The new Employment Rights Act is a step forward, but restoring collective bargaining and union power remains essential to tackling insecurity, outsourcing and low pay, says PAUL WHITEHOUSE
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A major shake-up in employment legislation proposed
KEITH EWING, JOHN HENDY and CAROLYN JONES of the Institute of Employment Rights explain the general principles of Rolling Out the Manifesto for Labour Law — the most detailed framework of progressive legislative proposals on workers’ rights to have been produced for 45 years
Collective bargaining
Trade unionists are mobilising to support Cuban workers and public services, amid escalating US pressure on the socialist island. RONAN OGILVY explains
The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT
The ceasefire may have halted the fighting for now, but years of economic warfare and recent military attacks have left millions of Iranians facing hardship and uncertainty, says Codir’s RUBEN BRETT
The struggle for Palestinian freedom has become a defining issue for everyone committed to justice, democracy and peace, says PETER LEARY ahead of the Stop the War International Conference on Saturday
Unison director of organising KEVIN LUCAS explains the Organising to Win strategy, its successes to date and key tests on the union’s horizon
IN 2016 the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) published A Manifesto for Labour Law, a radical blueprint for the reform of trade union freedom and workers’ rights.
Distilled from the contributions of 15 leading scholars and activists, the Manifesto has had a remarkable impact, in this country and overseas.
Most importantly, it has been adopted by many British trade unions and was endorsed at the TUC Congress in 2016.
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The unions are unhappy with the Employment Rights Act 2025 and with good reason. KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC take a close look at why the Bill promised more than it delivered
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
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