As someone working in digital services in trade unions, the legal ban on using online voting for union statutory ballots has always wound me up. So I’m very pleased at the news that the government are finally starting their promised independent review into online voting for unions. Sir Ken Knight,…Read more…
Welcome announcement
Caving in to pressure from all sides, including lobbying and campaigning from Unite, the UK government has finally announced today (November 4) that work on the long-awaited Type-26 frigates would…Read more…
Public oil investment call
Scotland’s biggest offshore union is calling on MSPs to back a Holyrood motion calling for public investment in the oil and gas industry. Unite is to ask every MSP to support a motion by North…Read more…
Farewell to conference
For Neil Marsden, who finally retired after one career in the police and then another in the police staff, winter is going to be about serious relaxation…
The article Farewell to conference first…Read more…
‘Shameful’
“Downplaying serious toxic fume events on board aircraft as ‘odour events’ smacks of spin and an attempt to manipulate official statistics to downplay how widespread the problem really is in the…Read more…
Transport strategy for all
“We think transport is at the heart of our communities and transport workers are at the heart of our communities”, explained Unite assistant general secretary for transport Diana Holland. …Read more…
Results against the odds
While the numbers of people illegally being paid below the minimum wage is a relatively minor phenomenon, in the West Midlands the problem is a more worrying one. That’s because it tops the…Read more…
Fujitsu Manchester strikes on Mon 7 and Tue 8 November
All employees of Fujitsu Services Limited in the Manchester bargaining unit are entitled to take part in the industrial action,…Read more…
Nursing professionals ‘more likely to experience domestic abuse’
Cavell Trust research shows importance of union’s support for members as well as campaigning and negotiation on ‘an issue for everyone’
The article Nursing professionals ‘more likely to…Read more…
‘Plane truth’ on toxic fumes plea
Unite has told British Airways to stop classifying the release of toxic fumes into plane cabins as ‘odour events’ and warned that downplaying such incidents risks masking an industry-wide problem….Read more…
IT workers strike again
Up to 300 workers at IT giant Fujitsu in Manchester will be staging a further two days of strike action next week in the continuing dispute over pay, pensions and job security. The workers,…Read more…
Young worker’s Challenge #2: Poor quality jobs
This month we’re counting down the ten most significant challenges faced by young workers. Number two is poor-quality jobs. Ever heard of the shrinking middle? No it’s not the latest weight loss fad,…Read more…
Councillor Yvonne Maxwell: Hoxton West
Fantastic news. Yvonne (aka Stroppy) has been elected! My former blogging pal and daughter of former Newham Councillor Doris Maxwell, was elected last night in a Hackney Council by-election.
Hoxton West (Hackney) result: LAB: 68.3% (+11.6) CON: 13.3% …Read more…
Fuel poverty rising
Unite says politicians need to support public ownership of energy companies if they are serious about tackling the country’s fuel poverty crisis. Yesterday (November 3) Scottish Housing…Read more…
Action on tribunal fees is key test of Theresa May’s commitment to workers’ rights
Figures we published today show that with each passing month thousands more workers are being priced out of justice by employment tribunal fees. In the year before fees were introduced (2012/13) on average 16,000 people a month took a claim against the…Read more…
High court puts #Brexit ball back in Parliament’s court
Today’s decision by the High Court that the decision about whether and when to trigger Article 50 and start the formal process of negotiating Britain’s exit from the UK will now go to the Supreme Court. The government does not want Parliament to have the decision-making power, so it is…Read more…
How many legs does a horse have, if you call its tail a leg?
Answer: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one! On 8 July 2015, George Osborne – then Chancellor of the Exchequer – dropped a budget speech bombshell: the introduction of a statutory…Read more…
Like a criminal
From a Unite Community member’s real-life ‘Daniel Blake’ benefit sanctions experience: “I asked how I was supposed to survive for the week with no money and having to live on…Read more…
‘Me versus the world’
With Ken Loach’s award-winning film I, Daniel Blake exposing the cruel reality of life those caught up in Britain’s brutal benefits’ system, we asked people to tell us what it’s like to be at the…Read more…
‘Subtle blacklisting’
The failure of a construction company to recognise the elected officials of workers on Europe’s largest rail infrastructure project in central London has been branded ‘a subtle form of…Read more…