An action plan is “urgently needed to reverse…[the]…rapid deterioration” in prison safety, concludes a new report by the House of Commons Justice Committee. Published just prior to the government’s Queen’s Speech announcement of a major overhaul of prison services, the report issues a serious…Read more…
Bus stop
Tomorrow (Tuesday May 24) hundreds of Unite bus driver members, working for First Manchester Ltd will stage a one day strike over a series of serious breaches of longstanding industrial agreements….Read more…
McDonnell: We’ll clear way for a new society
Labour ‘will be more radical than Attlee’ Luke James McDonnell: We’ll clear way for a new society THE next Labour government will be more radical than Clement Attlee’s pioneering post-war…Read more…
Academisation: lessons from further education
Those interested in how the government’s academies programme might impact the school education system in years to come should take a look at the recent history of the FE sector for some clues. Over…Read more…
EU: Where Does Decision-Making Power Lie?
An EU Referendum Issue: Where Does Decision-Making Power Lie? May Day, London At the heart of the debate about whether Britain should remain in or leave the European Union is the issue of where…Read more…
Troika-imposed neoliberalism undermines basic employment rights in Romania
23 May 2016
By Dr Aurora Trif, Lecturer in Human Resources Management, Dublin City University
In the second of our series of blogs detailing how the Troika has helped to spread the neoliberalist…Read more…
Does Steve Hilton’s ‘blue sky thinking’ give the game away on Brexit and pregnancy rights?
Today Steve Hilton, the PM’s friend and former adviser, is making the headlines for declaring his support for Britain to leave the EU. In an article in the Daily Mail he makes his case for Brexit claiming that Britain’s membership of the EU makes the country “literally ungovernable”. He complains:…Read more…
Are we making a difference for equality in your workplace?
Can you spare five minutes to help UNISON win equality in the workplace?
The article Are we making a difference for equality in your workplace? first appeared on the UNISON site.Read more…
Human Rights vs. Bill of Rights: What’s in it for the workers?
23 May 2016
By Bob Kelly
With impeccable timing, the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) held a conference on the issue of the Human Rights Act, a day after it was briefly mentioned in the…Read more…
Unions cry foul as European proposals to tackle exploitation of migrants face yellow card
I’ve written before about how the European Union provides the best opportunity to prevent the exploitation of workers who are temporarily posted to other EU countries (and thus the undercutting of the existing workforce.) The best avenue for such action would be revising the EU’s Posted Workers’…Read more…
Asbestos: Time to get rid of it
Asbestos is the biggest cause of workplace deaths. This year 5,000 people are likely to die prematurely as a result of asbestos exposure. This is around three times the number of road accident…Read more…
The Brexit campaign are peddling utter nonsense on the NHS
In recent weeks those who want us to leave Europe – the Tory headbangers, UKIP and friends – have been claiming that the NHS will get more money if we leave the EU. That’s utter nonsense. These are…Read more…
London Loop Walk Section 6: Benstead to Kingston
This post is a little late and off message but the weekend after the May 5 elections I resumed my attempt to walk around the London Loop route from last year.
The London Loop is a 150 mile circular walk around London split into sections. I had hoped t…Read more…
Migrant rights defender back in Thai court
British-born migrant rights activist Andy Hall was back in Southern Bangkok Criminal Court this Thursday (18 May) for just 45 minutes as the most serious of his trials over the last three years…Read more…
Obituary: Ken Cameron
By Peta Steel Ken Cameron, the stalwart socialist General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union who has just died at the age of 75 was one of the most charismatic and effective figures in the trade…Read more…
Why I want to see the UK economy getting stronger and fairer in the EU
In just over a month from now our country will make one of the biggest decisions it has faced in a generation. In campaigning on this issue the first thing I hear on the doorstep when discussing the EU referendum is that the level of debate so far has been very negative on both sides…
The…Read more…
Has Labour betrayed the Working Class?
I am not really into so called “betrayal politics” but recently I had a disagreement over the cause of the relative decline in support for Labour by some white working class voters.
East European Immigration was given as the reason.
I argued that i…Read more…
More questions than answers?
UNISON Branches have until Wednesday to ask questions of the Annual Report to be presented to our Conference next month by our National Executive Council (NEC).
Thus far fewer than a dozen questions have been asked of a Report which (in line with pract…Read more…
Len McCluskey: Labour’s fresh thinking on investment will lead to a stronger economy
Labour must put the brakes on the `Sports Direct economy’ caused by a discredited political dogma which has down-graded industrial strategy, rejected the investment that is vital to growth and has…Read more…
Scotland in UNISON May 2016 now online
Reports of all the main UNISON speakers at the STUC Congress 2016 in Dundee
– Politicians must be bold in opposing austerity
– STUC to fight for fair and Social Europe
– Framework sets out vision for fair work in Scotland
– UNISON wins call to defend human rights
– Post election – where do the unions stand now? – Mike Kirby
– North Lanarkshire beats off privatisation
– Zero hours – bad forRead more…