Reiner Hoffman, the President of the TUC’s German equivalent, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), has signed the following statement with me. It sets out our response to the Prime Minister’s speech last week on his EU renegotiation strategy. Having regard to the UK Prime Minister’s letter to the Council President last week proposing reforms to the…
Yesterday I had the honour of addressing the Congress of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), and a large part of my speech focused on the challenges facing the European Union. Including, of course, the prospect of an EU referendum in Britain. Here’s some of what I said: Congress, we meet at a defining moment…
I was pleased to be able to sponsor and speak at the Greece Solidarity Campaign/Jubilee Debt Campaign rally in solidarity with Greece at Congress House last night. Here’s what I said: Greece is the cradle of democracy. It is where a simple, yet profoundly powerful, idea took hold. That not kings, not bankers, not bureaucrats – but…
In the light of Saturday’s planned March in Newcastle-on-Tyne by the alleged British branch of the far right, anti-Islamic German organisation PEGIDA, I have agreed the following statement with my opposite number in Germany, Reiner Hoffman, President of the DGB. On behalf of working people and their communities in Britain and Germany, we believe that…
If David Cameron really wants workers to get a pay rise, then he’s got a funny way of going about it. Over the last five years we have seen a sustained attack on workers’ rights and protection at work, including trade unions. Unions are the last line of defence for workers, so little wonder that…
This Holocaust Memorial Day the spotlight is on the worrying growth of anti-semitism in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, where hard right and neo-fascist parties are gaining ground.
The TUC’s work on learning is the trade union movement at its best – positive, progressive, and popular. Union learning is focused firmly on the future and on making our economy stronger and more productive, but for all the progress we have made we still have a mountain to climb. Amongst the many challenges facing…