This week will be a defining one for British business. On Thursday we will find out if the centuries old engineering giant GKN will be the latest victim of our inadequate shareholder laws. …Read more…
Brenda Dean – an inspirational union woman
Brenda Dean (pictured below) who has died aged 74 was one of the most prominent women trade unionists of her generation. Born in Salford, she rose through the ranks of her trade union which…Read more…
NHS pay talks
Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said, “A story appeared in The Guardian today (March 9) about an impending pay deal for NHS staff. “Unite, along with fellow NHS unions, has…Read more…
Glass ceilings and sticky floors
The TUC Women’s Conference, the democratic voice of women at work, is convening today (March 8) International Women’s Day at Congress House to discuss the issues of low pay, pay restraint and the…Read more…
Combat air strategy call
Skills and the capability of the UK to manufacture its own combat aircraft must be at the heart of the government’s combat air strategy Unite said today (February 21). Reacting to the…Read more…
GKN: a takeover too far
When Theresa May first promised a new industrial strategy for UK manufacturing, she claimed to be following in the footsteps of her political hero Joseph Chamberlain. It’s ironic then that this…Read more…
‘We break…we burnout’
My name is Debbie Wilkinson and I have been an NHS paramedic in Leeds for 27 years. I once worked out that means I have attended 999 calls at over 35,000 addresses! It’s a job I love and am…Read more…
Why workers need a strong union
I spoke today at the plenary session of Unite’s national equality conference. It brought together delegates from each of the union’s equality conferences taking place this week in Blackpool – women,…Read more…
True cost of recklessness and greed
Where does Carillion’s collapse leave our country? The failure of the services giant couldn’t have come at a worse moment. A stagnant economy, uncertainty over Brexit and arguments…Read more…
Charging up for success
The watershed news came just before Christmas – the number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars on the world’s roads has now passed the three million mark. The global growth rate now…Read more…
Stronger unions are vital
In one area after another, Unite is now leading the labour movement across Britain and Ireland. Politically our role is central. The part we have played in bringing a radical progressive…Read more…
NHS cash boost call
The continual failure of ministers to address the proper funding of the NHS is plunging the health service into a deep crisis – in the year that the NHS celebrates its 70th anniversary. …Read more…
Workers’ rights and Brexit
After failing miserably on Monday to reassure millions of workers that their basic rights at work won’t be scrapped, Theresa May has another opportunity when she stands up at the last PMQs of the…Read more…
Then and now
Preparing a speech to mark the 45 years since the release of the Pentonville Five, I was struck by what the case of the dockers imprisoned in the cause of trade union freedom then tells us about…Read more…
‘Ye are many, they are few’
Under the Tories economic stagnation became political chaos – and Corbyn’s Labour relit a spark of socialist hope after a decades-long gloom. 2017 will go down as a turning point year. …Read more…
Spirit of the Five lives on
Forty five years ago, five dockworkers and trade unionists were imprisoned for standing up to a government which, through the new Industrial Relations Act, was inflicting draconian restrictions on…Read more…
‘Small steps’
While it’s essential that trade unions must be involved in any proposed ‘sector deals’, worker voice and collective bargaining were absent from April’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper. So how does…Read more…
Tory failure continues
Certain phrases enter the political lexicon. Unemployment is a price worth paying – Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont. In office but not in power that too was Norman Lamont following his sacking…Read more…
Why manufacturing matters
Unite delegates from across UK manufacturing companies will meet in Brighton (November 15) to discuss the future of UK manufacturing along with other key issues such as the chaos created by the…Read more…
Under pressure
Mental health and stress in transport and food workplaces are right at the top of our agenda. Pressure to win contracts through undercutting in the relentless “race to the bottom” translates into…Read more…