More than 250,000 UK workers are paid less than the legal minimum wage – let’s put this right. At a conservative estimate, minimum wage underpayment affects 250,000 people, but we fear that the true figure could be higher. For instance, we have heard that the forthcoming official…Read more…
“One article does not wipe the slate clean”
A really important and interesting article by Steve Hilditch on the Labour Housing Group website “Red Brick” about the undermining of social housing during the last decade. The CEO of Notting Hill is not the only one and actually not the worse by…Read more…
Looking back in Lambeth
Next week I shall cease, for the first time in more than twenty six years, to hold a position as an officer of my trade union branch. Since I became Branch Chair of Lambeth NALGO in the autumn of 1990 I have always been part of the leadership of the branch and – since I first took up a position…Read more…
Colombian trade union leader free at last
Three and a half years ago, Colombian agriculture union leader Huber Ballesteros was on his way to the British Embassy in Bogota to collect his visa to visit the UK to speak at the 2013 TUC Congress….Read more…
Tackling precarious work & addressing migration concerns
Last week I spoke at a conference organised by the TUC and Exeter University on ‘Confronting change: Globalization, Migration and Precarious Labour in the Age of Brexit.’ This is a summary of my speech. As conditions have become more insecure for workers since 2006 – a recent TUC report showed 1 in…Read more…
Blog: Cash-strapped schools are struggling to give children a decent education
Only last month I wrote here about the problems facing school funding – and the need for the funding formula to resolve it in a way that’s fair to communities across the country. I said: “The…Read more…
Hunt ‘come clean’
The cash-strapped NHS could be spending up to £15m on management consultants for advice on the secretive shake-up of the health service in England, Unite has warned today. Unite, with 100,000…Read more…
Derby school support staff start week of action
Teaching assistants, school supervisors, admin staff and other support workers striking between 7am and 1pm every day this week
The article Derby school support staff start week of action first…Read more…
Credit debt blues
As millions of Britons settle back into the first few weeks of work following the festive season, we know all too well that the party’s over, the feasts have been eaten, the presents opened and we’re…Read more…
Hammond reveals a stark choice: single market or deregulated tax-haven
While Prime Minister May was engaged in a second weekend of mixed messages about whether she will advocate a hard or soft Brexit, her Chancellor was telling German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that if we don’t get to keep full access to the single market, Britain will indeed be likely to become…Read more…
Getting it right in schools
Reorganising education governance is simply a distraction from the real issues facing our schools as highlighted in UNISON Scotland’s survey of school staffs. That’s also the conclusion of a wide…Read more…
‘Fair funding’ must also mean sufficient funding, say education unions
Following the publication of the Government’s final proposals for its long-awaited National Funding Formula (NFF), organisations representing school staff, teachers and leaders – ATL, GMB,…Read more…
Working people will judge the PM’s Brexit strategy on whether it protects jobs and rights
After hearing for months that Brexit means Brexit, we may be about to hear what it actually means. As Theresa May gives her big speech to diplomats at Lancaster House on Tuesday, on how she intends to negotiate our exit from the EU, working people will be watching to see if her strategy will do…Read more…
What has globalisation ever done for the workers?
These remarks are an edited version of a speech I gave on union responses to globalisation at a joint seminar organised by the TUC and the University of Exeter on Brexit, globalisation and migration…Read more…
Public supports tough line on exec pay shocker
As I blogged previously, the commentariat was united last week in its certainty that Jeremy Corbyn was talking rubbish when he proposed some pretty tough positions on executive pay.
Amazingly, it turns out the the public favours taking a very tough li…Read more…
London Loop Walk: Section 9 – Uxbridge Lock to Moor Park:
To confuse matters this walk is posted out of sequence on this blog due to my error. This was the second day of a weekend “London Loop” walk. This is a circuitous 150 mile walk in stages around London which my wife and I started in 2015 and have still …Read more…
Statistics of the health crisis
The word crisis is often over-used, but the NHS is facing a genuine crisis in which its component parts are struggling with the amount of work they face and the financial and human resources which they have at their disposal. A House of Commons Briefin…Read more…
MPs right to call for a Brexit that protects working people
The first report of the Brexit Select Committee, published this morning, is right to call on the government to set out its plans for Brexit, including membership of the single market and the Customs Union, among other things. The TUC believes that thes…Read more…
West Ham Labour January 2017
Dear John
Happy 2017!
Below are some of West Ham’s January activities. If you’ve been meaning to get more involved in the Labour party we’d love to see you at something. All members are very welcome.
This Saturday (14th) – visit to William Morr…Read more…
The Right to Diconnect
Dear Colleagues,
There has been so much to write/post about over the period leading up to the end of 2016, and as we head into the new year.
On the domestic front the good news is around trade union growth, both in the form of density, but also (as …Read more…