As wind and rain batters the north of England I want to pay tribute to our members
The article UNISON members are working flat out first appeared on the UNISON site.Read more…
Make or break time for the voluntary sector: NCIA goes out with a challenge
When do you know it’s time to call it a day? For the past decade the National Coalition of Independent Action (NCIA) has been sounding an alarm bell: voluntary groups are failing in their democratic job as an independent force for positive change, and must fight back. Now, after 10 years, we have…Read more…
Glasgow campaigners target G1 Grinch
Union flash mob campaigners target notorious entertainment group G1’s premium venue The Corinthian for some Christmas mischief.Read more…
Are you a Non Safe Festive Worker?
Christmas parties at work are a great chance to let our hair down, and to see a different side of the people we spend more time with than our own families. But they can also wreck the work…Read more…
Unison Branch Magazine December 2015
Features in this issue include:- Unions help to support the families of Bosley Mill Christmas Celebration Charity Bake Off 10 December 2015 AGM 2016 – diary date Unison Campaigning Across Stoke-On-Trent Why Join A Union? December 2015Read more…
LOBOs – Long term pain for short term gain?
I have posted on LOBOs before. I think that this article by Janine Alexander from Collyer Bristow LLP pretty much tells it as it is…
“Many local authorities and housing associations have taken out “LOBO” (Lender Option Borrower Option) loans over the past 15 years. They were particularly…Read more…
Humanity – a poem for refugees by Joy Johnson
Packing up her school books
Laughing with her friend
It only took a moment
For her school days to come to an end
“We’re only kids in school”
Her voice was pained but clear
Bodies charred…Read more…
Skilled trades workers vote for UAW recognition at VW
The US trade union movement had some good news last week when skilled-trades workers at Volkswagen’s U.S. assembly plant in Chatanooga, Tennessee voted for union representation and collective…Read more…
Parliament Votes for War:
The Fight for an Anti-War Government Becomes Ever More Necessary 5-10,000 people protesting in Downing Street on Saturday, November 28. Protest against the bombing of Syria in Parliament Square on…Read more…
Sunday Night Live “21st Century NHS – a state of perpetual upheaval and crisis. Where now for the health service?”
Pictures from last weekends “Sunday Night Live” at Stratford Picture House, E15. The debate was about the crisis in the NHS.
West Hammer Neil Wilson chaired. There was two guest speakers, Nigel Keohane, from the Social Market Foundation and Jos …Read more…
On loyalty
Loyalty is central to effective trade unionism – but different people have different understandings of loyalty.
A couple of weeks ago UNISON members in my own branch, working in libraries, gave a lesson in loyalty when they spontaneously took unofficial strike action in defence of their jobs and…Read more…
Lessons from Oldham for the Blairite Tendency
There has been little so entertaining this week as reading the bemused response to the Oldham by-election result in the mainstream media. All those ‘Corbyn must go’ stories had to binned and a whole…Read more…
#COP21: Put just transition back into UN climate treaty
This morning at the Paris climate change conference the UN has released a further draft text, which as we had feared places references to Just Transition of the workforce and the ILO principle of decent work in the relegation zone. It seems clear from …Read more…
The Drinking Man’s Diet
Off message Friday Fun but if Carling did diets would this probably be the best diet in the world…. ? Picture on right of its author, Robert Cameron, who first published his book in 1964 and is seen here in a “recent” photo aged 93.
“The Drinking Man’s Diet is a fad diet that was made famous…Read more…
Two closure-threatened NI care homes bought
Northern Ireland regional secretary Patricia McKeown says announcement that two of seven Four Seasons homes have beeb bought by local companies comes as a source of relief to the residents and the…Read more…
UNISON calls on the government to also scrap ET fees following the end of the criminal courts charge
Commenting on the Secretary of State for Justice’s decision to scrap the criminal courts charge, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “ Removing the criminal courts charge is right. I now call…Read more…
For UNISON – stand aside Dave!
The ballot has closed in the election for General Secretary in which I have been proud to have supported John Burgess. John proposed a radical and credible platform based upon a creditable record of effective leadership.
I didn’t back Roger Bannister (an old friend whom I have backed in the past),…Read more…
Cuts by a new name
After months of criticism from all sides, Chancellor George Osborne finally caved in on tax credits in his autumn statement last week, pledging to reverse cuts that would see Britain’s poorest…Read more…
Save ‘jewels in the crown’
Unite Community members in Huddersfield have vowed to “keep fighting for properly funded public libraries” after Kirklees Council pushed through major cuts in the service. In…Read more…
UNISON is to ballot workers in Further Education colleges in row over pay
UNISON is to ballot further education (FE) workers in England in a row over pay, the union says today (Friday). The ballot – which will open in the New Year – is in response to the national…Read more…