Despite the crash, the economy has almost doubled in size over the last thirty years. But most people at work have been cheated out of their fair share of that growth. Since the start of the 1980s, the share of the economy going to wages has shrunk. And those with the highest salaries have done…
We needed a programme for growth in the Queen’s speech, instead we have an incoherent hotchpotch that will do little or nothing to deal with our fundamental economic problems or create jobs. The main obstacle remains the government’s mistaken policies of austerity that have sent the economy back into reverse. Even those proposals that go…
Yesterday I briefed the TUC General Council about a landmark agreement, signed today, between the TUC and the organisers of this summer’s 2012 London Olympics and Paralympic Games. I hope that what the chair of LOCOG – Seb Coe – and I have agreed will deliver better working conditions not just for the people making this year’s Olympic…
This is arguably the most critical time for Europe since the end of the war. Despite some improvement, the euro remains on life support. The sovereign debt crisis continues to cripple many of Europe’s economies. Across the continent, governments are imposing austerity measures that are killing growth, destroying living standards, and undermining the social provisions…
None of the Chancellor’s post-election assumptions have turned out to be true. Growth has stalled, the Eurozone has crashed, the structural deficit bigger than thought and unemployment continues to rise as the private sector fails to take up the public sector slack. The Chancellor’s stubborn determination to stick to his plan despite the evidence that…
I’m giving a lecture at Liverpool University this evening, this is a slightly edited version of what I’m saying: Tonight, I simply say to the Chancellor: Plan A isn’t working. We can’t go on like this. We need an alternative. And we need it now. Let me set out the TUC’s vision for an alternative,…
Update: you can read a TUC analysis of the policy background to the riots here Last month, as our cities burned amidst the worst rioting in decades, social divisions in modern Britain were laid bare. The violence and the criminality that we saw shocked us all, and none of us would seek to justify or…
The Vickers team have been asked how to make the banks safe, but the real question is how we make them useful. Tougher capital requirements and ring-fencing will be bitterly opposed by the banks, who will now lobby hard to water them down. They should be resisted. But while we need to avoid another finance-driven…
Next week sees the TUC’s 143rd annual Congress in London, and a lot has happened since the union movement met in Manchester last year. A year ago we were being told that everything was set for recovery. Yet here we are 12 months later facing a real prospect of a double-dip recession. Trying to eliminate…
Unions representing many public sector workers are currently engaged in complex negotiations with the government over changes to public sector pensions. Now is a pretty critical time in the talks, and Danny Alexander’s comments in the Telegraph and on the Today Programme this morning are extremely unhelpful.