Today’s GDP figures look good on an annual basis, but they hide a slowdown in the last two quarters that starts to look like a trend.
GDP, grew 0.5% in the fourth quarter of the year, compared with…Read more…
Vote Alan Pottage number 1
RMT Waterloo Branch News (1636) 2015-01-27 18:52:00
Shipload of Memories
I’M always a bit wary about stories that claim to be reporting “Jewish outrage” about something or other. Not that Jews haven’t the right to be outraged about anything. But too often the…Read more…
NHS strike suspended – what are the lessons from local government about consultation?
http://www.unison.org.uk/planned-nhs-strike-suspended
Ahead of Thursday’s planned strike action, the NHS trade unions (led by UNISON) have suspended that and any further action whilst members are consulted on an offer which our Head of Health describes…Read more…
#HolocaustMemorialDay 2015: Remember the holocaust
This Holocaust Memorial Day the spotlight is on the worrying growth of anti-semitism in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, where hard right and neo-fascist parties are gaining ground. The attacks in…Read more…
The slowest recovery in modern history slows down
GDP figures today disappointed expectations, with growth slowing for the second quarter in row, and increasingly departing already from the Office for Budgetary Responsibility forecast. In numbers: growth slowed to 0.5% in the last quarter of 2014, from 0.7% in the third quarter. This defied city…Read more…
The Nazi Holocaust – never forget, never repeat
#HMD2015 Today, International Holocaust Memorial Day, is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Angela Rayner, UNISON’s North West…Read more…
Debts that cannot be repaid
THE Greek people have elected the left-wing Syriza party into office, signalling they’ve had enough of imposed austerity and unemployment, and though the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn remains menacing in…Read more…
70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army
Russia Excluded from Commemoration Ceremonies Prisoners at the Nazis’ Auschwitz concentration camp are liberated by the Red Army, January 27, 1945. The attempts to rewrite history are…Read more…
Committee on Workers Capital – Global Proxy Review 2014
Check out this report published last week by the Committee on Workers Capital (CWC).
The CWC has “over 200 members from 25 different countries, the CWC connects labour union organizations around the world to advance the responsible investment …Read more…
Syriza’s impact on Europe: forget what the ‘serious people’ say
Paul Krugman is apparently bemused by the comparative performances of the US and European economies. The US, allegedly the home of responsible and prudent public finances, has outperformed the EU (and especially the eurozone) by deploying spendthrift, …Read more…
CDC pensions are better for the economy
At the TUC’s ABC of CDC conference, my good friend Bernard Casey of Warwick University asked Gregg McClymont, the Shadow Pensions Minister, the sources of the superior projected performance of CDC compared to individual DC. “Different speakers have emphasised the “main” advantage of…Read more…
An alternative to austerity
http://labourlist.org/2015/01/16-labour-mps-release-statement-calling-for-change-in-party-policy-direction/
Greece may have just elected an anti-austerity Government, but in the UK we have rather fewer Parliamentarians prepared to commit to oppose the …Read more…
The lesson from Greece – austerity must end
Yesterday, the Observer presaged the outcome of the Greek general election – a victory for the anti-austerity Syriza coalition – with an emphatic statement that ‘the lesson of the Greek national…Read more…
Making up lost ground on pay
What is happening to workers’ pay is becoming one of the central arguments in the run up to the general election with the Government making much of the latest statistics on earnings and inflation. The collapse in the world price of oil has forced inflation on the CPI measure down to 0.5% while…Read more…
Countryside bids on the Isle of Wight should be blocked:
This is not a good move and the notice for bids should be withdrawn. The move is part and parcel of the privatisation and land grab orientation of Government. Access and Public ownership and…Read more…
The Greek elections and UK trade unions
http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2015/01/could-the-greeks-bring-us-gifts-this-sunday/
The General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (no less) posted the blog post to which I link above early last week in anticipation of what has now come to pass, Syri…Read more…
Unison AGM 25 February 2015 5.00 pm
The Unison City of Stoke-On-Trent Local Government Branch AGM will take place on Wednesday 25 February 2015 at 5.00 pm in the Windsor Room, Civic Centre, Stoke. This will be preceded by a buffet at 4.20 pm which must be … Continue reading →Read more…
2014-2016 Pay Scales
Pay scales for 2014- March 2016 are available here to download (NB the figures do not take into account those local authorities who pay the living wage) 2014-2016 Read more…