Brendan Barber spoke at a press conference today, to give details of public service unions’ decisions on action to protect public service pensions, after the conclusion of Congress 2011. Unions held an urgent meeting immediately following Congress, to discuss the recent round of negotiations with the government and consider the next steps to defend decent pensions for millions of public services workers as part of the campaign for decent pensions for all.

The TUC and unions are committed to continuing talks with the government, and with the relevant employers in each of the separate major public service pensions schemes, but the government is urged to bring new proposals to the table urgently to make progress possible. Today’s meeting also agreed, however, given the failure of the government to engage properly in the negotiations, to step up the campaign and to hold a first day of action on Wednesday 30 November.

This call reflects the huge anger of public service workers over the threat to their pensions and the deep frustration over difficulties of securing government engagement in meaningful negotiations. This planned day of action will be an unprecedented coming together of the whole public service workforce and the communities they serve in a united demand for pensions justice.

Unions remain absolutely committed, in good faith, to seeking a fair negotiated settlement of this dispute so that this action will not be necessary. But the government needs to understand the strength of unions’ resolve reflected in today’s decision.

As the government’s controversial Health and Social Care Bill receives its third reading in the House of Commons, we’re standing vigil to show Parliamentarians the level of concern around the country about the threats to our National Health Service.

Please join the vigil online by uploading a photograph of yourself to this site. We’ll be combining the pictures into a powerful mosaic image, to use in lobbying Parliament. It only takes a minute from each of us, but will build into something much bigger.

Upload your own photo now.

And thanks to Le Emu Tavern for the use of the song “All Things Being Equal” in this video!

You know that placard you spent literally multiple minutes doing the night before March For The Alternative? You know, the placard with all that Pritt stick and gel pen? Funny wasn’t it?

Although after the march you callously discarded your half-drunken attempt at a uber-sophisticated political statement (e.g. Calling George Osborne an idiot), the Turner Gallery might want it.

500,000 of us marched through London in protest against government spending cuts – if you haven’t heard, the march went really well. The Save Our Placards team from Goldsmiths were asking people to donate their one-march stand placards to a good cause.

After sieving through a whole load of just terrible placards (sorry, your uber-sophisticated political statement was lost on them), they’ve settled on 12 they liked enough to send to the Turner Contemporary.

The problem is they didn’t get everyone’s email address…Sorry! They still need to track down 6 of those 12 creative placard designers ASAP. Are you one of them?

Please tweet, like and send carrier pigeons about the Save Our Placards blog and facebook group.

With a heightened interest in Rupert Murdoch and his empire, it’s handy the TUC are currently hosting a new exhibition: ‘News International Wapping – 25 Years on’ – The strike that made the modern media.

The Wapping dispute marked the beginning of the end of Fleet Street, it was a turning point for the British press and for the already controversial Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch had been making crippling demands on his papers’ print workers, including the right for management to change T&Cs whenever and however they wanted, the end of closed shops, and a ban on all industrial action. A strike began on 24^th January 1986, and Murdoch switched production to a new facility in Wapping, undermining the unionised workers.

The exhibition takes you through it all, offering historical context to the current turbulent fortunes of Murdoch’s media empire. The origins of Fleet Street and Murdoch’s rise, through the start of the strike, the boycotts and the police riots, on to where the unions are today. It finishes with the question; is Murdoch really unstoppable?

The exhibition is produced by the Marx Memorial Library. It’s free to view and can been seen in the foyer of Congress House (Great Russell Street, London) until August 12^th.

TUC and Amnesty supporters assembled at the Egyptian Embassy in London today, to hand over a letter to the Ambassador as part of the ITUC’s Day of Action in solidarity with Egyptian workers and protestors.

This action is also part of the build up to an Amnesty / TUC / ITUC demonstration in Trafalgar Square this coming Saturday (12 Feb). You can find out more about the demo at the TUC website.

Esther Ogunfowora, Co-ordinator for the TUC / NLC (Nigeria Labour Congress) HIV/Aids in the workplace intiative was in London for World Aids Day (1 Dec 2010), speaking at a TUC seminar on this year’s ILO Recommendation on HIV/Aids in the workplace.

We caught up with her, and she told us about the project, which seeks to link up workplaces to help improve HIV testing rates and reduce discrimination (in a country in which you can often by fired for being HIV positive).

Esther discusses the opportunities offered in June by the ILO, with a recommendation that puts a obligation on governments to address the issues around HIV/Aids and work, and she sees a strong role for unions in this important work.

A lunchtime share for you. We’ve been humming along to this new tune from Captain Ska, a very catchy song in which the band let us know in no uncertain terms their views about the coalition government’s plan of public spending cuts.