All the union news that's fit to blog...
Unite has expressed fury following the announcement by BAE Systems of record profit figures, at a time when the military-industrial giant continues to refuse to pay its workers a fair wage, and attempts union-busting high court injunctions to prevent strikes. Financial results published yesterday (18 Feb) show BAE’s full year operating profits increased by 12 […]
The post “Little short of obscene” appeared first on Unite Live.
Workers at five sites across the UK will see a significant pay increase after taking strike action in pursuit of a fair deal. Thousands of workers at defence and aerospace company Leonardo have secured the pay rise in a deal which ends all industrial action at plants, including Yeovil in Somerset which is the UK’s […]
The post Going up! appeared first on Unite Live.
Following the publication of its new Defence Strategy, the UK Government has now released its Defence Industrial Strategy, titled ‘Making Defence an Engine for Growth’. This is undoubtedly the most significant defence policy reform in d…Read more…
The much-trailed UK Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was published yesterday. It was timely for me as I was participating in a European seminar on how Europe should respond to the new strategic situation.
There is a lot of narrative (som…Read more…
The new Labour Secretary of State for Defence has announced a defence review. This is not just a routine action for new governments, but a crucial and urgent step given the changes in threats since the last review. The review, with its broad and …Read more…
I was involved in a panel discussion about defence expenditure this week. A trade union activist I greatly respect justified his argument against providing military aid to Ukraine by invoking a Putin-propagated myth. The essence of this conspiracy theo…Read more…
The Scottish Government has published the latest policy paper in its Building a New Scotland series, An Independent Scotland’s Place in the World. This paper sets out its vision for an independent Scotland’s foreign, defence, and security policy. If yo…Read more…
Everyone is suddenly talking about defence. Britain’s Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Patrick Sanders, discussed a ‘citizen’s army’. This has sparked nostalgia for National Service in some quarters (which Sanders rejected) and a more serious de…Read more…
Unite members in Deeside, North Wales, employed by DE&S DECA, formerly known as the Defence Electronics and Components Agency, are currently out on strike in a dispute over pay.
Following over a decade of extremely low pay increases, workers voted overwhelmingly to support strike action and began a series of 24 hour strikes in October 2023.
The post ‘It shouldn’t be like this’ appeared first on Unite Live.
I was at the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Maritime and Shipbuilding this afternoon to present a report I wrote for Prospect, Design, build and maintain: Effective defence procurement. The report describes the current defence procurem…Read more…
All governments have a defence strategy, which typically outlines the threats and how the government proposes to respond to those threats. The current UK strategy claims to be an integrated review of defence, development and foreign policy. However, it…Read more…
I was in Westminster this week at the launch of a paper on defence procurement I wrote for the Prospect trade union. The launch included interesting contributions from the Shadow Minster for Defence Procurement, Chris Evans MP, Andrew Kinniburgh (…Read more…
Unite called for the government to prioritise UK jobs and industries when issuing defence contracts at Congress in Brighton on Wednesday (October 19). Supporting composite two on economic recovery and manufacturing jobs, the union said hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in shipbuilding, defence, steelmaking and other industries are all being failed by a government […]
The post ‘Investing in jobs and communities at home’ appeared first on UNITElive.org.
Unite acknowledges the concerns which have been raised by many in Liverpool and beyond in relation to the Arms Fair being held at ACC, shortly before Unite’s own conference takes place there. We have…Read more…
This week, it was announced that the beleaguered steel engineering firm Sheffield Forgemasters would be taken into public hands, after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) bought out the firm in a £2.6m…Read more…
Unite has cautiously welcomed this week’s defence spending announcement – but warned that it must be used to create and support jobs and communities in the UK amid a national employment crisis. On…Read more…
Unite has hailed the support the union received at a lobby of Parliament earlier this week (May 13), where Unite reps pressed the case for the continued funding of Tempest, the UK’s replacement of…Read more…
Unite has called for urgent talks with the Marshall Group, one of Cambridge’s biggest employers, following the company’s announcement today (May 14) that it plans to move out of the city by 2030….Read more…
Unite representatives from BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls Royce headed to parliament today (May 13) urging MPs to ensure the continued funding for Tempest, the UK’s replacement of the Typhoon…Read more…
Inviting foreign firms to bid on a £1bn government contract to build Royal Navy support ships abroad has turned Britain into a “laughing stock” and is a betrayal of UK ship workers, Unite warned MPs…Read more…