Richard Exell
I have a post up at Left Foot Forward looking at today’s Report on Jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The report highlights the weak state of the labour market and comes after a week of bad economic news.
Philip Pearson
The Natural Environment White Paper, the first for 20 years, promises new large-scale conservation and more business and community involvement. But it comes after the government has severely weakened the capacity of public bodies like the Forestry Commission to undertake good environmental stewardship. A TUC Briefing issued today, shows a 24% cut in the non-departmental “green” public bodies (£130m) over the next 4 years. Putting an “economic value” [aka price] on nature is therefore likely to cause more anxiety over the government’s environmental stewardship.
12 new, large “nature improvement areas” are promised, but with only £7.5m extra funding. Equally worrying is the intrusion of the language of business and commerce. The government will set up a natural capital committee – an independent panel to advise ministers on natural environment issues and report to the government’s economic affairs committee.
Paul Sellers
The Government is currently undertaking a “pre-consultation” on plans to move the May Day holiday to a colder, wetter time month from 2013 onwards – and this is supposed to stimulate domestic tourism! I can report today that unions have now been joined in opposing these plans by some big retail companies and trade associations, whilst a number of big players in the tourist industry are now saying that what they really want is an extra public holiday.
The Government’s consultation ends on Thursday. If you want to join us in defending May Day and calling for an additional bank holiday, read on.
Owen Tudor
A historic agreement was signed today in Jakarta. Indonesian clothing unions, major supplier factories and key sportswear brands have agreed to guarantee freedom to form unions, bargain collectively and on facilities for unions. In the run up to the London 2012 Olympics the Play Fair Campaign will be encouraging other sportswear and garment brands to sign up to the protocol.
Owen Tudor
Our sister organisation in Slovenia, the ZSSS (the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia), has won a major victory over plans to raise the state retirement age to 65. They and other unions in Slovenia secured a referendum vote to challenge the decision made by the Slovenian Parliament in December, and it was held on Sunday.
Overall, 71.18% of those voting rejected the pension reform, and although the turnout was only 40%, it puts the Government under substantial pressure to change course.
Owen Tudor
Over the past eighteen months, the number of people and organisations supporting a Robin Hood Tax has snowballed: a clear sign that it has secured political traction (although it may still take time to agree it and implement it). Another sign is that people start realising that this is the answer to whatever problem they are addressing. And so it is with UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which, according to the Guardian this morning, has said that:
a transaction tax on commodity trading, which could raise billions for investment in developing countries, would slow the pace of financial markets, limiting the scope for misinformation.
Brendan Barber
It’s now over a year since the end of Britain’s most recent recession, but for many households the pain continues. In fact the financial hardship that some families currently face is greater than in the depths of the downturn. The Government’s own forecasts show that wages are going to trail behind inflation for several years to come, while household debt will continue to rise.
For those on middle and low incomes who were experiencing a wage squeeze before the recession even started, a return to business as usual is unlikely to bring any significant rewards. On the contrary, as stagnating wages are accompanied by tax rises and cuts in the benefits and tax credits available to working families life is set to become even more of a struggle.
The wages of middle income Britain have grown by an average of just 56% since 1978, despite GDP increasing by 108% over the same period. For workers in some skilled trades incomes actually fell in real terms between 1978 and 2008.
Pamphlet #10: Britain’s Livelihood CrisisThis new ToUChstone pamphlet shows that while the recession is often cited as the cause of today’s tough income squeeze, a livelihood crisis has been brewing in Britain for three decades, held off only by an unsustainable rise in personal debt. Wages have been falling sharply as a share of the national wealth since the mid-70s, while a rich minority have been taking an ever larger slice of the UK’s dwindling earnings cake.
Authored by Stewart Lansley, the pamphlet argues that the decline in middle-paid and skilled jobs and the deterioration of employment conditions has led to a ‘hollowing out of the middle’ of the labour market and a steady growth in ‘bad jobs’ offering poor wages and job security.