Austerity is over, the new Tory minister in charge of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ has declared. That’s great news, coming in the wake of the end of poverty and economic sunshine breaking out over the…Read more…
Our car workers are star workers
The news that automotive workers are the UKs 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…
#ImInWorkJeremy
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has been slammed for his out of touch approach to the NHS. Not only was he the man who vetoed a paltry 1 per cent pay rise by the pay review body meaning nurses…Read more…
NHS – safe in Tory hands?
Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt launched a 25-year plan for the NHS but failed to mention how he would fill a £822m hole in NHS finances. He also failed to address how he was going to lift morale…Read more…
Massive attack
Criminalising pickets, a green light for the creation of specialist strike-busting agencies, attacks on trade union campaigning and links to the Labour Party. The Tories have announced a wide…Read more…
Onslaught against workers
Union members from across shipbuilding and engineering today (July 15) slammed the government’s Trade Union Bill, as unjust and in favour of employers. Moving an emergency motion, Unite…Read more…
Caledonia update
I’ve had a response from the FRC, which has been in touch with the company. Apparently the company “confirms” that it has not made any donations since 2010. However, as of today the two donations are still on the Electoral Commission website and attrib…Read more…
Nasty business in Bromley
Eviction threat to diabetic carer and daughter AS a responsible council worker and trade unionist, Paul Rooney thought it his duty to criticize the policy and workings of Tory-controlled…Read more…
“Newham Needs”
So far I haven’t heard whether the Budget last week will have any impact on the £50 million saving that Newham Council believes it will have to achieve next year.
This is on top of £106 million cut in government funding during the last five years. The government not only want to reduce public…Read more…
Building an economy for all
Tory guru Steve Hilton has had a revelation: low pay causes poverty. From one Steve to another, welcome to the real world. But as your party is about to unveil its first full blue-blooded Tory…Read more…
Being on the right side of history
Paloma Faith’s political warm-up act, Fox News’ “braying jackal” and The Sun’s “camera-chasing Guardian goblin”. Owen Jones provokes many descriptions but for many he is Britain’s leading left-wing…Read more…
The ever widening gap
The gap between low income family budgets and what they need for a decent standard of living is now much wider than before the start of the global recession which followed the 2008 banking collapse….Read more…
Poorest hit hardest by tax
The poorest pay a greater percentage of their income in tax than the richest people in the UK according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. And by far the biggest drain on the…Read more…
Industrial strategy? What’s that?
Is any semblance of an industrial strategy about to go the same way as Lord Heseltine’s report No Stone Unturned (his report on creating a re-balanced economy) and George Osborne’s now disguarded…Read more…
What if I’m not a participant?
On the day the independent living fund ends, Unite Community member Robert Punton tells us how it changed his life – and how it’s demise will affect him. He writes: It is often…Read more…
Challenging the Establishment
May’s general election result was a shock, not just to those in our movement but to pollsters, political commentators and even to the Tory beneficiaries now sitting smugly in their grand offices of…Read more…
All roads lead to Manchester on 4 October
Building on last Saturday’s larger than expected anti austerity protests in Glasgow, London and other cities, the TUC is calling a national demonstration in Manchester on Sunday 4 October to coincide…Read more…
Why hasn’t Caledonia Investments disclosed its Tory donations?
A couple of weeks back I blogged that Caledonia Investments had made two separate donations of £2000 to the Conservative Party – received in December 2014 and mid March 2015.
To be crystal clear, according to the Electoral Commission the first donation was received on 12 December 2014, the second…Read more…
Fundamental human right attacked
As the Government has confirmed plans to curve the right to strike, UNITElive spoke with Unite’s director of legal services Howard Beckett in an exclusive interview. Government…Read more…
George’s economic mind-bender
If the Tories were not already planning new laws to prohibit mind bending legal highs then Osborne’s speech to the London banker’s dinner last night would force their hand. It seems as if more…Read more…