With the death of Pope Francis, the world loses not only a church leader but also a moral compass
No safety without the unions
The government has now released its own ‘guidances’ for a return to work by stealth — cutting workers’ representation out of the picture, writes KEITH EWING

LAST week the gloves came off. The pretence of government consultation of unions was dropped with the vicious attack on the teachers who decline to go back to work without the assurance that it is safe for their members, their members’ families, the pupils and their families.
Their view is shared by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments and the BMA. It is also shared by the leaders of English local authorities. And more particularly, it is shared by most parents who don’t want their kids to become carriers of the disease.
But the British government is desperate for teachers in England to get back to what it regards as their proper function: childminding — so that business can get back to normal.
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A Labour government would be wise to implement new recommendations from the ILO that would protect trade unionists and their right to bargain collectively, writes Professor KEITH EWING

New writing has underlined the importance of the 1873 case that victimised striking farmworkers and led to a national outcry — yet aspects of the law used against them remain on the books, writes professor KEITH EWING

The latest plans to suppress industrial action are chilling. They are the hallmark of authoritarian government – and worse, argues Prof KEITH EWING

On the 50th anniversary of the jailing the Pentonville Five, Professor KEITH EWING recalls how British governments, Tory and Labour, have systematically adapted the law to suppress legitimate trade union activity