Construction unions disgusted by

Covers pay and conditions of around 500,000 construction workers

Unions representing workers employed under the largest collective agreement in the construction industry have described the employer’s paltry pay o

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Who Tracks the Trackers?

Is monitoring and surveillance getting out of control at work? This question is beginning to concern an increasing number of our members. We are told that surveillance systems at work and in society are there to safeguard staff, clients, and the wider community, but they increasing

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Jeremy Corbyn to join housing march Sunday 13th March

Thousands of people from across the country will march

Jeremy Corbyn

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Housing associations: record surpluses again this year

Largest associations record £3 billion surplus – up a quarter

England’s largest housing associations recorded a record £3 billion combined surplus today as revealed on the Homes and Community Ag

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Construction training cut

Training cutbacks will hit construction industry plagued by skills’ shortages

Serious questions have been raised about the future of training in the construction industry, already plagued with skills’ short

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HCA - Pay Up!

"Our pay rise is now eight months overdue ... and so are our members bills!"

Unite members at the The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) made their feelings clear during a "Pay Day Protest" on the 15th February. They are angry at the length of time

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Day of Action against Sports Direct February 13th

Unite will demonstrate outside Sports Direct high street stores as part of a second national day of action on 13 February against Sports Direct’s shameful work practices. Why not join in?

On this day of action we demand that Sports Direct:

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Islington campaign against housing bill launched

Over 100 people crammed into room 5 of Islington Town Hall and voted unanimously to form a borough-wide campaign to oppose the Housing and Planning Bill. 

The meeting was organised by Islington Hands Off Our Public Services (IHOOPS

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Housing bill in the news - come to the branch to discuss

‘Pay to stay’ trap will force working families out of council homes

Today’s from page splash on VIEW

Unite Protest Over Pay at HCA

Unite members, acting jointly with the PCS and UNISON, are discussing what action they can take in protest at an eight month delay to their pay settlement at the The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). 

The HCA, which is sponsored by the Department for Communi

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Benefit caps for social housing delayed

Future remains uncertain

Plans to cap housing benefits for social housing tenants in line with private sector have been deferred for a year until a review is completed.  The move means a partial reprieve for the s

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Threat to council housing featured in local press

Branch member Glyn Robbins featured in this article from the Islington Tribune.  Let us know of any press coverage you get in the battle against the houisng bill.

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Unite Stronger at Equinox!

Unite LE1111 branch representatives at social care provider Equinox have considerably strengthened their capacity. Two new representatives have stepped forward, membership is growing and through the union they have made important improvements to restructuring proposals. 

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"Climate of fear" in Gloucestershire sheltered housing scheme

‘Climate of fear’ for elderly over future of Gloucestershire sheltered housing, says Unite

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Strike brings gains at big north east housing association

Union members at Thirteen Group accepted a management offer this week following a bitter industrial dispute involving strike action.  Over time, Unit

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New survey: CEOs get more inflation busting pay hikes

CEO pay up 3.2% in England
 

UK housing association chief executives took an inflation beating average increase to their pay of 3.1% in 2014/15 while the two highest-paid chief executives in the sector both saw pay increase

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Trade Union Bill 'Worryingly Authoritarian'

Bob Kerslake, writing in the Guardian, has declared that the Trade Union Bill exposes this Government's 'worryingly authoritarian streak'  - damning words indeed from Kerslake, who has held several high profile local and civil service positions and is cur

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Unite in local government calls for 'no cuts' budgets

Use council reserves

Last week the national committee for local government (NISC) of Unite called on Labour councils to set ‘no cuts’ budgets.  This is an important development buildin

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Housing association worker suffers life changing injury

Broken bones

A Manchester housing association has been hit with a £200,000 bill after a worker had to have a finger and thumb amputated after his hand was mangled by a mower.

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Special Branch Meeting - Trade Union Momentum

We start this year with an exciting special meeting discussing ‘Trade Union Momentum’ – a group helping to develop Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity movement. John McI

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Secure tenancies to be scraped

Nail in the coffin of social housing

P

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Calais: Humanitarian crisis on our doorstep

No human is illegal

‘...It is impossible not to empathise with the refugees in Calais.  What we saw were thousands of young men, women and children attempting to survive in desperately unsafe and inhumane co

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Pay dispute at Thirteen Group

Pay dispute at north east’s biggest housing association group triggers industrial action

Repairs and maintenance to homes managed by Thirteen, the largest group of housing associations in the nor

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Letter on increasing commercialisation of homeless agencies

Letter to Labour Campaign to End Homelessness

The campaign have a launch meeting at our union head office with an invited speaker from the executive of St Mungos Broadway.  Unite members in the sector have asked o

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Osborne eyes privatisation of stake in social housing

Osborne eyes privatisation of stake in social housing

...is the splash headline in today’s Financial Times.  We have warned repeatedly of such a move. Unite housing workers will link with tenants and housin

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Big housing associations: surpluses up again

The largest 75 housing associations in England boosted their combined surplus to £2.2bn this year according to a new survey in Inside Housing (pay wall). 

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Pay jobs and services under attack in Circle Housing

Circle CEO Mark Rogers

Circle Housing: redundancies, pay cuts and lower quality services

Memb

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Stress awareness day

ACTION ON STRESS

In 2014/15 around 234,000 people reported that their stress, depression and anxiety was caused or made worse by their work. We need to take action!

It’s the 17th National Stress Awareness day on 4 November 2015 and Unite is aware that

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Demanding Social Housing Not Social Cleansing!

We joined ASH (Architects for Social Housing) for a protest outside the Royal Institute of British Architects’ annual Stirlin

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Branch Solidarity With Turkish Peace Protestors

On the 10th October, a peaceful rally for democracy in Turkey was shattered by two suicide bombs. At the time of posting, 97 people had been reported dead

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Unite condemns Tory attacks on the low paid & social housing

Unite has issued this press statement today:

David Cameron’s legacy will be ‘all too visible to low paid workers’, says Unite

David Cameron’s

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Architects Protest Over Social Housing Destruction

A group of architects are set to protest over the destruction of social housing and its replacement by "multi-million-pound luxury apartments and penthouses for nom-domiciled tax exiles and forei

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HCA Budget Cuts - Unite Prepares to Resist!

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has been asked by its sponsor department (Communities and Local Government, CLG) to model cuts of 25% and 40% of operating costs to meet the cuts announced as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2015. The CLG itself has already announced that a 'Vo

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Housing Associations could implement right to buy 'voluntarily'

Housing Associations told to agree right to buy extension within six working days 'volunatrily'

Housing minister Greg Clarke has made housing associations an offer they cannot refuse: they have to ‘volunt

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Trade Union bill threatens health & safety

Government threat to safety reps – get the message out there!

Cross posted from the TUC 'Stronger Unions' blog by Hugh Robertson

The TUC is running a major camp

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Think tank raises threat of housing association privatisation

Policy Exchange raise threat of outright privatisation of Housing Associations

Privatising housing associations would be “the most obvious” government reaction to £60bn of debt being added to the nati

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Video: Branch joins #killthebill lobby with Suzanne speaking

A branch delegation to last weeks lobby of the TUC organised by the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) heard our branch secretary Suzanne speak from the pl

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Inflation busting increases for housing Chief Executives

Inside Housing reveals housing boss’s pay

In the biggest hundred housing associations, chief executive total pay (includes basic pay, bonus and car allowance) 5.5% to £182,780.  Bonuses for chiefs of the biggest 100 ho

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Housing Assembley South Africa - video

Inspiring video on South African Housing Assembly

A couple of months ago I was privileged to meet two South Africa housing activists on a UK tour organised by ‘War on Want.’

New reports show further social cleansing nightmare ahead

Perfect storm in housing: two new reports

A new report from Savills (see Inside Housing today) illustrates the mortal threat t

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Aspire Housing workers strike to defend pay and conditions

Aspire Housing workers are taking a further twenty four hours strike action on September 1st.  Members of Unite, UCATT and the GMB are taking action to defend their pay and conditions.  Management have refused to negotiate or take the issues to ACAS for conciliation.

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Organiser Recruitment: Update for Members

A statement by Branch Committee member, Jon Hughes

Dear members

I am writing with an update on the recruitment of the part-time Organiser. The role was proposed by the Branch Committee and overwhelmingly supported by

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Corbyn poll lead - break with austerity in housing

Today’s news that almost four in ten homes sold through ‘right to buy’ are now in the private rented sector (Inside Housing this week here