ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns

HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies

Labour could break pledge to equalise minium wage, warn campaigners 

Witnessing a war of words at a meeting on tackling militarism at The World Transformed, BEN COWLES spoke to a union rep who is organising against war from inside the arms industry itself, to hear about worker-led solutions to ending weapons production

Call comes as unemployment rate hits highest level since early 2021, the height of the pandemic

MAT COWARD looks back to a 1931 protest against mass unemployment featuring a young Ewan MacColl

Organised workers at the notoriously anti-union global giant are scoring victory after victory, and now international bodies are pitching in to finally force this figurehead of corporate capitalism to give in to unionisation, writes EMILIO AVELAR

KIM JOHNSON MP places the campaign in the context of the history of the working-class battles of the 1980s, and explains why, just like Orgreave and the Shrewsbury Pickets before it, justice today is so important for the struggles of tomorrow

Employment lawyer ALICE BOWMAN warns ‘day one rights’ include an undefined ‘initial period’ and the zero-hours contract fixes create baffling fixed-term loopholes. If the Bill doesn’t work properly and deliver, Labour is doomed

TUC hits back at banking boss who suggested public-sector pay should be curbed because the economy falling

Speaking to the Morning Star’s Ceren Sagir, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists LAURA DAVISON outlines the threats to journalism from Palestine to Britain, and the unique challenges confronting the industry through the rise of AI

Labour’s watered-down legislation won’t protect us from unfair dismissal or ban some zero-hours contracts until 2027  — leaving millions of young people vulnerable to the populist right’s appeal, warns TUC young workers chair FRASER MCGUIRE

MARTYN GRAY asks TUC congress to endorse measures that would help stop the present exploitation of seafarers

On the eve of the 157th Trades Union Congress, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, celebrates victory in his campaign to get dignity for drivers at work

MATT WRACK issues a clarion call for a rejuvenation of public services for the sake of our communities and our young people

Seventeen years after losing her council job due to needing endometriosis surgery, Michelle Dewar’s campaign for paid menstrual leave gained 50,000 signatures in a week, reports ELIZABETH SHORT

Government urged ‘to tackle the root causes’ of the NHS crisis and improve ‘social care services’

All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionised in a historic victory for labour, says RIO YAMAT

Laughter has always been how workers cope and fight back, but university-educated union reps now scold members for calling bosses ‘money-grabbing bastards’ and label everyday humour ‘problematic’ — this needs to be stopped, writes MARK JONES  

Mr Smalls and 13 other Freedom Flotilla Coalition activists who tried to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza aboard the Handala ship remain in detention and on hunger strike

 Birmingham’s striking bin workers and supporters bring waste sites to a standstill

ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today

TUC general secretary urges Bank of England to cut interest rates

It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR

‘People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer: not workers,’ Unite general secretary Sharon Graham says

MIKE QUILLE applauds an excellent example of cultural democracy: making artworks which are a relevant, integral part of working-class lives

RICHARD BURGON MP points to the recent relative success of widespread opposition to the Labour leadership’s regressive policies as the blueprint for exacting the changes required to build a fairer society

The Big Meeting isn’t simply nostalgia, it’s a happy day and a day to show resistance. HEATHER WOOD explains why

Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street

Durham Miners’ Association general secretary ALAN MARDGHUM speaks to Ben Chacko ahead of Gala Day 2025

Club failed to pay senior players on time for third occasion in last four months on Monday

BEN CHACKO reports on the struggles against sexism, racism and the brutish British state that featured at Matchwomen’s Festival this year

MICAELA TRACEY-RAMOS explains how Britain’s largest union is putting pressure on the British government to recognise the Palestinian state and end its complicity with Israel’s murderous actions

The GMB general secretary speaks to Ben Chacko at the union’s annual conference in Brighton

As the regime in Iran continues to face international pressure to reduce its nuclear programme, workers continue to struggle for wages they can live on despite harsh repression of trade unionists, reports JAMSHID AHMADI

As summer nears, TOM HARDY explains how unions are organising heat strikes and cool stations while calling for legal maximum workplace temperatures — because employers currently have no duty to protect workers from dangerous heat

DAVID CONWAY explores how trades councils uniquely bring together diverse local groups to tackle everything from domestic abuse to green campaigns, but warns they must attract younger delegates and use social media more effectively

Here are the voices of DANIEL KEBEDE, FRAN HEATHCOTE, HOLLY TURNER and LEANNE MOHAMAD explaining why they will be taking part in the People’s Assembly No More Austerity demo next weekend 

IAN LAWRENCE welcomes the government sentencing review but warns past experience shows such words rarely translate into meaningful action

Unions and campaigners condemn Home Secretary after government confirms scrapping of care worker visas

Hundreds travel to Birmingham to join ‘mega picket’ of striking refuse workers and supporters

From Workers’ Memorial Day to May Day rallies, TOM MORRISON examines the real challenges facing the labour movement as Reform UK’s glossy literature exploits legitimate grievances in traditional left strongholds

Thousands to join ‘megapicket’ in solidarity with striking refuse workers in Birmingham

As Birmingham’s refuse workers fight brutal pay cuts, Strike Map rallies mass solidarity, with unions, activists, and workers converging to defy scab labour and police intimidation. The message to Labour? Back workers or face rebellion, writes HENRY FOWLER and ROBERT POOLE

Our groundbreaking report reveals how private rail companies are bleeding millions from public coffers through exploitative leasing practices — but we have the solutions, writes Aslef Scottish organiser KEVIN LINDSAY  

Working in a high-risk sector, prison officers’ calls for proper PPE must be heeded – and the POA will be fighting to ensure effective protection at work is delivered, writes MARK FAIRHURST

In his May Day message for the Morning Star, RICHARD BURGON says the call for peace, equality and socialism has never been more relevant

LUKE FLETCHER pours scorn on Labour’s betrayal of the Welsh steel industry, where the option of nationalisation was sneered at and dismissed – unlike at Scunthorpe where the government stepped in

This May Day we reaffirm our commitment to working people and our class and to get trade unionism back on the front foot, says EDDIE DEMPSEY

Delegates call for government intervention to save jobs at Grangemouth

Tackling poverty in Scotland cannot happen without properly funded public services. Unison is leading the debate

Congress can chart a bold course that will force meaningful transformation for the people of Scotland

Educators must fight for an inclusive, creative system that values all children