Strike call in NHS England
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
Unison members in the NHS in England are to be called on to take part in a four-hour strike on 13 October for more pay, following a ballot result showing 68 per cent in favour of strike action and 88 per cent in favour of action short of a strike.
...[read more]
Playing games with safety
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
Last month Home Secretary Theresa May told the think tank Reform that the Emergency Services of England and Wales (Police, Fire and Ambulance) needed to be integrated to save money.
...[read more]
Self-employment on the rise
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
The level of workers categorised as self-employed has reached its highest level in Britain for over 40 years according to the Office for National Statistics – 15 per cent of the workforce, 4.6 million people, are now deemed self-employed, up from 13 per cent at the time of the 2008 financial crash.
...[read more]
TTIP and the unions
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
Until recently, general awareness of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has been limited, with knowledge about what it means even less common. The veil of secrecy is being lifted – not, of course, by those negotiating the “agreement” but by the campaigning of trade unions and others such as 38 Degrees and War on Want.
...[read more]
The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
The German economy contracted by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of this year, while the French economy had zero growth. German business newspaper Handelsblatt warned, “Germany is no longer a champion: the domestic economy is shrinking and is pulling Europe down with it.”
...[read more]
Join the club
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
In 2014 the global billionaires club (up an extra 155 members over the year) contained 2,325 people with combined assets of $7.29 trillion (£4.46 trillion), according to the findings of a Billionaire Census report from Singaporean research firm Wealth-X and Swiss bank UBS.
...[read more]
Cases soar
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
Figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that 6,690 patients were treated for malnutrition in Britain’s hospitals in 2013-14, a 20 per cent increase on 2012-13.
...[read more]
Union loan saves pit
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
Hatfield Colliery in South Yorkshire, one of the three remaining deep British mines, has been handed a lifeline in the shape of a £4 million loan by the National Union of Mineworkers.
...[read more]
Chief execs rake it in
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
The High Pay Centre think tank has analysed the pay of chief executives of the FTSE 100 companies and found that on average it is now 131 times the average wage of their employees, compared with 41 times in 1998.
...[read more]
Dairy workers fight
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
The International Union of Food Workers is campaigning in support of members of the Turkish Drink, Food and Allied union, TEKGIDA-Is, fighting for trade union recognition with the Sutas Dairy Company.
...[read more]
Sham proposals
[WORKERS, OCT 2014]
The government has said it will ban so-called “exclusivity” clauses in zero hours contracts – the clauses that tie a worker to a company even if there is no work available and are rightly regarded as a modern form of serfdom.
...[read more]
Sport billionaires welcome
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
No sooner is the World Cup a mere dot on television screens and the Commonwealth Games (with the SNP’s attempts at Scottish sectarianism) a fading memory, than Boris Johnson, soon to be forgotten Mayor of London, is jostling for space in the sporting arena by promoting Formula One racing on London’s streets.
...[read more]
Audit abolition on the quiet
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
In March next year the Audit Commission will be abolished. Strangely, there hasn’t been much publicity over this, given how much interest Audit Commission reports generate in the media.
...[read more]
Bill to open up land grab
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
An amendment to the Infrastructure Bill going through parliament will allow Boris Johnson or his successor as Mayor of London to acquire land held by all public bodies in London.
...[read more]
Trade in services
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
The EU’s proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is not the only international agreement that would put private investors’ profits above human need. The USA and the EU also want a Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) and a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement to liberalise trade and investment in all services.
...[read more]
The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
The Unite union has backed a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. The union’s council argues that “A policy which combines uncritical support for the present working of the European Union while denying any opportunity for a referendum on Britain’s membership is thus likely to be an electoral millstone for Labour at the general election.”
...[read more]
Disaster on the Clyde
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
Scotland’s last non-military shipbuilder, Ferguson’s on the Clyde, is heading for bankruptcy, with the loss of 70 jobs – despite a promise from SNP leader Alex Salmond to maintain it.
...[read more]
Closure threat
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
The world-famous Oliver Cromwell museum in Huntingdon is under closure threat after Cambridgeshire County Council withdrew funding as a direct result of government cuts.
...[read more]
Throwing in the towel
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
The Bruce Carr QC investigation into trade unions following the Grangemouth Oil Refinery dispute in 2013 has flopped. The review was an attempt to make further anti-trade union legislation an election cause célèbre.
...[read more]
Hands across the border
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
Launch of the building of the Hands Across the Border cairn at Gretna, 20 July 2014. People from all over Britain link arms for unity as they sing Auld Lang Syne after laying their stones.
...[read more]
Interesting definitions...
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
In response to a query from Unison, service company ISS – which boasts it is the “world’s largest and most successful outsourcing service provider in 2013 and 2014” – has provided an interesting definition of zero hours contracts.
...[read more]
Abattoir action
[WORKERS, SEP 2014]
Vets and hygiene inspectors who work in abattoirs on behalf of the Food Standards Agency, a government body, want a pay rise. About half are members of Unison, and have just voted for industrial action after a below inflation pay offer coupled with a refusal to negotiate.
...[read more]
Pit faces early shutdown
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
The withdrawal of Hargreaves Services from the funding package to keep Kellingley pit in West Yorkshire open for a further two years of managed closure has brought to the fore the prospect of an early shutdown.
...[read more]
NHS protests across England
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
As part of the ongoing pay dispute in the NHS, Unison and other health unions organised protests across England with lobbies, banners and stalls at dozens of hospital gates on 5 June.
...[read more]
Second strike at TfL
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
Travel centres at stations across the capital were disrupted on 13 June in what the unions involved have dubbed a “let them eat cake” dispute at Transport for London, TfL.
...[read more]
Where’s the holiday?
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
Workers are failing to take the full amount of holiday they are entitled to, according to a survey of more than 2,000 staff by workplace review website Glassdoor.
...[read more]
Hitting back at the hub
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
A wave of industrial action is sweeping through local newspapers owned by the US-owned Newsquest group as members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) strike back
...[read more]
Johnson campaign ploy
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
Three secondhand ex-German Federal Reserve Police water cannon have been bought by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London – without Home Office authority to deploy them.
...[read more]
Fake boom
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
House prices in London have risen by 17 per cent in the past 12 months – a disastrous and artificial boom presented by the government as the flagship for Britain’s economic recovery.
...[read more]
Victory for reason
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
IN A DRAMATIC victory for rational thought over mysticism, the government has decreed that creationism cannot be taught as science in any existing or future academy or free school.
...[read more]
Tungsten mine for Devon
[WORKERS, JUL 2014]
The first new metal mine in Britain for 40 years will open next year in Devon following the approval of £130 million of investment.
...[read more]
Buy-to-let, the road to riches
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
The perversity of capitalism was demonstrated in a report by mortgage lender Paragon Mortgages published at the end of April. Its analysis of the housing market shows that the return to landlords on their buy-to-let investments averages 16.3 per cent a year since 1996.
...[read more]
Lecturers vote for rise
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
Members of the University and College Union have voted overwhelmingly to accept a 2 per cent increase for the next pay round, which takes effect from this August.
...[read more]
Cabbies mass their ranks
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
Taxi drivers in London will hold a demonstration on 11 June which promises to throw the city into chaos. Its aim is to force Transport for London to enforce the law regulating taxis and prevent American corporations ruining the London cab service.
...[read more]
The housing market
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
As a direct result of government policy the housing market is overheating, with average prices rising at nearly £10,000 a month according to the Bank of England. The number of mortgages for more than four times annual salary is at an all-time high.
...[read more]
Barnet health fight
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
On 14 May dozens of Unison members employed in catering, portering, cleaning and security by Medirest, part of Compass, staged a two-hour lunchtime protest at Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust, north London. They are fighting the continued failure of the Trust and privatised company to fully pay Agenda for Change terms agreed nearly 10 years ago.
...[read more]
Staff reductions planned
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
The Environment Agency has produced a graphic map showing the impact of flooding on London if the Thames Barrier were to fail or not be upgraded in the future. The view from the hills of Greenwich and Charlton would be of a vast area of London transformed into a tidal lake. Canary Wharf and the City of London would be under water.
...[read more]
SARS-like virus found
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
The threat to public health by proposed cuts in staffing and screening at Heathrow and Manchester airports was highlighted in the last issue of Workers. Within days of the article Heathrow was at the centre of emergency procedures to identify and track hundreds of passengers travelling back from Saudi Arabia as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) had been found in passengers.
...[read more]
A new bubble swells
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
According to an article in the business section of The Daily Telegraph, alongside fears of technology bubbles and housing bubbles, another sort of bubble is inflating. The amount of debt that US private equity firms are loading on to the companies they buy has risen to its highest level since the latest slump began seven years ago.
...[read more]
The trains won't fit
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
It emerged in May that the 2,000 new trains ordered by French train operator SNCF are too wide for many regional platforms. The bill for this blunder, including modifications to platforms, is 50 million euros and rising.
...[read more]
George's friends
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
It’s all right for some. On the eve of May Day, it was revealed that the hedge fund headed by George Osborne’s best man Peter Davies netted £36 million from the privatisation of Royal Mail in under six months.
...[read more]
Trade benefits imaginary
[WORKERS, JUN 2014]
A report for the think tank Civitas, published on 5 May, argues that the “trade advantages of the EU are imaginary.”
...[read more]
Unity at Scottish TUC
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
The Scottish TUC in Dundee in April saw the National Union of Mineworkers, ASLEF, Community, USDAW and GMB, with help from CWU and Musicians’ Union delegates, Work Together and United with Labour, organising a standing-room-only fringe event.
...[read more]
All change for journalists
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
JOURNALISTS assembling in Eastbourne before Easter for their biennial delegate meeting started the afternoon before with a conference on the future of journalism. It was an apt beginning, because their industry is in the middle of intense change, with no end in sight.
...[read more]
Unison fight for public health
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
UNISON IS fighting cuts in public health provision which could mean exposing people in Britain to a sharp increase in diseases such as TB. The cuts follow from the implementation of European Union directives aimed at easing the free movement of labour.
...[read more]
TTIP under scrutiny
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
THE EU-US free trade agreement, known as TTIP, is coming under increasing pressure as more and more people start to realise what it entails. Top of the list of concerns is the provision for Investor State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS.
...[read more]
The massacre continues
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
Two of the three deep mines left in Britain face imminent closure. Kellingley near Selby in North Yorkshire and Thoresby in Nottinghamshire, both owned by UK Coal, face a phased rundown to final closure in 2015.
...[read more]
Action in London
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
Staff working for Transport for London are to take industrial action over a pay freeze and cuts in pension provision. The main union at TfL, TSSA, reported before Easter a ballot return showing that nearly 80 per cent of its members were ready to take industrial action.
...[read more]
Ready for the shake-out
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
From 6 April employers will no longer be able to reclaim statutory sick pay from the government, a change estimated to save it about £50 million a year. Ministers hope it will encourage employers to “shake out” long-term sick employees claiming benefit.
...[read more]
Global competitors
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
The brand-new London Gateway, on the north bank of the Thames near Thurrock in Essex, benefited from the winter storms because in its more sheltered location it took business away from its more exposed rival, Felixstowe.
...[read more]
Worse than expected
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
Britain’s current account deficit was larger than expected in the final quarter of last year, official figures show.
...[read more]
Shackling the unions
[WORKERS, MAY 2014]
Under the pretext of “austerity” the International Monetary Fund and the European Union are trying to further shackle and undermine Greece’s trade unions.
...[read more]
Ambulance dispute looms
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
Ambulance workers’ unions are dusting off their plans for a ballot on industrial action in England after negotiations over sick pay have reached an impasse.
...[read more]
Shopworkers say No
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
At its mid-March annual conference for Scottish members, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) confirmed its 2013 decision to support the No campaign against Scottish separatism and the break up of Britain.
...[read more]
Lawyers fight cuts with strike
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
When is a strike not a strike? When lawyers, barristers and those who interpret or advise on the law are involved.
...[read more]
News on the referendum
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
The taxpayers, the workers of Britain, will need deep pockets this year. The cost of producing, printing and distributing 100,000 free copies of the over-600 page wish-list that is the White Paper advocating independence for Scotland has risen to over £800,000.
...[read more]
The worst is yet to come
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
The Myners Review of the Co-op gave an update in March – with dire warnings for the future of the Co-op movement.
...[read more]
Massive drop in cases
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
Statistics released for the period from October to December 2013 show a 79 per cent drop in employment cases lodged at Employment Tribunals. This follows a 75 per cent drop on the previous quarter.
...[read more]
Thatcherite pledge
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
Ed Miliband has committed any future Labour government to completing Thatcher’s project of the Single European Market.
...[read more]
12 sides of devaluation
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
The government is to introduce a new pound coin, fashioned like the old 12-sided Imperial threepenny bit, supposedly to stop counterfeiters.
...[read more]
The long drop
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
Since January 2009, full-time workers’ average weekly earnings (excluding bonuses) have fallen by 8 per cent, if the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used as the measure of inflation, and by 10.2 per cent when set against the Retail Price Index (RPI).
...[read more]
For sale to the rich
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
The Migration Advisory Committee revealed in March that under the government’s “investor” scheme, established under Labour, 948 millionaires have been granted British citizenship since 2008, including 433 Russians, 419 Chinese and 96 from the US.
...[read more]
EU inflow swells numbers
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
New figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show a net flow of 212,000 long-term migrants into Britain in the year ending September 2013, up from 154,000 in the previous year.
...[read more]
Bob Crow's Funeral
[WORKERS, APR 2014]
Photo
...[read more]
Derby wins Crossrail bid
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
A significant victory in the fight for manufacturing jobs has been secured at the Bombardier rail works at Derby. The Canadian-owned firm has defeated Japanese (Hitachi) and Spanish (CAF) bidders to win a £1 billion contract for 65 new Crossrail trains.
...[read more]
EU raps corruption (of others)
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
The long-delayed report on corruption in the EU from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Home Affairs has at last been published. It details what it calls the “breath-taking” scale of corruption and how “the political commitment to really root out corruption seems to be missing” across all 28 countries in the EU.
...[read more]
TUC calls wages campaign
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
THE TUC has called for a Fair Pay fortnight from Monday 24 March to Sunday 6 April to highlight the worsening of living standards, the continuing decline in the value of wages and a drop in incomes that is comparable with the early days of the Industrial Revolution at the start of the 19th century.
...[read more]
News on the referendum
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
IF A breakaway Scotland were allowed to join the EU – and that is currently looking increasingly improbable – it would have to join the euro, whatever the SNP says. Salmond used to advocate joining the euro. That’s now a vote loser.
...[read more]
Valentine's Day strike
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
Senior members of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) struck on Valentine’s Day over new terms and conditions imposed on them. New performance management rules demand fixed quotas: 10 per cent of all staff must be rated as underperforming regardless of performance.
...[read more]
Teacher victory
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
Government threats to deregulate schoolteachers’ working hours and conditions of service have been hastily withdrawn, after the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) rejected Education Secretary Michael Gove’s proposals.
...[read more]
Widening equalities
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
In 2007 the analysis of health inequalities in London by Professor Darzi indicated a 10-year life expectancy gap between West and East London. This led to a health equalities strategy for London, a strategy that was promptly dumped by Boris Johnson on taking office as Mayor of London.
...[read more]
Staying low?
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
A worldwide survey of 22,000 employers by Hay Group consultants indicates that British employers expect wage rises in Britain to remain the lowest in Europe with an expected 0.5 per cent reduction on wage rise forecasts in 2013.
...[read more]
Agency cuts back
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority is to stop automatic checks on new applicants in favour of a “discretionary” approach to “reduce the burden on business”.
...[read more]
Still smaller
[WORKERS, MAR 2014]
Government and media chorus about a recovery. Yet the economy is still about 2 per cent smaller than it was at the end of 2007. More than six years, and Britain still has not recovered to where it was before the crash.
...[read more]
Tube staff set to strike
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
Station staff on London Underground are to take industrial action in February in their fight to keep ticket offices open. Mayor Boris Johnson is seeking to close all of the 260 ticket offices on the capital’s network by 2015 – a direct reversal of the policy on which he was elected.
...[read more]
Arrest at academy
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
Kings Science Academy in Bradford was chosen for one of Cameron’s photo opportunities as he and Gove launched and promoted their “free school” programme in 2011 and 2012. So the arrest, charge and bailing of the headteacher in January on fraud charges has prompted a flurry of comment.
...[read more]
Journalists fight subbing hub
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
Journalists at three local newspapers in Yorkshire are to ballot for industrial action over plans to move their subediting to Newport, Wales, more than 250 miles away.
...[read more]
The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
The Fresh Start Project – a “moderate” eurosceptic organisation that wants the EU treaties to be renegotiated – warns that an increasingly anti-science culture in the EU is holding Britain’s life sciences sector back, particularly in biotech.
...[read more]
Brent teachers fight ARK
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
Copland Community School in Brent, London, took an unprecedented fifth day of strike action on 14 January and remain solid in their determination to stop the ARK academy chain taking over their school in Wembley.
...[read more]
NUM vindicated
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
The opening of state files relating to the 1984-85 Miners' Strike vindicates every statement made by the National Union of Mineworkers.
...[read more]
Wind runs out of steam
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
It has not been a good three months for wind farm investment. In November German RWE utility subsidiary Innogy scrapped plans for what was then described as the world’s largest planned offshore wind farm – Atlantic Array.
...[read more]
Lack of full-time work
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the number of people working part time or on temporary contracts because they cannot find full time work (known as “underemployment”) is the highest since 1992.
...[read more]
Running ahead of wages
[WORKERS, FEB 2014]
Inflation is down to 2 per cent a year, while wages are rising by all of 0.9 per cent a year. So living standards are still being cut.
...[read more]
Pay and hours battle at GKN
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
GKN Aerospace of East Cowes Isle of Wight, the largest employer on the island, employs a thousand workers making components for the aircraft industry out of composite materials. In August of 2013, the management of GKN decided to impose a wage cut and an increase in the working week of one hour.
...[read more]
Homes? Who needs homes?
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
London is being transformed from capital city to city-state of the nomadic international rich. This development is further compounded by the proposal to erect yet another tallest building so far in London, Hertsmere Tower at Canary Wharf.
...[read more]
Picking on the Co-op
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
The announcement that JP Morgan Chase have been fined a record £8 billion for their role in the 2008 bank collapse and mortgage scam is buried in the less well read pages of the financial press.
...[read more]
Short-staffed? Try poaching
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
The “free movement of labour” can throw up some bizarre examples of why this much-trumpeted EU policy is not only absurd, but also counterproductive.
...[read more]
The Autumn Statement
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
The media impact of George Osborne’s autumn economic statement on 5 December was lost as it coincided with the death of Nelson Mandela. But workers ought to reflect: the statement is a declaration of intent by the ruling class about how it seeks to strengthen its hold over our lives.
...[read more]
The latest from the EU
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia have rejected proposals to sign an EU treaty. They would rather join the Eurasian Customs Union with Russia, Georgia and Moldova than sign EU association agreements.
...[read more]
It's decision time
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
The pay dispute in higher education is at a critical stage and a decision needs to be made about the way ahead.
...[read more]
Students and Staff Strike Solidarity
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
Workers in higher and further education in Britain went on strike for a day in their continuing campaign for more pay.
...[read more]
Investing in youth
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
As a country we can learn a thing or two from Southampton Football Club about a proper attitude to our young people.
...[read more]
Below Estonia?
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has investigated the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills of 16- to 65-year olds across 24 countries
...[read more]
Almost at the bottom
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
In a recent survey of pensions in developed countries carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only Mexico had a relatively worse state pension than Britain.
...[read more]
White paper flops
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
Alex Salmond launched his White Paper on independence at the end of November saying it would “resonate down through the ages”.
...[read more]
Catalan bid condemned
[WORKERS, JAN 2014]
Catalan President Artur Mas has unilaterally announced that he intends to hold a referendum on Catalonian ‘independence’ on 9 November 2014.
...[read more]
Probation officers strike
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
The National Association of Probation Officers, NAPO, struck on 5/6 November against government proposals to privatise probation and rehabilitation of offenders.
...[read more]
Action hits higher education
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
On 31 October academic, administrative and technical staff across the whole of Higher Education in Britain took successful strike action in their dispute over pay.
...[read more]
GP opening hours diversion
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
The NHS is in crisis. Primary care is failing, Accident and Emergency units are over-extended, access to GP services continues to worsen. Add to this the chaos generated by the Health and Social Care Act and the abolition of health planning.
...[read more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the EU to have more powers over eurozone members’ national budgets. Merkel wants legally enforceable contracts between the European Commission and individual states.
...[read more]
Education - Free school fabrications
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
Education Secretary Michael Gove has set the cat among the pigeons with his recent defence of the right of “free schools” to employ unqualified teachers and his call for the right to waive qualifications to be extended to all schools.
...[read more]
US - War on the world
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
Individual assassination, abuse of human rights, rendition of alleged political opponents, drone bombing and suchlike is a US war on the world not a war on terror.
...[read more]
Energy - Ignoring shale evidence
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
Shale beds now account for more than a quarter of US natural gas production, up from 1 per cent in 2000. Its unconventional oil and gas production is worth $238 billion, creating 1.7 million jobs.
...[read more]
Health and Safety - Half of sites breaking the law
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
More than half of over 1,000 unannounced spot checks carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on construction sites in September discovered material breaches of the law.
...[read more]
Greece - General strike
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
On 6 November Greek unions held a general strike against a new property tax and further expected attacks on jobs and pay. Already the jobs of 25,000 public sector workers are threatened.
...[read more]
Trafficking - 50 per cent rise
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
Detected cases of people trafficking during the last 12 months in Britain rose by 50 per cent on the previous year.
...[read more]
Trade - Deficit rises
[WORKERS, DEC 2013]
In September, Britain had a £9.82 billion trade deficit in goods, up from £9.56 billion in August.
...[read more]
Lockout blackmail at Ineos
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Swiss-based multinational Ineos (the world’s fourth largest chemicals company) imposed what amounts to a lockout on its Grangemouth oil refinery and petrochemical plant – demanding a no-strike agreement, a degrading of wages and pensions and threatening closure (as Workers went to press).
...[read more]
Unison in credit union link-up
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Welfare services provided by Unison to its membership in the public services are being overwhelmed by members in hock to payday lenders, credit sharks and other usurers.
...[read more]
Higher ed. votes for action
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Academic, administrative and technical staff in their respective unions (UCU, Unison and Unite) are taking strike action on Thursday 31 October in their fight for improved pay across higher education.
...[read more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
CAMERON SAID recently he wants to “claw back” competences (powers) from the EU. In response, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the only way to reform the EU was to review the EU’s body of laws, the “acquis”, on a case-by-case basis.
...[read more]
Syria - US supports terrorism
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
UN Security Council Resolution 1373, of 28 September 2001, called on all states “to refrain from organising, instigating, assisting or participating in terrorist acts in another state.&rdquo
...[read more]
Libraries - Birmingham pays the price
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Birmingham has a new, impressive public library, the Library of Birmingham, opened in September by schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai. Yet, at the same time, branch libraries around the city are being run down.
...[read more]
Teachers strike
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Teachers across London, the South East, Cumbria, the North East and South West struck on 17 October in protest over pay, pensions and jobs.
...[read more]
Retail - More holiday opening
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Morrison’s supermarket has joined Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda in opening its stores on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
...[read more]
Housing - Harrow wants its tenants out
[WORKERS, NOV 2013]
Tory-led Harrow council in northwest London is offering up to £38,000 to council tenants if they move out of council properties into the private housing market – and anywhere in the world will do.
...[read more]
Chemicals, and the 'rebels'
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
The Vietnamese attack on US warships in the Tonkin Gulf? Never happened. The Serbian attack on the Sarajevo marketplace? Never happened. (Bosnian Muslim terrorists did it.) Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators? Never happened. Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction? Non-existent.
...[read more]
Deloitte fined over MG crash
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
Eight years after the crash and burn of the supposed “phoenix” of British car manufacture MG Rover, with debts of over £1.4 billion and the loss of over 6,000 jobs, the settling of accounts finally occurs.
...[read more]
Strike ballot at Royal Mail
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
The Communication Workers Union is to ballot its members on strike action in response to the government’s proposed privatisation of the Royal Mail.
...[read more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
Good news: the 30th annual British Social Attitudes survey reported, “Euroscepticism is firmly in the ascendancy, with a record 67 per cent wanting either to leave or for Britain to remain but the EU to become less powerful.”
...[read more]
Monopoly - 13 firms at capitalism's core
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
A study by academics Peter Phillips and Brady Osborne, part of the soon-to-be-published Project Censored 2014, reveals just how far the global concentration of capital has advanced.
...[read more]
Zero Hours - Wigan action continues
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
Workers at the Hovis bakery in Wigan continue their strike action against the use of workers on zero hour contracts.
...[read more]
Tube - Drivers in overtime struggle
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
AS WORKERS went to press, tube drivers on the Victoria Line, London, were due to
strike for six hours from 9pm on the evening of Tuesday 24 September in a fight
around overtime.
...[read more]
Greece - Public sector workers fight
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
A two-day strike in Greece in September involved doctors, teachers and other public sector workers. Private sector workers also took part.
...[read more]
Energy - Worries over bills
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
A BBC survey indicates that more than one in three people are worried about being able to pay their heating bills this winter and that one in four are tolerating “unacceptably cold” homes.
...[read more]
Trade - The deficit doubles
[WORKERS, OCT 2013]
BRITAIN’S trade deficit doubled in July from June, according to the Office for National Statistics.
...[read more]
Now they're inspecting pay
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
Schools are told by the government they must have performance-based pay policies in place from September of this year and be activating the provisions by September 2014.
...[read more]
Blacklisting fight continues
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
UNITE HAS continued its protests at Crossrail sites in London against the illegal sacking of a shop steward for trade union activities. The protests began at the end of August 2012, and since they started subcontractor EIS has admitted it acted illegally.
...[read more]
What makes a cartel?
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
When is competition not competition? When ferry companies clash over market interests in crossing the Straits of Dover.
...[read more]
News Analysis - Why there's no plain cigarette packaging
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
The Press have treated the government’s failure to adopt plain cigarette packaging, as in, for example, Australia, as a national issue – but with the focus on how far political advisor Lynton Crosby influenced Cameron’s decision.
...[read more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
Britain’s official net contribution to the EU budget was £9.5 billion in 2012, against £2.9 billion in 2002. Other net contributions bring the current level to £12 billion.
...[read more]
Water - Prices rises
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
The consumer organisation Which? says water bills have risen by 64 per cent in the past ten years, even before the average rise of 3.5 per cent in April this year – Thames Water leading the pack with a hike of 5.5 per cent.
...[read more]
Housing - Stay at home
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
House prices rose faster in July than any time since 2006, and lending to first-time buyers was at its highest since 2007 – prompting housing charity Shelter to estimate that on average a single Briton will have to save for more than 14 years (29.5 years in London) simply to get enough for a deposit of 20 per cent on a property.
...[read more]
Zero Hours - Wigan bakers to strike
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
Workers at the Hovis (Premier Foods) Bakery in Wigan have voted to strike after the management followed up pay and hours cuts, and eventually redundancies, with the introduction of zero-hours contracts for workers brought in to make up the shortfall.
...[read more]
Tax - Salmond's doomed wheeze
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
SNP leader Alex Salmond wants to cut Scotland’s rate of corporate tax to 3 per cent below that of the rest of Britain – which stands at 23 per cent but is due to fall to 20 per cent in 2015 – claiming that this will attract investment, boost growth and create 27,000 Scottish jobs over the next two decades. And there is no evidence that it would work.
...[read more]
Greece - Pay cuts, then the sack
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
About 25,000 Greek civil servants are to have their pay cut before being sacked or moved to other jobs, including 2,000 teachers and 3,500 local police, who are to become part of the national force.
...[read more]
Economy - Recovery? What recovery?
[WORKERS, SEP 2013]
Despite all the blather about recovery, green shoots and so on, Britain’s GDP is still 3.9 per cent below what it was in 2008. The 2007-08 crisis caused a fall in GDP of 7.2 per cent. So we are years away from recovery, at the most optimistic.
...[read more]
FBU fights closure plans
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The public consultation on the proposed closure of 12 London fire stations and cutting of 500 jobs ended on 16 June. The opposition to the closures has been led throughout by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which has gone everywhere to tell Londoners what this means.
...[read more]
Musicians return to roots
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The Musicians' Union will be celebrating its 120th anniversary at its biennial conference in Manchester this month. Significantly, Manchester is where the union was founded in 1893.
...[read more]
Reopen Greek broadcaster
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The Greek Supreme Court, in a case brought by the unions, has ordered the government to reopen the Greek state broadcaster ERT, while seeming to condone plans to replace it with a smaller body.
...[read more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
After token resistance, the EU bowed to Cameron’s call to send even more arms to al-Qaeda in Syria.
...[read more]
Scotland
SNP's pension debacle
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The SNP’s private views on its own Scottish budgetary projections in the event of them succeeding in breaking up Britain were inadvertently disclosed in a leaked memo from SNP Cabinet Secretary for Finance John Swinney to Alex Salmond earlier this year.
...[read more]
Bail-Outs
Only about saving the euro
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The International Monetary Fund internal report on the bail-out of Greece, leaked to the Wall Street Journal, indicates that the bail-out had nothing to do with saving the Greek economy. It was solely about saving the euro.
...[read more]
Higher Education
UCU Congress
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The University and College Union held its annual congress in Brighton on 29 to 31 May. It debated the need to fight for pay, and some delegates recognised that members needed to be involved in any pay struggles.
...[read more]
North Sea Oil
Remembering Piper Alpha
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
The RMT is marking the 25th anniversary this month of the world's worst offshore oil industry disaster. On 6 July 1988 an explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform killed 165 men, with two more dying aboard the standby vessel Sandhaven.
...[read more]
Finance
Balls follows the City
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has bought into the City’s disastrous policies. He says he will stick to whatever spending plans George Osborne has for 2015-16.
...[read more]
Housing
'Decades before a deposit'
[WORKERS, JUL 2013]
Independent research commissioned by housing charity Shelter and published in June estimates that the average single Briton will have to save for more than 14 years to get enough for a 20 per cent deposit on a property.
...[read more]
Crisis in emergency care
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
In the past few months a series of bodies have been telling NHS workers what to do: the Care Quality Commission, The Francis Report, the Health Minister and so on. Now the College of Emergency Medicine and Accident and Emergency nurses have taken charge of their own workplaces, the emergency departments across Britain.
...[read more]
Greeks fight mass sackings
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
SOME 15,000 state workers in Greece are to be sacked by the end of 2014. The government said this was needed to cut costs and secure more bailout funds from the EU and international creditors.
...[read more]
Downward pressure on pay
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
The employers’ pay offer to workers in local government amounts to miniscule rises of between 6p and 9p per hour. This added to the three-year wage freeze has also seen wages reduced by 17 per cent in practice. A 1 per cent increase for health workers equates to the same.
...[read more]
News Analysis - The squeeze on British students
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
BRITISH UNIVERSITIES should have as their main purpose the higher education of British students. Yet, in effect, the current strategy is to recruit overseas students and limit access by British students through the imposition of greatly increased fees.
...[read more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
The eurozone economy shrank by 0.2 per cent overall in the first quarter of this year. That’s the sixth quarter in a row – the longest recession the eurozone has seen. The Greek economy contracted for the nineteenth straight quarter.
...[read more]
National Debt - Interest payments soar
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
According to figures prepared by the Office for Budget Responsibility, interest payments on the national debt (the accumulated stock of borrowing) are soaring. In cash terms, the national debt stands at £1,189 billion this year.
...[read more]
Children - Unicef report
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
A week after publishing its new league table of child well-being, Unicef held a workshop at the House of Lords to debate the issues arising from the report and give its recommendations ”to those who can do something about them”.
...[read more]
Legislation - Redundancy notice cut
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
While the Commons noisily debated press regulation, MPs elsewhere in the House quietly signed away workers’ rights.
...[read more]
Housing - One pay packet from disaster
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
Housing charity Shelter is warning that millions of families may be just one pay packet away from losing their homes.
...[read more]
Trade - Deficit leaps, again
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
Britain’s trade deficit soared to £57.7 billion for 2012, up from £20 billion in 2011. This is the worst gap since 1989.
...[read more]
Fashion - Retailers agree to union code
[WORKERS, JUN 2013]
EQUITY, the actors’ union, has won an agreement with the store chain Debenhams that it will abide by the union’s code of conduct on working conditions for models.
...[read more]
Scottish TUC debates EU
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
A Rail, Maritime & Transport union delegate at last month’s Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) annual conference in Perth condemned looming privatisation in his industry, pointing the finger of blame at the EU for forcing this agenda on Britain and for threatening his members in companies such as CalMac Ferries – a “lifeline” service in the Western Isles.
...[more]
How HBOS was wrecked
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
“An accident waiting to happen” is how the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards described the HBOS debacle in its report in April.
...[more]
Opposition backs Al Qaeda
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
The Al Nusra Front, the military backbone of the US-sponsored Syrian opposition, openly swore its loyalty to Al Qaeda in a statement posted online on 3 April.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
Unemployment in the eurozone reached a new record high of 12 per cent in January and stayed the same in February.
...[more]
European Union - Investing in outsourcing
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
The EU has been busy investing heavily in Morocco, not least in providing massive subsidies in order that Renault can start producing vehicles there.
...[more]
PCS on Budget Day
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
Members of the PCS (Public and Commercial Services) union outside the Houses of Parliament on Budget Day, 20 March, during the union’s one-day strike over pay and pensions.
...[more]
Unemployment - British youth hit hard
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
In the G8, the world’s eight richest economies, Britain has seen the fastest rise in youth unemployment since the financial crash according to a report published by the Work Foundation.
...[more]
Trade ...and still the deficit soars
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
Britain’s trade deficit soared to £57.7 billion for 2012, up from £20 billion in 2011. This is the worst gap since 1989.
...[more]
Women - Recession 'driving prostitution'
[WORKERS, MAY 2013]
The economic situation is driving more women to prostitution and increasing the threat of violence.
...[more]
Pension savers plummet
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
According to the Office for National Statistics only 46 per cent of staff saved for a workplace pension in 2012, the lowest figure on record. 32 per cent of private sector workers were in a pension scheme as opposed to 83 per cent in the public sector.
...[more]
Occupation at Sussex
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
Sussex University is privatising 235 jobs in its Estates and Facilities departments, over 10 per cent of the university workforce.
...[more]
Arms flood in to break Syria
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
SOME 3,000 tonnes of weapons from the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to Islamist terrorists in Syria, largely via Jordan, since November.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
The EU budget is supposed to cut spending by 3.3 per cent. Cameron’s negotiations ended with Britain paying even more to the EU, but he said afterwards “our contributions were always going to go up.”
...[more]
OFSTED - Obedient to ministerial whim
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
Ofsted, the education inspection agency, has always been about compliance with current government policy. Since its inception, definitions of excellence, areas of key focus and punitive arrangements have changed with ministerial whim.
...[more]
Health and Safety - Cuts, and deaths
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
David Cameron said last year that health and safety in the workplace was “an albatross around the neck of British business...” and he wants to “kill off the health and safety culture for good”.
...[more]
Crossrail - No thanks, say investors
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
The government’s much-vaunted plea to private capital to invest in public infrastructure works has failed yet again. The government is now going to fund entirely the £1 billion investment in London’s Crossrail trains and maintenance infrastructure.
...[more]
Carpets - Axminster in administration
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
Top of the market and high-quality carpet manufacturer Axminster Carpets has been placed into administration. Founded in 1755, Axminster has been the benchmark for carpet production and quality for nearly 260 years.
...[more]
Greece - General strike
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
Tens of thousands of Greek workers took part in the latest general strike against the government’s “austerity” – poverty – measures and increased taxes, which have hit pensions and living standards and pushed unemployment to 26 per cent.
...[more]
Debt - Unemployment blamed
[WORKERS, APR 2013]
Debt charity StepChange has found that a third of adults under 25 put their debt problems down to unemployment.
...[more]
RMT mulls migration curbs
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
In a significant move, the RMT ... has opened up discussion with an article in ... RMT News, about how a Resident Labour Market Test could stop what the union calls “social dumping” – bringing in cheap labour from abroad to undercut British pay and conditions.
...[more]
Iceland fights for its fish
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
Iceland, historically hostile to the European Union, found after the banking crisis of 2008 that they have been forced to start negotiations to join the EU. But those negotiations have stalled...
...[more]
How the slump hits women
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
A report by Plan International and the Overseas Development Institute graphically illustrates the effect the financial collapse has had on girls and women.
...[more]
News Analysis - Why food costs more
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
Food prices have risen over the past year – spectacularly so in some cases. The Office for National Statistics reported that in November 2012 potatoes cost 43 per cent and carrots 44 per cent more than they did in the previous November.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
Cameron doesn’t want an EU referendum, but he is not in control of events. Whatever his motives, we should seize the chance to vote – more, we should demand it now. The whole British people have the right to have our say.
...[more]
BBC - Journalists strike for jobs
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
Members of the National Union of Journalists working for the BBC have started industrial action against forced redundancies at BBC Scotland, Newsbeat, Five Live, Big Screens, the Asian Network and the World Service.
...[more]
Construction - Anyone see a recovery?
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
The Construction Skills Network – the Skills Council and Industrial Training Board for the sector – has predicted that the construction industry will take until 2022 to reach the level of activity just before the recession started.
...[more]
Greece - Metro workers strike
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
Athens was brought to a halt by a series of strikes by transport workers earlier this year as police stormed a metro train depot to break up a sit in.
...[more]
Israel - Losses for Likud
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party has suffered significant losses in the recent general election in Israel, losing a quarter of its seats, though it is still the largest party.
...[more]
Cost of Living - Paying to go to work
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
The average worker pays one pound of every eight they earn for the privilege of getting to work: £1,843 a year, according to research by Santander Bank, rising to £3,561 a year in London.
...[more]
London - The cable car to nowhere
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
One of the white elephants marooned after the 2012 Olympics is Boris Johnson’s much vaunted and sponsored Emirates Air Line cable car, which crosses the Thames to link North Greenwich and Royal Docks.
...[more]
Pensions - More funds close
[WORKERS, MAR 2013]
The National Association of Pension Funds has warned that the closure of public sector pension schemes accelerated in 2012.
...[more]
Council pay impasse
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Three years of a pay freeze in local government coupled with an estimated 65,000 job losses in the past 12 months and attacks on terms and conditions ... all adds up to a grim picture for local government workers.
...[more]
Plant science in peril
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Britain’s ability to contain ash dieback disease (Chalara fraxinea) has been compromised.
...[more]
Agreement at Camden NSL
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Last year the NSL pay dispute involving Camden Traffic Wardens was teetering on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (as reported in Workers, October 2012). The members have now accepted an offer that had been on the table for months.
...[more]
News Analysis - After the Olympics
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Some £300 million in public money has now been committed to the conversion of the London Olympic stadium into new uses. That means stripping out various facilities and reducing the quality of Olympic provision.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Under EU rules Britain must open borders next year to Bulgarian and Romanian citizens.
...[more]
Isle of Wight - Threat to ferries
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
A packed public meeting in January called by the Isle of Wight Trade Union Council to discuss Wightlink Ferries’ reduction in service from the Isle of Wight to the mainland attracted a cross-section of island residents who use the ferry regularly.
...[more]
NHS - Regional pay abandoned
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
The Treasury has now abandoned its proposal for regional pay in the NHS, one strand of the Coalition’s strategy to undermine the National Health Service.
...[more]
Opel - Throwing down the gauntlet
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Germany is presented as the manufacturing heart of the European Union.
...[more]
Tree Conservation - Apprentice scheme
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
With so many talented young people out of work and with a British economy foolishly cutting back on skills and expertise, we need to ensure our industries and sectors replenish the stock of skill and nurture the next generation of trained workers.
...[more]
Banks - Pleading poverty
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
Apparently, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds need another £30 billion of our money to survive.
...[more]
Slump - Incomes squeezed
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that 37 per cent of people do not have enough money to meet an unexpected but necessary financial expense – a huge leap from the pre recession 2007 figure of 27 per cent.
...[more]
Germany - Bringing back the gold
[WORKERS, FEB 2013]
The Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, is bringing a large part of its gold reserves back to Germany.
...[more]
Deutsche Bahn's NHS grab
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German state-owned rail and logistics giant that operates many of Britain’s railway trains, is now looking to profit from running NHS ambulances.
...[more]
NHS uproar in Lewisham
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
South London Health Care Trust was the first failing NHS Trust placed under a Trust Special Administrator by the now departed Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley.
...[more]
London's housing crisis
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
London’s population is estimated to rise to 9 million by 2025. But uncontrolled immigration from Europe puts into question the validity of this estimate, especially if the doors are thrown open to everyone in Bulgaria and Rumania in 2014, as planned.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
One of the best things our class has done is to ensure that Britain stays out of the euro. The next job in hand is to leave the EU.
...[more]
Offices - Tenants in short supply
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
The BBC has discovered that London’s Shard, the tallest structure in Europe, has no financial tenants.
...[more]
Higher Education - For-profit university
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
Britain’s first for-profit university has been established by the investment firm Montagu Private Equity.
...[more]
NHS - Commissioning campaign
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
The campaigning group 38 Degrees is delivering petitions demanding that doctors prevent local NHS services from being broken up and privatised in England.
...[more]
Pay - Dropping behind
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
According to the Office for National Statistics average earnings for full-time workers rose 1.4 per cent to £26,500 in the year ending April 2012, but inflation was 3.5 per cent in the same period.
...[more]
Crime - Compensation cut
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
The government is to cut compensation to victims of violent crime.
...[more]
Greece - More time, more debt
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
The EU and the IMF have allowed Greece to repay its debts over a longer period – but this will inevitably lead to overspending and in the end bigger debts.
...[more]
Stress - Problems mount
[WORKERS, JAN 2013]
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reports that stress-related absences from work are now the main cause of time off.
...[more]
Ford Transits go to Turkey
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
Ford announced at the end of October that it was closing its Transit plant in Southampton next July with the loss of 500 jobs, a further 1,000 to go elsewhere in Britain.
...[more]
Southampton cuts loom
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
Southampton City Council staff have been told that up to 8 per cent of the directly employed workforce will be redundant.
...[more]
Greece carries on shrinking
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
WITH its economy strangled, Greece saw its deficit grow more last year than originally forecast – up to 9.4 per cent of output in 2011 against an earlier estimate of 9.1 per cent. The economy is now forecast to shrink by 4.5 per cent in 2013, not 4.2 per cent as thought before.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
The government was defeated in the Commons on 31 October as 53 Conservative backbench MPs voted with Labour MPs. They passed a non-binding amendment calling for a “real terms cut” in the next long-term EU budget.
...[more]
Transport - Back to toll booths?
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
Travel in London is slower now than in 1912, with the volume of traffic at unprecedented levels.
...[more]
Takeovers - A nation for sale?
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
Foreign takeovers of British companies are continuing at a rapid pace.
...[more]
Universities - Looking overseas
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
A working group of the Higher Education Commission, chaired by Graham Spittle, IBM’s chief technology officer, has concluded that British universities are failing to produce the postgraduates we need.
...[more]
Education - Victory at Village
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
TEACHERS at Village Infants School in Dagenham in Essex, a local authority community school, have won their fight against incorporation into an amalgamated school with William Ford Junior.
...[more]
Stoke - Borrowing...then cutting
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
A BBC4 show, The Year The Town Hall Shrank, shown on 1 November, looked at how Stoke-on-Trent Council is cutting £36 million from its annual budget, and facing further cuts of £50 million over the next two years.
...[more]
Blacklisting
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
Unite banners at the Crossrail site at Tottenham Court Road highlight the sacking of construction staff for joining the union.
...[more]
Economy - Forecasts downgraded
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
The National Institute for Economic and Social Research has downgraded its growth forecast for 2012 from 1.3 per cent to 1.1 per cent – and to just 0.8 per cent for 2013.
...[more]
Trade - Britain's declining share
[WORKERS, DEC 2012]
Britain’s share of world trade was 4.4 per cent in 2000; by 2010, it was 2.7 per cent and is now 2.3 per cent. Exports have grown more slowly than those of almost any other developed country.
...[more]
Thousands in TUC marches
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
Postal workers, firefighters, nurses, transport workers, prison officers, teachers, civil servants and many other trade unionists gathered across Britain and Northern Ireland on Saturday 20 October to march against the government’s brutal economic policies.
...[more]
Solidarity in Glasgow march
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
Workers from USDAW, RMT, Musicians’ Union and Equity gathered for the Glasgow march and rally organised by the STUC as part of the national demonstrations on 20 October.
...[more]
General strikes in Greece
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
Greek workers staged a general strike on 18 October, with tens of thousands demonstrating in Athens and across the country.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
THE EU has won the Nobel Peace Prize for warmongering. It may well win the Economics Prize soon given its disastrous economic record.
...[more]
Higher Education - Thinking disputes through
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
Unions in higher education were offered a 1 per cent pay rise for 2012-13. Unison, gung ho for a dispute, launched a ballot for industrial action with a result of 50.3 per cent voting yes and 49.7 per cent voting no.
...[more]
Energy - Lights out in 2015?
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
The energy watchdog, Ofgem, is now saying Britain runs a 50 per cent risk of power cuts by 2015.
...[more]
Foodbanks - Back to the 19th century
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
The goal of The Trussell Trust, the religious organisation responsible for food banks across Britain, is “a foodbank in every community”. Is this what we are coming to?
...[more]
People's Pledge - Huge votes in Manchester
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
After the People’s Pledge campaign calling for a referendum produced an overwhelming Yes vote in April 2012 in Thurrock, it has now run a similar exercise in Cheadle and Hazel Grove constituencies in Manchester.
...[more]
Construction - Victory at Redcar
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
During September, workers building the new pulverised coal injection plant at Sahaviriya Steel Industries in Redcar secured a victory over their employer.
...[more]
Free Schools - Where are the pupils?
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
The BBC reported in October that 25 per cent of the free schools opening this year are substantially undersubscribed.
...[more]
Unemployment - Increase in suicide rates
[WORKERS, NOV 2012]
A study by Liverpool University has found that between 2008 and 2010 male suicide has increased by 8 per cent (846 deaths) and female by 9 per cent (155 deaths).
...[more]
Teachers unite in struggle
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
Education Secretary Gove, mired in the GCSE re-marking scandal, will be dismayed to see that the two biggest unions, the NUT and the NASUWT, have announced joint action on pensions, pay and working conditions.
...[more]
Wardens at the crossroads
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
When is a dispute not a dispute? When is a dispute bordering on a rout? The Borough of Camden in London privatised and outsourced its traffic wardens in the 2000s. The contract is now with outsourcing specialist NSL Ltd. Unison trade union membership is around 80 per cent of the workforce.
...[more]
Call for more power for the EU
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
Eleven EU countries have called for more powers for the EU. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle headed the Future of Europe Group, which made the call in September. They want the European Commission – the EU’s executive – to have more powers.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and other top EU officials want to create a “eurozone parliament” with powers over members’ fiscal and economic policy. They also want the European Commission to be able to veto national spending plans.
...[more]
Cuba - Miami Five
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
Aleida Guevara, daughter of Che, spoke at a candlelit vigil outside the US Embassy in London on 18 September to mark the 14th year that the “Miami Five” have been imprisoned within the USA.
...[more]
EU breaks up EMI
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
British record company EMI, a world leader in the music business which has operated for 115 years, is to be broken up by order of the European Commission.
...[more]
Pensions - All right at the top
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
The TUC has investigated the pensions of 351 directors of FTSE 100 companies and found that at a time when ordinary workers’ schemes have been cut or even closed directors’ pensions have risen sharply in the past year.
...[more]
Residence - EU wants change
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
The European Union is trying to change Britain's habitual residence test, which controls benefit claims by new arrivals.
...[more]
Schools - No control over food
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
The consumer organisation Which? has reported that there is no control over the food served by the growing number of academies and free schools.
...[more]
Dairies - Price rise for farmers
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
Müller UK, which also owns Robert Wiseman Dairies – and whose website says its mission is “To bring sustainable dairy goodness from the heart of Shropshire for the good of everyone” – has agreed to increase the price paid to farmers for milk by 2p to 29p a litre.
...[more]
US - America's jobless youth
[WORKERS, OCT 2012]
Just over half (54 per cent) of 18-24 year-old US youth are employed, the lowest level since 1948, according to figures released at the end of the summer.
...[more]
Rail madness exposed
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
The madness of Britain’s privatised railways was cruelly laid bare by recent government announcements. Huge fare increases from next year, and the appointment of a new operator for the West Coast Main Line from London to Glasgow, highlighted the fact that the railways are being run to maximise profits for private companies rather than being run as a vital public service.
...[more]
Milk action delivers results
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
In July thousands of dairy farmers demonstrated in London against the latest cut in the price the big processors are paying them for milk. The reduction of about 2p per litre followed hard on the heels of a similar fall in May.
...[more]
Forensic archive at risk
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
The government wants to close the archive of the Forensic Science Service – all that is now left of nationally organised forensic provision, forcing each individual police forces across England and Wales to maintain its own storage system without extra funding.
...[more]
News Analysis - Energy: eyes wide shut
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
The Government’s Energy Bill and Electricity Market Reforms (EMRs) are clearly at odds with the TUC’s 2011 “Roadmap for Coal” strategy, but like previous governments this one has its fingers crossed and its eyes firmly closed.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
Eurozone unemployment was 11.1 per cent in May, the highest level since records began in 1995. Meanwhile, manufacturing is contracting: Spain, Italy, Greece and France all reported steep falls.
...[more]
European Union - Permanent bailout
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
THE EUROPEAN Union on 29 June agreed changes to its European Stability Mechanism. The ESM has become a permanent eurozone bailout fund, not for nations or governments, but for banks.
...[more]
Port Workers - Victory at Portsmouth
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
Quay assistants at Portsmouth International Port are claiming victory after settling their dispute with the employer at the end of July.
...[more]
Airlines - EU threat to crew safety
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
New rules proposed by the European Aviation Safety Agency would seriously threaten the safety of airline pilots, crew and passengers, says the British Airline Pilots Association, the pilots’ union.
...[more]
Wages - Unite survey
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
Unite the union estimates that the average monthly pay of its members is £150 less than a year ago, and 82 per cent who responded to a union survey said that their wages didn't last the whole month.
...[more]
US - Urban bankruptcy
[WORKERS, SEP 2012]
Stockton, the river port city 90 miles east of San Francisco particularly badly hit by the US property crash, could become the largest American city to go formally bankrupt.
...[more]
Doctors start pensions fight
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
On 21 June doctors took industrial action in defence of their pensions. It was the first time they had taken action in nearly 40 years and the decision to proceed followed a huge turnout and an overwhelming “yes” vote in a ballot of members.
...[more]
Power market 'won't deliver'
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
Britain will remain increasingly dependent on foreign fossil fuel imports unless billions are invested in nuclear energy, former government chief scientist Professor Sir David King, has warned.
...[more]
News Analysis - The European External Action Service
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
Ever heard of the European External Action Service (EEAS)? Probably most people have not. But it exists, courtesy of the European Union’s new constitution, smuggled in as the Lisbon Treaty of 2009.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
EU leaders have abandoned the convention of not intervening in elections in other countries, openly calling on the people of Greece to back pro-poverty parties.
...[more]
Oil Refining - Coryton left to die
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
The government has refused any help to keep open the Coryton oil refinery in Essex, claiming overcapacity in the refining industry, after the Swiss multi-national company Petroplus became insolvent threatening 850 jobs and London's petrol supplies.
...[more]
Greece - Nothing solved by elections
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
In the rerun of the Greek elections anti-bailout Syriza increased its share of the vote from 17 per cent to 27 per cent but that of pro-bailout New Democracy rose from 19 per cent to 28 per cent. Both parties support Greece remaining in the euro
...[more]
Pensions - Fords white-collar battle
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
Ford white-collar staff have voted for a 24-hour strike affecting Dagenham in Essex, Bridgend in South Wales, Halewood on Merseyside and Southampton as Ford attempts to close its final salary pension scheme to new starters and reduce benefits.
...[more]
Education - Over-funding academies
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
According to information obtained by the Anti-Academies Alliance from a chair of governors of a local primary school, a new free school, Stour Valley Community School, in Clare, Suffolk, received funding for all of its planned capacity regardless of the actual numbers of children it had.
...[more]
European Union - An irrelevance?
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
Kenneth Clarke, speaking in early June on Radio Four said, “A referendum on our membership of the EU is an irrelevance.
...[more]
Banksy's latest
[WORKERS, JULY 2012]
Whymark Avenue near Turnpike Lane in north London is now home to Banksy’s latest – a picture of a young boy crouched over a sewing machine making those lovely Jubilee flags.
...[more]
UCU: executive stress
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
UCU, the University and College Union, has an NEC of 72 and 119,401 members. In contrast, the National Union of Teachers has an NEC of 40 for 295,000 members. PCS, Unite and Unison all have proportionally fewer NEC members.
...[more]
In London in the Olympics? Then walk!
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
Transport for London has all but given up the ghost over transport delivery in London during the Olympics: they have now resorted to issuing leaflets at critical London railway stations such as Charing Cross, advising people to walk to work during the Olympics.
...[more]
Unite mulls EU motions
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
Motions to the Unite national conference in Brighton in June epitomise the divide in the union over the European Union and Britain remaining a member.
...[more]
News Analysis - Greece, Germany, and the election
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
In the Greek election centre right New Democracy and former coalition partner Pasok (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) were decisively rejected along with their EU-dictated bail out.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks party, said, “The German government is trying, through economic policy, to conquer Europe •The Germans are trying to force submission on the rest of Europe and create a fourth economic Reich.”
...[more]
Privatisation - Nuclear contract
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
Serco, one of the largest outsourcing companies in the world, has announced it has been awarded the maintenance contract for Britain’s nuclear warheads, worth over £1.5 billion.
...[more]
Afghanistan - Costs out of control
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
The full withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, scheduled for 2014, has been overshadowed by the US proposal to subsidise the Afghan army and police.
...[more]
Tuition Fees - Pushing up public debt
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
A report by Andrew McGettigan, for the Intergenerational Foundation, calculates that the government scheme to allow universities to charge £9,000 tuition fees could push public sector debt up by £100 billion over the next 20 years.
...[more]
Battersea - Buyers line up
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
Following the Workers article in April exposing the speculation and parasitic capitalism associated with the old Battersea power station site in London, there are reports of yet further “new” development.
...[more]
Remploy
[WORKERS, JUNE 2012]
GMB members at threatened Remploy factories led London’s annual May Day march as it made its way from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square.
...[photo]
Nuclear plans blocked
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
Following the handing over to foreign interests of Britain’s power industry RWE npower and its partner E.ON, both German, announced on 29 March that they will not develop new nuclear power projects in this country.
...[more]
Health: debate over hours
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Congress meets on 13-17 May in Harrogate, and its UK Safety Representatives committee has tabled a motion bringing the conference’s attention to growing scientific evidence about the dangers of shift work.
...[more]
Militarising London 2012
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
Youngsters in Blackheath and Woolwich will have a different Olympics show to visit during the 2012 Olympic Games. Ground-to-air missiles are rumoured to be going to be deployed in Oxleas Woods at Shooters Hill and on an unspecified spot at Blackheath Common, Greenwich.
...[more]
News Analysis - The Bradford by-election
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
THE RE-EMERGENCE OF George Galloway as a member of Parliament for Bradford West after a by-election, has propelled him once again to the centre stage he so craves
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
The Spanish government is ordering ministries to cut their budgets by 16.9 per cent; it is raising taxes on electricity and gas and freezing civil servants’ salaries.
...[more]
France - Still obeying the EU
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
After a nine-week campaign, the French presidential hopefuls have moved to the second round of voting, with François Hollande of the Socialist Party and Nicholas Sarkozy, the incumbent, due to contest the final round in May.
...[more]
Luddites - Yorkshire memorial
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
Two hundred years after the Luddite attack on Cartwright Mills, Rawfolds, on 12 April 1812, a memorial to the wool croppers involved (skilled cloth finishers) was unveiled near the Shears pub in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, where the Luddites planned their raids.
...[more]
Joe McCann - Anniversary parade
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Joe McCann tried to counter the divisions in the Belfast working class, attempting to bring all together through tenants associations and trades unions.
...[more]
UCU - Independent victories
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
In the recent University and College Union election for General Secretary, on a 12.7 per cent turnout, Sally Hunt got 73 per cent of the votes, against the ultra left candidate’s 27 per cent.
...[more]
European Union - Thurrock referendum
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
A local referendum in Thurrock, Essex, at the beginning of April drew 14,590 responses on the subject of holding a national referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union.
...[more]
Investment - Hoarding cash
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
British firms are still refusing to invest: currently – and not counting the banks and other financial institutions – they have a £754 billion cash stockpile
...[more]
Teachers
[WORKERS, MAY 2012]
Teachers donned grey-haired wigs to make their point during the NUT strike on 28 March in London over changes to pensions and retirement age.
...[more]
Attack on national pay
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
George Osborne’s announcement in the Budget speech that the government wants to move to regional pay rates is a simple attempt to drive down wages even further.
...[more]
Olympic ban on leave
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
Utility workers in gas, water and electricity are being threatened with a ban on leave during the three months during and around the Olympics and being forced to work 12-hour shifts during the actual games.
...[more]
NHS alarm over language
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
Alarmed by the criticism of health professionals and their unions that the EU Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications (MRPQ) Directive 2005 allows EU health professionals to join Britain’s professional registers without a test for language competency...
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
The “bailout” to Greece totals 282 billion euros so far. Out of that 160 billion euros will go to the country itself. The rest will go to banks and other bondholders.
...[more]
Eurozone - Going down, going down
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
The Irish economy slid back into recession at the end of 2011, as GDP contracted by 0.2 per cent in the final quarter. GNP (which excludes the earnings of large foreign companies) fell 2.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2011, though forecast to grow by 1.5 per cent.
...[more]
Death of the Euro - Competition oversubscribed
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
On 6 March the Wolfson Economics Prize posted the following notice on its policy exchange website: “Due to the sheer number of Prize entries, we will be publishing the shortlisted submissions later this month.”
...[more]
Education - Academies fight
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
Education Secretary Michael Gove has met fierce opposition to his attempt to force state schools to convert to “independent” academies. At four primaries in Haringey, north London, parents and staff are fighting the move.
...[more]
Energy - EU forces power station closure
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
Kingsnorth Power station in Kent is to be forced to close under EU emissions reduction targets. It had exceeded its total production quota. The 123 workers employed there by E.ON will lose their jobs.
...[more]
Speculation - A spare half billion, anyone?
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
London’s Battersea Power Station, which ceased generation in 1983, is now on the market for £500 million. For 40 years it has been unproductive other than on the asset registers of banks, developers and fantasists.
...[more]
Environment - Pellets and profits
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
Tilbury Power station, owned by Germany’s RWE and one of 14 remaining coal-fired power stations in Britain, has converted to burning wood to avoid the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive.
...[more]
Health and Social Care Bill protest
[WORKERS, APR 2012]
Central Hall Westminster was packed on 7 March as representatives from all unions in the NHS gathered to protest against the Health and Social Care Bill.
...[more]
Surge in agency staff
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
Data from de Poel, which says it is Britain’s “ number one procurer of temporary agency labour”, reveals that the use of temporary staff rose by 13 per cent in January compared to the same period last year.
...[more]
Bailout woes for Greece
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
The EU/IMF/ECB troika wants Greece to accept more austerity, including cutting 150,000 public sector jobs by 2015 and cutting minimum wages in the private sector by 22 per cent.
...[more]
Guides against the EU
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
The Association of Professional Tourist Guides has lodged a policy conference motion with Unite the union, opposing the latest EU directive on the professions.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
Senior EU Commission officials recently briefed bankers in Brussels that there is a growing belief that Britain will have to hold a referendum on EU membership by 2020.
...[more]
Health - Poverty and diabetes
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
Researchers at Queen Mary College, University of London, have found poverty and ill-health have persisted in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham for more than 100 years.
...[more]
Olympics - The slow road to hospital
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
Only “blue light” ambulances will be authorised to use the VIP lanes being installed for the Olympics in London this summer under the Games organisers’ diktat.
...[more]
Unpaid Labour - Tesco shelves scheme
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
The attempt by the Department for Work and Pensions to place unpaid unemployed workers in Tesco’s supermarkets, giving the company hundreds of thousands hours of unpaid work, has been dropped.
...[more]
Education - Sixth-form strikes
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) who work in sixth-form colleges have voted by a substantial majority to strike to defend pay and funding to the sector.
...[more]
NATO - Anglo-French machinations
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
At their meeting in Paris in February, Cameron and French president Sarkozy agreed to escalate their military co-operation, including by building unmanned drones that could be launched in 2020.
...[more]
Youth - Attack on the young
[WORKERS, MAR 2012]
Capitalism has caused an unprecedented rise in youth unemployment: 4.5 million in Britain between 2008 and 2009.
...[more]
NHS bill hits huge opposition
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
Like a series of explosions on a delay button, so the professional organisations spoke out against the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill in the third week of January.
...[more]
Boost for transport
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
Britain’s creaking transport industries received encouraging news last month.
...[more]
Slump hits print industry
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
The printing industry has been experiencing difficulties for the past few years due to over-capacity, rising raw material costs and above all the general stagnation of the economy.
...[more]
News Analysis - The perils of resisting imperialism
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
WHY ME? This may well have been the question being posed by both Colonel Gaddafi of Libya and Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire as they came under fire from French and NATO armed forces last year.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
IT HAS been revealed that in 2010 Britain’s gross contribution to the EU was £18.46 billion, more than 5 per cent up from 2009. Our net contribution is rising even faster.
...[more]
Education - Paying the price
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
As Workers went to press, it emerged that Devon has entered into a £125 million, seven-year contract with Babcock International to provide services to schools.
...[more]
Hungary - Outside pressure
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
The European Union has stepped up pressure on Hungary over the country's refusal to implement austerity policies and threatened legal action over its new constitution.
...[more]
Pensions - Strikes hit Unilever
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
Workers at Unilever have ushered in the new year with a series of strikes to protect their pension fund against changes that would see their pensions drop by between 20 and 40 per cent.
...[more]
Blacklist
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
Agency workers have no legal protection against blacklisting by multinational firms, according to a decision in the Central London Employment Tribunal on Friday 20 January.
...[more]
Working Hours - Unpaid overtime
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
The latest quarterly Labour Force Survey shows that 2 billion hours of unpaid overtime were worked in 2011, which the TUC says is the equivalent of a million full-time jobs.
...[more]
Iran - Scientists murdered
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
Another Iranian scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, has been assassinated in Iran by a car bomb, the fourth Iranian scientist killed in two years.
...[more]
Thatcher - Funeral dirges
[WORKERS, FEB 2012]
Before Labour lost office in 2010, Brown, Miliband and others proposed that Margaret Thatcher should receive a state funeral for services to capitalism. This revolting idea has been rapidly distorted by workers with a sense of humour.
...[more]
East London teachers fight
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
Backed wholeheartedly by the National Union of Teachers, 78 striking teachers at Langdon School in Newham, east London, have waged a significant struggle against excessive workload and oppressive management – a growing problem in many schools.
...[more]
New workplace laws threat
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
Orchestrated leaks from the Coalition indicate that a series of anti-worker laws aimed at targeting workplace rights is being planned.
...[more]
Collusion over fares increases
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
Government moves to connive with Britain’s private train companies to raise profits have been exposed by a recent report from the National Audit Office.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
In December the markets were still wrecking European economies. Greece was running out of money and their 130 billion euro IMF bailout stalled.
...[more]
BBC - The fight for a public service
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
Union members at the BBC are continuing their fight for public service broadcasting in the face of the corporation’s plans to cut jobs and services under its cynically named Delivering Quality First programme.
...[more]
Pensions - Battle at Unilever
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
On 8 December, 2,500 workers at manufacturer Unilever went on strike over moves to close their final pension workplace scheme to all its members by July 2012 and move to a less generous career-average scheme.
...[more]
War - Hypersonic nuclear missile
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
The USA is once more threatening the world. Last month it announced it had successfully fired a missile capable of travelling five times the speed of sound.
...[more]
Pensions march lines the Tyne
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
30 November, Newcastle: the pensions march lines the Tyne as workers in the North East joined with the rest of the country in protest at the government’s plans.
...[more]
NHS - Private providers preferred
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
In November the Department of Health published lists of services which “Any Qualified Provider” can bid for or offer to patients. This is to replace the unified integrated National Health Service as the “preferred provider”, which it has been for 63 years.
...[more]
Energy - British Gas looks abroad
[WORKERS, JAN 2012]
British Gas owner Centrica, currently being wooed by Russian utilities companies, has announced a multibillion-pound deal to get gas supplies from Norway until 2025.
...[more]
The Olympic nightmare
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
NHS staff are being threatened with a ban on taking leave covering the eight weeks of the Olympics and Paralympic Games – in other words, in July and August, the prime school holiday period.
...[more]
The health lottery rip-off
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
The National Lottery recently celebrated its 20th birthday, and now a new national lottery, the Health Lottery, has been launched.
...[more]
FTSEs head for the havens
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
Of the 100 biggest groups listed on the London Stock Exchange, 98 use tax havens. Many FTSE 100 groups are set to benefit from plans currently under consideration by the Treasury to give multinational companies using tax havens an £840 million tax break.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
In a speech at the Mansion House on 14th November Cameron said, “Leaving the EU is not in our national interest.” He went on to call for “...powers to ebb back [to member states]”.
...[more]
Ballot - Email scam
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
Within days of Unison’s pension dispute ballot closing, thousands of Unison members received a further email asking them to update their membership records.
...[more]
Takeovers - The marriage is off!
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
The planned takeover by G4S (previously Securicor and Group 4) of ISS (previously Rentokil and Danish owned), which would have created the world’s largest facilities management company, was unexpectedly derailed on 1 November and the wedding was off!
...[more]
Letter - On home turf
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
Inspired by the recent direct action of an electrician mate of mine, fighting to defend their national wages, terms and conditions with lightning demonstrations in London, I decided to take the fight for public pensions into the wider world.
...[more]
Poverty - Fine words, evil acts
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
The Child Poverty Act has committed present and future British governments to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Evidence released by the HM Revenue and Customs ... indicates that child poverty still remains at high levels across Britain.
...[more]
Construction "sparks" action
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
Construction “sparks”, members of unions Unite and the GMB, took action on 9 November against attacks on their skills and pay.
...[more]
Economy - Trade deficit soars
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
We are not now and have never been on the road to recovery. There was yet another new record trade deficit in September - £9.8 billion.
...[more]
Secularism - New campaign
[WORKERS, DEC 2011]
Over 80 leading secularists and human rights campaigners from primarily the Middle East and North Africa have issued a manifesto for secularism, condemning the unelected Libyan transitional Council’s proclamation of Sharia Law and similar developments in the region.
...[more]
Pensions recruitment surge
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
London Unison has seen the highest surge in recruitment in September for over five years, with nearly 3,000 new members. The reason: pensions.
...[more]
Strike at Middlesex Uni
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
On 4 October Middlesex University academic and administrative staff, organised in the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison respectively, were out on strike against compulsory redundancies.
...[more]
Obama's dangerous game
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
Based on unproven allegations and no trial of the accused man, US President Obama has accused Iran of planning to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US, and has threatened “the toughest sanctions” against Iran.
...[more]
News Analysis - Shrinking whose state?
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
The politicians and financiers are trying to con us. Claiming economic necessity, they want workers to support “reducing the deficit” – a cull that has no economic validity and will only weaken and impoverish us.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
Chancellor George Osborne has raised the possibility of British taxpayers having to make a bigger contribution to the eurozone’s rescue package through the International Monetary Fund.
...[more]
Upper Clydeside Shipbuilders 40th anniversary
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
The veterans of the Upper Clydeside Shipbuilders work-in that started in 1971 and eventually succeeded in 1972 in keeping all four threatened yards open celebrated its 40th anniversary with a sold-out gala concert.
...[more]
Unemployment - on the rise
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
Unemployment rose by 114,000 between June and August to 2.57 million, a 17-year high, according to official figures. Our unemployment rate increased to 8.1 per cent.
...[more]
St Paul's
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
Campaigners protesting against the City's policies set up camp outside St Paul's
...[more]
US, Britain - Shrinking economies
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
The US economy is still smaller than it was in 2007, even after the $16 trillion bailout of US and foreign banks.
...[more]
Shipping - In peril on the sea
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
The abandonment and cancelling of the funding for the Maritime Incident Response Group and the Emergency Towing Vessel Service by the Coalition shipping minister has been announced.
...[more]
European Union - Referendum vote fix
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
Public opinion polls show overwhelming demand for a referendum on continued membership of the European Union, with over 100,000 people signing an online petition.
...[more]
New Zealand - Blair pops up
[WORKERS, NOV 2011]
Unfortunate New Zealand - a year of earthquakes, and then Blair touting himself around.
...[more]
Pensions: the challenge
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
Announced on the final day of this year’s TUC by Unison, the long-awaited call for industrial action to resist the attack on public sector pension schemes has been warmly welcomed.
...[more]
Motions throw down the gauntlet
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
Though the TUC has been reduced in the number of delegates attending, reduced in the number of days’ duration, with the lowest affiliation since the 1940s, and almost total unanimity over motions debated, at least several motions threw down the gauntlet.
...[more]
Free hand for developers?
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
Radical changes to planning laws proposed by the government are a charter for developers. A “presumption in favour of sustainable development” will replace the strict limits on building in rural areas and the green belt that have been in place since the 1940s.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
The European Central Bank bought Italian and Spanish government bonds after interest rates demanded by “investors” hit record levels. The ECB’s price was austerity, telling the Italian government exactly what to do and when and how to do it.
...[more]
Tax - 'Fairness' misses the point
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
Chancellor George Osborne is considering dropping the 50 per cent top tax rate for those declaring income of over £150,000.
...[more]
Policing - EU database takeover
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
With almost no publicity the European Union has introduced the “principle of availability” – a typically vague term which effectively places police powers in the hands of unelected EU bureaucrats by linking three major police databases.
...[more]
Health - US care workers strike
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
Some 23,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers struck in mid-September in California in a state-wide protest against the multi-national private healthcare company.
...[more]
Libya - Queuing up for deals
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
All the states that took part in NATO’s attack on Libya are now shoving towards the front of the queue for profitable energy deals with the National Transitional Council (NTC).
...[more]
Immigration - Still rising
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
Net immigration rose 21 per cent last year, with 239,000 more people arriving here than leaving, according to the Office for National Statistics. In 2009, the total was 198,000.
...[more]
Afghanistan - Obama tops Bush
[WORKERS, OCT 2011]
During George W. Bush’s presidency, 575 US troops were killed in Afghanistan. Since President Obama took office on 20 January 2009, 1,113 US troops have died there (as of 19 September).
...[more]
PFI: a failed policy
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
The House of Commons Treasury Select Committee has belatedly analysed the economics of Gordon Brown’s Private Finance Initiative and concluded that PFI does not give good value for money.
...[more]
Attack on safety agency
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
As part of its much-vaunted cutting of bureaucracy, the government is proposing to abolish the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority, an arm of the Health and Safety Executive.
...[more]
Afghanistan toll mounts
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
The death toll mounts: three servicemen were killed in action in July on top of six in June, and yet (or perhaps unsurprisingly) the war in Afghanistan has failed to reform Afghanistan.
...[more]
News Analysis - Cutting back on student nurses
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
This month sees a 10 per cent reduction in student nurse places in universities in England and similar reductions in Scotland and Wales. The government aims to reduce numbers by a further 10 per cent in 2012 and again in 2013.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
Parliament voted in July by 274 to 246 to increase Britain’s contribution to the IMF by £9.3 billion. Many Labour MPs were “unavailable” or abstained, although their party recommended voting against.
...[more]
Greece - Back on the taxpayer
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
August saw once again a eurozone crisis over Greece, and once again a bailout. The main effect of the second Greek bailout will be a major transfer of Greek debt from private creditors to taxpayer-backed bodies like the European Central Bank.
...[more]
Schools - Resistance to academies
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
The importance of union organisation, even where schools become academies, was underlined by the successful resistance at Crest Girls Academy in Brent, north London this summer.
...[more]
Eurozone Woes - More money for the IMF
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
Early in July, Parliament voted by 274 to 246 to increase our contribution to the IMF by £9.3 billion. ... The IMF will use this money to fund futile bailouts of Eurozone members.
...[more]
Media - Jobs fight at BBC
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
Journalists at the BBC held their second one-day strike against redundancies on 1 August. There was action right across the country, with major disruption to news and sports programmes.
...[more]
Employment - Importing labour
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
The number of jobs occupied by people born outside Britain grew by almost 300,000 over the three months to June, while the number of British-born people in employment fell by 50,000, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
...[more]
Trade Gap - 'Unexpected' rise
[WORKERS, SEPT 2011]
Britain’s trade gap in May rose “unexpectedly” to £8.5 billion, up from April’s £7.6 billion. Newspaper reports said that analysts expected it to fall.
...[more]
Transport - Tube official reinstated
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
The RMT union has called off action on the London Underground after management finally agreed to reinstate sacked union rep Arwyn Thomas.
...[more]
Teachers strike for pensions
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
At the time of going to press it is anticipated that schools the length and breadth of the country will have closed on 30 June due to industrial action.
...[more]
Battle for Southampton
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
Workers at Southampton City Council have voted to take industrial action against the council’s arbitrary decision to dismiss its 4,300 staff and then re-employ them on inferior employment conditions.
...[more]
Engineering shortage looms
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
Manufacturing businesses in Britain (and elsewhere) are beginning to worry about skill shortages of engineering and technical specialists, as there are too few emerging from the education system.
...[more]
News Analysis - Debt and borrowing
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
The economy is mired in debt, which is increasing. At the end of April 2011, public sector net debt (excluding financial interventions) was a record £910.1 billion, up from £889 billion in December 2010.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
The Berlaymont building, the Brussels headquarters of the European Commission, is currently decked with a full-height poster featuring the euro and the slogan: “Towards a stronger European economic governance”.
...[more]
Airlines - Virgin pilots vote to strike
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
AIRLINE PILOTS working for Virgin Atlantic have registered a landslide vote for industrial action to improve their pay.
...[more]
Migration - Out of control
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
The EU encourages immigrants from all over the world, who arrive here via Italy, which grants residency so easily – it is the EU’s weakest link. The UK Borders Agency admits that immigration is out of control.
...[more]
Energy - Wind and nonsense
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
Energy policy? What energy policy? The National Grid PLC has announced that wind farm generators will now not be allowed to generate for 38 days rather than the previous 25 days a year.
...[more]
Home-Base Care - Enquiry launched
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
A major enquiry has been launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into the experience of older people requiring or receiving home-based care.
...[more]
Trade Deficit - No evidence of recovery
[WORKERS, JULY 2011]
The deficit on trade in goods and services was unchanged in April at £2.8 billion, after the March figure was revised down from £3 billion to £2.8 billion.
...[more]
Battle on pensions
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
School teachers at their spring conferences have voted to hold a ballot on strike action over pensions. In an unprecedented display of anger, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers heckled schools minister Nick Gibb...
...[more]
Rail report to hit jobs, safety
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
Proposals to get rid of guards and most station and administrative staff, close many ticket offices, replace full time staff with part timers and reduce pay and conditions for those railway workers still in a job, are at the heart of Sir Roy McNulty’s long-awaited report on Britain’s railways...
...[more]
BA settles cabin staff dispute
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
BASSA, the British Airways cabin crew section of the union Unite, has reached what new General Secretary Len McCluskey called “an honourable settlement”.
...[more]
News Analysis - Assault on local government
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
The government has started a public consultation on abolishing all of the several hundred local government statutory duties. The principle is to abolish all and only re-instate them if forced to.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
Several EU member states back attempts by France and Italy to make it easier for countries to reinstate border controls, following the huge influx of migrants from north Africa.
...[more]
Children - "Cinderella" service
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
Children’s health services in Britain are in danger, says a report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
...[more]
Health - Trust's funding chasm
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
Imperial Healthcare, London, Britain’s largest NHS Trust, is spiralling into financial meltdown as new rules introduced by the Department of Health shatter their financial standing.
...[more]
Trade Union Laws - Market mania
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
A further raft of anti-trade union legislation is planned to effectively criminalise industrial action, primarily outlawing strike action in the public sector, rail and transport industries.
...[more]
Bailouts - Another package for Greece
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
The IMF has suggested a new bailout package of between 80 billion and 100 billion euros to cover Greece’s funding needs between 2011 and 2013.
...[more]
Police - Target practice
[WORKERS, JUNE 2011]
The Royal Wedding provided the police with another opportunity to practise their developing role in pre-emptive action and what they call “pre-crime” arrests.
...[more]
A day to build on: half a million workers on the march in London
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
The TUC demonstration on 26 March exceeded expectations, with hundreds of thousands of workers marching behind an array of union banners not seen in London for many years. Photographers from Workers were there to capture the spirit of the day...
...[more]
Ambulance cuts warning
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
The Coalition Government’s promises regarding the National Health Service are unravelling daily. The promise that Health Service funding will be ring fenced is now seen for what it is – a lie.
...[more]
Lincs revolt over academies
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
The parents’ group Save Our Schools in Louth, Lincolnshire, has exposed just how far Michael Gove’s new rules for academies and free schools are able to lead to wholesale removal of schools from the remit of local authorities.
...[more]
The zone of debt and failure
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
On 1 April, the Irish government announced that another £21 billion would go on bailing out Ireland’s bankers, bringing the total to £61 billion, equivalent to 45 per cent of the country’s GDP.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
According to Britain’s Office for National Statistics, our net transfer of funds to the European Union rose from £5.3 billion in 2009 to £9.2 billion in 2010 – £230 for every household in the country.
...[more]
PFI - Profits, but hardly any tax
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
Millions of pounds of public money is being salted away in offshore tax havens by an investment company which has put money into Private Finance Initiative schemes.
...[more]
Auditors - Flawed...and rich
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
Last January the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs concluded that the International Financial Reporting Standards (IRFS), used by British accountancy firms, as dictated by EU edict, was fundamentally flawed.
...[more]
London - Britain's child poverty capital
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
In the same week as Comic Relief realised more than £75 million for charity, the End Child Poverty Campaign showed that pious claims by successive governments to be working to end child poverty in Britain by 2020 are no nearer fulfilment – and are really idle promises.
...[more]
Journalists - Fighting for quality
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) at North London and Herts Newspaper Group went on strike on 19 April in the fight for quality journalism and against job loss.
...[more]
Trade - Deficit record
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
Britain's deficit on trade in goods rose to a record £98 billion in 2010.
...[more]
Wapping - Anniversary exhibition
[WORKERS, MAY 2011]
An exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the Wapping dispute in 1986 is to open at the Marx Memorial Library in London on 1 May.
...[more]
FDA challenges tax policy
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
Unions representing tax officers are challenging government policy on reducing the current account deficit. They say it’s not possible to increase tax revenue at the same time as closing offices and cutting staff in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
...[more]
BMA savages Coalition
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
On 15 March the British Medical Association (BMA) held a special representative meeting for the first time in 19 years. It did so to draw the attention of the profession and the country to the Health Bill currently before parliament.
...[more]
Lecturers in pensions strike
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
As Workers went to press the University and College Union (UCU) was preparing for strike action across the country in defence of their pensions following a 72 per cent “yes” vote in its recent ballot.
...[more]
News Analysis - Hutton report on public sector pay
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
The coalition government asked Will Hutton, head of the Work Foundation, to examine public sector pay principles – a so called “Fair Pay Review”. He reported on 15 March, but attracted far less attention than his namesake’s report into pensions.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
Foreign squatters who broke into and occupied a house in London have been given hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money in legal aid to fight eviction because they are EU citizens and unemployed.
...[more]
Cuba - Visit from Yorkshire
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
On a dank March night in deepest West Yorkshire, some members of a local youth group were talking about Cuba. They had been to an international camp near Havana the previous Christmas, and were showcasing a film they had made, documenting their visit.
...[more]
Academies - Staff ballot wins turnround
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
Teachers at Heanor Gate Science College in Derbyshire have won an important first-stage victory against their secondary school applying for academy status.
...[more]
Universities - Dependent on foreign students
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
Income from students outside Britain and even the EU studying at British universities has more than doubled in the past decade. It now accounts for almost 10 per cent of universities’ total funding.
...[more]
Schools - East London teachers strike
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
Teachers in Tower Hamlets, east London, are set to strike on 30 March, following a ballot in which on a 39 per cent turnout, 85 per cent voted for the action.
...[more]
Chile Poverty - Focus on London
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
The recently published local government “map” of child poverty in England shows that 60 per cent of child poverty resides in London: 8 out of the 10 boroughs with the worst indices for child poverty are in London.
...[more]
Unemployment - Record youth joblessness
[WORKERS, APR 2011]
Unemployment has now topped 2.5 million, a 17-year high. Youth unemployment is at record levels. The number of 16- to 24-year-olds out of work has increased by 30,000 to 974,000 – a rate of 20.6 per cent!
...[more]
The shrinking economy
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that the British economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter. GDP was 4.4 per cent below the first quarter of 2008; it was the same as in the first quarter of 2006; and it was 8 per cent below the trend line for the last two decades.
...[more]
Cuts deluge London NHS
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
February saw 2,200 redundancies in London’s Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authority – and then saw announcements of 1,500 jobs losses in three key acute hospital trusts – Barts and The London, Kingston, and St Georges. Job losses will include doctors, nurses and consultants.
...[more]
Out of office, into clover
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
Labour’s love affair with the City is sealed with big money. Ex-City minister Lord Myners has accepted a City post, as chairman of Autonomous Research, a stock analysis business. He is also tipped to chair Justice, the ironically named cash shell that hopes to shake up Britain’s financial services with a £1 billion to £5 billion takeover.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
The coalition government has opted in to 8 of the EU’s 13 new laws on crime, justice and immigration proposed or adopted since the general election. All of these shift power to Brussels, including the controversial European Investigation Order and a new IT Agency to oversee the EU’s vast crime and immigration databases.
...[more]
Universities - Glasgow campaign
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
Since their day of action in December, students and staff at one of Scotland’s biggest universities have been building a strong campaign of action against the University of Glasgow’s plans to cut £20 million to cope with their funding reduction.
...[more]
Local Government - Attack on council press
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
The government intends to ignore both local councils and the House of Commons Select Committee on Communities and Local Government over local democratic engagement. Both have reacted in dismay to the government’s decision to limit direct communication by local authorities with their local citizens via free newspapers to only four times a year.
...[more]
Pensions - Indexation scam
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
Public sector pension indexation will change from the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on 1 April 2011. This means a direct 15 per cent reduction in purchasing power for pensioners over the following 10 years. The pay freeze for these workers will permanently depress the value still further.
...[more]
Childcare - Cost rockets
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
The cost of childcare increased by twice as much as the average pay rise last year, according to research from the Daycare Trust.
...[more]
City - The bonuses are back
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
Last year, Goldman Sachs’ profits fell by 38 per cent. Yet its head of UK and Europe, Michael Sherwood, is getting a 60 per cent rise on his 2009 bonus, up to £9 million.
...[more]
Retail - The high streets are emptying
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
THE PROPORTION of empty shops on Britain’s high streets has risen to 14.5 per cent, compared with 12 per cent at the end of 2009, according to research from the Local Data Company.
...[more]
Soviet Union - Celebrating treachery
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
Bored on 30 March 2011? You could have attended the gala performance for Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday. Billed as “The man who changed the world”, he was inspired by Thatcher when Soviet Ambassador to Britain to become the architect responsible for undermining the Soviet Union.
...[more]
Education - Conflict of interest row
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
Ofsted’s incoming chair has become embroiled in a conflict of interest row after it emerged that she will continue to advise an academies chain despite her new role.
...[more]
Demonstration at new hospital
[WORKERS, MAR 2011]
After the recently departed Chief Executive called for staff to give up a day’s leave so they could fund the proposed new St Helier Hospital in Surrey, Unison staff and children demonstrate to ensure that the new hospital is not only adequately funded but remains within the NHS.
...[more]
Campaign for legal aid
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
Under the slogan “Justice for All” the union Unite has launched a campaign to oppose the current legal aid budget cuts of £350 million. Over 800 legal and advice agencies, charities, trade unions and community groups have come together to defend the principles on which the legal aid system was set up in 1949, and to make recommendations for a modern service.
...[more]
The EU's fees freeloaders
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
In the last full academic year, some 64,255 students from other EU countries enrolled at higher education institutions in England and Wales.
...[more]
Libraries fight for a future
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
Determined campaigning by library workers and library users is showing that our public library system has a future, in spite of cuts and closures on a scale never seen before.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
The EU is trying to exploit economic hardship to curb the powers of national governments and to create a new pan-European political structure. Hundreds of billions have already been slashed from EU member-state budgets in the wake of the crisis. Yet the European Commission is demanding still more cuts.
...[more]
Printing - De La Rue a target
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
De La Rue prints Britain’s currency as well as the Royal Mail’s stamps, British passports, driving licenses, credit cards and banknotes for over 150 countries across the globe...The nearly 200-year-old company is now under siege from private equity companies...
...[more]
Accounting - Flawed standards
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has concluded that the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), introduced into British accountancy practice by EU edict, are flawed.
...[more]
PFI - Paying the Price
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
The 544 PFIs (Private Finance Initiatives) agreed under Labour will cost every working family an average of nearly £15,000 by the time the deals run out in – wait for it – 2047/48, even though the original building costs stand at just over £3,000 per family.
...[more]
BA cabin crew vote
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
British Airways cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly to strike against the withdrawal of benefits and changes to terms and conditions.
...[more]
USA - Income gap widens
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
Social inequalities are escalating in the USA. US retail chain store data for December reveal that luxury outlets saw an 8.1 per cent rise in sales from the previous year: discount stores catering to America’s poorer people rose just 1.2 per cent.
...[more]
Employment - No work for the young
[WORKERS, FEB 2011]
Unemployment rose to 2.5 million in January, with 20.3 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds out of work.
...[more]
Health threat to London
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley only has one mantra for addressing health care issues – “the market! the market”! This is demonstrated by his response to two different NHS Trusts in London facing challenging and uncertain futures.
...[more]
We need manufacture
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
Britain needs to create hundreds of large manufacturing companies if our economy is to grow, according to The shape of British industry: growing from strong foundations, a report by the EEF (as the Engineering Employers’ Federation now styles itself) and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
...[more]
Attack on union training
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
The coalition government is repeating its commitment to the legislation protecting time off for trade union training for stewards and lay union officials. But on the other hand such are the new rules that stewards will only be entitled to one training course of no more than five days a year, unless they are doing a diploma level qualification, which attracts ten days.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
Under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU gains new powers over justice and home affairs, with European judges being granted the final say over the whole area. It is also the fastest growing item in the EU budget.
...[more]
Newspapers - Journalists strike
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
Journalists working for Newsquest in Brighton and Southampton struck for 48 hours on 7 and 8 December in separate disputes with the local newspaper group.
...[more]
Investment - Hedging bets
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
The China Opportunity Master Fund, minimum entrance fee $1,000,000, has been established by US entrepreneurs (that’s a polite word for them) to try and generate a crisis of confidence ... in China’s economy.
...[more]
Poverty - As long as capitalism is here
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
The number of children living in poverty in working households has risen to record levels in Britain, reaching 2.1 million youngsters, according to a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2010.
...[more]
Wikileaks - Failing wars
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
WikiLeaks has published secret US military files portraying the failing war in Afghanistan. The files reveal how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, while Taliban attacks have soared.
...[more]
Trade - Gap widens
[WORKERS, JAN 2011]
Britain’s trade gap widened to £8.5 billion in October, up from £8.4 billion in September.
...[more]
Global strike stuns BBC
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
The successful two-day strike in November by members of the National Union of Journalists working in the BBC had been entered into with solid backing. A majority of more than 9 to 1 had voted to strike.
...[more]
Profiting from crisis
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
David Cameron told the G20 on 11 November that protectionism caused the Great Depression of the 1930s. Apparently, it wasn’t the then coalition government’s wage cuts and public spending cuts!
...[more]
Which way for the FBU?
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
After two strike days and a march, the London Fire Brigades Union suspended its planned strike days on 5 and 6 November, Bonfire Night weekend, as a tactical move to get talks re-opened.
...[more]
News Analysis - EU's reserve army of unemployed
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
The focus of government, the media and organised labour on the ConDem Spending Review cuts to public service and welfare has included much talk of jobs, especially job losses.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
The European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off EU accounts for the 16th consecutive year.
...[more]
Energy - Fuel to cost more
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
Eight million British Gas customers face higher fuel bills from 10 December, when households will pay an average 7 per cent more for gas and electricity.
...[more]
London - School students march
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
On Thursday 19 November over 250 school students from across the London Borough of Barnet assembled outside Finchley Catholic High and marched down the main road to the HQ of Finchley Conservatives.
...[more]
Publishing - Organising to win
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
While the dispute with the BBC continues, the NUJ continues its everyday campaigning to unionise the whole industry.
...[more]
Pay - Cuts in real terms
[WORKERS, DEC 2010]
Most workers are suffering a pay cut, in real terms, because their salaries are not keeping pace with inflation.
...[more]
Firefighters in dispute
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Striking firefighters in north east London picket Woodford fire station on Saturday 23 October. London firefighters are in dispute over proposed changes to shift patterns which would lead to a cutting of nighttime emergency cover.
...[more]
Civil servants ponder choices
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Civil servants are engaged in a long-running dispute about redundancy payments. Government workers rightly feared that the only reason the last government tried to change the rules was to make it easier to sack them.
...[more]
New pensions offer at BBC
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
As WORKERS went to press, BBC staff nationwide were voting in consultative ballots on their employer’s response to the overwhelming strike ballot and planned industrial action. Strikes planned for October were called off to allow the offer to be considered.
...[more]
Council housing clearances
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Changes to how housing benefit will be allocated in April 2011, presented by the Coalition as dealing with benefits fraudsters and rogue landlords, will of course have almost the reverse effect.
...[more]
News Analysis: Uproar in France
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
MASSIVE nationwide strikes and demonstrations were held across France on Tuesday 19 October, the 6th day of action against government plans to worsen retirement arrangements.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
The European Parliament voted to increase the EU budget by 5.9 per cent to 130 billion euros on the same day that Chancellor George Osborne announced huge spending cuts.
...[more]
Food - Prices rocket
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Food prices in Britain have soared in recent years, according to the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs – confirming what anyone who has been into a shop has noticed for themselves.
...[more]
NHS - Privateers gain ground
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Following the £500 million joint venture with Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust in 2009, Serco has now established a similar joint venture with King’s College Health Trust worth an estimated £300 million.
...[more]
Tax Avoidance - Google's 2.4% tax
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Workers have to pay tax. But companies? Google’s overseas tax rate has averaged just 2.4 per cent in the last three years.
...[more]
Poland - Help from the City
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
Over 20 London banks and financial services companies, including Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS, are helping the right-wing Polish government in preparing to privatise over 500 national industries and economic assets.
...[more]
Pawnbroking - A growth industry
[WORKERS, NOV 2010]
There has been an expansion and doubling of pawnbrokers in Britain. From 500 in 2003, up to 1,300 now. About 60 per cent of those using pawnbrokers are unemployed.
...[see article]
'Entitled to be angry'
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
On 15 September Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, addressed the TUC. He admitted, “There was nothing fair about the financial crisis. It was caused not by problems in the real economy; it came out of the financial sector
...[more]
GP concern over 'liberation'
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
The Coalition government’s plans to hand over financial responsibility for commissioning health services in England has met a concerned response from the people the new regime is supposed to “liberate” – the general practitioners.
...[more]
Cuts target shipbuilding
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
Talk of cancellation of defence manufacturing and shipbuilding contracts is causing anxiety for the security of skilled jobs in the industry – 4,000 directly in shipbuilding and over 10,000 in industrial suppliers.
...[more]
News Analysis - New attack on unions
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
It is no coincidence that as the TUC convened in Manchester, the Policy Exchange report on “Modernising Industrial Relations” was published.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
Support for the EU has dropped to its lowest level in nine years.
...[more]
March, Counter-March...Police benefit in Bradford
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
A massive hoo-ha erupted over the English Defence League’s (EDL) plan to march in Bradford on 28 August.
...[more]
Edinburgh - £90 million axe poised
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
Edinburgh City Council is setting the pace in its eagerness to implement cuts and attack jobs.
...[more]
Transport - Threat to Freedom Pass
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
London Councils have issued a seemingly innocuous consultation paper on the London Local Authorities (Concessionary Fares) Bill
...[more]
NHS - Paying for the PFI
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
The NHS will pay back to the private finance initiative £65 billion for hospitals built under the PFI and related schemes.
...[more]
Councils - Mass Sackings in Birmingham
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
The leader of Birmingham City Council, Stephen Hughes, salary £220,000, has issued 26,000 redundancy notices to staff – effectively all staff bar those in teaching.
...[more]
Demonstration
[WORKERS, OCT 2010]
A massive demonstration of around 10,000 – the largest of any of the Pope’s trips abroad – marched in London on Saturday 18 September to protest against his state-funded visit.
...[more]
A budget for the City
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
The coalition’s first budget, in June, was a budget for the banks and the City: those who caused the crisis are to be subsidised by the working class, the vast majority.
...[more]
Death knell for Europe's coal
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
The European Union has accelerated its programme of phasing out coal subsidies, jeopardising more than 100,000 jobs. Effectively, all hard coal mining in Germany, Spain, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia deemed as loss making may be forced to close.
...[more]
Housing targets scrapped
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
The Coalition government has scrapped regional social housing building targets and planning with immediate effect from July 2010. This effectively stops public sector build of 85,000 homes and places an estimated 100,000 construction jobs at risk.
...[more]
News Analysis: The unwinnable war
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
President Obama must be the last person to think the Afghan war is winnable. He recently sent another 30,000 US troops to join the 120,000 NATO troops there. Even disgraced US General McChrystal said that US strategy was not working in key parts of the country.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
The coalition government has made much of high earnings in the public sector, claiming that restriction will help economic recovery. So far it has said little about the cost of the EU or its unelected officials.
...[more]
Food - Tate and Lyle sell-off
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
Tate & Lyle, Britain’s 150-year-old sugar and syrup producer, has sold its sugar and refining businesses to the US American Sugar Refining company (ASR).
...[more]
Papal Visit - Opposition grows
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
The planned visit of Pope Benedict XVI in September, ex Hitler Youth Movement member, is generating widespread opposition.
...[more]
Iraq - Ex-MI5 head speaks out
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
The former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, told the Iraq inquiry in July that she believed the intelligence on Iraq’s threat was not “substantial enough” to justify the war.
...[more]
Education - College cuts
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
Spending on higher and further education could be cut by 25 per cent over the next four years. This would mean a loss of more than 33,000 jobs in further education colleges in England, and more than 22,500 jobs in England’s universities.
...[more]
Trade - And still the gap grows
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
Britain’s trade gap was £3.8 billion in May, a two-year high, up from £3.5 billion in April. The City was, yet again, surprised by the “unexpected” rise.
...[more]
Tourism - Serving, not making
[WORKERS, SEPT 2010]
What future for Britain? A report by accountants Deloitte and Oxford Economics predicts a surge of 60 per cent in the value of tourism after the 2012 Olympics.
...[more]
Media battles erupt
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
Something is stirring in Dundee, headquarters of the DC Thomson newspaper and magazine group. The company is notoriously non-union, but in recent weeks and months dozens of workers there have been joining the National Union of Journalists.
...[more]
Olympics: Vultures circling
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
Even before the 2012 Olympic stadium and assorted developments in the £9.3 billion Olympic Village have been finished, the vultures are circling to asset strip this vast publicly funded site.
...[more]
Energy gap postponed
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
A short-term body swerve by the EU has granted a temporary reprieve from the lights going out in Britain. Coal-fired power stations facing arbitrary closure under the EU’s so-called green strategy can now continue generating.
...[more]
News Analysis: Trouble in the zone
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
The chaos in the eurozone continues, with the European Commission issuing instructions left, right and centre. Increasingly, these edicts from the beleaguered bureaucrats in Brussels are being ignored or simply overtaken by events.
...[more]
Eurobriefs: We need to talk about the euro
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
Former Bundesbank President Karl Otto Pöhl said, “The foundations of the euro have fundamentally changed as a result of the decision by Eurozone governments to transform themselves into a transfer union. This is a violation of every rule..."
...[more]
Banks: The next great crisis
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
Banks face another crisis as tens of millions of pounds of commercial property loans are due to be refinanced this year and over the next three years.
...[more]
Education: Day of dissent
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
Trade unionists from all unions in further and higher education institutions in Britain participated in a wide ranging series of activities...
...[more]
Glasgow: Strike over hiving off
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
Anger has grown over recent months among workers in Culture and Sport Glasgow in reaction to attacks on their pay and conditions.
...[more]
Working Hours: Disappearing breaks
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
One in four people is risking ill health by working through the day without a break, according to a new survey by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
...[more]
Poverty: More on free school meals
[WORKERS, JULY 2010]
More children are becoming eligible for free meals at school, according to figures disclosed by the Department for Education.
...[more]
Universities in uproar as cuts hit courses, while administrators call for fee increases
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
Just when you would expect the people running British universities to be standing up for higher education for the young people of the country, voices are emerging calling British students “loss making” and urging a greater focus on foreign students…
...[more]
Death by the markets
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
The financial markets, which the EU embraces, are wrecking the euro and the EU. The experiment of a monetary union for Europe has failed. The EU is disintegrating before our eyes.
...[more]
Jarvis workers demonstrate
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
Hundreds of sacked Jarvis workers demonstrated outside Network Rail headquarters at Kings Cross, London on 28 April to demand their jobs back.
...[more]
Boycott to ruin league tables
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
A joint boycott of Key Stage 2 SATS by the National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers was organised in May.
...[more]
Analysis - Home-grown food
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
Catering managers at Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham have switched to cooking with local ingredients, saving the NHS millions of pounds and in the process saving local jobs in farming and food distribution.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
Greece’s social-democratic government announced 24 billion euros of cuts to get the EU/IMF 110 billion euro loan, including a three-year wage freeze for public sector workers, a pension freeze and a rise in the retirement age.
...[more]
Civil Service - Court battles
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
A rare victory for a union in the courts may not turn to be the success it looked at first. On 10 May the Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS) won its case objecting to imposition of changes to civil service redundancy payments.
...[more]
Banking - 'Crap' from Goldman Sachs
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
Documents disclosed as part of the US Senate hearings into Goldman Sachs have revealed that the finance house’s dealers called one of their products “crap”, and called one $11 billion collateralised debt obligation they helped to sell, known as Timberwolf, “one shitty deal” and the whole idea “intellectual masturbation”.
...[more]
Insecurity - Holiday left untaken
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
TOO MANY workers are doing unpaid work for their employers: some 38 per cent of professional workers failed to take their full holiday entitlement last year, according to the Institute of Payroll Professionals.
...[more]
Motherhood - Cuba's the best
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
Save the Children, an internationally acclaimed children’s advocate organisation, annually ranks the best and worst places to be a mother. Among the 81 “Less Developed Countries” analysed, Cuba is ranked number one, meaning it is the best place to be a mother.
...[more]
Trade Gap - Unexpected leap
[WORKERS, JUNE 2010]
March’s trade gap was £7.5 billion, up from February’s £6.3 billion, as imports rose by 5.2 per cent, five times faster than exports.
...[more]
Jobs won at Pembroke
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
The struggle to gain employment on the new power station build at Pembroke has registered a significant success with the announcement that the Shaw Group UK has been awarded the contract to build all five boilers. This contractor has a history of employing the appropriate skilled trades and primarily from these shores.
...[more]
Network Rail uses Thatcher’s laws to prevent national rail strike
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
Rail union RMT has been prevented from calling thousands of signalling, maintenance and other workers out on the first national rail strike for a decade. Anti-trade union laws from the Thatcher era were used by Network Rail to prevent the action. Sister union TSSA, which was also calling some of its members out, called off its action as a result.
...[more]
Marks that matter
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
The March edition of The Teacher, the National Union of Teachers’ magazine, anticipates the general election on its front cover. It shows a large X amid the slogan, “MAKE YOUR MARK Elections 2010. Vote to stop the BNP”. By its constitution the NUT cannot support or promote any political party. But it appears campaigning against one is permissible.
...[more]
Charities - forgotten sector
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
Unite has launched a report on funding the not-for-profit workforce in Britain and Ireland. Entitled Unsustainable, it looks at the pressures on its 60,000 members working in charities, housing associations, youth services, law and advice centres, and other voluntary organisations.
...[more]
Analysis: The Thames - transport for London
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
Proposals for the improvement of London’s river-borne transport and its integration into the whole transport system have been around for many years. Now Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, has dusted off and repackaged them as Boris’s big idea.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
The European Council summit in Brussels on 25 March stated that EU leaders “consider that the European Council should become the economic government of the EU and we propose to increase its role in economic surveillance and the definition of the EU’s growth strategy.”
...[more]
Health - Glasgow protest
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
April saw nearly 3,000 march in a Unison-organised protest in Glasgow against cuts in education and services.
...[more]
Universities - Imitating the US
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
A report published by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) has sharply criticised the likely results of cross-party agreement on funding British universities.
...[more]
Economy - Trade drops despite weak £
[WORKERS, MAY 2010]
January’s output was down 0.4 per cent on December’s, the biggest monthly drop since August 2008. City analysts – wrong, as usual – had expected a rise of 0.3 per cent.
...[more]
Battle begins as BA staff take on the union-busters
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
Strenuous efforts by Unite to avoid a cabin crew strike forced British Airways to keep talking until a few hours before the deadline at midnight Friday 19 March, but with BA’s manager Willie Walsh (renegade pilot negotiator at Aer Lingus in the 1980s) taking an uncompromising union-busting approach, talks were bound to break down.
...[more]
Power in Pembroke
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
The struggle for the right to work in our own country continues, this time in the southwestern corner of Wales in Pembrokeshire.
...[more]
Sussex fight for university
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
Staff and students at Sussex University are waging a determined campaign to save the university’s academic integrity.
...[more]
Guides call for right to work
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
In June 2010, Unite holds its first Policy Conference since the merger between Amicus and the T&G. The tourist guides’ branch, APTG, wants regulations to protect professional standards in a hostile climate of deregulation demanded by EU competition policy.
...[more]
Analysis - Positive future for Royal Mail
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
Many workers are accepting pay freezes, compulsory redundancies and even pay cuts. But the Communication Workers Union, owing to its previous well-supported dispute and adept negotiations, has formulated a proposal for Royal Mail workers.
...[more]
Leeds - UCU victory
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
The one-day strikes set initially for early March at Leeds University were called off, first temporarily and now permanently following a groundbreaking agreement reached at the brink of a new strike day on 18 March.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
The EU’s Landfill Directive demands an increasing cut in the amount of waste sent to landfill. The 2010 target is a 25 per cent reduction from the 1995 levels, and 65 per cent by 2020.
...[more]
Iceland - A people says no
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
Icelandic voters have rejected a proposed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands the £3.48 billion lost in the collapse of Icelandic internet bank Icesave. 93.2 per cent voted no, just 1.8 per cent voted yes, and 4.7 per cent turned in an empty ballot.
...[more]
Civil Service - Redundancy changes fought
[WORKERS, APR 2010]
Members of the Public & Commercial Services Union, the largest in the civil service, are challenging changes to their redundancy scheme. A two-day strike at the start of March was followed up with lobbying and demonstrations, then another strike on Budget Day.
...[more]
Lindsey comes to London
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Members of the GMB and Unite converged outside Parliament on 3 February to oppose discrimination against British workers and the attempts to undermine the National Agreement Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) – Blue Book.
...[more]
Leeds lecturers fight job loss
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
ACADEMICS AT the University of Leeds are preparing for three days of strike action as part of their campaign against threatened compulsory redundancies in Biological Sciences and a £35 million cut across the university which would mean hundreds of job losses.
...[more]
Scots to rally against cuts
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
For what is expected to be one of the biggest rallies for years on 6 March in Glasgow (see What’s On), the largest teachers’ union in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland and the Musicians’ Union are collaborating to denounce the raft of cuts to education budgets that are steadily coming into force in all local authorities.
...[more]
Commercial property: the next big crisis
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
A crisis is looming in the commercial property market both here and abroad. At present usually only reported in a low-key way in business pages or programmes, it seems likely to burst onto the scene in the near future, dragging the capitalist world deeper into depression and turmoil and causing untold suffering to workers.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - the latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Electricity users pay over £1 billion a year to subsidise wind farms and other renewables. A government scheme, known as the Renewables Obligation, forces energy companies to fund green energy. Users pay higher bills both directly and indirectly, where industrial electricity users pass on their costs.
...[more]
Shipping - Ministers aid race to bottom
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Maritime trade unions Nautilus and the RMT are jointly campaigning against proposals to undermine wage rates on British merchant ships.
...[more]
Unison - London members keep control
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Unison members in Greater London – “London for Change” – have voted in greater numbers for the interests of the membership as opposed to the interests of external political cliques, for a refreshing fifth year in a row at their February AGM.
...[more]
Civil Service - Fair for all?
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Government workers are not impressed by the promise of “a future fair for all”. In April 2009 the prime minister declared that their redundancy agreement in place since 1987 was too costly...
...[more]
Europe - The no-growth zone
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
In the last quarter of 2009, the eurozone’s total economy grew by just 0.1 per cent.
...[more]
Trade Deficit - Leaping up
[WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Britain’s trade deficit leapt from £6.8 billion in November to £7.3 billion in December, as imports far outstripped exports.
...[more]
BA crews to ballot again
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
After the court declared unlawful BA cabin staff’s 92 per cent majority vote for strike action on an 80 per cent turnout, they are now to ballot again. The cabin crew have called for a ten-day strike.
...[more]
Iceland: can't pay, won't pay
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Iceland’s President Olafur R. Grimsson has refused to sign the bill, negotiated under duress, enforcing the payment of £3.5 billion to the British and Dutch governments to refund them for the collapse of Iceland’s deposit insurance fund...
...[more]
Kraft to swallow Cadbury
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
The Unite union is leading protests against the takeover of Cadbury by US giant Kraft. Top of the list of concerns is jobs: Cadbury employs more than 45,000 people worldwide, 6,200 of them in Britain, according to the union.
...[more]
News Analysis - Greece: running out of money
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Greece is a glaring example of what capitalist banks and the European Union (a truly dreadful combination) can do to an erstwhile independently minded nation.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
The EU is proposing a 10-year economic framework, Growth Strategy 2020. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for penalties for member states that fail to reach agreed economic targets, ending national economic sovereignty.
...[more]
Environment - Cuba slams "farce"
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has called the Copenhagen Summit on climate change a farce, undemocratic, exclusive and arbitrary. He said President Obama’s approach was arrogant, cynical and devious...
...[more]
Schools - Huge majorities against SATs
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Primary Heads in the National Association of Head Teachers and primary teachers in the NUT have overwhelmingly rejected SATs as a way of measuring pupil progress in a joint activity to test opinion, and are currently deciding the next steps in their joint campaign.
...[more]
Colleges - Manifesto launched
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
The university and college union UCU launched its education manifesto on Tuesday 26 January at a lobby event in Parliament to set out its key issues in all areas of post-16 education.
...[more]
Ecuador - Coup conspiracy
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
On 3 January, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa revealed that his government had uncovered a conspiracy to launch a coup.
...[more]
Health and Safety - Dirty offices
[WORKERS, FEB 2010]
More than one in four workers described their office as “dirty”, according to a research survey by support service group, Resource.
...[more]
Historic factory to close
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
A historic factory is being culled by government ministers as the destruction of British industry continues – ending manufacture at a site founded 160 years ago.
...[more]
Bill maintains poverty wages
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
A loophole in the law allows ferry operators between British ports to ignore minimum wage legislation and pay non-British seafarers as little as £2 an hour.
...[more]
Stagnation rules
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
Manufacturing output stagnated once again in October, confounding economists’ expectations. Total GDP fell by 0.3 per cent between July and September, worse than in any other G20 country.
...[more]
News Analysis - Vetting, barring, and our schools
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The Government has finally caved in, in the face of the growing chorus of protest against its “Vetting and Barring” scheme, which was recommended by the inquiry into the murders of two schoolgirls by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The VAT fraud from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which allows polluting companies to buy the right to pollute from less polluting ones, has caused the loss of about 5 billion euros in the past 18 months.
...[more]
Climate - Control for World Bank
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The Copenhagen climate change talks were in chaos as Workers went to press...
...[more]
Migration - Poll shows opposition
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The high human cost of the EU’s free movement of labour policy is becoming apparent as winter begins to bite.
...[more]
Steel - Corus workers take the field
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
Teesside steelworkers took their campaign to keep open the Redcar plant to the terraces on 12 December as 100 of them paraded around the ground before Middlesbrough’s match against Cardiff City.
...[more]
ALBA - Coup, attempted assassination
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The recent news of the coup in Honduras had special significance because it was the first against an ALBA country. ALBA stands for Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América – the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. It also means dawn in Spanish.
...[more]
Transport - Signallers strike
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
RMT signalling staff in South Wales started a six-day strike on 14 December over the imposition of 8-hour rosters at the new South Wales Control Centre due to open in January 2010.
...[more]
The Trough - Big bills are back
[WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The London freesheet City AM, recently praised by Brown, boasted on its “The Capitalist” page of the latest City boys’ extravagance...
...[more]
Separatist Setback
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The margin of defeat for the Scottish National Party in the recent parliamentary election in northwest Glasgow has proved a setback for the separatist agenda of splitting Britain.
...[more]
Grow it in Britain
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
On Saturday 14 November more than 150 people crowded into the hall of the secondary school in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, to celebrate the town’s two years’ effort towards growing and eating local produce.
...[more]
Teachers attack licence plan
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The National Union of Teachers is urging its members to send messages of opposition to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families over the issue of teacher licensing.
...[more]
News Analysis - The fight for Cadbury
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The battle for domination of chocolate and confectionery sales and production worldwide is under way with a hostile takeover bid by the US Kraft Corporation for the 195-year-old British company Cadbury.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Before the last election Conservatives, Labour and Liberal-Democrats promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. There’s no sign that will happen.
...[more]
Trade Gap - 'Unexpected' widening
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Britain’s global goods trade deficit “unexpectedly” widened in September to its worst since the start of the year as surging imports outpaced the growth in exports.
...[more]
Pay - The norm is...nothing
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
For the first time in the history of the IRS Employment Review’s analysis of pay settlements the median pay award for 2008-2009 has resulted in zero being the norm.
...[more]
European Union - Rule by the unelected
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
In a procedure apparently copied from the Vatican for choosing a Pope, 27 people in Brussels have chosen who is to fill the two biggest jobs in the EU.
...[more]
Transport - East London bus strike
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Bus drivers employed by East London Bus Group were on strike for 48 hours on 20 to 22 November, affecting 58 bus routes across east London and the City.
...[more]
Industry - Government 'has no plan'
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Rolls-Royce chief executive Sir John Rose has attacked successive British governments for their lack of industrial strategy at a meeting of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London on 10 November...
...[more]
NUJ Conference
[WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The NUJ conference took place in Southport this month, where the main themes were resistance to job losses
...[more]
The slump continues
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
Britain’s economy contracted by 0.4 per cent between July and September, according to official figures. Almost every City analyst expected there to be positive growth in the third quarter. But, as usual, every City analyst got it wrong.
...[more]
Anti-SATs campaign hots up
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
All around the country parents, teachers, school leaders and children have been getting involved in the combined campaign of the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers to end SATs tests in primary schools.
...[more]
'State-imposed' Learning
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
The biggest independent review of primary education in 40 years has accused government of introducing a curriculum “even narrower than that of the Victorian elementary schools”.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
A new ICM poll found that 70 per cent of voters want a future Conservative government to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty even if it is already in force.
...[more]
Anti-Union Laws - Another blow
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
Another hammer blow to the right to strike follows from the Court of Appeal decision of Metrobus versus Unite.
...[more]
Working Age - Set to rise
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
The question of whether workers can be forced to retire at 65 years has been referred back to the UK High Court from the European Court of Justice.
...[more]
Colleges - Tower Hamlets victory
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
University and College Union members at Tower Hamlets College in east London won a victory in late September after nearly a month of strike action.
...[more]
Health - All-Ireland response
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
UNISON’s response to the crisis in health care provision in Northern Ireland has been a rallying cry across the province and the Irish Republic to stand up for Health.
...[more]
Refineries - Sugar jobs axed
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
One hundred and fifty jobs have been axed at the French-owned Syral sugar refinery in Greenwich, London.
...[more]
Referendum - N. Ireland Assembly vote
[WORKERS, NOV 2009]
The Northern Ireland Assembly voted on Tuesday 20 October, by 47-19, in favour of Britain holding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty...
...[more]
Academy plan defeated
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The Royal Docks Community School in Newham, east London, will be the first in the new breed of Co-op schools to open in the capital, under plans unveiled by the local council, after a dogged year-long campaign against an academy backed by the sponsor, ARK. (See Workers April 2009 and July 2009.)
...[more]
MG Rover: the £10 fortune
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The independent investigation into the bankruptcy and collapse of the MG Rover car manufacturer in 2005 has been published after four years and is 830 pages long. The four directors – the Phoenix Four – got away with personally enriching themselves to the tune of £42 million in five years; their goal was £75 millions.
...[more]
Ballot on new Blue Book
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
A meeting of shop stewards from the engineering construction industry in Manchester on 17 September voted to recommend an offer from the employers on a new national agreement (NAECI - Blue Book) covering workers in the industry.
...[more]
News Analysis - MEP - small job, big bunce
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The European Parliament in Brussels has re-assembled, and the snouts are back in the troughs. The salary of British MEPs has risen from £63,000 to £80,500, on top of generous pensions, expenses and other payments.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
Recent polls show that Britons don’t support the EU. Opinium Research found that 67 per cent of voters wanted a referendum on EU membership.
...[more]
Whisky - Johnny Walker closure
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The destruction of traditional industries continues: 900 jobs will go with the closure by the international drinks producer Diageo of its Johnnie Walker whisky bottling plant in Kilmarnock, which has been in the town since 1820, and its grain distillery in Port Dundas, Glasgow.
...[more]
Skills - Tree apprentices appointed
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
In Britain we need to ensure that skills are not only preserved and developed but also handed on to the next generation so that we have a future economy as well as a past.
...[more]
Health Services - Accountancy sleight of hand
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
An international accountancy standard, inspired by the European Union and implemented by Labour – itself international standard of theft and asset stripping – is set to hit the NHS.
...[more]
Water - Shortages loom
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The Environment Agency and the water industry regulator Ofwat have forecast that unless a major shift occurs in water provision by 2035 then England and Wales will face water shortages of terrifying consequences. The privatised water companies agree with them.
...[more]
Children - Dependent on benefits
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
Latest figures show that more than a third of children in the London Borough of Enfield are living on an income below the poverty line in a household dependent on benefits.
...[more]
Movement of Labour - New web forum
[WORKERS, OCT 2009]
A new website has been launched to challenge government support for structures “that allow, effectively, for an unlimited supply of labour into the UK, helping employers drive down wages and working conditions” and to provide a forum for discussion.
...[more]
Jobless total leaps
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
On official figures, unemployment rose by a record 281,000 to 2.38 million in the three months to May.
...[more]
EU pressure on Ireland
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
EU leaders have agreed to a series of “guarantees” on the Lisbon Treaty in return for Ireland holding a second referendum, after Irish voters rejected the Treaty last year.
...[more]
Local govt pay consultation
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
After much fanfare, the final employers’ offer on pay to local government workers, equating to roughly a 3p per hour increase, has gone out to member consultation.
...[more]
News Analysis - Total Place: a pilot for privatisation
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
So far work worth £112 billion has been taken out of Britain’s public sector and placed in the hands of private companies.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
It has been a quiet summer for the EU and its institutions after the European Parliament elections and before the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on 2 October.
...[more]
Afghanistan - Public support pull-out
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
The government tells us that we have to fight an unwinnable war in Afghanistan to stop terrorists from hitting us here. The European Commission tells us that we cannot legally secure our borders because this restricts the “right to free movement”.
...[more]
Bankers - Drinking away
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
Every Monday morning City A.M., a freesheet handed out in the City of London, carries a news item catchily titled “Bill of the week”.
...[more]
Vestas - Closure pushed through
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
Over 400 jobs were lost in August when Vestas Blades, the British subsidiary of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, axed plant at Newport, Isle of Wight, and Southampton.
...[more]
Steel - Tata sacks hundreds more
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
The announcement in July of 366 more redundancies from Scunthorpe’s steel works, added to earlier layoffs, is causing serious worries in the north Lincolnshire town, Britain’s main steel producer.
...[more]
Bonuses - Gray train still running
[WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
IN THE FIRST three months of 2009, British banks’ bonuses totalled £5 billion. Goldman Sachs’ bonus pot is $20 billion – $700,000 for each partner. Morgan Stanley’s bonus pot is $14 billion.
...[more]
Economy fails as jobs go
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
All the parliamentary parties support the free trade policies that underpinned Labour’s economic mirage, which has seen 1.3 million manufacturing jobs destroyed since 1997.
...[more]
Teachers sink Academy plan
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Good news from Newham, east London. On 17 June, Newham Authority went public in the local paper, The Newham Recorder, announcing that it was dropping its plan to turn The Royal Docks Community School into an academy school...
...[more]
Turnout mars Unison election
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Elections for the new National Executive Council of Unison, the second-largest trade union in Britain and the largest in the public services, have concluded. They reveal a problem that can’t be ignored: turnout.
...[more]
News Analysis - Illegal immigration in London
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The Greater London Authority is campaigning to “regularise” the position of illegal immigrants. It held a meeting at City Hall on 16 June to promote this, backed by a report pithily entitled, “Economic impact on the London and UK economy of an earned regularisation of irregular migrants to the UK”.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The European Union aims to have its first-ever internal security policy in force by the end of 2009. The proposal includes: a centralised EU ID card register; internet and satellite surveillance systems; and biometric and risk profiling.
...[more]
Newspapers - Progress in Glasgow
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Journalists at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail in Glasgow have suspended their industrial action over compulsory redundancies and changes in status for many members after the management backed down on several key issues.
...[more]
Finance - Credit crunches further
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The supply of credit has fallen to its lowest level since June 2000. Gross new loans to firms fell to just £7.9 billion in May, down from £9 billion in April and £12.6 billion in March.
...[more]
Colleges - Employers withdraw
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
In Further Education and 6th Form Colleges, the Association of Colleges’ initial 1 per cent pay offer, which they had acknowledged was an “opening” offer and which the unions dismissed as derisory, has suddenly become a “full and final offer”.
...[more]
Eurozone - Negative growth
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Eurozone “growth” will be between minus 4.1 per cent and minus 5.1 per cent this year.
...[more]
Justice - Trial without Jury
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The government is destroying yet another fundamental liberty, in force since Magna Carta.
...[more]
Trade Gap - Up, up and away
[WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Britain’s trade gap in April was £7 billion, up from March’s £6.5 billion, the Office for National Statistics revealed last month.
...[more]
Birmingham march for jobs
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
On 16 May, 7,000 Unite union members from every region marched through Birmingham to demand government protection of jobs.... But this was more than just a union stunt. It was an honest response by people who care about British industry to a government which doesn’t care, and which has replaced industry with credit and speculation.
...[more]
Job cuts sweep Britain
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
There is no corner of Britain unaffected by the banking disintegration, collapse of the housing market, and recession.
...[more]
Failing forecasts
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Since 1997, unemployment has never been less than 1,398,000. It is now 2,220,000, according to official figures. In the past 18 months, redundancies have risen more every quarter...
...[more]
News Analysis - The end of the village
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Traditional village life is in danger, according to the National Housing Federation, as the cost of country living drives young people into the cities.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - the latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas admitted on 12 May that the government’s policy on EU immigration had been wrong and that the government had not predicted the scale of new arrivals after the EU expanded in 2004.
...[more]
European Union - Referendum, says poll
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
A new poll by the Taxpayers’ Alliance/ICM has found that, if people were asked in a referendum whether or not they would vote for Britain to sign up to the Lisbon Treaty, 62 per cent said they would vote not to sign up to it; 28 per cent said they would vote to sign it; and 9 per cent said they didn’t know.
...[more]
Higher Education - Unions reject pay offer
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
The five trade unions in higher education institutions – Unison, UCU, Education Institute of Scotland, GMB and Unite have all jointly rejected the employers pay offer of 0.3 per cent.
...[more]
Minimum Wage - Violation of human rights?
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
The misleadingly titled Tory- sponsored Employment Opportunities Bill clearly demonstrates that the perversion of the English language continues unchecked within the party and demonstrates a centuries-old unbroken despising of workers.
...[more]
Schools - Whistleblower reinstated
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Three teacher union reps at Copland Community College in Brent, north London, who had been suspended when they revealed that huge bonuses had been paid out to the head, Sir Alan Davies, and senior managers, have now been reinstated.
...[more]
Economy - Debt and declining investment
[WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
National debt is now £754 billion, 53 per cent of GDP, up from 35 per cent just two years ago. This is the highest level since 1975-6. Revenues have fallen by 10 per cent, while government spending has risen by 5.3 per cent.
...[more]
Visteon workers fight back
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
Back in 2000 the Ford motor company created a subsidiary company, Visteon, at three of its sites in Britain and Ireland which made car parts – Belfast, Basildon and Enfield. For the past seven or eight years staff numbers at all the sites have been reduced.
...[more]
Lindsey comes to the Olympics
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
Construction workers in the Unite union in London have taken up the fight of the Lindsey oil refinery workers, and are calling for trade union control over the hiring of labour at the Olympic site in Stratford, east London.
...[more]
Teachers vow to finish SATS
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
In the recent past, our schoolchildren have become the most tested pupils in the world. As a result of opposition right across the educational spectrum, Key Stage 3 SATs for 14-year-olds have been dropped.
...[more]
What was on - A visit to 'An Evening with Tony Benn'
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
“The Sage”, Gateshead, is an appropriate billing for the wit and wisdom of this venerable parliamentarian. Tony Benn is the consummate political performer, working his audience with a skill, acquired over more than six decades, that many a professional stand-up comic must envy.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
The European Commission (which has repeatedly failed audit inspection) has called for a pan-European regulator of finance. Lord Turner, chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority (which failed to foresee the crisis), echoed this call, adding that it should be in London.
...[more]
Local Government Pay - The fruits of poor leadership
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
As the dust settles on the 2008 local government pay dispute a further 0.3 per cent has been gained by referral to ACAS, bringing the settlement to 2.75 per cent plus £100 for those on the lowest salary point.
...[more]
Unison - Members retain control
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
For the fourth year running the united member alliance – “London for Change” – has swept the elections in Unison’s Greater London Region March annual general meeting.
...[more]
Privatisation - Promises broken
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
It was always claimed that the reason for transferring staff out of the NHS was to ensure that private sector management could be brought in. It appears that the real reason is to take NHS pensions out.
...[more]
Colleges - Hung out to dry
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
Further Education colleges face disaster after disaster, as government schemes for the sector hit the buffers.
...[more]
Brussels - Pity the underpaid
[WORKERS, MAY 2009]
The European Union really knows how to win our hearts and minds. Its MEPs have given themselves pay rises and tax cuts, to come into effect this June.
...[more]
Rally against religious courts
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
On 7 March, the eve of International Women’s Day, around 600 people joined a rally, march and public meeting in London to demand an end to religious courts in Britain.
...[more]
Last two recognise Cuba
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
COSTA RICA and El Salvador – the only two countries in Central and South America not to have diplomatic relations with Cuba – are to reverse their policies.
...[more]
Strike against Ark academy
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
On Thursday 19 March, there was a successful joint strike of 47 NUT and 9 NASUWT members at The Royal Docks Community School in the Newham, east London.
...[more]
News Analysis - What's happened to the billions?
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
Last October the government gave the banks £500 billion, supposedly to get them to start lending again. What happened? They cut their lending. In January, the government gave them another £50 billion. Again, they cut their lending.
...[more]
Academies - Opposition grows
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
The Goverment isn’t having everything its own way. A report presented to Dudley Council’s cabinet on Wednesday 18 March recommended that the authority does not proceed with the provision of two new academies in the borough.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
Labour MEPs backed a European Parliament proposal for an ‘integrated European Armed Force’, to be known as SAFE: Synchronised Armed Forces Europe.
...[more]
Unemployment - Dire statistics
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
The unemplyment figures published in March were expected to be really bad – but they were even worse than predicted. The additional number out of work and claiming benefit was 138,400, boosting the total to over 2 million for the first time in over a decade.
...[more]
Miners' Strike - Book launch
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
On an unusually balmy March evening in Leeds, the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom held a public meeting to launch Shafted, a compilation of writings about the miners’ strike of 83-84 by journalists who covered these events, and miners and their wives who were at the heart of them.
...[more]
Banking - Killing off success
[WORKERS, APR 2009]
On 12 March, the government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland put Wrekin Construction Group, an engineering company employing more than 500 workers, into administration – on the same day that the company won £50 million in orders!
...[more]
Mass march by Irish workers
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
Some 150,000 Irish workers – in a country whose population is half the size of London – filled the streets of Dublin on Saturday 21 February. It was the start of a campaign by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in response to the economic crisis and was the largest show of anti-government feeling in Ireland for over 20 years.
...[more]
Bang goes the poverty target
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that 2.3 million children will still be in poverty in 2010, missing the government’s 1.7 million target. An extra £4.2 billion a year will have to be spent on tax credits if the target is to be met.
...[more]
Carnage in the auto industry
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The motor industry in Swindon has been dealt two hammer blows: after the abrupt sacking at BMW’s Cowley plant of 850 agency workers, the town’s BMW plant has enforced lay-offs, sending all staff home for seven days and another 150 jobs are expected to go permanently.
...[more]
News Analysis - The spread of bonuses
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
Newspapers daily report the banking employers’ bonus payments, now bankrolled by the taxpayer, and everywhere there is outrage, possibly tinged with envy in the case of some politicians at least.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
France announced 6.5 billion euros in loans to three national car makers in a bid to save jobs. In return the companies agreed to keep factories open, maintain jobs and produce “green” cars.
...[more]
Adult Education - The missing two million
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
Fewer adults in England are benefiting from adult education classes. In 2003-04 more than 5.1 million adults were on courses funded by the Learning and Skills Council, but by 2006-07 this had fallen to just over 3.1 million.
...[more]
Training - Apprenticeship numbers fall
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The number of college-based apprentices finding work placements is dropping.
...[more]
Devolution...can seriously damage health
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
According to a report from the Nuffield Trust, devolution is weakening Britain’s ability to influence the EU’s growing hold over health policy.
...[more]
Education - Building for the future?
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The Government’s secondary school rebuilding programme, Building Schools for the Future (BSF), is in dire financial trouble. The aim is to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England. Most existing projects depend on private investment (Private Finance Initiatives).
...[more]
Higher Education - Meeting on governance
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
On Friday 6 March the University and College Union (UCU) is holding an open meeting for members from all over the country to discuss their growing concerns about university governance, democracy and the growing business influence on higher education.
...[more]
Photographers exercise rights
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
In London on 16 February more than 300 photographers exercised their right to take photographs outside Scotland Yard on the day section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 became law.
...[more]
Migration - Net loss of British jobs
[WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The Office of National Statistics revealed on 11 February that 220,000 British workers currently worked abroad in other EU member countries and that no fewer than 947,000 EU workers were working in Britain. This is a net loss of jobs here of 727,000.
...[more]
Unions say no to third runway
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Despite the government announcement on behalf of big capitalist enterprises in favour of a third runway at Heathrow, a number of unions are to campaign for a sustainable high-speed rail alternative to serve the people of Britain. Integrated into a nationwide network, this would also help to bring together the people of England, Scotland and Wales.
...[more]
Lloyds TSB in jobs massacre
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
A forecast of 40,000 job losses arising from the takeover by Lloyds TSB of Halifax Bank Of Scotland banking services: that’s what is now emerging as the real nature of the “lifeline” thrown to HBOS.
...[more]
Teachers fight academy plan
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Teachers in the NUT and NASUWT are due to strike for two days on 28 and 29 January at The Royal Docks Community School against Newham Authority’s proposal to impose academy status.
...[more]
News Analysis - The spread of measles
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
On 9 January Britain’s Health Protection Agency announced its concern over a possible epidemic of measles, on the back of figures showing over 1,200 cases reported to the agency up to the end of November 2008.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
In a debate in the House of Lords on the Lisbon Treaty, Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown confirmed that the “reassurances” to be offered to the Irish “do not change the Lisbon treaty”.
...[more]
Trade Gap - Another dismal record
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Britain’s trade gap in goods with the rest of the world reached a new record last November. The deficit was £8.33 billion, the Office for National Statistics said, up from October’s figure of £7.63 billion.
...[more]
Afghanistan - No more troops says poll
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Any attempt by Barack Obama to get EU members of NATO to send more troops to Afghanistan will be strongly rebuffed by voters throughout Europe.
...[more]
Energy - Plan for nuclear stations
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Germany’s two largest power companies, E.ON and RWE, have announced a plan to build at least four nuclear reactors in Britain, at an estimated cost of £20 billion.
...[more]
Wind Power - The blades stood still
[WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Electricity generation from Britain’s wind farms fell by between 95 and 100 per cent in December and early January. This was due to the stunning fact that it was too cold.
...[more]
Victory at Nottingham Trent
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
University and College Union (UCU) members at Nottingham Trent University were able to celebrate an end-of-term victory in December for their branch and for trade unionism.
...[more]
EU tries to buy elections
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
No less than £27.5 million is to be spent by the European Union in 2009 promoting itself and the EU elections in the United Kingdom. The EU Vice-President, Günter Verheugen, justifies this expenditure on the basis that “the legitimacy of your parliament, and that of the Union as a whole, is at stake”.
...[more]
Newham teachers strike
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
On 10 December 2008, 48 members of the National Union of Teachers at The Royal Docks Community School in the London borough of Newham took strike action in opposition to the threat of redundancies that might arise from the privatisation proposal to turn the school into an academy run by a private sponsor.
...[more]
News Analysis - Higher education and the pound
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
Britain’s reliance on overseas students as a means of funding higher education is a policy that Workers has criticised over the years. Now the financial services firm Grant Thornton, in a recent analysis for The Times Higher Education journal, has recently spelt out the lunacy of this policy.
...[more]
Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
A report from the House of Lords Economic Committee says that Britain’s electricity costs would rise by £6.8 billion a year to meet EU targets for renewable energy.
...[more]
Transport - New carriages promised
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
The Chancellor’s pre-budget report promised to bring forward delivery of 200 new railway carriages earlier than was planned and stated that this will contribute towards British jobs in the present crisis.
...[more]
Iraq - Withdrawal date set
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
The Statutes of Forces Agreement, signed by Iraq and the USA, and backed by the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi parliament, says that all US forces are to leave Iraq’s cities, towns and villages “on a date no later than 30 June 2009”.
...[more]
Local Government - Pay farce continues
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
The farce around the 2008 pay round in local government continues as the terms of reference for referring the dispute to ACAS, previously agreed between the trade union and employer sides, have now been overturned.
...[more]
Secularism - Anti-Sharia campaign launched
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN Rights Day,10 December 2008, saw the launch, ironically at the House of Lords, of the “One Law for All Campaign against Sharia law” in Britain.
...[more]
Health - Measles cases at 14-year high
[WORKERS, JAN 2009]
Measles cases in England and Wales have topped 1,000 in a year for the first time since 1995. Figures released by the Health Protection Agency show that in the first 10 months of 2008 there were 1,049 cases, more than in the whole of 2007.
...[more]
Unite? Anything but united...
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Division and dishonesty are beginning to appear among health trade unions over pay. Some 80 per cent of NHS trade unionists voted to accept the three-year 8.1 per cent deal.
...[more]
EU revenge on Ireland
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Ireland’s brave refusal to ratify the EU Constitution was a step towards true national independence, but it means that all sections of Irish society – for example, Irish farmers – now have to face up to what independence entails.
...[more]
London needs manufacture
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
On Monday 17 November, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry held an important meeting on “The Future of Manufacturing in London”. About 90 people attended, including members of the Greater London Assembly, local businessmen and representatives of Unite, UCU and the South-East Region of the TUC.
...[more]
News Analysis - Independent Sector Treatment Centres
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
We have before in Workers chronicled the ill-fated programme of so-called Independent Sector Treatment Centres. These are the institutions that the Government decided some years ago were necessary in order to reduce, and eventually eradicate, waiting lists for patients in the NHS. In practice they are private sector milch cows...
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be President of Europe. He is campaigning to extend his current role as “conductor of the European Union economic orchestra” until 2010.
...[more]
Credit Crunch - The group that hides its name
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
The “rescued” American International Group (AIG) organised a seminar for executives and financial advisors in a luxurious and exclusive hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, on which it spent $343,000, the Cuban news agency ACN reports.
...[more]
EU Constitution - Luton votes No
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
ITV’s Tonight programme on 20 October featured a mock referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and EU membership held in Luton. Asked how they would vote on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty...
...[more]
Cuba - Scientists call for cooperation
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
In a historic step, Science, the journal of the independent and influential American Association for the Advancement of Science, has said “It is time to establish a new scientific relationship between Cuba and the United States, and not only to pay attention to common challenges such as health, climate, agriculture and energy.”
...[more]
Universities - Nottingham Trent 'greylisted'
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Pressure on Nottingham Trent University (NTU) management is rising now it has formally axed its recognition agreement with the University and College Union (UCU).
...[more]
Food - Inspectors vote to strike
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Meat hygiene inspectors have voted two to one in favour of strike action in a dispute over cuts to overtime payments and the introduction of a “work anytime” system, says Unison.
...[more]
Education - Portability threat
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Two years ago the government launched a consultation exercise on the funding of nursery education. The stated reasoning behind the consultation was to equalise funding...
...[more]
Afghanistan - Troops out, says poll
[WORKERS, DEC 2008]
With the occupation of Afghanistan mired in crisis, a recent BBC opinion poll showed that 68 per cent of the British population want the troops out of Afghanistan. For under-24s the figure was 75 per cent.
...[more]
Government fails the test
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
The hated SATs tests taken by 14-year-olds in England every year are to be scrapped – with immediate effect. So announced Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, on 15 October.
...[more]
Academy hung out to dry
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough is being abandoned by its commercial backer Amey, which is reported to be in discussions with government about the details of the walkout.
...[more]
Library staff act for service
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Librarians, library assistants, and others who work in the country’s network of public libraries are combining with those who use their services to stop closures, and job losses.
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Lord Mandelson, the new UK Business Secretary, will get pay and pension worth £1 million from the EU. All former EU Commissioners can claim a “transition allowance” on leaving.
...[more]
Universities - Strike vote at Nottingham Trent
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Nottingham Trent University wants to end its recognition agreement with the University and College Union, but there is resistance: union members there voted overwhelmingly for industrial action to defend recognition, and were due to strike on Tuesday 21 October.
...[more]
Teachers - NUT ballot on pay strike
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
The National Union of Teachers has balloted members on taking discontinuous strike action over pay. The ballot closes on 3 November and follows a previous ballot leading to a well supported day of strike action on 24 April. This time members in sixth-form colleges are also being balloted.
...[more]
Cabinet - Shuffling the unelected
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Andrew Adonis, junior schools minister, has been moved from his Education brief to Transport. Adonis is an example of the Labour habit of bringing cronies into government without the tiresome need to be elected, by simply giving them a peerage.
...[more]
Construction - Lessons from a faraway isle...
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS has reported that Chinese workers in a remote British dependency out in the Atlantic have literally shut the island down.
...[more]
Trade Deficit - Worse and worse
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
July’s goods trade deficit was a record £8.238 billion (worse than the figure that the Office for National Statistics published earlier) – the biggest monthly gap since records began in…1697! August’s deficit was little better, at £8.198 billion, but this figure will most probably also have to be revised upwards.
...[read]
Iraq - Leave, say polls
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
A July poll conducted for the Independent on Sunday showed that 74 per cent of Britons believe that “British troops should be withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible.”
...[more]
Europe - Why the Irish said No
[WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Jack O’Connor is the president of Ireland’s largest union Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union – which represents over 200,000 Irish workers. He told his union’s regional conference in Tralee at the start of October that people rejected the Lisbon Treaty because of an erosion of workplace rights and that new workers from EU accession states have “dragged down” wages.
...[read]
Going, going...
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
If you want to understand Gordon Brown read the Tom Bower biography. Bower identifies the cowardice, indecisiveness, absenteeism, lack of leadership, innumerable wrong decisions seen well before he became Prime Minister, now epitomised in his collapsed public standing and confidence.
...[more]
United in self-delusion
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
Once again the public sector unions at the 2008 TUC agreed a unifying motion to deal with public sector pay. All will come together under the auspices of the TUC Public Sector Committee to determine a strategy of coordinated solidarity and industrial action to fight for wages. That may remind you of the 2007 strategy or of 2006 or of 2005 or the 1926 strategy.
...[more]
The TUC and the missing-card trick
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The TUC has come and gone. Perhaps best summed up by the BBC report of how Unite, Britain’s biggest union created by merger and fictional membership claims, failed to deliver its block vote in support of the Prison Officers Association, which was fronting for the general strike strategy proposed by the “lefts”.
...[more]
Ofcom set to slash news
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
AS WORKERS went to press, workers in broadcasting were bracing themselves for a report on ITV from the regulator, Ofcom.
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly adopted a proposal to allow automatic extradition to another EU country after someone is convicted by a foreign court in their absence.
...[more]
Housing - Mortgage lending slumps
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
THE LEVEL of mortgage lending in the UK slumped even further in August, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
...[more]
Education - Academy suspends 40
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The head of Academy 360 in Pennywell, Sunderland, last month suspended 40 pupils in the first two weeks of term. This is a new academy, replacing a secondary school which was judged to be failing by the government.
...[more]
London Buses - Strike over pay
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
Bus drivers and other staff working for London bus operators First Capital East and First Centrewest went on a 48 hour strike from Friday 12 September in a dispute over their pay.
...[more]
Afghanistan - Killing civilians
[WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The US/British occupation forces in Afghanistan killed 577 civilians between January and August this year (up from 477 in the same period last year), 384 by bombing.
...[more]
Cleaning the tube - Pay victory for RMT
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
Tube cleaners campaigning for a living wage, a return to direct employment by rail companies and an end to “third party sackings” by sub-contractors without a disciplinary hearing or right to appeal were outside City Hall, London on 16 July.
...[more]
Disarray in local government
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The two-day stoppage of Unison and Unite members in England and Wales local government – 16 and 17 July – has come and gone.
...[more]
How Labour loves the rich
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The Labour government has embraced the super-rich, making Britain their tax haven. It allows 25,000 non-domiciled multi-millionaires to pay no income tax. When some MPs briefly suggested taxing the non-doms this summer, the interests of the 25,000 easily defeated those of the 50 million.
...[more]
Karadzic taken to Hague
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested on 21 July. He is to appear before the US-sponsored and largely US-funded ICTY in The Hague, Netherlands, charged with war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
...[more]
News Analysis - The attack on Somalia
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
On the rare occasions when the media mention the conflict in Somalia, they focus on US attempts to hunt down al Qaeda, or on the West's alleged humanitarian motives.
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The latest Eurobarometer poll asked people in Britain if they thought that EU membership was a good thing. The result was about evenly divided between yes, no and don't know. And 50 per cent of us think we have not gained from EU membership, the highest since 1983.
...[more]
Scotland - Local government strike
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
On 20 August members of Unison, the GMB and Unite were on strike for 24 hours in Scotland in protest against a 2.5 per cent pay offer, which given the rate of inflation is effectively a pay cut.
...[more]
Mexico - No to privatisation
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The people of Mexico have voted decisively against the proposal to hand over the national oil company PEMEX to private companies.
...[more]
Coastguards - Striking for more money
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
Over the busy August Bank Holiday, Britain's coastguards went on strike for better pay. Over 700 workers for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency want a better settlement than the offer made by the government.
...[more]
Privatisation - Outsourcing surges
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The Labour government has speeded up Thatcher's privatisation programme. A Review of the Public Services Industry, published on 10 July, found that outsourced public services have grown by 130 per cent since 1995. The industry is now second in size only to the USA's, and has a £79 billion turnover.
...[more]
Education - Marking fiasco
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
ETS Europe, the private company which turned this year's SATs tests into a fiasco, has been sacked. The US-owned company, which had a five-year £156 million contract to mark the tests for 11- and 14-year olds, has apparently agreed to pay back £19.5 million of the first year's fee.
...[more]
Construction - Lay-off sparks site strike
[WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
HUNDREDS of building workers walked off the Langage Energy Centre site in Plymouth on 7 August after 16 men hired the previous Sunday on six-month contracts were told that there was no work for them, amid rumours that cheaper Polish labour was being brought in.
...[more]
Death of a Treaty
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
A YouGov poll of 1,000 British voters, conducted after Ireland's No vote, found that they thought by a margin of nearly four to one that the Lisbon Treaty should be dropped. 54 per cent agreed that "the government should drop the Lisbon treaty and not try and ratify it." Only 14 per cent said, "The government should carry on and ratify the Lisbon treaty in the UK."
...[more]
Blackouts from Brussels
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
The blackouts that plunged 500,000 homes into darkness in May were compounded by European environmental restrictions over the use of coal– and oil–fired power stations. The unexpected shutdown of two power stations earlier this summer led to the worst disruption to the UK's power network in more than 20 years, prompting new concerns over the stability of Britain's ageing power grid.
...[more]
Keele University backs down
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Resolute membership action has forced the employers at Keele University to abandon their attempt to make 38 academic staff compulsorily redundant. The interim settlement reached should enable the university to avoid compulsory redundancies. And if the management does not conduct the negotiations in the spirit which has been agreed, "greylisting" (a voluntary boycott) and the action short of a strike can be reinstated.
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News Analysis - A matter of priorities
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Workers must focus on what we need to do in the here and now. What should be our practical priorities? What should we be deciding to do in our own country for our maximum benefit? We should plan rationally what we need to produce, and how to produce it, to meet our needs, heedless of fashion or advice from outsiders.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Each British MEP can claim up to £360,000 a year in expenses and pay, bringing our bill for UK MEPs to £28 million.
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Tanker Drivers - Victory at Shell
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Tanker Drivers working for Shell suppliers Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport settled their pay fight in June after a four-day strike that sent panic waves through the petrol industry.
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Snooping - They're watching...
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
The Home Office is set to create a database to store the details of every phone call made, every email sent and every web page visited by British citizens in the previous year.
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Sellafield - Ballot over pay
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
AS WORKERS went to press, 2,000 Unite members at Sellafield, the nuclear reprocessing facility in Cumbria, were due to ballot over whether to take industrial action over pay.
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Transport - Win for station staff
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
A 24-hour strike by station staff at 19 mainline stations in London and across the country at the end of June was called off when Network Rail backed down in a dispute over compulsory redundancies.
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Post - Because the EU says so...
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
A letter from Brussels to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, dated 28 November 2007, discussed the relationship between the EU and our postal service.
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Pensions - Closing down
[WORKERS, JULY 2008]
More employers are closing their final-salary-related pension schemes to new employees or switching them off to existing workers, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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Irish employers back Treaty
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
With Ireland in the grip of a lively referendum campaign on the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation is backing the EU constitution
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Education pay fight continues
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
NUT members walked out on 24 April in their first national strike for over 20 years, over pay. The union estimates that at least 90 per cent of members took part – most schools either closed or sent classes home.
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Keele redundancies halted
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
Keele University Council has had to halt its redundancy proposals following massive protests from the University and College Union (UCU).
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EUROTRASH - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
MEPs have been voting on financial matters. They voted to cover up a report showing widespread abuse of allowances.
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NEWS ANALYSIS - Columbia: the weapons pour in
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
While the US and Britain direct hostility at Venezuela's progressive government, no attention is paid to the crimes committed by its enemy the Colombian state, whose armed forces are supplied and trained by US and British special forces.
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EURO - Germans don't like it
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
In a recent poll organised by the BdB German banking federation, more than half of those surveyed think that the euro is to blame for an increase in prices in recent years and about 34 per cent want to ditch the euro and bring back the Deutschmark.
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ENVIRONMENT - Green Fascism?
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
An interesting posting (2 May 2008) from comments on Michael White's blog on the Guardian website told us, "the only hope that we – and the planet have – is some form of benevolent Green Fascism."
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UNITED STATES - The poor die young
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
Life expectancy may have reached an all-time high for the USA, but it is declining in many of its poor counties, especially among women, a team from the Harvard School of Public Health has reported.
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CONSTRUCTION - Grinding to a halt
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
Activity in the UK's construction industry sank to its lowest level for nearly a decade in April, according to a report from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
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AFRICA : EU pressure resisted
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
African governments are concerned about the impact of the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements, controversial trade opening pacts being negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.
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POSTAL PRIVATISATION - No benefit, says report
[WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
The government's strategy of opening up the postal market to private sector competition has provided "no significant benefits" for households or for smaller businesses...
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Back clean coal, govt. urged
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
A joint TUC, employers, research organisations and coal companies report has issued an urgent call to the government to support clean coal technology as the future path for Britain's looming energy crisis.
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Lecturers vote for strike
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
College lecturers in England have voted to strike on Thursday 24 April in support of their pay claim for a 6 per cent rise or £1500, whichever is the greater, for 2008–9.
...[more]
NUT strikes over pay
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
As Workers goes to press, school teachers were due to stage their first strike action over pay for 21 years, on 24 April. Members of the National Union of Teachers voted 3 to 1 in favour of strike action in a 32 per cent turnout.
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Strict EU quotas threaten the extinction of fishing fleets. In the past 12 years 1,000 small boats have disappeared from British ports. Remaining fishermen are now struggling to chase the 3 per cent of the allowed catch of valuable fish species, including cod, haddock and monkfish.
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Transport - RMT wins written undertakings
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
THE RMT has called off a planned 48-hour strike by 2,500 tube maintenance workers at Metronet, due to start on 28 April.
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Oil - Pensions strike at Grangemouth
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
AS WORKERS went to press, 1,200 workers at the huge Grangemouth refinery in Scotland were due to strike on 27 and 28 April over owner Ineos's plans to close the final salary pension scheme to new entrants and reduce provision for existing members, says Unite. The strike ballot drew a 97 per cent vote in favour.
...[more]
Migration - Lords report rebuffs govt.
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
A new report by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, 'The Economic Impact of Immigration', rejects the government's claim that a high level of immigration is needed to prevent labour shortages, describing the claim as "fundamentally flawed".
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Midlands - Eroding the skill base
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Power company E.ON is to move nearly 200 skilled jobs from its headquarters in Coventry to Düsseldorf.
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Local Government - 2000 into 1000 won't go
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Local government staff in Newham, east London, must regard with some amusement the council's desire to move most of them into its Building 1000 project in Docklands. The council wants 2,000 workers on one site, though at the most the building can only take 1,500 staff.
...[more]
Transport - Pay as you drive
[WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Some 1.8 million people signed an online petition against road charging last year. As with the 2 million people who marched against the launch of the Iraq War, the government has decided to ignore these objections.
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Revolt over post office closures
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
Angry customers of Orford Road Post Office, in Walthamstow, East London, staged a "queue-in" on 15 March to protest at its planned closure.
...[more]
Panic over opposition to wars
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the occupying force's position is desperate. Both wars are unjust and unwinnable, wars of choice not necessity – and bad choices at that, wars of aggression, unwise, reckless and brutal.
...[more]
Pensions deal at Goodrich
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
Workers at aerospace company Goodrich have clinched a deal on pensions today following a one-day strike held on Monday 28 January and a continuing ban on overtime.
...[more]
Ministers slash Remploy
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
The campaign by the GMB to preserve the Remploy factories looks to have been derailed by the government. The 83 Remploy factories, established after the Second World War and originally employing disabled service men and women, latterly disabled workers, has been sidetracked and buried by callous government tactics.
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Euronotes - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
The European Commission claims that health, education and social services are all internal market matters and subject to majority vote. The recent directive to "marketise" healthcare is the result. Its introduction is delayed until all EU member governments have – they hope – accepted the Lisbon Treaty. The Commission fears that the directive's unpopularity might otherwise derail ratification.
...[more]
EU Constitution - Thousands lobby MPs
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
On Wednesday 27 February, nearly 3,000 people from all parts of Britain gathered outside Parliament in an effort to persuade MPs to back a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution.
...[more]
Trade - Yet another record deficit
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
Britain's trade deficit with the rest of the world was £4.1 billion in January, unchanged from December. For goods alone, the deficit – the difference between what we export and import – totalled £7.5 billion, also unchanged from the last month of 2007.
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International Women's Day - London meeting
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
Over 100 people attended the celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on 10 March 2008 in London.
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Universities - Strike over course cuts
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
The council of Keele University in North Staffordshire has approved a plan to close most of the School of Economic and Management Studies' current programmes, threatening 38 of the School's 67 academic staff with redundancy.
...[more]
EU Constitution - Referendums yield response
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
Ten referendums were held in selected marginal constituencies around the country throughout February. Despite several of the sitting MPs leafleting constituents telling them not to vote, voters gave the polls an unprecedented response. 152,520 people voted across just ten parliamentary constituencies. The turnout across the country was 36.2%.
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Energy - Offshore workers unite
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
FOLLOWING AN 80% vote in favour, the offshore oil and gas workers have voted to merge their liaison committee, OILC, with the RMT.
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Playing Fields - From sports field to property
[WORKERS, APR 2008]
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea wants to redevelop Holland Park Comprehensive School. Its scheme includes the disposal of land for residential development to provide enabling funding.
...[more]
Journalists fight back
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
As media employers – private and public – look to extract more and more profit from their staff, they are meeting increasing resistance from journalists fed up with poor pay, eroding conditions and demands to work longer and harder.
...[more]
RMT guards win jobs fight
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
More than 600 RMT guards and train drivers at First Great Western (recently dubbed Worst Great Western by passenger groups) have ended disputes with the company after winning an important victory in the protracted battle with employers following EU-inspired privatisation and fragmentation of British railways.
...[more]
'No' campaigns gather speed
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
UNITE – one of Ireland's largest unions – has confirmed that it is to campaign for a No vote in the coming Lisbon Treaty referendum (Irish law dictates that Ireland must hold a referendum, but it seems increasingly likely to be the only member state to have one).
...[more]
ALBA: A new kind of bank
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
With the capitalist world's banking system apparently on the edge of collapse, a quite different story is emerging across the Atlantic. New banks are being established to help Latin America and the Caribbean to become independent of the US, the IMF and World Bank and to move towards forms of integration based on respect for national sovereignty.
...[more]
The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
Which international organisations have a President and a Foreign Minister? Does the UN? Does NATO? No: only the EU wants to. Blair says he'll be President – but only if we give him more powers, especially over defence.
...[more]
Slaughter in Iraq
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
The US-led occupation forces in Iraq dropped 1,447 bombs last year, up from 229 in 2006. Since the invasion in March 2003, coalition bombing has killed 116,000 Iraqis.
...[more]
Reclaiming the union
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
The political sea change in London Unison continues. For the third year running, the members painfully reclaiming their Regional Council from the hands of one or two remaining entryists in the Labour Party and their ultra-left allies, have triumphed again in key convenor and regional committee elections.
...[more]
Secrecy over finances
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
WHILE STAFF and trade unions struggle to make sense out of the near bankruptcy affecting the four NHS trusts in outer South East London – Queen Mary's (Sidcup), Queen Elizabeth (Woolwich), Bromley and Lewisham, the government uses the Freedom of Information Act to shroud in mystery the report into why this near bankruptcy has occurred.
...[more]
Prices and profits soar
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
Centrica (British Gas) is raising its prices by 15 per cent at a time when profits from residential dwellings were over £600 million in the first six months of 2007 – and overall group profits are over £2 billion.
...[more]
So that's how they do it!
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
New research from economists at the London School of Economics has highlighted one measurable way in which state schools lose a valuable resource, namely publicly-trained teachers, to private schools, the dishonestly named 'public schools'.
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New jobs, old insecurity
[WORKERS, MAR 2008]
Eight hundred new jobs are to be created at Nissan in Sunderland. The downside is 400 are to be temporary. Meanwhile 400 permanent jobs will be offered to existing temporary workers.
...[more]
Aerospace strike for pensions
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
AROUND 1,600 workers at the Goodrich aerospace sites in Hall Green and Marston Green Birmingham, in Hemel Hempstead, in Liverpool, and at one of Wolverhampton's biggest factories, have voted in favour of strike action after proposals to change the pension scheme took effect on 1 January, closing the final salary scheme to new workers.
...[more]
Nuclear decision, at last
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Finally, after much dithering, the government has brought out its white paper on nuclear power. Nuclear power stations currently provide 20 per cent of our electricity, but they are all scheduled to close over the next 15 years or so.
...[more]
Pay: New thinking needed
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Just before the Christmas break the TUC launched a unified and coordinated campaign of all public sector trade unions over pay – the rejection of the 2 per cent ceiling and diminishing offers during the next three years.
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News Analysis
Inside the EU's structural funds
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
The four EU Structural and Cohesion Funds give the EU powers over investment, jobs, agriculture and fisheries. They account for over one third of its budget...
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Euronotes
The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
The European Court of Justice has ruled against Swedish unions blockading a Latvian construction company that employed cheap labour. The right to strike is supposedly a fundamental right under EU law.
...[more]
Education
Teachers' pay offer
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Teachers in England and Wales have been offered a three-year pay deal which breaks the Treasury's public sector cap of 2 per cent. The government has accepted the review board's recommendation of 2.45 per cent this year, followed by two years of 2 per cent but with a review next year.
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Health
Cuba vs California
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
As California's health care collapses, Cuba announces new health advances.
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Transport
All aboard the gravy train
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Rail users face price increases of between 4 and 11.1 per cent as the rail companies hike prices – while passenger satisfaction with the rail companies' performance is at its lowest since 2005.
...[more]
Economy
Deficit grows
[WORKERS, FEB 2008]
In 1990, manufacturing was 23 per cent of the economy; in 2005, 14 per cent. So it's no surprise that in 2007's third quarter, our trade deficit was £20 billion (5.7 per cent of GDP).
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Water campaign wound up
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
In October 2006 the South East Regional TUC – conscious of chronic water shortages, failing infrastructure problems especially in London, rationing and supply problems – called for a regional and national campaign to seek the public ownership of water at the earliest possibility with a specific demand that a national grid for water supply be introduced.
...[more]
Sussex fight for 6th form
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
A whole town on the Sussex coast is up in arms at an attempt to close the local school’s sixth form.
...[more]
Middx. profs win union fight
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
Middlesex University in North London has just signed a recognition agreement which will see all the professorial staff involved in teaching and research being represented by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU).
...[more]
News Focus: A tale of two allotments
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
There has been a resurgence in the demand for allotments – particularly in urban areas. For many, this interest is fuelled by suspicions about food safety.
...[more]
Euronotes: The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
When Blair agreed the EU budget deal in December 2005, the press focused on giving up £7 billion of the rebate. More significant is that our net contribution nearly doubles from £2.8 to £5.5 billion a year between 2007 and 2013; an extra £19 billion net over 7 years. The gross contribution, after the reduced rebate, rises to £10.2 billion a year, £71 billion over the whole period.
...[more]
Mauritius: Strike against 'British' law
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
Trade unions and workers' parties in Mauritius have called for a general strike in early December to counter anti-union legislation – modelled on British law – being introduced by the government.
...[more]
USA: Home of the hungry
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
The New York Coalition Against Hunger, an association of churches and charities, says the number of people who use their food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 20 per cent in 2007 with many distribution points struggling to meet demand following cuts in federal funding.
...[more]
Seafarers: EU rules against right to strike
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
On 11 December, the European Court of Justice ruled against Finnish seafarers' right to take strike action.
...[more]
Fashion: Equity opens up to models
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
The trade union Equity has opened its membership to catwalk and photographic models. The move comes after a group of models approached the trade union outlining their need for a representative voice to lobby for better working conditions.
...[more]
NHS: Devolution halts increase
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
Unions in the NHS Staff Council for England have won an increase in car allowances across all but the top grade by 10 per cent. The price of fuel has long been soaring, and workers don't see why they should further subsidise their employer and suffer yet more deductions by stealth from their wages.
...[more]
NHS: Review dodges PFI questions
[WORKERS, JAN 2008]
The Interim Chief Executive of Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust in South East London, languishing under a PFI contract that guarantees a £972 million payout to the successful consortium over the first 30 years of the contract, has announced an independent review of the trust's finances and governance.
...[more]