PUBLIC CONTRACTS: The government awarded a ship-building contract to a firm in Spain rather than Tyneside shipbuilders who bid for the work, the Northern TUC conference was told on Saturday.

The conference supported a motion calling on this government — and the next Labour government — to award public contracts to British manufacturers, especially in the at-risk steel industry.

Unite delegate Angela Duerden said: “Decades of underinvestment have undermined our steel industry — but it could have a bright future.”

HEALTH: Midwifery staffing levels in Yorkshire and north-east England are the worst in Britain, the conference was told — and 90 per cent of midwives in the region think levels of care are unsafe.

Caroline Young of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) reported a lack of meal and rest breaks, regular unpaid overtime, unprecedented staff shortages and midwives and other NHS staff even being unable to take a toilet break.

Delegates instructed TUC Northern to campaign with the RCM for paid rest breaks for NHS staff.

JOBCENTRES: Benefits staff dealing with universal credit claimants have on average 1,700 cases each to deal with, the PCS union told the annual conference.

PCS delegate Bridget Corcoran reported a “tragic level of crises” among claimants and called for universal credit to be abolished: “It does not work,” she said.

Conference unanimously backed a PCS call to expose the effects of Tory cuts and policies on public services and to support public servants taking industrial action.

SCHOOLS: Child poverty is hitting the north-east of England more than any other region, teachers told the Northern region TUC annual conference.
National Education Union delegate Alex Summerson said that teachers experienced the magic of teaching children less and less as children came to school “exhausted, with grumbling stomachs,” wearing hand-me-down uniforms that do not fit.
The conference backed NEU proposals for a six-point programme of action to tackle child poverty in the north-east including using devolved powers to establish free school meals for all primary schoolchildren.