All the union news that's fit to blog...
“We are marching united with unions from across the European continent in a powerful display against austerity and for a fair deal for workers”
The article UNISON joins thousands in Brussels to protest austerity first appeared on the UNISON National site.
“We are marching united with unions from across the European continent in a powerful display against austerity and for a fair deal for workers”
The article UNISON joins Brussels protest against austerity first appeared on the UNISON National site.
Protecting workers’ rights in trade deals is essential to ensure trade is fair. If trade deals don’t contain effective protections for workers’ rights, they just make it easier for companies to locate themselves in countries where wages are lower and workers are less able to resist…Read more…
You wait for years for the needs of working people to become the focus of political attention and then suddenly everybody’s interested. The onset of the General Election campaign has coincided with the beginning of Brexit negotiations and the long overdue dawning of understanding at the…Read more…
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister will trigger Article 50 and fire the starting pistol on negotiations to leave the European Union. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has already adopted a statement setting out what unions here and in the res…Read more…
Time was when nothing could be done by the Government or the European Union without a rigorously mapped impact assessment. Almost invariably wielded as a tool by deregulatory zealots to show that workers’ demands would lead to unacceptable burdens on business, I can remember exposing many of…Read more…
Yesterday the TUC responded to the European Commission’s consultation on its plans to develop a global version of the notorious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS is the court system found in thousands of trade and investment agreements that foreign investors have used to sue…Read more…
Today the European Parliament voted 458 in favour of the EU-Canada deal known as CETA with 254 votes against. This means that about 90% of the deal comes into force and paves the way for the deal to be sent to the UK parliament for approval. If the UK parliament agrees to CETA we will…
The…Read more…
25 November marks the UN Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the European Trades Union Confederation (ETUC) is marking the day by launching a new report mapping union initiatives in…Read more…
This morning I was pleased to be asked to address a European policy forum in Yorksire & the Humber by the local Labour MEPs Linda MacAvan and Richard Corbett. Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Keir Starmer spoke for Labour. Here are some of the remarks I made about…Read more…
Today the Prime Minister of Canada flew into Brussels to sign the EU-Canada so-called trade agreement known as CETA – the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement – with the European Union. For the past fortnight, the signing had been held up by the French speaking regional parliament…Read more…
Yesterday an add-on to the CETA EU-Canada trade agreement proposed by the European Commission and the Canadian government (titled a ‘joint interpretive declaration’) was leaked. Trade ministers from EU countries will be asked to vote on CETA in just over a week on October 18 so the purpose of the…Read more…
Now in its 9th year, World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) is a day set aside by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) for trade unionists and others to reiterate our call not just for jobs…Read more…
Despite the Prime Minister’s mantra that “Brexit means Brexit”, the UK is still engaged in negotiating so-called trade deals as part of the EU, so yesterday, the TUC sent a small…Read more…
As I’ve already reported on Stronger Unions, leaders of Europe’s trade union movement visited London on Monday. They were here in part to show solidarity with the British trade union movement post-Brexit. But they were also beginning to grapple with the implications for the rest of…Read more…
This morning, the leaders of Europe’s trade unions met in the TUC General Council chamber – people like ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) General Secretary Luca Visentini and…Read more…
Undeclared work, if not properly confronted, threatens to undermine employment, wages and conditions for workers across Europe. The launch of the European Commission’s ‘Undeclared Work Platform’ was a long overdue initiative to tackle the exploitation of workers and unfair competition for…Read more…
Today Unite, GMB and Community held a March of Steelmakers in London which brought steel workers from across the country to Westminster to demand the government ensure the responsible sale of Tata Steel’s UK assets and deliver a sustainable industrial strategy. A key cause of the crisis currently…Read more…
Some have been using the Greenpeace leaks of negotiating texts from the EU-US trade deal known as TTIP to claim Britain should leave the EU to escape damaging trade rules being imposed on us by shady Brussels negotiators. But disturbingly, what they actually show (adding to evidence we had from…Read more…
The agreement must not include a private justice system for foreign investors…Read more…