Fifteen months on from the EU referendum, the government will today set out its aspiration to continue contributing to EU science programmes. As the entire STEM community has repeatedly asked for clarity of direction, we can all be pleased about this. …Read more…
Over-regulation is not the problem a post-Brexit Britain would face
Yesterday’s report The Economy After Brexit by Economists For Brexit includes a section by Tim Congdon on EU regulation, essentially blaming all the evils of the British economy on excessive red tape and inferring that our economy could do so much better if it were unshackled from it all. The…Read more…
What would it take for trade deals to protect workers’ rights?
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…
EU citizens: UNISON returns to Parliament to defend members
Union backing new lobby for the ‘right to remain’ for EU citizens in the UK
The article EU citizens: UNISON returns to Parliament to defend members first appeared on the UNISON National site.Read more…
‘Our Brexit brings the country together’, UNISON members told
National delegates debate a raft of motions on the risks posed by the Brexit negotiations
The article ‘Our Brexit brings the country together’, UNISON members told first appeared on the…Read more…
ECJ Singapore ruling adds to case against ISDS in Brexit deal
Today the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave an important boost to the case for scrapping Investor State Dispute Settlement, as well as other corporate court systems like it, in trade agreements. Part of the ECJ’s ruling today was that trade deals that contain ISDS need to be ratified in EU…Read more…
Our Polish members – in their own words
Three of UNISON’s Polish migrant members share their stories and their thoughts on a post Brexit Britain
The article Our Polish members – in their own words first appeared on the UNISON…Read more…
“UK manufacturing deserves no less.” Why employers & unions are calling for strong trade remedies
As the UK leaves the European Union, it will need to develop its own independent trade policy that fits with a wider industrial strategy. This includes developing a system of trade remedies, the instruments that are used to combat market distortions (s…Read more…
Rights at work – this May Day, it’s all happening at once
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…
Putting the foxes in charge of the migration hen house
The Financial Times has a story today (behind the paywall) suggesting that the government’s new visa system for EU migrants will have to be enforced not by the Home Office or the Borders Agency but by employers, landlords and universities, because of cuts to the civil service. That would,…Read more…
MEPs vote overwhelmingly for workers’ rights to be protected in Brexit deal
The European Parliament decided today by an overwhelming 516 to 133 votes (nearly four to one) what it thought should be in the eventual EU-UK Brexit deal. And after lobbying from the European trade union movement, MEPs made it crystal clear that any future deal should be conditional on…Read more…
Continental holidays under threat without a good #Brexit deal
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is the latest trade association to express serious concerns about how Brexit is being negotiated, with a report setting out the measures needed to sustain the industry – which employs many in the UK, as well as abroad – after Brexit. In…Read more…
#Article50: the union response is all about good jobs & rights at work
So much has already been written about the triggering of Article 50, firing the starting gun on two years of negotiations about leaving the European Union. And it was only yesterday. For trade unions, it still seems strange that a Conservative Prime Mi…Read more…
Blog: I dream in English – a German member’s thoughts on Brexit
By Christina Egan When I read Anke Plummer’s account of feeling like a Briton, I wondered why, as another German living here for over 20 years, I do not seem to feel British at all? Well, I…Read more…
Europe’s response to Article 50: what unions want
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…
Protecting the car industry after Brexit: a frictionless supply chain
Today, Unite is holding a major conference in Birmingham called Securing the future of the UK auto sector. It will bring together workers, employers and experts from the British car manufacturing…Read more…
Counting the cost of Brexit
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…
Is #Brexit Britain at the front of the queue for a US trade deal, or the end of the line?
When Prime Minister Theresa May visited newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump in January, Brexit supporters were cock-a-hoop about how post-Brexit Britain would be at the front of the queue for a trade deal with the US Trade Representative (USTR – not that there was one when Mrs…Read more…
#Brexit bad news hidden in #Budget2017
Last week’s Budget speech by the Chancellor had very little to say about Brexit. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a Brexit angle – you just have to look at what wasn’t there, rather than what was. First, there was very little in the Budget to prepare for the…Read more…
Putting all our eggs in Empire 2.0 – risking rights & living standards
Ahead of Commonwealth Day tomorrow, Commonwealth trade ministers were in London last week, hosted by the UK international trade minister and leading Leave supporter Liam Fox. The media claimed that several Commonwealth countries were ‘first in the queue’ to do a trade deal with the UK…Read more…