Economists estimate extreme poverty could be drastically reduced for a fraction of global defence spending, yet military budgets continue to expand year on year, says JON TRICKETT MP, ahead of the Stop the War International Conference on Saturday
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Engie: low-wage contractors and the NHS
SOLOMON HUGHES looks at the French firm drafted in by the privateers to run security in our hospitals and its empty commitment to the Living Wage
French connection: Engie is expanding its grip on the public sector in Britain
As Unison launches its Year of Women Workers, ANNIE COGAN-THOMAS argues that stronger organisation and collective bargaining are essential to winning equality
Trade unions, trades councils and community organisations must work together to build lasting solidarity and resistance to the far right, argues DREW GILCHRIST
Recent violence in Belfast was not spontaneous — it was built on years of failure and political neglect, argues STIOFAN O NUALLAIN
As delegates meet in Brighton this week, Unison faces pressing questions about pay, organising, workers’ rights and political representation, explains ANDY CHAFFER
Andy Burnham’s growing stature has fuelled hopes of a Labour revival – but ALAN SIMPSON warns that Britain’s crisis runs far deeper than just its leadership and traces its roots to decades of financialised capitalism
CONTRACTED-OUT security guards at Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester have voted to strike for equal pay with their NHS colleagues in a dispute that shows what is wrong with Britain’s “crony capitalism.”
The guards work at Tameside — but they work for a multinational corporation called Engie. Thanks to both New Labour and Tory privatisation, many workers who run our public services are actually employed by the private sector: the big corporations squeeze their profits out of our NHS, our taxes and their work.
According to their union, Unison, the Tameside guards are paid less than NHS rates. Some are paid only the minimum wage rate of £8.72 an hour, or lower for under-25s.
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The election offers a critical chance to shape the future of pay, care and community provision in Wales, says Unison’s JESS TURNER
SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests
