the government’s austerity policies should take most of the blame for the productivity…Read more…
The demand interpretation of productivity outcomes (technical)
This post follows up the main one on the productivity puzzle, and the fuller TUC report issued today. Most contributions to the debate on the productivity puzzle recognise both demand and supply must play a part. But any arguments about demand are norm…Read more…
“No more cover-ups” – union demands lessons to be learned from Crossrail death
UCATT calls for “honest debate” after inquest goes verdict on Rene Tkacik’s deathRead more…
TUC report blames government for fall in productivity
Frances O’Grady says productivity will not grow significantly without greater levels of demandRead more…
UKIP immigration policies: making it even easier for bosses to exploit workers
Today Nigel Farage outlined UKIP’s immigration policy proposals which revolve around Britain leaving the EU and imposing an Australian-style points system on all non-British citizens entering the country. While Farage seemed to back away from making a commitment on a firm figure at which UKIP would…Read more…
“the only choice for our members will be between a uber right wing Tory or a Labour Government…”
This is from my Labour Link Officer submission to the UNISON Housing Association Branch Annual Report 2014.
“On May 7 2015 the only choice for our members will be between a uber right wing Tory Government or a Labour Government.
If a Tory government…Read more…
Watch Barnet residents take over Council chamber over Libraries proposals
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Caledonia’s sneaky Tory cash drop
Well this is interesting. It turns out that Caledonia Investments hasn’t quite given up on using company money to fund the Tories after all. I speculated last June that they may have given up. My reasons for thinking this were a) they had made no donat…Read more…
UNIONS21 Conference 2015: Rebalancing Britain’s Economy
Unions21 Conference. It is a shame but I have a clash so I don’t think I will be able to make it this year. Read more…
ISS: End poverty pay at QE Hospital, Woolwich
GMB are calling on private contractor ISS to end the two tier workforce at the hospital.Read more…