Tag Archives: workers rights

Labour must take seriously the need to expand collective bargaining

By Tony Burke | Published: June 17, 2013

In the coverage of Ed Miliband’s recent speech at Newham Dockside, the sections of the speech on employment sadly received scant media coverage. The press focused instead on welfare and benefits.

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High noon for Europe as unions call for investment to ‘kick start’ the recovery

By Tony Burke | Published: June 5, 2013

Ahead of this week’s European TUC mid-term conference in Dublin, European Union leaders have called for a new European Recovery Plan to kick-start economic growth.

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Union membership increased by 59,000 to 6.5 million in 2012

By Tony Burke | Published: May 30, 2013

Trade Union membership rose by 59,000 to 6.5 million last year, according to a report by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills report published today.

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Blacklisted workers deserve a larger audience than is currently being granted

By John Millington | Published: May 21, 2013

The image of union activist George Tapp lying on a Manchester road with two broken legs and blood pouring from his head following a vicious hit and run during an anti-blacklist demonstration last week has shocked many.

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Boris Johnson’s agenda for Europe could be a social and environmental disaster for London

By Guest | Published: May 15, 2013

Boris’s free trade agenda for Europe could be a social and environmental disaster for London and the rest of the UK.

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Boris Johnson: wrong on ‘sloth’, right about management

By James Bloodworth | Published: May 13, 2013

It’s interesting that, in his column for today’s Telegraph, Boris Johnson has cited the German economy as the measuring stick against which Britain should compare itself.

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Brand image won’t prevent labour abuses, but human rights will

By Guest | Published: April 29, 2013

Fundamental labour rights and protections should not be optional, applicable only to the rich but must be a central part of our labour markets, for compromises create cracks and cracks lead to catastrophe.

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Bangladesh garment worker tragedy is ‘mass industrial slaughter’

By Tony Burke | Published: April 28, 2013

Since 2005, more than 1,000 textile workers in Bangladesh have died in fires and building collapses. Thousands of people, many of them young women work in appalling and unsafe conditions in factories which supply western countries and High Street stores with cheap clothing.

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Coalition presses ahead with discredited ‘shares for rights’ bill

By Tony Burke | Published: April 21, 2013

Despite being rejected by the House of Lords recently, the coalition’s discredited ‘shares for rights’ scheme, which allows workers to give up basic employment rights in exchange for company shares, was passed in the House of Commons by a margin of 277 to 239.

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This is the biggest assault on workers’ rights ever

By Guest | Published: April 11, 2013

Collectively, the changes to employment law amount to the biggest assault on workers’ rights ever. They very significantly weaken worker bargaining power, and will increase job insecurity for millions. And like so many of the coalition government’s policies they impact particularly on the most vulnerable.

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