Thirty years ago this Sunday (January 24) Rupert Murdoch made his move to Wapping – sacking 5,500 print workers employed on his newspapers overnight. It was an act of sheer brutality…Read more…
NJC – Consultation On Employers Pay Offer April 2016 – March 2018
(This pay claim information DOES NOT apply to members who are employed on NJC, Craft, Soulberry, Chief Officer or Youth Officer terms & conditions) For NJC members – the employer’s side has offered a 1% pay rise from 1 April … Continue reading →Read more…
Early UK ratification of ILO Forced Labour Protocol is a major step forward
This lunchtime, I’m taking part with other trade unionists, CBI representatives and ILO Director General Guy Ryder at the ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s 2014 Forced Labour Protocol, a major step forward in the eradication of modern slavery, trafficking and other…Read more…
Flying another kite – has George Osborne solved his pension tax conundrum?
The sky above Number 11 Downing Street must be a mass of tangled string and paper. In the summer, the Chancellor flew a kite about changing taxation on pensions to resemble that of ISA accounts. Instead of up-front tax relief, savers would pay tax on t…Read more…
Action for Children unions ballot for industrial action in pay dispute
High-handed action by bosses over pay at the charity Action for Children has prompted Unite and UNISON to ballot their members for industrial action. The unions said that management intends to impose…Read more…
4 Ds that matter more than #Davos: Debt, Demand, Deflation and Denial
This week has seen global financial markets continuing to collapse. The UK FTSE entered so-called ‘bear market’ territory (falling at one point by over 20% from peak). Official figures showed the UK CPI was zero in 2015, the lowest annual figure since the great depression. In the policy arena,…Read more…
“It’s the economy, stupid” Sunday Night Live 31 Jan 2016
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Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE …Read more…
Developments in Venezuela
President Maduro Takes Action to Safeguard Bolivarian Revolution Demonstration of supporters of the Bolivarian revolution outside the opening of the National Assembly, January 5, 2016. Venezuelan…Read more…
£37 million of new red tape for unions under the #TUbill
Remember the Red Tape Challenge? Every week, the 2010-15 coalition government would stick a pin in the statute book and ask what seemed to be the Daily Mail reader comments panel to let them know which regulations should be axed. The current Cabinet Of…Read more…
Steel: job losses make grim news
The UK steel industry workforce faced one of its worst blows yesterday (January 18) as steel giant Tata announced the loss of just over 1,000 jobs, the majority of which will be axed at the…Read more…
Don’t hold our jobs to ‘ransom’
Ballymena, Co Antrim and Hollywood. Worlds apart you might think. But such is the threat to jobs and the community that Ballymena-born award winning actor Liam Neeson has joined with Unite to fight…Read more…
Government concession on double strike ballot thresholds for ancillary staff in #TUbill
At the Lords second reading of the Trade Union Bill, the debate kicked off with complaints from opposition and crossbench Peers that the government was late in publishing impact assessment and consultation responses to show their justification for the …Read more…
UNISON set to present Betsi Cadwaladr findings to health board
UNISON Cymru/Wales is to present the findings of its thorough review of what it is like to work for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to the senior management team at a board meeting today….Read more…
Glamorgan decision on learning support registration fees welcomed
Learning support workers or teaching assistants do all those vital but unheralded jobs in our schools
The article Glamorgan decision on learning support registration fees welcomed first appeared on…Read more…
‘UNISON means? Confidence, learning and not getting a pay cut’
Hat tip to UNISON efocus on this article about top UNISON activist (Newham resident & my branch member) Mitsy Harman-Russell.
“Careworker Mitsy tells her story
“I first got involved with UNISON six years ago when they cut our pay from £9 per hour to £6.
“I work with elderly people…Read more…
Union rights as an ESG issue
I’ve blogged a little previously about what I see as a general failure of labour issues to make it very high up the ESG agenda. As someone who has worked with and for trade unions in different ways for much of my adult life I find this frustrating, par…Read more…
Another Fidelity-Conservative Party link?
Looking at the Electoral Commission register of party political donations I can see that there are a number made by someone called Simon M Haslam. This name also turns up in the register of interests for the current Secretary of State for Transport. If…Read more…
A workforce dehumanised
When the SSI steel works in Redcar closed in October the 2,200 skilled workers that lost their jobs knew things were going to be tough. Redcar, Middlesborough and all of the surrounding towns…Read more…
A foolish, petty and self-defeating cut
Saving less than a million pounds a week whilst making it harder to recruit more nurses, plans to cut the NHS bursary must be one of the most foolish, petty and self-defeating cuts to come from this…Read more…
UNISON says A & E minimum staffing levels vital for patient care
Commenting on the leaked NICE report on staffing levels in accident and emergency departments, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “This comes as no surprise. UNISON has long argued the…Read more…