Blackburn and District Trades Union Council
Blackburn and District Trades Union Council
BT – aka British Telecom – has enjoyed the corporate equivalent of being born to the right parents. When it was privatised in 1984 it was granted a valuable inheritance from its time as a public company. Some residual recognition that no private company could afford to build or maintain a comparable national infrastructure meant…
For a reason now obscured by late nineteenth century smog the Trades Council’s “year” runs like a “finacial year” – from April to March. The early months of the calendar year are consequently the last months of our operational year, when a lot of our time is taken up with encouraging local Trade Union Branches…
At the Trades Council’s February meeting we considered the Government “consultation” – “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: statement and accompanying consultation on earned settlement”, which followed up on the 2025 “White Paper” “Restoring control over the immigration system”. The White Paper had been followed, in July 2026, by changes in some immigration regulations – such…
Blackburn event – 12.30pm by the memorial tree, Sudell Cross end of Northgate The international “theme” for Workers Memorial Day in 2026 is “ensuring a healthy psychosocial working environment”. The psychosocial working environment is defined by how work is designed, organized and managed, and the organizational practices that shape everyday working conditions. Psychosocial factors –…
We must apologise for the delay in reporting here on how our 2025 Young Worker survey and meeting went. A Report did go to our November Trades Council meeting, but we neglected to follow up here. You may remember that we attempted to do two things. Firstly, to run a local survey. And, secondly, to…
At its final meeting of 2025 Blackburn and District Trades Union Council agreed a response to the public consultation held by Lancashire County Council on the “In-House Provider Services Redesign” affecting some of its Adult Social Care services – in particular its Care Homes and Day Centres. The immediate focus of attention is the proposal…
The annual “Hazards” conference, held at Keele University, is one of the key events of the Trade Union calendar. Bringing together Health and Safety Representatives and workplace safety specialists and activists, it makes an essential contribution to building their capacity and morale, and is always invested with a tremendous sense of shared purpose to make…
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…