The TUC has today (Friday) launched the first UK online network for green union reps.
The website – www.tuc.org.uk/green_workplaces_network – allows environmental reps in workplaces across the UK to keep up to date with union and community-based events and training courses, share ideas and best practice, and find out the latest developments on green issues at work.
Commenting on revised GDP figures for the last quarter of 2010, published today (Friday) by the Office for National Statistics, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
“The government's hope of an upwards revision of growth has been dashed.
“It's time to wake up and smell an economy in big trouble. We need a plan B that doesn't send it over the edge with deep rapid spending cuts.”
A record 5.26 million people worked unpaid overtime last year – the highest since records began in 1992 – a TUC analysis of official figures reveals today (Friday) to mark Work Your Proper Hour Day (WYPHD).
Recent TUC research has found that stress is now by far the most common health and safety problem at work. Nearly two thirds (62%) of reps say that stress is in the top five problems faced by the workers they represent and more than a quarter of reps (27%) pick out stress as the hazard at work that most concerns them. Another recent report from the British Academy states that the global economic downturn is to blame for the soaring stress levels due to the sharp rise in job strain and job-insecurity; both determinants of work-related stress. In the last 2 years, work stress levels rose by more than 4%, compared to the previous rises of 0.1% from 1992 to 2009.
False Economy – the cuts campaign website that formally launches today (Wednesday) – reveals that more than 50,000 NHS staff posts are set for the axe, destroying government claims that the NHS is in safe hands.
Responding to the Prime Minister's proposal announced today (Monday) to make all public services open to private sector bidders, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
“This is a naked right wing agenda that takes us right back to the most divisive years of the 1980s.
“The Prime Minister has been telling us that the cuts are sadly necessary, not a secret political project to destroy public services. Yet today's proposal to privatise everything that moves is exactly the kind of proposal that voters would reject if put at an election.
Cuts to the disability living allowance (DLA) will leave disabled people, their carers and their children in poverty, says the TUC today (Friday) in its submission to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) consultation on the benefit which closes today.
As finance ministers from the G20 nations prepare to gather in Paris tomorrow (Friday), supporters in 25 countries backing a financial transactions tax (FTT) are planning a global day of action today (Thursday) to increase pressure on governments around the world to sign up for a Robin Hood Tax on the banks.
Comments on the announcement that the government is to put on hold plans to sell off some of England's forests. “This is not a u-turn but the start of a three-point turn. We look forward to hearing that the Forestry Commission job losses will now also be called off and that the whole forestry disposal debacle will be scrapped. This shows that people power can make a difference.”
Commenting on the government announcement today (Thursday) that Dame Carol Black and David Frost are to carry out an independent review into sickness absence, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
“If this were to be a genuine attempt to support those on long-term sickness get back to work then the TUC would welcome it with open arms. However we are concerned that it will end up as just another part of the government's cost-saving onslaught on the income and rights of those at work, and those on benefits.