General secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE calls for support and participation in the national partnership organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1926 general strike
Prison officers pile on the pressure
Tory austerity triggered a crisis in our jails and only a decisive break from the past can turn this around, explains STEVE GILLAN

LIKE every other trade union leader in Britain, I’m looking forward very much to the first TUC conference in 15 years under a Labour government.
A decade-and-a-half of cruel Tory austerity has devastated our public services — and prisons are no exception.
The overcrowding crisis has been all over the news but, as I wrote in these pages last month, this is just the tip of the prisons iceberg.
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Stripped of their industrial muscle and left at the mercy of ministers and management, prison officers have been pushed way beyond breaking point, warns STEVE GILLAN

We can take inspiration from our forebears and win the repeal of anti-worker legislation and bring about fair pay and decent public services for all, says STEVE GILLAN

The pressure is now on the government to deliver its promises, and that pressure is not just from the unions, but from a working class that will look to the right if things under Labour don’t markedly improve, writes STEVE GILLAN

Prisons should be a place for rehabilitation that keep everyone inside them safe — instead, they are little more than crowded warehouses, chronically underfunded and their staff dangerously overworked, writes STEVE GILLAN