When the National Minimum Wage (NMW) was first introduced in 1999, many in the business community claimed the sky was falling – unemployment would skyrocket, profits would fall, and the very people…Read more…
No one’s buying it
Days before the Trade Union Bill comes up for its second reading in the Commons on Monday (September 14), the government proposals have come under fire not only from trade unions, but from all sides,…Read more…
Sports Direct: pressure is on
Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has often appeared invincible by using the massive profits he has generated from forcing his employees to endure low wages and zero-hours contracts to knock out his…Read more…
Tipping the balance
Unite’s fair tips campaign has roared on all summer and been hailed by the Guardian as ‘impressive’. There have been key victories, but the work’s not over yet. It’s rare for a union campaign to…Read more…
Still living large
Grossly overpaid bankers, who helped trigger the worst financial crisis in generations in 2008, are still living large according to a European watchdog report, with the UK being home to the biggest…Read more…
Major attack on civil liberties
The Conservative government’s proposed Trade Union Bill has come under continued attack – today (September 7) from three prominent human rights groups, which have denounced the Bill as a “major…Read more…
From the 99 % to the 1 %
The Tories are robbing the working poor and giving to the working wealthy, according to new research from the TUC. And the Tories tried to hide it. The richest working households will be over…Read more…
Dots on the map?
We have come to the Harry Lime moment in the latest refugee crisis. In the film, The Third Man, Harry Lime – played by Orson Welles – has been brutally exploiting a post-war drug shortage resulting…Read more…
Osborne Voodoonomics
The Chinese stock market bubble has burst and China has had its own “Black Monday” (on 23 August). Its economic growth is slowing down and the after effects of the turmoil in its stock market and…Read more…
Not even one per cent?
Just a month after Cameron’s post-election U-turn on a 10 per cent pay rise for MPs, Tories say public sector workers may not get their 1 per cent pay rise after all. Public sector workers…Read more…
Keep Goodyear in UK fight
The Goodyear Dunlop plant in Wolverhampton is productive, profitable and held up by the company as an example of how to do things right. So why do they want to close it and move production to…Read more…
Fit to die?
The department for work and pensions’ (DWP) Work Capability Assessments aren’t fit for purpose and should be scrapped in their current form, Unite urged today as shock figures revealed over 4,000…Read more…
‘No Minister’
The independent watchdog given the job of monitoring government legislation by business secretary Sajid Javid has told him his own Trade Union Bill is “not fit for purpose”. The watchdog gave…Read more…
Gas bills a lot of hot air?
With wholesale gas price close to hitting record lows, will the energy giants pass on savings in lower bills or bank higher profits? For some, it might still be a question of ‘heat or…Read more…
Get up and galvanise!
Unite Community activist Maureen Lenehan-Ferguson springs up from the settee to illustrate her point. “I won’t let them grind me down. I am 80 years old and I can touch my toes. So…Read more…
Carnival with a message
Bridport’s Unite Community Group got into the spirit of Carnival recently – and took the message “Save the NHS” to the thousands of people lining the streets in the Dorset market town….Read more…
Poorest hurt most – again
After the announcement that maintenance grants will be scrapped by the government next year, students will be dealt a double blow as the cost of student accommodation soars. Between 2010 and…Read more…
The sad kids’ nation
Ask any parent what they want their child to be and I am sure happy is top of their list. As a parent sending your children off to school can be a painful experience. It is about so much more…Read more…
One in four offered insecure work
As the government attempts to downplay just how pervasive zero-hours contracts (ZHCs) have become, a new report released today (August 20) has revealed that one in four unemployed adults have been…Read more…
TU Bill: no justification
IndustriALL, the world-wide trade union, has hit out at the government’s trade union Bill, calling for it to stop the attacks on trade unions and start a dialogue. IndustriALL warns the…Read more…