Library news

• Leaving workers in poverty is no way to run vital services

  01-11-2022 23:30
  Commenting on new research published by the TUC today (Tuesday) showing widespread poverty for public sector workers’ families, UNISON assistant general secretary Jon Richards said: “This is no way to run vital public services.
  “Those providing care, looking after our health, keeping us safe and providing education shouldn’t need to worry about simply making ends meet for their families.
  “Holding down public sector pay for years to come could make the cost-of-living
  
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• Council workers accept deal that will give lowest-paid 10.5%

  01-11-2022 14:54
  Local government trade unions today accepted a pay offer that will see hundreds of thousands of workers, over 350,000 of whom are UNISON members, paid an extra £1,925 this year, equating to a 10.5% increase for the lowest-paid workers.
  UNISON, GMB and Unite make up the trade union side of the national joint council (NJC) that negotiates pay for the majority of local government workers. After consulting their members over the last two months, the unions met today and agreed to accept the of
  
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• Public sector pay cuts are the worst possible response

  01-11-2022 13:16
  Responding to reports that public sector pay awards could be capped at 2% in the coming months, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said today (Tuesday): “Holding down pay for public sector staff is the worst possible response. This shows a government with no ideas, nor a grasp of the reality of people’s lives.
  “The NHS, care and other key services already have a workforce crisis. Many more staff will walk if they know there’s no prospect of a decent pay r
  
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• Mileage rate rise needed urgently for public sector staff

  01-11-2022 12:58
  The government must act to raise mileage rates for all frontline public service staff who can’t do their jobs without vehicles, but are struggling with fuel costs, says UNISON today (Tuesday).
  HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has not increased the allowance in a decade. Workers affected include midwives attending home births, district nurses, social workers and pest control officers.
  UNISON says this means staff are effectively subsidising their employers, ​because they
  
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• Blog: The government paves the way for Austerity 2.0

  01-11-2022 12:48
  “It’s going to be rough” is what we’re hearing in news reports from government sources today. That’s the reality of toxic public spending cuts that are being threatened in Westminster’s latest narrative.
  Sound familiar? Well, it is, because we’re heading to Austerity 2.0. We’ve been here before – the first round was painful, damaging and lasted over a decade. In a speech about the economy in 2010, on his plans to deal with the fallout of the
  
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• Vote yes for the NHS: UNISON urges backing for strike action

  01-11-2022 11:48
  Some 350,000 NHS employees working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are being asked to vote on strike action over pay this winter.
  UNISON represents a wide range of staff working in the NHS, including porters, nurses, paramedics and cleaners. The union recommends members vote ‘yes’ for strike action in order to pressure government decision-makers to increase pay.
  In England and Wales, NHS staff have had a pay award of just 72p per hour. This is nowhere near what worker
  
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• Mobilise to save the planet

  01-11-2022 11:48
  The United Nation’s COP27 climate conference opens at the end of this week in Egypt, in the shadow of the UN’s own prediction that only the “rapid transformation of societies” will avert climate disaster.
  A new UN report shows that countries are far short of meeting their Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to below 2°, and preferably 1.5° by 2030.
  Since COP26, hosted in Glasgow last year, very limited progress has been made in reducing emissions. In f
  
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