The TUC website doesn’t as a rule reproduce material appearing elsewhere on the web: a sensible precaution against both the proliferation of repeats, and the repeating of errors. But it does mean that people who use the TUC website (for instance, British trade unionists) don’t necessarily see useful material produced by the international trade union [...]

Filed under: Europe, Recession, Web links | Comments Off

Jon Cruddas calls for more strategy and fewer initiatives
- a view not that dissimilar from those expressed here.

Filed under: Web links | Comments Off

Interesting to see international insurers and fund managers Aviva (they of the new name….) talking tough about executive pay, warning that there must be a moratorium on directors’pay rises, and criticising directors for paying ‘little more than lip service’ to employee pay and conditions.  They also raise the spectre of excessive executive pensions, urging companies [...]

Filed under: Corporate governance, Financial crisis, Pensions | Comments Off

It used to be the case that those who engaged in debate about tax havens fell into three categories:  those who thought they were morally indefensible and should be closed down, those who thought they were morally indefensible but didn’t think anything could be done about it, and those who thought tax havens provided a [...]

Filed under: Corporate governance, Financial crisis, Multinationals, Recession, Tax | 1 Comment »

The white working class; Britain’s forgotten race victims?
An interesting new Runnymede report asks 8 authors to respond to the growing debate about the white working class.
(tags: Runnymedetrust whiteworkingclass)

Policy Network : Rethinking migration: work and welfare in a mobile economy
An interesting critique of the UK's approach from a 'third way' think tank

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Today’s ICM poll for the Guardian will not make happy reading in Downing Street. While no-one should take much notice of a single poll’s figures for voting intention, it looks like there are some interesting findings in the small print, even if the raw data on which poll junkies like me feed does not appear [...]

Filed under: Financial crisis, Politics, Recession | Comments Off

The TUC shares the widely held view that the BBC and Sky have taken the wrong decision in refusing to screen the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for humanitarian aid for Gaza, although it’s clearly right that, as Andy Burnham says, it’s a decision that broadcasters should take, not government. But that shouldn’t stop people disagreeing [...]

Filed under: International development | Comments Off

Yesterday The Times reported that women were losing their jobs twice as fast as men. This was on the basis that the most recent labour market data show that from Sept-Nov 2008 the female full-time employment rate fell by 53,000 compared to the male full-time employment rate (which fell by 36,000). In our view this [...]

Filed under: Employers, Equality, Recession | Comments Off

Pension fund spin
Tom P has an interesting take on the predictions of imminent pension fund demise
(tags: pensions)

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Read the TUC Recession Report for January 2009
Today we have published our third Recession Report. We conclude that it is very unlikely that prospects for employment will improve before the summer at the earliest, and that compared with a year ago unemployment is higher for both men and women, for every age group and for [...]

Filed under: Manufacturing, Recession, Recession Report | Comments Off