Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
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Please, Sir, can we have some more?
Falling short of what was promised: many of the new rights in the Employment Rights Bill have defects or escape loopholes that all need addressing, writes LORD JOHN HENDY KC
Oversold: the New Deal for Workers promised by the Labour leader has turned out far weaker than unions anticipated
BEN CHACKO speaks with Knesset member OFER CASSIF about rising political violence, the prospects for peace and his continuous ‘silencing by suspension’
The City is leaning on Rachel Reeves to cut welfare spending — when what’s needed is cuts to all the benefits given to the mega rich, corporations and banks to help them not pay or blatantly dodge their fair share of tax, explains BERNIE EVANS
The choice between two Blairites to revamp the tepid centrism of our ruling party doesn’t even come as cold comfort as we wander the city streets suffering from their third decade of austerity and the fifth of wage stagnation, writes MATT KERR
ANN HENDERSON looks at the trailblazers of the Women’s Trade Union League and their successful fight for female factory inspectors — a battle that echoes in today’s workplace campaigns
HENRY FOWLER puts the strike of public-sector workers in New Zealand in the wider context of deteriorating employment conditions throughout the world’s major economies
MAT COWARD looks back at a protest 105 years ago this month, whose reporting by the media bears uncomfortable similarities with demos today
THE Employment Rights Bill begins its passage through the House of Lords today. At 300 pages in length, spiced up by 250 government amendments in the Commons, it remains thin gruel, leaving trade unions, like Oliver Twist, asking for more — in the shape of a second industrial relations Bill during this parliament.
The Bill is a long way short of the full (but hardly gastronomic) menu in Labour’s green paper, A New Deal for Working People, drafted by a committee composed mostly of trade union leaders under Andy McDonald MP and adopted by Labour conference in 2021, reaffirmed in 2022, and loudly proclaimed by the leader and deputy leader on many occasions since.
Of course, the hunger for more does not detract from the gratitude the movement feels at a Bill of fare which will remove the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2024, and most (but not all) of the Trade Union Act 2016 — and do a lot more besides. But restaurant critics are surely entitled to judge the meal on how it measures up to the menu on the door rather than compare it to the starvation rations offered by the previous management.
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The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
The Employment Rights Bill is a vital opportunity to rebalance power between workers and employers. As it passes to the Lords, pressure must be brought to bear to strengthen this key legislation, argues ANDY McDONALD MP