Blackburn and District Trades Union Council
Blackburn and District Trades Union Council
According to the IPSOS “Issues Index” 51% of people name “immigration” as the most important issue facing Britain today. Its rise up the index has no doubt been fuelled by the visibility of unauthorised entries by hazardous routes, but the concerns being expressed cover a much wider field: fears about population growth, about public services, about…
Delegates at October’s Trades Council meeting received reports that illustrated a variety of the ways in which the dynamics of employment can provoke circumstances in which workers need to combine to take action to defend their interests. European intentions to increase defence spending don’t appear to have fed through to the industry’s shop floor. BAE…
Monday 8th September to Friday 3rd October To respond to the survey: https://forms.gle/HkSJrJwvjE21Pa64A One of the things about being a local Trade Union activist is that you end up doing things you never thought you would need to, and also working out how to do them for yourself – as opposed to having the resources…
At the July meeting of our Trades Union Council we noted and discussed the announcement made by Wes Streeting, on 28th June, that Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch bodies were to be abolished. This move appears to link with the publication of the “Dash” “Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape”, which…
Delegates at June’s Trades Council meeting heard of potential losses of local service in the fields of education and health. Staff and students at the Witton campus of Myerscough College had been shocked and distressed to be told that the College had taken the decision to close the successful animal studies and horticulture specialism programmes…
Blackburn and District Trades Union Council has added its voice to the chorus of disapproval surrounding the Government’s plans for changes to social security for the sick and disabled, as outlined in the Green paper “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working”. The proposals will reduce the number of people who…
Monday 28th April, 12.30pm, Sudell Cross, Blackburn International Workers Memorial Day has become a significant annual event in the Trade Union calendar. It is an occaision for us to pause and reflect on the price too many workers still pay simply in order to make a living or follow their careers, and to recommit to…
England has had a “Fuel Poverty Strategy” since 2001. Its publication fulfilled a statutory obligation under the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, which established the target of ending fuel poverty ‘as far as reasonably practicable’ for all households within 15 years. The original strategy recommended that the numbers of households suffering fuel poverty…
January’s Trades Council meeting agreed to submit a response to the Government’s consultation on “Reforming the Right to Buy”. Right to Buy is the scheme that allows tenants of public housing to buy the houses they rent at a discounted rate. It has been, in our view, one of the reasons why housing policy is…
In 2023 the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) noted that: “From the UK’s ‘Plan for Growth’ in 2011 to Jeremy Hunt’s ‘Growth Plan’ ……. there have been a total of 11 different economic strategies or ’plans for growth’ over the last 13 years”. What’s more, they have all stirred the same ashes over and over…