I have a post at Left Foot Forward, looking at today’s employment statistics. While the employment recovery is going well, young people seem to be the last to benefit from it, with the number of unemployed under-25s actually having gone up a little. The other weak point is pay –…Read more…
The Right to Strike is a Human Right
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have called for a day of action on the 18th February in support of the right to strike. Currently employer organisations, including the CBI, are…Read more…
Using public procurement for a fairer Scotland
More than £10bn of Scottish taxpayers cash goes on buying goods and services in the private sector. This procurement activity could do much more to deliver the Scottish Government and other public…Read more…
Morning Star comment: Divide and rule is the oldest trick in the book
Comment in today’s Morning Star. Scapegoating immigrants is a way to distract attention from the economic crisis and who caused it. You have to go back to the 1930s to find anything worse in…Read more…
What’s REALLY bugging Eurozone hardliners about Syriza?
The brinkmanship and rhetoric surrounding the renegotiation of Greece’s memorandum with the Troika was ramped up this week as a meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on Monday broke up without…Read more…
Bright Blue on migration: bright enough, but in the end, too blue
Soft left Conservative think tank Bright Blue has hit the headlines with a new report on what the centre right should be saying about migration this week. In what was mostly newsworthy as an attack from within on the ridiculous Government policy of capping net migration, there are some good ideas,…Read more…
Defend the right to strike – under threat at home and abroad
Today a global day of action in defence of the right to strike is being called to highlight the serious attacks on fundamental union rights. The Institute of Employment Rights reports that the…Read more…
When working people worldwide don’t get justice
What should happen when a company abuses its workers? When, for example, people are injured as a result of working in unsafe conditions, or victimised because they speak up for others? In this country, thanks to the trade union movement, if workers are…Read more…
Why the ILO must continue to police the right to strike
As deepening economic inequality shows that strong trade unions are needed more than ever, employers are engaged in a ruthless assault on one of the most fundamental labour laws of all. But, as the…Read more…
The Great White Elephant on the Euston Road
Regular readers of this blog (Sid and Doris Blogger) who have been disappointed by my recent silence (attributable to the volume of work some of us are facing at branch level) will note that – in the run up to tomorrow’s meeting of the UNISON National Executive Council (NEC) I am blogging again…Read more…
Priorities for public service unionism
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/100000th-pcs-member-signs-up-to-direct-debit
In what we all hope are the last weeks of a Government which has shown a more consistently visceral hostility to trade unionism than any of its predecessors since the early nineteenth…Read more…
Uncovering the Past, Making Sure There’s No Cover-up in Present
ARCHEOLOGICAL excavations due to start soon at Liverpool Street, in London’s central business district, will uncover the bones of many poor, forgotten Londoners, buried in part of the 16th…Read more…
UNISON standing up to racism
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/stand-up-to-racism
It’s good to see UNISON’s high profile support for the forthcoming demonstration against racism, in London on 21 March.
As the continuing crisis unleashed by the banking collapse continues to work …Read more…
Climate actions speak louder than words
Through union lobbying efforts, we got back “The just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work” in the UN’s 88-page draft treaty agreed last week in Geneva. Given the massive changes in the world of work that lie ahead, it’s a relief to see core trade union issues back in play…Read more…
Governing pension schemes in the interests of members
There are basically two models of workplace pension. The traditional model is run by trustees, who have a legal duty to act solely in the interests of their members. In pensions jargon, these are known as occupational pensions, though I prefer to call …Read more…
Ian Stephens, Independent Councillor and ex-leader of the Isle of Wight Council, is standing for Parliament
From the Workers’ oppositional point of view, how can we view Ian Stephens candidature? Ian Stephens is an Independent who has listened, to a certain extent, and worked with the Trades Unions on the…Read more…
Same pay for the same job – is that too much to ask?
The TUC is putting the issues of low pay, poor job security and increasing living costs in the spotlight with Fair Pay Fortnight. Here is a contact centre worker’s personal account of being employed…Read more…
#TTIP: battle hots up over NHS and workers’ rights
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom was in London yesterday, and there was a lot of talk about the EU-US trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). In particular, as has been the case for months, the hot topic wa…Read more…
Fair Pay Fortnight – Britain Needs a Pay Rise
Check out TUC website. These facts are a national disgrace and no Party except Labour will do anything to change this. “From 16 February to 1 March 2015 the TUC is running Fair Pay Fortnight, a series of events across the country that will raise awareness about Britain’s cost of living crisis.
…Read more…
Democratise our savings – Why we need a Magna Carta for Pensions
Many thanks to Henry Tapper for the plug on his website “Pension Playpen – Restoring Confidence in Pension”.
Henry talks sense and reflects a fairly widespread unease amongst member nominated trustees at least, that “professional” or corporate trustee…Read more…