Another month, another prime minister. And yet underneath nothing has changed at all. British capitalism, the oldest in the world and arguably the most cunning, is out of ideas and out of time.
The TUC congress met in Brighton from 18 to 20 October. Much of the agenda was routine and predictable, but some unions are thinking honestly and hard about the future of their industries and of Britain.
Workers at Parker Meggitt found out in mid-October that around 200 jobs will go by the end of the year – only weeks after being taken over by a US rival…
27 October 2022
Workers in Bury at flooring manufacturer Polyflor are renewing their strike for better pay. The company’s improved offer is still below the level of inflation.
Unite has called on the government to prioritise British jobs and industries when tendering for defence contracts.
Violence broke out in Leicester in September – the unwelcome result of Indian sub-continent politics coming to Britain in a city where immigrants have settled and lived for decades, for the most part peacefully.
Around 70 HGV drivers and shunters at Muller’s Stonehouse factory in Gloucestershire are to escalate their dispute...
27 October 2022
Struggles erupted in the early 1970s, notably the engineering union’s destruction of the 1971 Industrial Relations Act and the miners’ fight over pay. The new Labour government preached class conciliation in exchange for moderation of wages.
Criminal barristers voted in October to accept an improved pay offer from the government...
Nearly 600 workers at the Port of Liverpool decided to walk out from 24 October to 7 November over pay and job security.
On 13 September, the European Parliament voted to keep the definition of woody biomass as renewable energy.
The rail disputes are now nearly six months old, and railway workers and their unions – led by RMT – are now resigned to a long-drawn-out campaign...
