Unite initiative

General union Unite has launched an initiative to allow those “pushed to the margins of society” to “benefit from collective power”. It is to offer the unemployed, students and all those not in employment a form of “community membership” of the union for 50p a week.

The scheme offers community members a range of financial benefits and services, including a legal advice helpline.

Meanwhile, they will be developed as “community activists”. The union says this is to help bring together “people across their locality who have felt let down or excluded by politics to ensure that they too have a voice at a time of economic turmoil”.