25 February 2015
According to a press release from ITUC today (25 February 2015), a breakthrough has been made at the International Labour Organisation(ILO) following two years during which…Read more…
Valuing our care workforce: Fair pay and respect for the job
Two stories this month have told us everything we need to know about the terrible social imbalances in the UK. On the one hand we had the revelation that some of the wealthiest people in our society had been advised by HSBC about how to avoid paying tax. The consequences are a £34 billion tax ‘gap’…Read more…
Speech: CWU South West Region AGM
Thank you for the opportunity to address your AGM. Our regional committees are for the branches, to have a forum to discuss our general position in the wider labour movement. Now, we are in election…Read more…
Achieving fair pay – The importance of ethnicity and geography
New research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that low pay is a problem across all ethnic groups in the UK, but is much worse for some than for others.Read more…
Next meeting: 24 March at the Eagle – Tim Ridgway from Latest TV
Latest TV’s News Editor Tim Ridgway has agreed to be guest speaker at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 24 March 2015.
http://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/category/watch-our-latest-shows/news/
Venue is once again the…Read more…
What has been happening to self-employment lately?
Self-employment has become a popular subject recently, with many commentators having various explanations for the rise in self-employment. In this post I am aiming to clarify what’s been happening to self-employment over the long term, since 2008, over the past year, and the important difference…Read more…
Guatemala’s Wages See-Saw: minimum pay rights under threat
As British unions campaign for decent wages during Fair Pay Fortnight, Guatemala faces a threat to one of the few protections it has for workers – the minimum wage. The attack is, bizarrely,…Read more…
Where are our unions in Scottish Labour’s policies?
WITH only 10 weeks until Britain’s general election the main parties are setting out the territory on which the campaign will be fought.
Inevitably, the economy (or more likely it’s fallacious…Read more…
Austerity job losses – bad for all but worse for some
In order to divert attention from the public sector jobs carnage caused by its austerity policies, the Conservative Party claims that ‘there are now two million more private sector jobs than there…Read more…
Fidelity uses profits from your pension to fund the Tories and put you out of a job?
Check out Tom P post “Fidelity, the Tory-friendly fund manager”
Just think about it. The multi millionaire owners of Fidelity uses profits from managing Council pension funds to promote the Tories – who want to sack and/or destroy the pay and co…Read more…
All hail the ‘long-term plan’ (OECD Economic Survey on the UK)
The OECD today accomplished a miracle, hailing the long-term plan, making departures from the plan seem natural, all with the illusion of delivery. “What a difference effective economic policies can make”, Mr Gurria (the secretary-general) gushed at the press conference, making his own…Read more…
How unions help their members win better pay
Joining together to win a better deal for members is the cornerstone of a trade union’s work. For Fair Pay Fortnight, we’ve rounded up some recent stories of how unions are making a real…Read more…
Speech: CWU Political Event – afternoon session
There’s no doubt over the CWU’s commitment to the return of a majority Labour Government. This is the policy of the union’s Annual Conference. It is the policy that we have been working…Read more…
minimum wage cheats – why not name all of them?
The government has named a further 70 employees caught underpaying the minimum wage*. This is welcome news, which brings the total named in the past year up to 162. However, they should now go on and name the other 490 employers caught cheating last year. In addition, they should take some of the…Read more…
It’s not just Britain that needs that pay rise
During Fair Pay Fortnight, the TUC has been sending out a clear message about Britain’s shrinking pay packet, but how do things compare with the rest of Europe? Well according to the latest analysis by the Labour Research Department (LRD), the UK is close to the bottom of the pile. LRD’s Workplace…Read more…
Ukraine: Poroshenko bruised by army retreat
By David Stern BBC News, Kiev Damage in Vihlehirsk, near Debaltseve, testifies to the intensity of the fighting The question is not whether the fall of the strategically important road and rail hub…Read more…
A Living Rent
This motion was passed at my branch AGM which took place in City Hall last week. It will be one of our motions submitted to our UNISON National Conference in June (the other on “Union Busting”).
If people think a “Living Wage” makes sense, then what a…Read more…
The Future of Private Enterprise
One of the more interesting books I read in the past couple of years is the Future of Private Enterprise by George Goyder. It’s interesting for various reasons. For one, it’s a reminder that when it was published (1954) mainstream views about the natur…Read more…
Web links for 23rd February 2015
‘In Conversation’ with Frances O’Grady at SPERI Frances O’Grady talks about inequality at Sheffield UNI SPERI. Discussing her time in Davos this year, she makes the case that “you cannot redistribute wealth unless you are prepared to redistribute power”. Whether…Read more…
Public water contract – ultimate in market madness
Paying a privatised English water company to provide Scottish public water to Scotland’s public services has to be the ultimate in market madness.
An article in yesterday’s Sunday Times reports that…Read more…