John Wood
Looks like we had it wrong all along. It must be a middle class recession – the Job Centre have just launched an iPhone app.
Meanwhile, outside the Twittersphere…
John Wood's Archive — Page 2
John Wood
I’m Campaigns and New Media Officer at the TUC, working on campaigns and advice online, as well as chipping in with issues around how new media (particularly social media) are impacting on industrial relations. I’m always tinkering with the system behind this blog (so if something’s broken it’s likely my fault) and on housekeeping duties to help out the other contributors.
I’ve been at the TUC since 2002, and before joining the team here, I worked on websites, eCommerce and online campaigning for Oxfam GB. In busman’s holiday style, I spend some of the spare time my kids leave me in blogging and online activism.
Web: http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk-
John Wood
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John Wood
Today we’ve got a new ToUChstone Extra pamphlet out, “In Sickness and in Health? Good work – and how to achieve it“. It’s challenging the Government and employers to ensure that workplaces don’t just prevent staff from becoming ill, but actively promote good health and well-being through the idea of ‘good work’.
We spend around a third of our waking hours at work. More than being just an economic process where employees simply trade their time for a wage, work is centrally important to us as human beings. It helps us define our identities, our physical and emotional well being, and even how long we live. We all deserve a fulfilling working life, with job satisfaction and the opportunity to achieve more of our full potential.
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John Wood
It’s Work Your Proper Hours Day today – in fact it’s nearly over for many of those who will be taking the TUC’s recommendation and making a point of eschewing unpaid overtime for at least one day in the year.
This year we’ve seen an increase in the number of people working what we’ve dubbed ‘extreme overtime’. This is not extra work conducted on jet-skis, but rather people who do in excess of 10 hours a week above their paid contracts), and 14,000 more reported this in 2009, bringing the total close to 900,000.
And despite what many commentators might have us believe about conditions and motivation in the public sector, a higher proportion of public sector workers worked unpaid overtime in 2009 than private sector workers (25.3% against 18.3%).
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John Wood
The Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation on Economic Co-operation and Development (TUAC to their friends) have analysed three recent studies into transaction taxes published in Austria, France and the US. They’re interested in the potential of a Financial Transaction Tax in tackling what they’ve identified as a global public good resource gap – the difference between deficits as a result of the financial crisis and bailouts and international spending pledges to meet targets on poverty and climate change.
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John Wood
In the FT today, over 60 senior economists have written to demand that Alistair Darling and George Osborne refrain from making premature cuts to public spending. We agree with them that the deficit should be financed until the economy is more stable and that if spending cuts are made at this point, the UK could spiral into a disastrous ‘double-dip’ recession.
We’re backing a campaign, Don’t Risk the Recovery, along with 38 Degrees, the Fabian Society, Left Foot Forward and IPPR. You can help by taking action now at the 38 Degrees site. They have an urgent petition to Darling and Osborne, asking them not to play short-term electoral politics and gamble the recovery we need so badly.
Please take a minute to sign the petition now, and tell your friends about it.
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John Wood
Richard Branson was in yesterday’s Evening Standard, voicing his support for immediate cuts in public spending to address the deficit:
“We are going to have to cut our spending and I agree with the 20 leading economists who said we need to start this year. The next government, whatever party that is, must set out a plan to reduce the bulk of the deficit over a Parliament by cutting wasteful spending and must not put off those tough decisions to next year. These factors threaten to undermine the confidence of international and UK business, UK consumers and the global financial markets. That could cost jobs and reduce investment in Britain.”
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John Wood
The TUC has joined Christian Aid, Tax Justice Network, Tax Research UK and the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development in a response to the IMF’s request for civil society suggestions on how the financial sector could pay for the costs of government support given to the banks.
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John Wood
Almost twice as many people would support a financial transaction tax as oppose the idea (53% against 28%), according to a YouGov poll carried out for Oxfam late last year.
Not sure if this exactly equates to “feared by the bad, loved by the good“, but it’s a pretty good start for the new Robin Hood Tax campaign, which is launched today.
The Robin Hood Tax could raise hundreds of billions of pounds to help repair the human damage caused by the global economic crisis, protect public services at home, fight poverty abroad and help foot the bill for climate change, through a levy on banks’ financial transactions. The rate would vary according to the type of transaction, but around an average of 0.05%.
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John Wood
“One Creme Egg please.”
“That’ll be 50p, sonny.”
“I don’t have any cash.”
“Well, I’m afraid you kind of need to…”
“What if I paid you £5 later?”
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John Wood
The number of people spending their second successive Christmas on the dole will double to over 200,000 this year.
Official statistics show the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) for more than 12 months has increased from 103,930 in December 2008 to 201,015 in November 2009, and we can see the number of long-term dole claimants continuing to rise into the new year.
