-
Oxfam GB's new group blog on poverty in the UK, and policies and projects to tackle it.
-
A super-coalition of NGOs working in development, environment and social justice, coming together with unions, faith groups and others to challenge world leaders at the upcoming G20 London summit to "Put People First". The TUC are on board, and we'll be helping to organise a march in Central London on 28 March. You're invited!
-
Polly Toynbee examines the Tax Payers Alliance on Comment Is Free.
-
-
Nicola Smith
Today’s unemployment figures show a continued rise – with increases for men and women and in most UK regions and nations (small falls in the rate in London and Yorkshire are the exception). The overall measure of unemployment shows that in December 1,971,000 people were out of work and looking for jobs. And in January 1,233,000 unemployed people were claiming JSA.
The rise hasn’t been quite as steep as some commentators were predicting, but that is little real consolation. The increases are still sharp – for example between December 08 and January 09 the number of people on JSA rose by 73,800. While this was slightly less than the rise we saw from November 08 – December 08 (79,900) it remains vastly higher than the start of last year: from January 08 to February 08 the claimant count increase was just 600 people.
-
Brendan Barber
At the start of April Barack Obama will make his first visit to Europe when he jets into London with other world leaders for the G20 summit. All such summits are important, but with the world deep in recession and job losses mounting each day, none has been as important as this.
The TUC and Britain’s unions are joining with a wide range of development groups, environmental organisations and faith groups to challenge the G20 leaders to ‘Put People First‘, with the March for Jobs, Justice and Climate on the Saturday before the summit, March 28th.
-
Nicola Smith
For months I have been irritated by the DWP benefit fraud campaign that features on the phone box outside my flat. The implication that the DWP spotlight is just waiting to expose me & my fellow local residents as benefit cheats living lives of luxury at the state’s expense is unfair – it makes everyone who lives around it feel targeted, as well as failing to recognise the desperate circumstances in which most people work cash in hand.
However in a refreshing new strategy BERR are providing a counterpoint – the phone boxes of South London are now also making it clear that working people deserve fair treatment from employment agencies and that unscrupulous employers should not expect to get away with illegal exploitation. Of course there’s far more that agency workers need than a new advertising campaign – the speedy introduction of new equal treatment rights and an overhaul of employment status legislation would do to start with – but in the interm hopefully a few more working people will be able to get some support from the state rather than being villified by it.
-
Owen Tudor
Trade unions are under persistent attacks for ‘protectionism’ at the moment, and as we begin a recession that will be made deeper and longer if protectionism flourishes, that’s a pretty serious charge. It’s also false. Unions are indeed in favour of protecting workers. But that’s not the same as protectionism. And very often it’s the people who accuse us of protectionism who are the real protectionists. At the very least, such people are playing a very dangerous game, likely to provoke precisely the protectionism they claim to oppose.
The latest charge is in the Economist’s Charlemagne column, which says:
The single market is firmly in the left’s sights. The European Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella body, has drafted a new “social protocol” it wants to add to the next EU treaty, saying the single market “is not an end in itself”, but must be balanced by “social progress”. That would split the EU between old and new members, and play into the hands of economic nationalists. A great deal is at stake as this crisis deepens. Without a lot of vigilance, the single market could be derailed.
Such a lengthy charge list. And so, so wrong.
-
-
"Traders must be bribed not to plunder the firm. If you don’t pay them millions, they’ll sell the banks’ assets cheaply to rival firms for which they then go and work. They are paid fortunes not because they have skill, but because they have power."
-
The Observer's Heather Stewart says Obama is way out in front in responding to recession
-
They just don't work, and nor does performance related pay.
-
-
Philip Pearson
The American Labour Federation, AFL-CIO, stepped up its green economic recovery campaign by launching a national Centre for Green Jobs, accompanied by a green reps training qualification at a national conference in Washington DC on 5 February. The launch took place at the largest-ever labour-green movement conference, Good Jobs, Green Jobs, organised by the Blue-Green Alliance from 4 to 6th February 2009. It drew 2,700 delegates into the capital, energised by the Obama Presidency. Delegates were out on Capital Hill lobbying the US Senate for a strong green jobs package in the new President’s economic stimulus programme.
The $1million green jobs centre, supported by union and State funding, aims to strengthen union voice in the public policy debate on economic recovery. At a packed press conference, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said that the centre would “articulate a vision of a high road, sustainable economy.” These are twin priorities for the TUC too: green and decent jobs. Sweeney said the centre will be a Think-Do tank, providing hard economic analysis, and a centre to exchange best practice.
-
Owen Tudor
There are now so many blog posts on the Lindsey Oil Refineries dispute that it’s become impossible to reply to all the distortions, misunderstandings and bandwagon jumping. The basic taxonomy is clear, however. First, pick the argument you want to make. Then, find one or two statements by other people to justify your argument (note, ‘statements’, not facts – and see next point for how facts would be inconvenient). Third, provide a walk-on part for a stereotype of an engineering construction worker (it’s instructive to read all the bulletin boards written by the actual workers, because they dispel most of the myths although they are as varied and disparate as you’d expect from a cross-section of real people, but it doesn’t make for such an easy ‘comment’ piece).
So we’re picking our targets. My next target is Nigel Farage MEP, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), who has written in the Guardian that he sympathises ever so much with the poor workers, but while we stay in the European Union nothing can be done to help them. Nigel Farage hasn’t shown any interest in helping workers so far, and he’s wrong about what could be done on this case too.
-
Owen Tudor
One of the key issues in the Lindsey Oil Refinery dispute was the concern that the terms and conditions of the workers brought in from Italy and Portugal would be lower than those usually paid in the industry. The employers have claimed that this is not the case (although they didn’t say so immediately, which is a bit suspicious). The news media and Government have accepted that claim at face value, and certainly there is not yet any evidence to contradict it. The industry – construction engineering – certainly has a solid collective agreement negotiated unions and employers.
But that’s all that would prevent undercutting – there is no legal barrier to it, and that was a major cause of the uncertainty and fear that sparked the walkouts. Unfortunately, that isn’t the impression that the Lord Mandelson or the BBC are giving. They say the EU Posting of Workers Directive protects British workers against undercutting. But in practice, because of the way it has been transposed into UK law, it doesn’t.
-
Nigel Stanley
We cannot tell yet how Tony Blair’s premiership will be judged by history. But there is one issue that few would mention today that may be seen as much more important in the future. This is the new pensions settlement due to start in 2012.
Frankly I doubt whether he gave the issue that much thought, but his decision to set up the Pensions Commission set in play a process that has led to a new political consensus around a far more progressive pensions system. It is by no means perfect of course, and today’s pensioners have every right to complain that it won’t make much difference for a long time, but it is still undoubtedly progress.