News

Union-backed wage subsidy scheme helps save jobs in Wales (435 words)

Last month’s unemployment figures show that recovery is still a long way off, the TUC warned, but a wage subsidy scheme funded by the ...

Unions see some progress in engineering construction talks (230 words)

The Unite and GMB general unions were continuing with their strike ballot in the engineering construction industry as Labour Research went to press but ...

Recession Watch (261 words)

The rate of job losses appears to have slowed a little, although the effects of the earlier large-scale job cuts are still pushing up ...

Fire, post and transport unions take on “aggressive” employers (672 words)

Unions in the fire, postal and passenger transport sectors are responding firmly to job cuts and imposed changes to conditions of service, despite the ...

IBM pensions backlash (144 words)

Hundreds of angry IBM staff are joining the Unite general union in reaction to the company’s planned pension changes. IBM wants to close its ...

High pay commission (117 words)

Disgust at excessive pay levels, fuelled by the banking crisis, has prompted calls for the setting up of a high pay commission. ...

Unemployment hits 14-year high (209 words)

Unemployment is at its highest level for 14 years, according to the latest official figures. ...

Price index stays negative (60 words)

Inflation edged a little higher but was still in negative territory. In July, the Retail Prices Index fell by 1.4% against a fall of ...

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators (180 words)

% annual rise in average weekly earnings*% rise in LRD pay deals**Whole economyManu-facturingServicesPrivate sectorPublic sectorJune 2008 (r)3.42.43.73.62.93.8July3.62.83.93.54.04.0August 3.22.93.43.13.63.6September 3.13.03.22.84.03.5October 3.62.93.93.63.83.5November 2.62.32.92.24.33.6December 2.91.83.32.73.93.8January 2009 -0.31.5-0.7-1.23.73.2February ...

Union news

Unite’s “tidying up” of records explains fall in TUC membership (222 words)

The overall number of members of TUC-affiliated unions fell by 5% in the year to January 2009 following four years of modest but steady ...

Report reveals that largest unions manage to maintain financial health (288 words)

Union finances remained reasonably healthy in the year 2007-08, despite a fall in their overall surplus compared with 2006-07. The figures are published in ...

Political fund payers (113 words)

The number of union members contributing to a political fund rose by 9.6% last year to over 4.4 million, according to the certification officer. ...

Blacklisting support (93 words)

An informal support network has been set up by building workers blacklisted by The Consulting Association to give themselves a coherent collective voice. ...

Recognition deals (32 words)

General union Unite has recently won several new recognition deals. They are at London and North Western Railway in Crewe, Gillette UK in Reading ...

European news

Italian unions disagree over government’s regional pay plans (462 words)

Proposals for regional pay variations have provoked outrage in Italy. Although the government says it does not intend to return to the formal mechanisms ...

Polish government plans to raise threshold for collective bargaining (217 words)

The Polish government plans to raise the level of support necessary before unions have a right to bargain with the aim of limiting the ...

Information complaint disrupts merger (233 words)

A decision by the Paris appeal court to back a works council, which complained it had not been given sufficient information, has frozen a ...

Features

Still looking for the black trade union leaders (1982 words)

A survey of 32 trade unions accounting for over 90% of total TUC membership found only one union headed by an official from a ...

New media techniques boost traditional union campaigning (2051 words)

Although perhaps slow off the mark, trade unions are now developing many innovative projects involving social networking sites, virtual branches and online campaigning using ...

Crisis forces hard bargain on the unions (1938 words)

Any recession provides a hard bargaining environment for trade unions and the current one is the worst since the 1930s. Many economists are predicting ...

Social enterprises eye public contracts (1738 words)

Next month the Social Enterprise London network will be hosting a major conference — “Public Service Delivery through Social Enterprise”. This marks another stage ...

Law Matters

Time is of the essence in giving strike notice (409 words)

In a nit-picking decision, the appeal court has found that a union had not promptly informed an employer of the result of a strike ...

Tribunal accepts climate change can be a ‘belief’ (258 words)

The tribunal has said that a person’s belief about climate change could amount to a belief for the purposes of the Employment Equality (Religion ...

Debate continues over sham clause (253 words)

The question of whether someone is a worker for the purposes of the working time regulations is a thorny one. ...

Law Queries

Suspension of worker (172 words)

Q. About a month ago a member found herself placed on suspension pending the results of an investigation into alleged misconduct. ...

Bullying and harassment (253 words)

Q. A member is a car enthusiast. In his own time, he sometimes agrees to do work on colleagues’ cars. Recently some work that ...

Gross misconduct (275 words)

Q. A member of the public complained to the employer that a colleague, having driven after work in a vehicle (bearing the employer’s logo) ...

Law Back-up

Employee has the right to hold on to higher pay (939 words)

Disputes over whether an employer is entitled to be reimbursed for sums that it believes it overpaid to staff are common. Some employers simply ...

Health & Safety Matters

Rep put on blacklist for safety concerns (319 words)

Health and safety activists were among those blacklisted by construction firms, according to the union-backed Hazards magazine. ...

Straw delays on plaques (220 words)

The government has delayed an announcement on whether thousands of pleural plaques sufferers will receive compensation, much to the frustration of unions. ...

Inquiry into deaths has missed the point (84 words)

The official inquiry into the 2004 ICL Stockline disaster, when nine people died, failed to examine the root causes and was a waste of ...

(84 words)

Justice at last over Bhopal gas tragedy? (67 words)

Safety campaigners have welcomed a new court order to arrest the boss responsible for the Bhopal disaster. ...

Asbestos in schools (99 words)

The campaign to rid schools of asbestos has won some support in Parliament. Michael Clapham, chair of the all party group on health and ...

Health & Safety Back-up

An outbreak of swine flu is a union issue (984 words)

Earlier this year a new strain of influenza broke out which the World Health Organisation has declared the first world-wide pandemic for 40 years. ...

Equality news

Gender — more action is needed on equality (435 words)

There is still a lot more work to do on gender equality according to Shaping a fairer future, a review of progress from the ...

EHRC consults on pay gap in private sector (226 words)

Last month, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced that it was consulting on how private and voluntary sector employers with at least ...

Construction fails on ethnic minority staff (230 words)

An inquiry set up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has found that a negative image of the industry and poor recruitment ...

Workplace Back-up

Role of union learning reps earns high praise (827 words)

It is now widely acknowledged by both government and employers that union learning reps are an increasingly important element in the government’s skills strategy ...

Reviews

Union revitalisation in advanced economies (237 words)

Assessing the contribution of union organising ...

Homage to Caledonia (207 words)

Scotland and the Spanish Civil War ...

E-views

e-views (371 words)

“It’s not enough for working people to feed our bodies with bread — we also have to nourish our hearts and spirits with art.” ...