They are getting us through lockdown after lockdown — cleaning our hospitals, taking us to work and keeping food on supermarket shelves. But 2 million key workers right now live on minimum wage. That’s £8.72 an hour and a pittance for the way they have risen to the challenges of this pandemic.
On Thursday evening this country clapped from its doorstep for the NHS and public sector workers protecting families and saving lives
I could not be more proud of those workers and the trade unions representing them. They are doing an extraordinary job with long hours, often without the right equipment.
New figures released by the Office of National Statistics this week show almost 1 million workers are employed on zero-hours contracts. With no fixed hours each week it's impossible for a large section of the workforce to plan or save for the future.
North East councils have suffered the biggest reduction in spending of any UK region. We need a plan for healing the pain a decade of Conservative cuts have caused.
Working families across the North East are struggling to survive and child poverty is continuing to increase. But there is plenty the next government can do to fix this.
Released across the country this Friday, Ken Loach's new film ‘Sorry we missed you’ is a timely reminder of why we shouldn't be sorry to call time on zero-hours contracts.
The first element of the National Retraining Scheme, the Get Help to Retrain digital service, has been rolled out in the North East. Here's more on what the scheme offers and why it's so important.
Beth Farhat talks about the year of the young workers - the problems that they face and transforming their experiences in the workplace by a reinvigorated trade union movement.
Women in leadership course participants went to Westminster to meet the region’s parliamentarians and use it as an opportunity to raise issues affecting women across the North East including period poverty, female genital mutilation, sexual harassment and domestic violence.
This week is Mental Health Awareness week and it is a good to time for union members and reps to improve their understanding of how mental health issues can affect their workplace.
As we move into 2018, rebalancing the economy and reducing regional inequality must be the number one priority for all in the region, business leaders, politicians and trade unionists.