Not long after the minister Sajid Javid sat down in the Commons, having announced what he was planning to do for our steel industry, one Tata’s UK bosses spoke. The real question the Tata…Read more…
Victims of things beyond our control
Unite member Martin Foster also writes to the Prime Minister on the dire plight of steel workers. He says, I am a senior trade union official at Tata Steel in Scunthorpe, but I write to you…Read more…
Your excuses are wearing thin
Charlotte Upton, Unite member and electrician at Tata steel in Scunthorpe, has written an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to stop sitting on his hands and to step in and save…Read more…
Defining moment
The crisis in the UK steel industry is a defining moment for the Conservative government. Having talked up the ‘March of the makers’ and the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ the past few…Read more…
No, Prime Minister
On Wednesday (October 14), David Cameron told the House of Commons that he and I agreed. No, prime minister, we most certainly do not. For the avoidance of doubt, let me spell it out. The…Read more…
Taking their struggle to the White House
Unite deputy convenor for Bentley in Crewe, who was also part of an IndustriALL delegation to the US, shares his experience below. A year ago this week, a small delegation of trade unionists…Read more…
‘Hard times are everywhere’
The darkness of austerity gathers all across Britain like the clouds of night while the Tory Party conference in Manchester celebrates its victory in May’s general election behind barbed wire,…Read more…
Another world is possible
As a Lambeth councillor I see at first hand the misery caused by the lack of council housing. We have over 20,000 people on our waiting list. This is replicated around London. Nationally there are…Read more…
A matter of political will
As the Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough with many, many thousands of constituents devastated by the SSI collapse, I plead with the government to consider my analysis. Now that the…Read more…
Osborne’s cruel joke on manufacturing
During the 80s our industrial base was decimated. Margaret Thatcher in pursuit of new-liberal economics and her attacks on the trade unions ripped apart the post-war consensus. Whole swathes…Read more…
Community spirit will never be defeated
Liverpool is my home city. I was delighted to be back home this weekend for many reasons but primarily so that I can honour one of the most heroic struggles in the history of our movement, the dock…Read more…
Solidarity should be binding
‘Cut him some slack’. ‘Give him a chance’. Just a few of the vox pops of members of the public who are as fed up with the British press in its predictable onslaught against Jeremy Corbyn as I am….Read more…
Auto sector strategy call
The news that automotive workers are the UK’s most productive employees, each generating £100,000 a year in added value, will come as no surprise to Unite members working in the sector. …Read more…
‘Shabby’ Bill will fail
Former business secretary Vince Cable has branded it “depressingly ideological and completely unnecessary.” HR directors say it is counterproductive. The police say that union protests are peaceful…Read more…
TU Bill: down a slippery slope
The right to form and join trade unions has been protected in international law for a very long time. So has the right to protest. The most obvious legal provision is found in Article 11 of the…Read more…
‘A new kind of politics’
Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader with a mandate which dwarfs that given to Tony Blair 21 years ago is the most extraordinary event in the 45 years I have been a party member. To say it is a…Read more…
Backing Corbyn – put on your tin hats
Every day seems to bring a new media-generated hoo-ha about what Jeremy Corbyn may or may not have said. As Owen Jones warns, we’d better get used to it. The vast armoury of the Tory press is trained…Read more…
At risk: your BBC
It’s the time in the decade when the BBC’s Charter, granted by Parliament, comes up for review. The BBC’s enemies in government and the commercial media combine to throw at it everything…Read more…
You can’t burn down our rainbow!
As soon as I stepped on the train I saw big bright dresses, suitcases full of make-up and a whole carriage full of singing drag queens, from this point on I knew Brighton Pride was going to be the…Read more…
Small gains, big pains
A newly issued briefing from the influential Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has said that the potential gains from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would…Read more…