The creation of Great British Railways is a big step forward, ending profiteering by train operating companies and creating an integrated publicly owned railway. But too many people are still being left out, including tens of thousands of outsourced and sub-contracted workers.  The use of outsourcing and sub-contracting is a scam, designed to siphon off profits from the railway by creating low paid and precarious work and driving down the quality of working life. RMT estimates that more than £400 million of the railway's money is lost to outsourcing and sub-contracting firms every year. Outsourcing and sub-contracting are worse for passengers too, leading to dirtier trains and stations and a poorer overall service.  Since 2020, Southeastern Trains has contracted out its cleaning to a company called Churchill. Churchill have provided an inferior service and profited from this contract. In the last two years, they have skimmed more than £50 million in dividends to their shareholders while passengers have seen worse standards and workers have struggled to get by.  Now Churchill’s contract is up and there is a golden opportunity to bring these workers into Great British Railways, end the profiteering, create better jobs and a better service for passengers.

It is vital for our community to stand united against these plans because they represent more than just budget savings but are a fundamental shift that compromises the safety and future of our children. By joining this fight, you are helping to prevent a chain reaction of negative impacts: • Declining Educational Quality: When specialised teachers are lost, subjects may be covered by staff without the appropriate expertise, for example, asking a geography teacher to cover science. This "cost to valuable support" inevitably leads to less thorough lesson planning and marking. • Increased Isolation for Vulnerable Students: Support staff are the backbone of SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) inclusion. Cutting these roles makes real inclusion "impossible," leaving students with complex needs without the specialist care they require to succeed. • The Breaking Point for Remaining Staff: The Trust's plan to increase staff teaching hours places an unbearable burden on the teachers who remain. This leads to burnout and exhaustion, driving educators out of the profession and creating a cycle of recruitment crises. The Horncastle Education Trust argues these cuts are necessary for longer term financial health, but we believe the cost to our children's education is too high.

Cleaners on Barnet’s council cleaning contract—employed by Norse Group—are among the lowest-paid workers delivering public services in one of the richest cities in the world. They keep our council buildings and schools clean, safe and running, yet they can be left waiting around 10–12 days after the end of the pay period to receive wages they have already earned. They are paid every four weeks, but the pay arrives nearly two weeks after the work period ends. For workers living week to week, that delay creates real hardship: rent, bills, food and travel costs don’t wait. It also creates a clear two-tier situation where outsourced staff can be treated differently from directly employed council staff. On top of that, many contractors delay implementing the new London Living Wage rate until 1 April even though it is announced in October—leaving low-paid workers waiting months for an uplift that is meant to reflect the real cost of living. Barnet Council should set fair standards for any contractor that wants to provide services in Barnet: pay workers on time and pay the Living Wage when it is announced. If outsourcing cannot deliver basic fairness and accountability, then cleaning should be brought back in-house at the earliest opportunity.

Trump’s illegal war on Iran is having devastating impacts on people in Iran and around the world.  Working people in the UK are also at the mercy of this conflict and risk paying for it with higher bills and job losses.  We should not have to pay for this ‘Trumpflation’.  Every time gas prices spike because of war, we foot the bill for it, because gas prices are set internationally.  Trumpflation threatens lots of good, unionised manufacturing jobs across the country. Jobs in industries that use a lot of energy.  From chemicals in Teesside, to ceramics in Stoke, to glass in Merseyside.  What needs to happen now?   First off, this war needs to fully end – international efforts to de-escalate, maintain peace and uphold international law and the United Nations Charter should be redoubled.  Here in the UK, we need short term support to protect jobs now AND we need to fix the foundations of our energy system to prevent the next gas price crisis threatening  industry. Even when the war ends, we will still experience the costs here in the UK for months,  The UK government needs to take urgent action to:  • Deliver immediate support to protect industrial sites from soaring energy costs so we don’t lose jobs now  • Invest in industrial upgrades to reduce our sites’ reliance on gas in the longer term  • Modernise and make our energy system more resilient to shield the UK from the next international crisis   • Tackle profiteering to make sure companies don't make megaprofits from this crisis, while ordinary workers pay the price  This action must reduce the UK’s industrial vulnerability to crises like this one, boost long-term resilience of our homegrown industries, and help protect goods job for the long-run.   

Long hours are dangerous. Fatigue leads to accidents, harms mental and physical health, and puts lives at risk on set.  Enough is enough.

The local trade union movement, including Leicester and District Trades Council, stands behind Tom. An injury to one is an injury to all. But Tom’s case has much more far-reaching implications for the labour movement. Tom’s suspension is also a direct attack on the rights of other UNISON members, who have been denied access to their elected representative in the middle of an industrial dispute. On March 18th 2026, UNISON members at Ash Field Academy completed an industrial action ballot over Tom’s suspension and the attack this represents on their rights. A massive majority of 87% voted for strikes on a turnout of 57%. Ash Field Academy is one of UNISON Leicester City’s most densely organised workplaces, and members there have a track record of winning – in 2023, Ash Field UNISON members won pay increases of between 18 and 25% after 43 days of strikes. If employers get away with victimising union stewards simply for doing their job effectively - especially in the middle of ongoing industrial disputes - this sets a dangerous precedent for our movement as a whole.

 Scotland stands at a crossroads. Our creative industries contribute over £5 billion to our economy and are the heartbeat of our national identity, yet the workers behind this success are being pushed to a breaking point. Following the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections, we call on the next Scottish Government to move beyond "slogans" and immediately implement the 16 recommendations of the Culture Fair Work Taskforce and the findings of the Independent Review of Creative Scotland  The implementation of recommendations from the Independent Review of Creative Scotland (November 2025) and the Culture Fair Work Taskforce Report (December 2025) represent a defining moment for Scotland’s cultural identity and economic resilience.  The Creative Industries are crucially important to Scotland’s economy and wellbeing, the reports make clear that Scotland’s creative industries must change if we are to protect and enhance the lives and livelihoods of the workers within them.  We cannot claim to value "Scottish Culture" while the people who create it lack sick pay, maternity leave, and financial security. We call on all parties contesting the 2026 election to commit to the full, funded implementation of these reports in the first 100 days of the new Parliament 

Support staff across Saint Ralph Sherwin and Our Lady Of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Trust are essential to the safety, learning and development of children in the Nottinghamshire Diocese.  They go above and beyond to ensure pupils are supported and secure in their schools. They take pride in their work and their expertise, but have made the difficult decision to strike to protect their pupils, their livelihoods and the schools they hold so dear. Workers have overwhelmingly rejected the insulting proposals that could slash their wages by up to 25%. If they go ahead as planned, they feel that the schools would no longer be the safe welcoming environments they have all worked so hard to foster. 94% and 98% of UNISON members that voted in their Trust specific ballot voted to strike and the first dates were held on 24th and 25th March making their voices heard and proving that schools can't run without them.  Following successful peaceful protests at both Trust headquarters over the Easter Break, further strike dates for April and May have been announced.

Critical Care NHS workers striking after Greater Manchester’s Northern Care Alliance cuts pay   NHS staff working at Salford Royal, Royal Oldham and Fairfield Hospital, Bury are in dispute with Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust after the trust decided to cut their pay when they undertake overtime to cover staff shortages. The Trust fails to pay overtime in line with their terms and conditions of employment, NHS Agenda for Change.    NCA have engaged an alternative private employer, ’NHS Professionals’, to cover shifts which means staff that assist the Trust in covering staff shortages are now seeing a significant drop in pay as well as being able to avoid employer pension contributions. NHS Professionals last year posted pre tax profits of a staggering £11.4M.     Critical Care units across the Trust which cover Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury are heavily reliant on covering shifts to meet safe staffing requirements or critically ill patients.  The specialist nature of the care required in critical care means most shifts are picked up by staff already working on the unit.     UNISON members are calling on the Trust to be given the right to choose whether to work the shift as Overtime or NHSP Bank rates. This choice would allow staff to be paid the correct pay for the crucial duties they are undertaking and no less for additional work they carry out whilst also being able to contribute to their pension. The worrying reliance on a private entity in the NHS is forcing UNISON members into financial hardship. A UNISON member said "I'm a highly trained and skilled clinical professional and I literally keep people alive. NCA has reduced my pay by £10 an hour for our extra hours rates that we rely on and I'm now struggling to make ends meet at home”.  After over a year of trying to resolve this issue with the Trust UNISON members have now voted 98% in favour of strike action. 

Removing this essential service will create new barriers to learning, participation, and employment at the college, undermining the ability of many to continue their courses or sustain their roles. We call on Milton Keynes College to halt the closure plans and work with staff, students, UNISON, and the wider community to find a fair, sustainable alternative that protects access to childcare.   UNISON will keep in touch as the campaign develops

Northern Trains is becoming part of a publicly owned Great British Railways, which is good news for passengers and rail workers.  But many rail workers are being left out of Great British Railways because they are outsourced to private companies.  Outsourcing companies cut costs to boost profits, resulting in worse pay and conditions for staff and a worse service for passengers. Northern Trains currently outsources station staff, cleaners and security guards to Carlisle, ISS and Amulet.  Carlisle is owned by the Tory donor and tax exile Lord Ashcroft and its treatment of staff is typical of the worst of outsourcing firms. ·         Imposing low pay: RMT members at Carlisle have been in a long-running dispute because the company won’t negotiate their pay, choosing to impose the minimum possible pay rates it can get away with. Our members have been forced to take industrial action in the form of strikes and refusing to scan tickets to try to get a negotiated pay rise.  ·         Bullying staff for taking legal strike action: Since the dispute began, Carlisle managers have tried to bully and intimidate our members into submission. Carlisle keep many of our members on zero hours contracts and threaten to cut their shifts or their holiday if our members take legal strike action.  ·         Passing the buck: Carlisle and Northern keep passing the buck between them, each blaming the other for the dispute, while hoping our members will be starved into giving up.  This treatment brings shame on Northern Trains.

Reform UK have pledged to introduce a Great Repeal Bill to remove the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Unions, workers, and renters have long campaigned for these essential new rights. Reform are threatening to snatch them away. They have also pledged to repeal the Equality Act 2010, the law that stops you from being discriminated against at work. With these plans, Reform wants to rig the system in favour of their corporate backers. Every ‘regulation’ they hate are hard fought for rights that give working people a voice and protect us at work. Axing workers’ and renters’ rights won’t cut our bills or increase our pay. It would slash standards and make us all worse off. Our message to Reform - and to every parliamentarian - is simple: commit now to opposing the Great Repeal Bill.