19 December 2024
Water bills will rise by more than one-third over the next five years, much of it in 2025. The regulator, Ofwat, previously said that that the price rises would far less. Unions and campaign groups have condemned the move.
19 December 2024
The number of British companies sold to foreign investors continues to rise, up sharply on last year. This is not “investment” but amounts to selling British industry on the cheap.
18 December 2024
The government proposes to return most passenger rail services to public ownership. This will not necessarily improve services. Key areas are left out, so the industry will remain fragmented.
18 December 2024
Rolls-Royce aerospace workers have eventually settled a multi-year pay agreement after prolonged negotiations. The industry has often led the way on pay levels, but that may change with the employers exploiting fragmentation and outsourcing.
17 December 2024
The government has announced a public sector pay rise of 2.8 per cent for 2025. Unions have denounced this as a cut in real pay. They are gearing up for a fight on pay again.
16 November 2024
The government is delaying the use of small modular nuclear reactors in Britain. And it is not committed to support Rolls-Royce as a provider, although it is a world leader in the technology.
14 November 2024
The Post Office has announced plans for job losses and closures in the wake of the Horizon scandal. The Communication Workers Union has called for a halt, and will fight the job losses if the plan goes ahead.
The CPBML has published a new document that brings together the major lines of thought to emerge from its Congress in June this year.
Bristol celebrated a new station at the end of September. This is the result of a long and determined campaign, which has further improvements in its sights.
Pay for university workers is still not settled. The five unions representing higher education workers submitted a claim in April, but there’s no agreement.
The government has announced funding of £22 billion for carbon capture schemes.
Rail workers in most train operating companies have voted to accept the national pay deal...
Arts education provision across Britain is suffering from continuing cuts including instrumental music, drama and visual arts.
23 October 2024
Arts education provision across Britain is suffering from continuing cuts including instrumental music, drama and visual arts. Workers in arts and education are trying to build campaigns to counter this decline.
22 October 2024
Rail workers in most train operating companies have voted to accept the national pay deal. This ends over two years of intermittent strikes and other industrial action.
21 October 2024
Transport unions Aslef and RMT are planning strikes over pay for their members on London Underground. In separate disputes both will be taking action in early November.
21 October 2024
The new government wants to revive a policy of its predecessor to increase heat pump take up by taxing gas boilers. Its enthusiasm for net zero makes it blind to the reason why the idea was dropped.
21 October 2024
Food manufacturer Oscar Mayer wants to fire and rehire workers at its Wrexham factory to reduce wages. The workers began a 4-week strike in September, extended when the firm refused to negotiate.
11 October 2024
Pensioners held rallies in London and Belfast on Monday 7 October for the restoration of the winter fuel payment. As well as the direct financial effect those in fuel poverty will suffer worse health, increasing demand on the NHS
11 October 2024
The assault on British industry in the name of the environment and net zero continues. The latest step is halting the development of a coal mine in Cumbria, aided by the courts and the new government.
11 October 2024
Electricity imports from continental Europe have hit a record high. Britain increasingly depends on undersea cables, with risks to both continuity of supply and prices.
9 September 2024
Creative workers in Scotland celebrate reversal of budget cuts by the SNP administration, but warn that the campaign to sustain arts must continue.
The government has imposed a pay settlement on the majority of NHS workers in England. There is no option to accept or reject. This inevitably raises the stakes for future pay claims.
On Saturday 3 August workers marched past the Grangemouth oil and gas refinery, near Falkirk, Scotland. This was a further boost to their campaign to save their jobs at the site.
Some groups of doctors have settled pay claims for now. But others are fighting for rises.
Train drivers’ union Aslef has reached agreement with the incoming Labour government to resolve a pay dispute in most of the passenger train operators. It has involved 18 days of strikes.
Farm incomes are falling, posing a threat to Britain’s food security. Official figures for England show a 19 per cent drop last year in the total income from farming to £4.5 billion.
Over 300 bus workers employed by First South West in depots across Somerset and Cornwall have taken strike action several times to defend their pay and conditions.
26 August 2024
Redbridge refuse collectors have won a new and improved contract. They had already taken strike action and were about to do so again.
26 August 2024
Faced with cuts that threaten their future and that of their company, musicians in the Welsh National Opera have voted overwhelmingly for potential strike action. They are facing cuts that threaten their future and that of their company.
