Press releases
Key press releases of interest to the public services
campaign include:
04 October 2011
Serious concerns about the accelerating stealth privatisation of
the NHS and the veracity of David Cameron’s pledge that the NHS is
safe in his hands have been raised by Unite.
04 October 2011
Ministers were urged ‘to get a grip’ on health visitor
recruitment, as one of the government’s key pledges – to recruit an
extra 4,200 health visitors – falters.
30 September 2011
Unite and Unison have demanded to know why one of the country's
biggest Tory councils, Southampton, is planning to raise nearly
£100 million of unsecured borrowing for unnecessary capital
projects yet remains determined to cut workers' jobs and wages.
21 September 2011
Uniteand ‘Keep our NHS Public’ are hosting a public meeting as
part of a campaign to rally the Nottingham public to 'Save our NHS:
Kill Lansley's amended' bill'.
20 September 2011
Health unions are warning today that a toxic combination of
increasing demand, shrinking resources and the pay freeze, are
putting staff under severe pressure. The impact of the proposed
pension changes and the massive programme of NHS reforms in the
Health and Social Care Bill, are adding even more to the stress
felt by staff
19 September 2011
Unite the union which represents managers at Royal Mail has
warned that Ed Davey's (Liberal Democrat Minister for Postal
Affairs) consultation on the proposed mutualisation of the Post
Office is a recipe for disaster
15 September 2011
Unite, Britain's biggest union, has fiercely defended its
interpretation of figures contained in John Hutton's report on
public sector pensions
15 September 2011
From the Radio Wales phone-in
14 September 2011
Unite will ballot its 250,000 members in the public sector for
industrial action in defence of public service pensions.
12 September 2011
Monitor - the government’s revamped organisation to regulate
competition in the NHS - is set to become ‘a bloated bureaucratic
monster’, Unite, the largest union in the country, has warned.
09 September 2011
A new report claiming that axing 400,000 public sector jobs was
‘easily manageable’ is part of the anti-state agenda being
orchestrated by the government
07 September 2011
It has taken just over a year for the Tories to dismantle the
most equal and cost effective health care system in the world.
06 September 2011
The Department of Health is continuing to push a wholly
inaccurate spin on what is behind the Health and Social Care bill.
Its 'myth buster' deserves a myth buster of its own, based on what
will really happen to the NHS.
05 September 2011
The survey's results strongly contradict David Cameron’s
assertion that the health professions are behind the so-called NHS
reform process in England.
05 September 2011
On the eve of the second reading of the much maligned Health and
Social Care bill a new poll by Unite the union has shown that over
90 per cent of people do not trust David Cameron on the NHS.
02 September 2011
Unite is calling on MPs to vote against the Health and Social
Care bill.
02 September 2011
Bristol MPs Kerry McCarthy and Charlotte Leslie will share a
platform to speak out against the privatisation of Bristol Homecare
Services at a demonstration to defend the homecare services against
closure plans.
22 August 2011
The health needs of more than 1,000 of Bristol’s home-based
elderly and vulnerable residents face privatisation, Unite, the
largest union in the country, has warned.
12 August 2011
The announcement that British Waterways is to award directors
bonuses worth more than the annual salary of some of our members
shows nothing but contempt for the workforce.
12 August 2011
Youth workers employed by Oxfordshire county council will begin
a series of one day walkouts from Tuesday 23 August over job cuts
and service closures.
08 August 2011
Users of mental health services in Nottinghamshire can expect
swingeing cuts in vital support in the coming months.
04 August 2011
Unite, the largest union in the country, said that ministers
have failed to realise the extent of the damage done by the edict
that the NHS must save £20 billion by 2015.
02 August 2011
The ‘Big Society’ is a con, dreamt up by so-called experts who
have never spent a day working in the sector.
01 August 2011
Unite is seeking clarification about the future of a Department
of Health's book containing vital information for parents of new
born babies that about 700,000 families in England receive
annually.
29 July 2011
Health visitors are expressing concern about how NHS employers
are funding the 4,200 extra health visitors in England promised by
the government.
28 July 2011
A divided and inept government was accused by Unite of imposing
public sector pension increases before negotiations have even
finished.
25 July 2011
The merging of the academic and other services provided by the
UK’s 160 universities could lead to job losses, Unite, the largest
union in the country, has warned.
25 July 2011
Thousands of England’s GPs can express their dissatisfaction at
the government’s Health and Social Care bill by signing a new
petition calling for the bill’s withdrawal.
24 July 2011
Agency refuse collectors are being paid to empty already empty
bins by Conservative Southampton council as the long-running strike
by city workers takes an absurd turn.
22 July 2011
Unite, the leading union for community and youth workers, is
taking its fight to defend the 50 year old, world-class
professional youth service from government cuts to London at this
Saturday’s Choose Youth rally.
22 July 2011
There are big question marks over the government’s plans to sell
off the NHS’ surplus land for affordable housing says Unite.
21 July 2011
Unite national officer, Peter Allenson, said: "It's blindingly
obvious that you cannot lose this number of jobs and maintain crime
reduction levels."
19 July 2011
Unite’s ‘Big Society’ road show comes to an end on Wednesday 20
July with the delivery to Downing Street of four massive
anniversary cards, crammed full of hundreds of furious messages to
the prime minister.
19 July 2011
There will be a mass lobby of Bristol City Council's Health
& Social Care Scrutiny Committee from 13:00, Tuesday 19 July,
on College Green, outside Council House.
15 July 2011
The battle to stop the cuts causing more pain to the country's
young people is coming directly to the prime minister's home
turf.
14 July 2011
The coalition’s plans to move public health workers, including
health visitors, from the NHS to local government is ‘misguided and
flies in the face of common sense’.
14 July 2011
Kent county council’s plans to slash its youth service budget
could see up to 27 youth projects close.
13 July 2011
Unite has challenged London mayor Boris Johnson to guarantee
that the numbers of Metropolitan Police on the streets won't be
undermined because more police officers will be deskbound due to
swingeing cuts.
12 July 2011
Hundreds of Southampton City Council workers are expected to
march through the city in protest at their employers' ruthless
imposition of wage cuts.
12 July 2011
If strike action goes ahead, the pathology department in Bolton
faces total shutdown.
11 July 2011
In its submission to the House of Commons BIS select committee
Unite said that the coalition’s policies flow from a mindset that
views higher education as primarily having a financial benefit for
the individual, rather than supporting the wider economy.
11 July 2011
David Cameron has turned his back firmly against all the public
service improvements to health, education and welfare of the last
65 years, with the unveiling of his latest tranche of public sector
reforms.
10 July 2011
A report by the management team of Southampton city council
shows that it is drawing up plans to sack more than a quarter of
its 4,300-strong workforce over the next three years.
08 July 2011
Young users of youth services in the capital and those who work
with them will sound off over cuts and the loss of their services
at the Choose Youth London rally on Saturday 23 July.
06 July 2011
The latest report highlighting rising NHS waiting lists
reinforces the ‘toxic pressures’ facing the health service due to
the coalition’s ‘reforms’.
04 July 2011
Unison and Unite have today (Monday) notified Southampton city
council that the six week-long strike will spread to embrace more
of the essential public employees who keep the city
functioning.
04 July 2011
Unions representing 40,000 thousand local government
craftworkers have accused employers of treating workers with
contempt and of undermining a national agreement.
04 July 2011
The public is in the fight of their lives to save the NHS from
cuts and privatisation
30 June 2011
Southampton strikers march against the cuts, 30 June,
12.30pm
29 June 2011
Unite, Britain's biggest union, has expressed outrage that every
homecare assistant currently employed directly by Bristol city
council will lose their job as the work is contracted out to
cheaper private sector providers.
29 June 2011
Health workers and the general public in Trafford, near
Manchester, are being encouraged to march to defend the NHS from
cuts and the privatisation of services on its 63rd birthday.
29 June 2011
Dozens of council workers from Southampton will head to
Birmingham to take their "drop the deadline" plea to the deputy
prime minister Nick Clegg.
28 June 2011
The prime minister’s speech to the Local Government Association
can’t disguise the fact that only ‘honest dialogue’ will build the
trust needed to improve council services and help reach a fair
settlement on public sector pensions.
27 June 2011
n the key areas, there is still a major gap between where the
unions and the government stand.
24 June 2011
It's time for Southampton city council to act upon the common
duty to the people of this city and find an honourable agreement to
the dispute.
23 June 2011
Two and a half days of talks between the Southamnpton city
council, Unison / Unite representatives and the government’s
arbitration service have failed to settle the long-standing dispute
over the imposition of wage cuts on the council’s workforce.
22 June 2011
A new survey, commissioned by the Department of Health, has
revealed the depth of concern by GPs about the government’s
controversial health bill and their own ability to implement those
‘reforms’.
17 June 2011
On the day when the University of Sheffield is hosting its Open
Day (Saturday 18 June), hundreds of its staff, along with members
of the local community, will demonstrate in a protest against the
university’s decision to end its final salary pension scheme.
17 June 2011
The government was accused of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ over public
sector pensions, following chief secretary Danny Alexander’s
hardline intervention.
14 June 2011
Unite, representing almost 10,000 managers at Royal Mail Group,
today (Tuesday 14 June) accused the company of failing with its
slash and burn jobs strategy, which has failed to deliver a turn
around in Royal Mail's fortunes.
14 June 2011
Private healthcare companies will use European Union (EU) law to
transform their toehold in the NHS into a headlock, Unite, the
largest union in the country
13 June 2011
The NHS privatisation programme is still on track despite
protests by health professionals to the Future Forum ‘listening’
exercise.
13 June 2011
Hundreds of workers will march through Southampton city centre
today in protest at council leader Royston Smith's plans to force
thousands of workers to accept wage cuts - or be sacked.
10 June 2011
As the future of the NHS faces a crunch week, Unite, the largest
union in the country, has issued a new briefing saying the prime
minister’s pledges on the health service were ‘a personal guarantee
of chaos’.
09 June 2011
Talks to avert the second 24 hour strike planned for tomorrow
(Friday) at the University of Sheffield have collapsed following a
meeting between unions and the university in a dispute over
pensions.
09 June 2011
GPs have voted overwhelmingly to continue to oppose the Health
and Social Care bill.
08 June 2011
112 refuse collectors employed by Southampton city council are
on strike today (Wednesday) in protest at plans to slash their
wages by 4.5 per cent.
08 June 2011
The country's biggest union, Unite, has written to the chief
constable of Hampshire police force requesting that it conducts an
immediate investigation into the origins of leaflets distributed
throughout the Southampton area attacking council workers.
07 June 2011
Promises from the prime minister to "protect" the NHS will be
meaningless if his government remains determined to force through
the most significant and controversial rewriting of the NHS'
mission in its 60 year history.
02 June 2011
This is an unprecedented attack on millions of workers' living
standards.
02 June 2011
Technical staff, porters and security guards are furious that
the university is creating a two tier workforce
02 June 2011
As industrial action spreads across Southampton, Len McCluskey,
leader of the country's biggest union, Unite, has accused the
council of not being serious about solving the dispute.
02 June 2011
The union has demanded that Birmingham halt its plans
immediately or face the wrath of the unions and the people of
Birmingham.
01 June 2011
A secure future for one of the most important ports in the
country, Dover, is being put at risk by the refusal of the Port of
Dover Community Trust to get behind the People’s Port, says
Unite.
Costly strike action spreads at Southampton as traffic wardens join
the walk out
30 May 2011
Traffic wardens' action follows last week's widespread walkout
by refuse collectors which saw rubbish collections halted right
across the city.
27 May 2011
The UK's biggest union, Unite, is calling upon its members to
back the action by UK Uncut tomorrow (Saturday) designed to
highlight the danger to the NHS posed by the government's health
bill and cuts programme.
27 May 2011
"The only place for this bill to go is in the bin."
26 May 2011
The ‘seriously flawed’ NHS ‘reform’ bill with its privatisation
agenda should be scrapped.
Big Society ‘tsar’ quitting shows that Cameron’s pet project is
collapsing, says Unite
25 May 2011
The fact that the Big Society ‘tsar’ has quit shows that the
prime minister’s pet project is falling apart – just two days after
the latest relaunch.
25 May 2011
Nearly 90 per cent of Unite health sector members have 'no
confidence' in the coalition's handling of the NHS 'reforms', a new
survey has revealed.
23 May 2011
David Cameron's latest relaunch of the Big Society is a
mirage.
23 May 2011
Council workers will take industrial action from Monday 23 May
against their employer Southampton city council which is sacking
thousands of workers and re-engaging them on substantially lower
terms and conditions.
18 May 2011
A chasm as deep as the Grand Canyon has emerged between the
coalition allies over the role of Monitor, which will regulate
competition in the ‘reformed’ NHS.
17 May 2011
Unite, Britain's biggest union, is challenging the coalition
government to back Dover becoming a ‘People's Port’.
16 May 2011
David Cameron’s pledge to ensure ‘substantive’ changes to the
NHS ‘reform’ bill should be probed to discover what he actually
means.
11 May 2011
Unite employees at Southampton city council have voted to take
strike action against the council’s decision to arbitrarily dismiss
its staff and re-employ them on inferior employment conditions.
28 April 2011
Unite believes outsourcing 37 security personnel to private
companies will lead to a sketchier and reduced service.
27 April 2011
Union members are furious that Birmingham city council has
reneged on an agreement which ended a lengthy dispute over pay, and
are now looking at all the options available to them, including the
possibility of restarting industrial action.
19 April 2011
Carmarthenshire county council is proposing to attack
established procedures for time-off for senior union
representatives.
19 April 2011
A protest is being staged next Tuesday (26 April) against the
nearly £500,000 of cuts to frontline child mental health services
in Lewisham, South London – a borough where a reported 20 per cent
of children live in poverty.
13 April 2011
Unite has joined the nursing union to pass a vote of no
confidence in the secretary of state for health, Andrew Lansley,
and crucially in the Health and Social Care bill.
11 April 2011
NHS trusts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are all
paying staff the correct bank holiday rates but a significant
number of NHS trusts in England are stubbornly refusing to
recognise the special occasion and to support the spirit of the
government's decision to give staff an extra bank holiday.
06 April 2011
Health professionals say government won't regain trust until
bill scrapped.
05 April 2011
Unite response to Health Select Committee report into
commissioning health services
28 March 2011
A coffin marked with NHS in white letters will be held by health
campaigners mourning the death of the NHS.
25 March 2011
Unite members working at the Port of Dover have, in a recent
ballot, overwhelmingly backed a plan which has proposed that the
Port of Dover becomes a ‘People's Port’.
25 March 2011
The NAO warned in a new report that to cut £6.2 billion from
Whitehall budgets this year could result in short-term service cuts
rather than long-term efficiencies.
25 March 2011
Unite hopes to involve local Lewisham MPs - Jim Dowd, Heidi
Alexander and Joan Ruddock - in the campaign to stop the cuts which
will be ‘a real blow’ to the children, young people and families
who use the services.
24 March 2011
Ahead of the march for the alternative, set to see thousands
throng the capital to protest against the cuts, the country's
biggest union reveals that many people in the UK are now
"surviving, not living."
23 March 2011
No one should be fooled by this budget, it's a mirage from the
architect of the most devastating cuts to jobs and services in
generations.
23 March 2011
Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, is
concerned that health secretary Andrew Lansley has not got a grip
on the details of the legislation, which will open up the NHS to
the widespread privatisation of services.
23 March 2011
Unite has expressed outrage at the "ineptitude" of Royal Mail's
senior management.
23 March 2011
On Thursday 24 March Unite, together with Unison and other trade
unions, will be staging a major demonstration in Southampton
against the Conservative controlled council's imposed pay cuts.
22 March 2011
The two-tier code protects the rights and terms and conditions
of new recruits working in outsourced local authority contracts
from being eroded.
21 March 2011
The government has shown that when it comes to pay in the NHS
its prefers the smart Saville Row suit of the bankers to the
uniform of a hard-working nurse.
19 March 2011
A possible fault line in how the coalition views the role of the
state has been exposed in a searing critique published today
(Saturday 19 March) by Unite, the largest union in the country.
17 March 2011
Working people face a collapse in living standards and a future
of insecure work, Unite the union will reveal ahead of the massive
demonstration against the cuts set to shut down the capital on
March 26th.
17 March 2011
The £1 billion social care funding crisis – identified by The
King’s Fund – is a pincer movement that could damage services for
the disadvantaged and elderly, Unite, the largest union in the
country
16 March 2011
Health secretary Andrew Lansley and his ministers need to
radically rethink the bill to guarantee that the NHS is the
preferred provider of choice – not private healthcare firms, some
of which have bankrolled the Conservative party.
15 March 2011
The NHS Blood Service has confirmed that it is not ruling out
the privatisation of parts of the blood service.
15 March 2011
Unite said that the Hutton review on fair pay in the public
sector was ‘hugely disappointing’ and would allow the ‘fat cat’ pay
bonanza to continue.
14 March 2011
Unite, the UK’s largest union, is backing a plan which has
proposed that Port of Dover becomes a "People's Port" run by the
community of Dover.
10 March 2011
Health workers to lobby party conference to proclaim: We agree
with Shirley
10 March 2011
Unite, which has 250,000 members working in the public sector,
said that the continuing onslaught on public sector pensions will
mean pension poverty for many in the decades to come, especially
for low-paid women.
10 March 2011
Unite's campaign to stop the privatisation of the NHS Blood
Service has received huge public support
07 March 2011
A top BMA doctor’s analysis that the NHS ‘reforms’ risk
returning health services to the 1930s is spot on said Unite.
07 March 2011
Fears that the government will ‘cherry pick’ Lord Hutton’s
report on public sector pensions to fit its own right-wing agenda
were expressed by Unite
04 March 2011
Staff representatives from the National Blood Service have
written to chief executive Linda Hamlyn and board members warning
that the privatisation of the service could have serious effects on
its donors.
03 March 2011
The DWP decision to award the benefits cheque service or ‘Green
Giro’ to PayPoint will have an adverse effect on post offices and
will contribute to the closure of more post offices.
03 March 2011
The government is withdrawing its controversial plans for a 14
per cent ‘NHS privatisation tax’ which would have helped private
healthcare companies take over great swathes of the health
service.
03 March 2011
The evidence is mounting at an alarming rate from respected
health organisations that the so-called reforms outlined in the
Health and Social Care bill are ill-judged and badly thought
out.
02 March 2011
A crucial schedule in the Public Bodies (Reform) bill has been
removed by the House of Lords which means that quangos cannot be
abolished at a ministerial whim.
02 March 2011
Eric Pickles is living in ‘a fantasy world’ when it comes to
understanding the scale and impact of the cuts to the voluntary
sector caused by the funding crisis hitting local councils.
02 March 2011
Unite on reports that under the Health and Social Care bill GP
practices could be partially floated on the stock market.
28 February 2011
Trade unions representing school support staff have demanded
that George Osborne and Michael Gove come clean and clarify whether
they will honour their commitment to pay the £250 promised to low
paid school support staff
28 February 2011
Unite, the union for community workers, youth workers and
playworkers, is calling on all 140,000 playworkers to fill in an
online survey to help uncover the true scale of the cuts to play
services, amid mounting evidence that council spending cuts are
hitting services for children and young people hardest of all.
24 February 2011
In a postal ballot 87 per cent rejected the proposals from the
Conservative-led council.
24 February 2011
The coalition has been accused of ‘playing fast-and-loose’ with
the truth by Unite, the largest union in the country, in attempting
to deny the scale of cuts to mental health services.
23 February 2011
The electorate did not vote for massive job losses in the NHS or
privatisation. The Health and Social Care bill is the death knell
for the NHS as we know it.
22 February 2011
More than 80 per cent of the Unite members who voted were in
favour of some form of industrial action.
22 February 2011
Unite to stage a protest as Rochdale borough council meets to
discuss its budget that could see up to 750 jobs axed.
21 February 2011
An increased risk of homes and businesses being flooded is on
the cards because of British Waterways’ plans to slim down its
workforce to become a ‘Big Society’ charity.
18 February 2011
Unite, Britain's biggest union, has warned that skills and
expertise will be lost as a result of the Government's decision to
abolish the General Social Care Council (GSCC) with the loss of at
least 100 jobs. Its functions will transfer to the Health
Professions Council (HPC).
17 February 2011
Publishing staff at Cambridge University Press – members of
Unite, the largest union in the country - have voted again to
reject a pay offer of two per cent.
17 February 2011
Unite, the UK's biggest union, has welcomed the announcement by
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
Caroline Spelman that the government has abandoned plans to
sell-off England's forests, but warned that planned job cuts will
seriously damage the Forestry Commission.
17 February 2011
Unite, Britain's biggest union, which represents staff working
for the National Blood Service (NBS) will resolutely oppose any
privatisation of the NBS arguing that it goes against the very
ethos of giving blood.
17 February 2011
Local government unions UNISON, UNITE and GMB representing 1.6
million workers said today that low paid council workers wages were
being stripped down to minimum wage rates by the rising cost of
living, cuts to terms and conditions, and now a pay freeze for a
second year running – even for those on the lowest wages.
17 February 2011
The government is planning a 14 per cent ‘NHS privatisation tax’
to help private healthcare companies take-over great swathes of the
health service, Unite, the largest union in the country, said
today
17 February 2011
Late yesterday (16 February), Defence Secretary, Liam Fox
announced that 2,500 construction and maintenance staff at the
Ministry of Defence will lose their jobs by 2014, as a result of
the creation of a new body to manage the military estate - the
Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).
17 February 2011
The government’s plans to manipulate the benefits system to
force people back to work, when unemployment is soaring, is out of
kilter with reality, Unite, the largest union in the country, said
today
15 February 2011
Unite will take part in a rally against Tory controlled
Southampton city council ahead of a full meeting of the council to
set its budget for 2011-2012.
15 February 2011
Liberal Democrat-controlled Hull city council was accused of
speaking with a forked tongue for slashing its youth services,
while its council leader was writing to The Times complaining about
the speed of the coalition’s local government cuts.
12 February 2011
A major campaign to stop cuts further blighting the lives of the
UK’s young people will get underway in earnest as around 1,000
young people gather in Solihull to say “enough is enough” to
ministers and council leaders.
11 February 2011
Cabinet ministers Eric Pickles and Baroness Warsi will have to
face angry Warwickshire workers when they attend the meeting of the
Conservative Local Government Councillors Association.
10 February 2011
Month long talks with Birmingham city council a 'pointless sham'
as refuse collectors and street sweepers angrily reject the
council's latest offer.
10 February 2011
Unite members will join hundreds of Salisbury residents in a
march on Saturday 12 February to defend the city’s jobs and public
services.
09 February 2011
Unite has campaigned since 2005 against the steep decline in the
profession and said that it would be monitoring very closely the
funding and recruitment of the extra health visitors.
08 February 2011
Hundreds of union members will come to Westminster to lobby
their MPs to stand up against the coalition government’s so-called
‘public service reform’ in the form of the Public Bodies bill.
08 February 2011
The government will spend more than £850 million in redundancy
payments to NHS managers and staff to pave the way for the
privatisation of the health service.
07 February 2011
Unite, which has 60,000 members in the not for profit sector,
said that David Cameron’s pipedream should be investigated
immediately by the Commons public administration select
committee.
07 February 2011
Unite the union will give a briefing for journalists on its
evidence to the public bill committee on the NHS Health and Social
Care bill.
07 February 2011
The Institute of Directors’ proposal to scrap collective
bargaining across the NHS and in the education sector is about
driving down pay and conditions.
07 February 2011
London MPs labelled hypocrites because they support the Health
and Social Care bill which is designed to prevent MPs from having
‘a say’ on hospital closures.
04 February 2011
Primie minister's comments have left Forestry Commission staff
deeply hurt.
04 February 2011
The Liberal Democrat junior transport minister, Norman Baker,
has been accused of hypocrisy over health service ‘reform’ by
Unite.
03 February 2011
Trade unions representing Forestry Commission employees in
England have pledged to fight job cuts of 29 per cent of the
workforce in England's forests.
03 February 2011
Plans by health secretary Andrew Lansley to scrap research into
mental health would be ‘a very short sighted and ill-advised
move’.
02 February 2011
Unite will be seeking urgent talks with Liverpool council to try
to protect these jobs and vital services.
02 February 2011
Uniteis to ballot nearly 1,100 members working for Manchester
city council on whether they wish to take industrial action over
plans to axe 2,100 jobs.
01 February 2011
Unite rally to save Southwark PCT’s speech and language
therapy
31 January 2011
The Liberal Democrats were accused of hypocrisy over health
service reform by Unite.
31 January 2011
Over 13,000 Warwickshire residents who have signed a petition to
save the Youth Service from council cuts must not be ignored, says
Unite.
28 January 2011
As the Health and Social Care bill begins its commons' stages,
new analysis reveals the full implications for the NHS
28 January 2011
New evidence that Britain is not lagging behind Europe in cancer
treatments ‘knocks away a giant pillar’ in the coalition’s case for
NHS privatisation.
28 January 2011
MEM has been manufacturing power distribution products in
Birmingham for over 100 years and its products are found in
schools, hospitals, offices and factories all over the world.
27 January 2011
By abolishing the Forestry Commission, which is crucial to
protecting the environment, hundreds of specialist 'green' jobs
will be lost.
27 January 2011
Unite fears that 10,000 council jobs are under threat in the
North West.
27 January 2011
Contractors have begun stripping the aircraft before they are
dismantled for scrap metal.
25 January 2011
Unite, the largest union in the country, branded members of the
AQA’s executive board as ‘hypocrites’ as members maintain their own
final salary pension scheme.
21 January 2011
Unite to hold consultative ballot of its members working for the
council on whether to take industrial action over the authority’s
plans to reduce its workforce by 17 per cent due to the
government’s decision to dramatically cut funding to local
government.
21 January 2011
Hull City council has announced the potential closure of B-Line,
a council run training centre for disabled adults.
20 January 2011
Unite, the largest union in the country, has unanimously
rejected the 'poisonous' proposal of 'no compulsory redundancies'
in return for a two-year pay progression freeze.
19 January 2011
Britain is becoming divided, impoverished and increasingly
forced into insecure working – with growing worries about the
government’s programmes for education, the economy and the health
service.
19 January 2011
Unite said that the Health and Social Care bill would make
services for patients become more remote.
19 January 2011
Southwark Primary Care Trust’s speech and language therapists
have voted by a large majority to take strike action on Thursday
February 3rd over cuts to their service and job losses at their
trust, says Unite.
18 January 2011
Nearly 1,000 firefighters on 35 bases have been told that they
have been selected to be a part of the contracting out process and
could be privatised by the end of the year.
18 January 2011
With health professionals and MPs from across the benches united
in their deep concerns about the pace and scale of the government's
reforms, we urge it once again to pause.
18 January 2011
Nearly 2,000 young people from across England - including dozens
from the constituencies of the prime ninister and the chancellor -
have sent a heart-rending plea to the prime minister to stop
government cuts destroying the vital support services that help
them become responsible citizens.
17 January 2011
Liberal Democrats should vote to scrap plans to abolish the
Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), otherwise the educational
and employment opportunities for thousands of young people will be
blighted, Unite, the largest union in the country
17 January 2011
The Prime Minister’s PR rhetoric on NHS reform can’t disguise
the flaws with the proposals and its unpopularity with the public,
Unite, the largest union in the country
Unite
brands 2,000 Manchester city council job cuts as ‘savage’
13 January 2011
Tthe effect on services, such as environmental services,
children and youth services, schools and the care of old people, to
be felt 'pretty quickly’.
07 January 2011
Unite will continue to campaign strongly to save the thousands
of our members’ jobs under threat.
06 January 2011
Unite, Britain's biggest union, has vowed to oppose compulsory
job cuts as a result of Hull city council's decision to make 1,400
redundancies.
05 January 2011
288 Unite members working in refuse collection for Birmingham
city council have called two new strike dates on 13 and 14 January
in a dispute over pay.
05 January 2011
Unite has accused Birmingham city council of bullying its refuse
collection workforce and escalating the current dispute after it
emerged the council is now threatening to change the way refuse
collectors are paid.
05 January 2011
The government’s so-called ‘public service reform’ is a recipe
for dismantling the welfare state before the public has realised
what has happened.
30 December 2010
Landmark New Year message pledges UK's biggest three unions to
mobilise in 2011
£100bn local government pension deficit claim is flawed and
misleading, says Unite
15 December 2010
Claims that the deficit in the Local Government Pension Scheme
(LGPS) in England has leaped to £100bn is ‘mathematically flawed
and intellectually misleading’
15 December 2010
Andrew Lansley’s determination to push ahead with his health
service ‘reform’ programme will drive the NHS into the buffers,
Unite, the largest union in the country,
14 December 2010
Refuse collectors and street cleaners employed by Birmingham
City Council (BCC) have overwhelmingly voted in favour of an
overtime ban and work to rule on 17 December and strike action on
20 December for 24 hour periods (see note to editors).
14 December 2010
The Commons Health Select Committee report damning the
coalition’s approach to the NHS is ‘another stake in the heart’ of
the coalition’s claim that the NHS is safe in their hands, Unite,
the largest union in the country, said today
13 December 2010
A further chipping away at the public service ethos, and the pay
and conditions of public sector employees was condemned by Unite,
the largest union in the country, today
13 December 2010
A very unattractive set of proposals structured with the
intention of divide-and-rule.
13 December 2010
The localism bill, promoting the 'Big Society’ concept, is a
smokescreen, so that thousands of local government jobs can be
axed.
13 December 2010
Conservative proposals to scrap the diversity forums at Wirral
borough council have caused outrage among council workers and their
union, Unite.
08 December 2010
Unite is holding a demonstration on Tuesday 14 December to stop
moves that could see hundreds of voluntary sector projects in
London axed.
06 December 2010
The government just wasted a golden opportunity to show it was
on the side of fairness and to make sure big business paid its fair
share of tax.
03 December 2010
The wheels on the coalition’s NHS privatisation juggernaut could
be coming off.
01 December 2010
The Hutton report on ‘fat cat’ public sector pay is ‘a
smokescreen for some nasty rough justice’ being meted out to low
paid workers.
30 November 2010
As Britain freezes, the mythical figure of Jack Frost
demonstrates the importance of public sector workers who carry on
regardless in Arctic conditions.
30 November 2010
The latest proposals to improve the public health of the
population are ‘ill-thought out’ and raise serious questions about
how they will be implemented.
29 November 2010
This attack on the living standards of hard-working NHS
employees has left them reeling with growing workloads, worsening
morale, lack of professional development training and fears for
their jobs, as the government attempts to squeeze £20 billion of
so-called efficiency savings from the NHS in the next four
years.
23 November 2010
Oxfordshire county council’s proposed withdrawal of its annual
£24,000-a-year grant threatens the closure of Henley Youth
Centre.
23 November 2010
Unite, the UK’s largest union, has today (Tuesday 23 November)
accused the government in its migration cap policy announcement of
squandering a golden opportunity to root out abuse and misuse by
companies of the intra-company transfer route for skilled
workers.
23 November 2010
Bradford city council has issued a letter to its entire
workforce placing them at risk of redundancy.
23 November 2010
Unite is holding a conference for its north west members to plan
the next steps in the fight against massive cuts to public
services.
17 November 2010
The government is promoting DIY public services on the
cheap.
17 November 2010
Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust, and NHS
Cambridgeshire, have failed to consult the public in a transparent
manner.
15 November 2010
Staff at Plymouth PCT have voted overwhelmingly against plans
for community services to be transferred to a social enterprise by
April 2011, because of fears about the quality of patient care and
safety.
12 November 2010
The council’s attack on staff pay and conditions is
ideologically driven.
10 November 2010
Questions to ask about the NHS when the House of Commons debates
the impact of the comprehensive spending review on the health
service tomorrow.
10 November 2010
Members of Unite will join a mass demonstration to protest
against funding cuts to Liverpool city council's budget.
04 November 2010
With the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee today
warning that "there is a serious risk that departments will rely
solely on cutting front-line services to reduce costs", Unite the
union has urged the Government to listen to their concerns.
03 November 2010
People need to ‘wake up fast’ to the implications of the
government’s NHS white paper.
26 October 2010
Cleaners, catering staff and domestic staff are angry with the
inequality between different workers’ terms and conditions.
25 October 2010
Royal Mail managers will be balloted on industrial action for
the first time since 1979 over Royal Mail Group's intentions to
impose compulsory redundancies.
22 October 2010
People know and trust local services and have a sense of
ownership. Councils play with this trust at their peril.
21 October 2010
Unite Sefton council workers will take part in a joint union
protest against funding cuts which the union warns will have a
devastating impact on jobs and communities across the region.
21 October 2010
Tony Woodley tours UK to rally workers against the cuts
20 October 2010
This is not a spending review - it's a massacre. It's totally
perverse to claim that cutting half a million jobs and razing our
public services to the ground is good for this country.
20 October 2010
The axing of the Defence Training College at St Athan in the
Vale of Glamorgan shows the ‘poverty’ of the coalition’s thinking
in terms of financial prudence and military strategy.
20 October 2010
There are two easy alternative strategies to ring fence the
NHS.
19 October 2010
Bernie Hamilton, Unite's national officer for Aerospace and
Shipbuilding said: "The government's strategic defence review looks
devoid of any strategy whatsoever.
19 October 2010
The coalition's threat to slash public spending by between 25
and 40 percent will destroy nearly as many private sector jobs as
public sector ones Unite will warn at today's national
demonstration against the cuts.
18 October 2010
The strategic defence review will be a ‘body blow’ for thousands
of skilled Ministry of Defence jobs.
18 October 2010
Workers from across the public and private sectors will gather
outside the Commons to urge the coalition government to think again
over plans for swingeing cuts to public services.
14 October 2010
Iif not enough funding is found there are real fears that the
vital maintenance work that is needed on the network will be forced
to rely on the efforts of volunteers to fill gaps left by the loss
of qualified engineers.
14 October 2010
Another case of the coalition putting ideology before rational
analysis and the cuts' agenda before the needs of citizens.
13 October 2010
The UK population already owns the Royal Mail.
13 October 2010
After lastyear's pay freeze three local government unions,
Unison, the GMB and Unite, have today lodged a claim for a modest
pay boost for all council workers for 2011/12.
12 October 2010
The coalition’s rush to privatise the NHS is in breach of the
legally-binding NHS constitution.
11 October 2010
Public health minister, Anne Milton, will be quizzed on the
coalition’s pledge to employ 4,200 more health visitors at the
annual conference of Unite/Community Practitioners' and Health
Visitors’ Association in Harrogate next week.
11 October 2010
Forcing the majority of students to pay the ‘market rate' of
interest on their loans will penalise the less wealthy and increase
social division.
08 October 2010
Unite members will have the final say on the new civil servant
redundancy compensation package hammered out with the
government.
06 October 2010
Ahead of Lord Hutton's interim report on public sector pensions,
Unite, Britain's biggest union, warned that reducing the quality of
public sector pensions will only serve to increase inequality in
society.
04 October 2010
The NHS white paper, which heralds the rapid privatisation of
the health service, has no democratic mandate from the public says
Unite.
29 September 2010
The white paper is an untested, massively expensive exercise in
political dogma that will herald privatisation of the health
service.
29 September 2010
To provide sustainable manufacturing jobs and to help with
economic recovery, we need workers with the right skills.
27 September 2010
The electorate did not vote for cuts, and there is a sound
economic alternative to dealing with the deficit, the Con-Dem
coalition's legitimacy is in serious question.
27 September 2010
The Labour party in Scotland has made it crystal clear that it
is on the side of our public services.
24 September 2010
Unite has expressed outrage and concern at the sudden and
unexpected announcement by the West Midlands Ambulance Service to
close the Leamington emergency operations centre and move staff
over 75 miles away to Tollgate, Staffordshire.
23 September 2010
Union leads call for alternative economic strategy at Labour
party conference.
23 September 2010
Unite has warned Birmingham city council against selling-off the
city's family silver after news emerged the Tory/Lib Dem council
had considered the sale of the Birmingham NEC.
20 September 2010
Fringe meeting - Dealing with the deficit: there is a better
way.
19 September 2010
The Con-Dem coalition has no public mandate for the
assassination of our public services says joint general secretary
Tony Woodley.
15 September 2010
Sheffield City Council's short-sighted and damaging package of
£2 million of cuts will hit vulnerable young people say Unite's
Community & Youth Workers' members.
13 September 2010
The massive wave of cuts that the coalition is imposing on the
British people are unnecessary and will devastate communities
across the land says Unite.
13 September 2010
Meals-on-wheels, free fruit at school and social care services
for the elderly are hanging by a thread as councils up and down the
country brace themselves for the heftiest cuts in a generation
10 September 2010
Managers at the Royal Mail, represnted by Unite, are opposed to
its privatisation.
09 September 2010
The coalition must stop its destructive Genghis Khan style cuts
to public services, especially as it offers no alternative job
creation strategy, says Unite.
Civil servants to protest at cuts to redundancy pay being ‘sneaked
through’ by the coalition
06 September 2010
Thousands of civil servants could have their redundancy payments
slashed without proper parliamentary scrutiny, Unite, the largest
union in the country, warned today.
Staff to ballot on industrial action to halt London hospital
pathology privatisation
01 September 2010
Plans to privatise one of the country’s leading pathology
services at London’s King’s College Hospital are being opposed by
Unite.
27 August 2010
Unite today reacted angrily to the unilateral imposition of a
pay deal by Scottish local government employers.
17 August 2010
The double threat of inflation and brutal cuts to public
services is a poisonous mix for Britain's economy.
16 August 2010
In a survey conducted by Unite, 60 per cent of the 600 Health
Protection Agency staff at the Centre for Emergency Preparedness
and Response at Porton Down said they oppose the proposal to move
to Harlow, Essex.
05 August 2010
A coalition of unions led by Unite, the UK’s largest, to launch
a massive consultation exercise.
05 August 2010
Tony Woodley argues that the rush to cut jobs and services shows
a callous disregard for ordinary working people.
02 August 2010
Unite, the largest union in the country, fears the government,
media, pension industry ‘experts’ and private sector employers are
acting ‘like a lynch mob’ in demanding reductions in public sector
pensions.
29 July 2010
The five trade unions within higher education have accused
higher education employers of refusing to engage in meaningful
national negotiations in response to the first-ever joint union
claim.
28 July 2010
Unite, the largest union in the country, is calling for
immediate talks with ministers over the decision to abolish the
General Social Care Council - the primary agency for the regulation
of social work.
28 July 2010
Health visitors in North Yorkshire will be told to do the work
of school nurses because of severe staff shortages, Unite has
warned.
19 July 2010
The ‘Big Society’ is smoke and mirrors for an avalanche of
privatisation under the Tories.
19 July 2010
Security fears over a proposed transfer of facilities at Porton
Down – the UK centre for research into countering bio-terrorism and
deadly diseases – to Essex have been raised by Unite.
15 July 2010
Tory councillors accused of ‘blatant double standards’ after
giving themselves bumper pay rises.
14 July 2010
Mental health workers in Oxfordshire face 25 per cent job cuts
which would have ‘a devastating effect’ on adult clients, Unite,
the largest union in the country, has warned.
12 July 2010
The NHS white paper is an ‘untested, expensive exercise in
political dogma’ that will herald greater privatisation of the
health service.
08 July 2010
The Con-Dem coalition has been accused of seeking ‘boy scout’
solutions by asking public sector workers what services should be
axed.
06 July 2010
Unite has expressed fury that its 15,000 members who have been
working flat-out to support the armed forces in Afghanistan now
face huge cuts in their redundancy pay.
24 June 2010
Unite the union has branded the Con-Dem budget as an ’attack on
the purse’ as it will hurt women more then men.
22 June 2010
Commenting on the Con-Dem coalition's emergency budget Unite
joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, said: "Osborne and
Cameron's talk of financial Armageddon is not because they have the
solution to the deficit but to scare the British people into
accepting the biggest attack on essential services for a
generation."
18 June 2010
Derek Simpson has called on Liberal Democrat members with a
social conscience to tear up their party membership cards to save
the shame of being associated with a government which will begin
the most brutal, ideologically driven cuts in a generation,
starting with next Tuesday’s emergency budget.
15 June 2010
Nick Clegg’s attack on public sector pensions is part of a
long-running Liberal Democrat campaign against the ‘modest’
pensions of local government staff, health workers and
teachers.
15 June 2010
Unite, the largest union in the country, is staging a rally in
Coventry on Saturday 19 June to protest at the threat to public
services in the West Midlands.
Public sector ‘productivity boost’ claim is a smokescreen for more
privatisation
08 June 2010
Claims that £60bn of increased productivity can be squeezed from
the public sector are a smokescreen for the acceleration of the
privatisation of schools and health services.
24 May 2010
The £6 billion worth of public sector cuts shows that the
coalition has taken ‘an economic wrong turn’ says Unite.
24 May 2010
A protest meeting is to be held when Shropshire County PCT meets
to discuss hiving off NHS services to a new social enterprise.
24 May 2010
The prospect that an extra 90 school nurses will be employed for
the 240 secondary schools in Wales has been welcomed by Unite, the
largest union in the country.
10 May 2010
The NHS chaplaincy service should not be seen as ‘a soft target’
as the financial climate becomes tighter.
27 April 2010
Unite has welcomed the Prime Minister’s pledge that NHS pensions
are ‘safe’ with a Labour Government.
21 April 2010
The ‘deliberate repetition of myths’ about public sector
pensions needs to be challenged, Unite, the largest union in the
country, has said in a new leaflet.
12 April 2010
Launch of major campaign to protect ‘People, Pay and Pensions’
in local government.
01 April 2010
The drive to hive off NHS services into a social enterprise in
parts of Essex has descended into chaos, Unite, the largest union
in the country, has said.
25 March 2010
This is very good news and shows that the government’s
commitment to boosting council house spending and building is not
built just on words, but on practical action.
Hull public urged to fight to keep health services within the
NHS
19 March 2010
The people of Hull are being urged to back the campaign to stop
community health services being hived off from the NHS to a new
social enterprise.
18 March 2010
Unite, the largest union in the country, is calling for a ballot
of NHS staff in mid and south east Essex over proposals to hive off
NHS services into a social enterprise.
Taxpayers’ Alliance uses ‘retread’ arguments in local government
pensions’ debate, says Unite
04 March 2010
Claims by the Taxpayers’ Alliance are the same retread arguments
so beloved by right-wing politicians and commentators.
01 March 2010
Threatening local government jobs is ‘scaremongering’ and would
be detrimental to economic recovery says Unite.
25 February 2010
Unite hails move as ‘a victory for common sense’ and a tribute
to the united stand taken by employees.
25 February 2010
Unite is angry over NHS plans to shut a cervical screening
service putting thousands of female patients across Merseyside and
West Lancashire at risk.
23 February 2010
Tory-led Birmingham city council’s 2,000 job cuts will be a body
blow to vitally needed public services and the economy of a city
hard hit by recession.
18 February 2010
Moving to a social enterprise is ‘semi-privatising the most
deprived’.
17 February 2010
A campaign has been launched to legally redefine the ‘health
visitor’ profession in a bid to avoid further ‘baby Peter’
tragedies.
17 February 2010
Unitehas condemned Royal Mail for covertly implementing a
drastic cost cutting exercise without proper consultation with the
union.
15 February 2010
David Cameron is using the language of socialism to mask to
break-up public services Unite, the country’s largest union, said
today
15 February 2010
The Tories' botched proposals for co-operatives in the public
sector and their shocking error on teenage pregnancy figures show
just how confused and out of touch the party is, just months before
a general election.
15 February 2010
Cutting public sector jobs would hinder, rather than help,
Britain’s economic recovery says Unite.
10 February 2010
These job cuts are a major blow to staff and to the people of
Birmingham, they are rightly very angry.
10 February 2010
Unite, Britain's biggest union, has today accused university
vice chancellors of failing to properly deal with job security and
cuts in higher education.
08 February 2010
Not for profit members of Unite, the largest union in the
country, have joined with their colleagues in the Unite health
sector to campaign to halt the outsourcing of NHS services.
04 February 2010
Unite HAS expressed serious concerns about the Health Protection
Agency’s announcement it intends to move its scientific centre from
Porton Down, Wiltshire to a new site in Essex.
Longest ever industrial action by youth and community workers
enters 11th week in Coventry
01 February 2010
The longest ever industrial action by youth workers in the UK
enters its eleventh week at Coventry city council with strike
action on Friday, 5 February.
28 January 2010
The GMC's critical verdict damning Dr Andrew Wakefield’s
research linking MMR with autism has been welcomed by Unite.
22 January 2010
An acceleration in Britain’s council house building programme
will be centre stage at a meeting for local authority councillors
called by Unite.
21 January 2010
Media concern over the rates of public sector pay is ‘a
smokescreen’ to distract from the high-level of City bonuses, says
Unite.
Local government unions 'outraged'
20 January 2010
Joint unions calling on local government employers to think
again over pay freeze.
19 January 2010
The three local government trade unions have published ten key
facts about the local government pension scheme to set the record
straight about a pension scheme with over four million members and
£120 billion in assets.
15 January 2010
Claims that the local authority pension scheme is running a £60
billion deficit has been dismissed as being ‘far removed from
financial reality’ by Unite.
11 January 2010
The government’s commitment to boosting council housing is in
stark contrast to the Tories’ plans aimed at the better-off
04 January 2010
The Tory party faces two-ways on the NHS.
15 December 2009
Unite believes that the money - £4 a head for Kingston’s
population – to set up the social enterprise could be better spent
on services, such as speech and language therapists, health
visitors, physiotherapists, and community nurses.
11 January 2010
The government’s commitment to boosting council housing is in
stark contrast to the Tories’ plans aimed at the better-off
10 December 2009
Plans by Sefton council to cut 400 jobs and slash workers' terms
and conditions will be fiercely resisted.
09 December 2009
A pay cap would hit the lowest paid hardest. One per cent for
the lower paid is a pittance, but the highest earners would get
significantly more cash.
04 December 2009
Unite, the UK’s largest union, is outraged by Cabinet Office
minister Tessa Jowell’s unilateral decision today (Friday) to
impose a settlement on over 25,000 civil servants that will be
implemented in April 2010.
02 December 2009
Unite is disappointed that the government consultation,
announced today by Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, does not go
far enough.
26 November 2009
At a conference attended by hundreds of trade union activists in
the UK, Workers Uniting will launch an investigation into private
U.S.-based healthcare providers who are bidding for work in the
National Health Service (NHS). The conference will be attended by
senior workplace representatives from the UK, Ireland and USA.
25 November 2009
Unite the Union has branded University Vice Chancellors as
Scrooges as low paid workers in higher education are offered almost
no pay increase for this year.
25 November 2009
Unite health workers are demonstrating on Monday, 30 November at
the failure of Kingston Primary Care Trust (PCT) to hold a ballot
into hiving off NHS services into a social enterprise.
12 November 2009
Unite has said that Kingston PCT's decision not to hold a staff
ballot over proposals to create a social enterprise 'rides rough
shod over government policy'.
09 November 2009
Voluntary sector organisations are being used as the ‘Trojan
Horse’ to break up the NHS, Unite, the largest union in the
country, has said.
06 November 2009
MPs are being urged to highlight the health visitor crisis in
London by signing a House of Commons early day motion.
29 October 2009
The latest government ‘push’ on housing – 54 publicly funded
housing projects in England have been given ‘the green light’ – has
been welcomed by Unite.
Momentum grows for more health visitors and school nurses to be
employed
28 October 2009
The momentum for more health visitors and school nurses to be
employed – highlighted again this week by two senior cabinet
ministers – has been welcomed by Unite, the largest union in the
country.
28 October 2009
Unite, the largest union in the country, is calling for a ballot
of staff at NHS Hull over proposals to hive off NHS services in the
city into a social enterprise.
26 October 2009
Unite, the largest union in the country, is calling for a ballot
of staff at Kingston Primary Care Trust (PCT) in Surrey over
proposals to hive off NHS services into a social enterprise.
21 October 2009
Unite members working for the Royal Mint are urging MPs to keep
the nation's silver in the public purse.
Unite welcomes NHS ‘preferred provider’ pledge
16 October 2009
Unite welcomed the government’s statement that the NHS is ‘the
preferred provider’ of choice when it comes to delivering services,
rather than private sector organisations.
Ed Balls promises to see school nurses in action
15 October 2009
Schools nurses expressed their fears that there were not enough
of them to carry out the government’s family-friendly policies when
Ed Balls addressed the Unite/Community Practitioners’ and Health
Visitors’ Association annual conference in Southport.
NHS trusts need to employ 8,000 more health visitors to fulfill
health secretary’s vision
14 October 2009
NHS trusts will need to employ 8,000 more health visitors to
ensure that health secretary Andy Burnham’s vision for the
profession is to be achieved.
8,000 more health visitors needed 'to avoid more Baby Ps’
12 October 2009
A total of 8,000 more health visitors need to be employed in the
next five years ‘to avoid more Baby Ps’, two senior Cabinet
ministers will be told by Unite, the largest union in the country,
this week.
Medway health chiefs introducing major NHS changes
12 October 2009
NHS managers in Medway have been accused of pushing through a
radical reorganisation of services ‘by stealth’ – changes that
could affect 250,000 people.
Unite's reaction to Tory proposals to cut 25 per cent off the MoD's
budget
08 October 2009
Liam Fox's proposals mean thousands of skilled manufacturing
jobs are now at risk.
Lansley’s health speech ‘avoids hidden agenda’
05 October 2009
Conservative words on the NHS can’t match Labour’s solid
financial investment in the health service over the last 12 years,
says Unite.
Hannan’s anti-NHS popularity casts shadow over Lansley
speech
05 October 2009
The two faces of the Conservative party on the NHS were starkly
revealed as anti-NHS Tory campaigner, Daniel Hannan, leap-frogged
up a list of the country’s most influential right-wingers.
Unite welcomes Postcomm’s efforts to protect the postal
service
30 September 2009
Given the recession and the impact this has had on mail volumes,
Royal Mail needs an injection of cash, through increased revenue,
to ensure that the postal service survives.
Bedfordshire and Luton NHS bosses challenged to say if patient
services are 'failing'
25 September 2009
The challenge has come from Unite, the largest union in the
country, which is concerned the two trusts will become ‘social
enterprises’ – organisations one step removed from the NHS proper –
despite the wishes of the staff and the best interests of patients
and clients.
Unite calls for greater clarity on NHS ‘service reform’
17 September 2009
Unite is seeking clarification on the wider NHS privatisation
agenda, following health secretary Andy Burnham’s speech on the
future of the health service.
‘Trojan horse’ privatisation could severely damage NHS
14 September 2009
Government-supported privatisation initiatives are the ‘Trojan
horse’ that could severely undermine the NHS, Unite, the largest
union in the country, has said.
Northern Ireland ambulance cut back ‘will put patients at
risk’
14 September 2009
Lives could be put at risk if cut-backs in Northern Ireland’s
ambulance service are allowed to continue.
2,000 new council houses – ‘a welcome step in the right direction,
but ministers need to move further and faster’
09 September 2009
Welcoming the announcement of 2,000 new council homes, Unite
today said the government needs to move ‘faster and further’ to
tackle the severe shortage of social and council housing.
File McKinsey NHS report where it belongs, in the bin, says
Unite
03 September 2009
Britain's biggest union, today slammed as "predictable and
predictably unhelpful" recommendations from consultancy firm
McKinsey that the NHS should slash one in ten workers.
'Roll back the privatisation of the NHS, Andy'
26 August 2009
3,000 Unite members to urge health secretary ‘to protect the
soul of the NHS’.
Leeds blood service cuts ‘threaten’ patient care
21 August 2009
Patient care in West Yorkshire could be under threat if plans
for swingeing cuts to the blood service in Leeds go ahead.
London health visiting crisis exposed by Unite
20 August 2009
The true scale of the health visiting crisis in London has been
exposed in the September issue of Unite’s Community Practitioner
journal.
Health audit should not be used to promote NHS privatisation, says
Unite
19 August 2009
The first audit on the health of NHS staff should not be used by
right wing politicians to push their privatisation agenda for the
NHS.
Health visitor crisis is 'a national scandal'
19 August 2009
The dramatic fall in the number of health visitors since 2004 is
'a national scandal', Unite, the largest union in the country, has
said.
Workers Uniting union counters the lies in US health care
debate
19 August 2009
Workers Uniting has launched an attack on the lies and
misinformation being spread in the US by opponents of President
Obama's health insurance reform plan.
Unite rejects UCEA’s 'poor pay' offer
18 August 2009
Thousands of higher education workers have overwhelmingly voted
to reject the 0.5 per cent UCEA pay offer.
30 July 2009
Community and youth workers, who are in the frontline helping
young people through the worst recession since the 1930s, need a
substantial pay rise, says Unite.
30 July 2009
The TUC's briefing exposing the distortions about public sector
pensions has been applauded by Unite.
Local government unions’ joint statement on pay
28 July 2009
Local government unions representing 1.6 million workers in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland formally agreed to consult
members on an improved pay offer for 2009/2010.
Unite concerned over emergency cover for the London Fire
Brigade
15 July 2009
Unite, the UK's largest union, has expressed concern at the
planned emergency cover proposed by the London Fire and Emergency
Planning Authority for the London Fire Brigade.
Question mark over future NHS services for the young and old in
Bedfordshire
09 July 2009
Bedfordshire's NHS services for children and older people face
being hived off into a ‘social enterprise’ warns Unite.
Government must address Royal Mail pensions' deficit
03 July 2009
Unite is concerned that Lord Mandelson has
left Royal Mail and its staff in a state of uncertainty as he has
not explained how the government, as shareholder, is going to
address the immediate problems of the pensions' deficit, regulation
and future investment.
03 July 2009
Health secretary, Andy Burnham MP, is being
asked to reconsider the decision that has denied NHS pharmacists
the fair pay deal which would address the profession's NHS
recruitment crisis.
01 July 2009
Unite has accused governors and college heads
of hypocrisy on pay after figures revealed that 80 colleges across
England had boosted their principals’ salaries by more than 50 per
cent in eight years.
30 June 2009
The successful three-year battle to save
health visiting as a distinct profession in Scotland has been
welcomed by Unite, the largest union in the country.
26 June 2009
A possible government rethink into the
‘flawed and expensive’ private financing of NHS hospitals has been
welcomed by Unite, the largest union in the country.
12 June 2009
A commitment from the new health secretary,
Andy Burnham that public health is one of his four key priorities
has been welcomed by Unite.
08 June 2009
Privatisation of the NHS is ‘a giant
experiment’ in an expensive untested system of funding healthcare
which must be stopped, Unite, the largest union in the country, has
warned.
04 June 2009
Health visitors are opposed to a proposal to
make the MMR immunisation mandatory for young children.
03 June 2009
The pay dispute at Sita, which has already
resulted in a series of 24 hour strikes, will now lead to the
indefinite ‘all out’ strike action of Bristol's refuse collectors
beginning on 10th June.
02 June 2009
Unite is launching a campaign against the
latest ‘patchwork privatisation’ of the NHS.
21 May 2009
Over 200 refuse collectors in Bristol city
are due to begin a series of 24 hour strikes in a bitter dispute
over pay.
Creeping NHS privatisation in north west under attack
19 May 2009
The creeping privatisation of the NHS – with
adverse knock-on effects for patients - is on the march in the
north west of England, Unite, the country’s largest union, has
warned.
Unite says its member vindicated by decision to investigate Guys-St
Thomas IVF practice
06 May 2009
Statement concerning Ms Biserka Pavlovic,
clinical scientist-embryologist, former employee at Guys/St Thomas
Hospital IVF Unit
Unite rejects national Higher Education employers offer of 0.3 per
cent
28 April 2009
Unite, the UK’s biggest union, along with EIS, GMB, UCU and
UNISON has unanimously rejected a derisory pay offer from the
national higher education employers of 0.3 per cent.
17 April 2009
NHS ‘whistle blowers’ need a safe way to expose bad practice
without jeopardising their careers, Unite, the largest union in the
country, said today
08 April 2009
An attack by the National Secular Society (NSS) on the NHS
chaplaincy service has been described as 'erroneous and simplistic'
by Unite, the largest union in the country.
02 April 2009
The health visiting crisis in Hounslow, west London, is still
unresolved – nearly two years after Unite, the largest union in the
country, first raised the issue.
02 April 2009
One specialist school nurse is looking after an estimated
6,900 children in England, according to Unite, the largest union in
the country, which is calling for a massive recruitment
campaign
31 March 2009
The Higher Education unions: EIS, GMB, UCU, UNISON and Unite
expressed their amazement that the national HE employers: The
Universities, Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) failed to make
an offer at pay talks yesterday (30th March 2009).
30 March 2009
The health visiting crisis can still be measured in hours,
according to Unite, the largest union in the country.
27 March 2009
Ahead of the national demonstration by working people this
Saturday (28th March 2009), calling on the G20 leaders to ‘Put
People First’, Unite members are calling on the government to
listen to the concerns of working people to support jobs and close
tax loopholes for the rich.
18 March 2009
Stafford Hospital is a classic case of the government’s
'flawed' privatisation agenda for the NHS.
13 March 2009
The government’s promise to ‘substantially increase’ health
visitor numbers in the wake of the Laming review into child
protection in England has been welcomed by Unite.
12 March 2009
The best way to implement Lord Laming’s report into child
protection is to employ more frontline professionals.
11 March 2009
Plans to reform NHS bureaucracy in Wales will mean that the
service is ‘ring fenced’ from the privatisation tide threatening
the health service in England.
09 March 2009
Unite, Scotland’s largest trade union, welcomed the
announcement from Glasgow city council that it is to pay workers at
the local authority a minimum of £7 an hour in a drive to tackle
low pay across the city.
25 February 2009
Good neighbours are no substitute for trained and experienced
health visitors when it comes to child neglect cases says
Unite.
20 February 2009
Floral displays in Coventry appear to be more important than
children and youth services.
Unite backs bill for free parking at NHS sites in Scotland
18 February 2009
Unite, the UK’s largest union, is backing a
private members' bill that will restore free parking for patients,
visitors and staff at all NHS sites in Scotland.
13 February 2009
Unite is conerned that the government has jettisoned a
five-year old policy that every secondary school in England should
have a specialist school nurse in place by 2010.
12 February 2009
Unite, the largest union in the country, is seeking
ministerial clarification on what the new children’s plan means in
terms of the immediate employment of health visitors.
11 February 2009
Unite is calling for urgent action to safeguard vital jobs and
services delivered by housing associations in Scotland.
10 February 2009
Unite is calling on ministers to give the voluntary sector the
same concentrated attention that has been given to bailing out the
financial sector.
10 February 2009
Unite's public sector forum has voted to take whatever action
is necessary in opposition to the imposed public sector pension
levy in Ireland.
09 February 2009
Unite is mounting a vigorous campaign to
resist over 150 redundancies announced by Cambridge University
Press.
06 February 2009
Unite, the UK’s biggest union warn the
Uttoxeter Fox’s biscuit faithful not to be hoodwinked by shameful
Tory scheming.
05 February 2009
A mass rally is being held in Coventry on Saturday, 14
February to prevent £660,000 of cuts to the children and youth
services in the city.
02 February 2009
The health visiting crisis is highlighted by new research
revealing more than 70 per cent of GP practices are experiencing
increased demands for postnatal care - the traditional role of
health visitors.
30 January 2009
Unite will oppose any compulsory redundancies following
Plymouth city council's announcement of plans to make drastic
cutbacks in its workforce.
16 January 2009
There are too few health visitors to implement the findings of
new research saying that the profession could help new mothers
suffering from postnatal depression.
14 January 2009
Local government unions representing more than one million
council staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will today (14
January) submit their annual pay claim for an increase of at least
the level of retail price inflation, with additional salary
increases for the lowest paid.
13 January 2009
Unite, the largest trade union in the country, is suspending
its industrial action over the imposed three-year NHS pay
deal.
Back to the
Valuing public services campaign.
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