After the collapse of the organisation running Manchester Pride, dozens of workers have been left unpaid for the work they have already done during the festival, to the tune of £50,000 (and counting). Each year Pride brings £34 million into the Manchester economy and performers are at the heart of that, yet Equity members have been left unpaid for amounts ranging from £150 to £3-5k. Many now face not being able to afford their rent and bills Before the council move on to discussions of Pride 2026 and beyond, they must first ensure that all of the workers left unpaid from the 2025 event receive what they are owed in full. We believe that Manchester has the capacity to build back a community focused Pride event which the people of the city deserve. We want to see lessons learned. We believe that corporate interests and increased scale have been wrongly prioritised, and that has resulted in significant damage to the cultural workforce who are so critical to the Village, to the city, and to the essence of Pride in Manchester.  Trust has been severely damaged. In order to repair and rebuild confidence in any form of Council endorsed Pride, we need to see a fair resolution for the cultural workforce of Manchester Pride 2025.  No Pride without performers,  No Performers without pay.

This November, Rachel Reeves has the chance to act in the Budget. Our factories and plants are struggling with the highest industrial electricity bills in Europe. Why are our bills so high? • Wholesale privatisation of our energy system under the Tories means millions are extracted in profit each year. • Other European countries have safeguards to shield their critical manufacturing sectors from soaring prices. • The UK's electricity prices are currently set by the price of gas – a fuel that Putin can set the price of. When Putin invaded Ukraine and drove up gas prices, our electricity prices followed. • Our industries were starved of investment and upgrades under the Tories, while bosses and investors extracted profits and dividends.  We’re not against climate action. It’s not even climate action that’s the problem!  But British industry can’t compete with imports – and workers carry the costs. That has to change. What needs to happen now We need bolder, faster action from Rachel Reeves and the Treasury. The government recognised the problem and took first steps back in June as part of the Industrial Strategy and committed money to support industrial electricity prices.  But this mostly won’t kick in until 2027.  Our industry needs lower bills now. The support should be funded through general taxation. We need to delink our wholesale electricity prices from gas, so they’re not set by Putin or multinational oil & gas companies. And we need investment to upgrade and futureproof our industries. If you work in industry — cars, steel, ceramics, logistics, construction, energy, or other manufacturing — and want to see long-term investment that protects our jobs, powers clean growth, and secures British industry for the future: sign this petition. We’re industrial workers. We build, power, and make Britain.  We deserve a future — but we won’t get there without action now.

As the screen sector in Ireland continues to grow in size, talent, and global recognition, it is more vital than ever that we uphold the standards, protections, and rights that underpin fair and sustainable working conditions for performers. One key pillar of that protection is the use of properly registered union agreements, specifically the PACT/Equity agreement in Film and TV. We wish to remind the industry that: • For productions based in Northern Ireland, PACT/Equity is the appropriate agreement under which professional performers should be engaged. • For productions in the Republic of Ireland, Irish Equity recognises the PACT/Equity agreement as its preferred agreement for co-productions. We have witnessed an increasing trend of productions marketing themselves as “PACT/Equity equivalent”, or claiming to be “in line with Equity rates”, without providing the appropriate contracts. This is not the same as operating under an actual registered collective agreement — and the distinction matters. In NI, without proper appropriate registration, there is no legal mechanism to ensure that productions honour Equity agreed-upon rates or conditions, and no enforceability if those promises are broken. These productions also lack the financial safety net that a registered agreement provides, such as an escrow deposit to protect wages if funding collapses.  Even if a NI production (or co-pro in ROI) claims to pay Equity “equivalent,” it often omits crucial terms meaning the total compensation frequently falls below union standards, often excluding ongoing payments like royalties or profit shares.  These may contain exploitative clauses around AI use, usage rights, or future exploitation — without proper remuneration or consent. Such contracts can create confusion among performers and agents, who may mistakenly believe they are protected under Equity terms.  Ultimately, accepting or promoting these “equivalent” agreements undermines the union’s ability to secure fair, enforceable collective terms and weakens the long-term health of our industry.

Treatment of striking NHS staff This helps to explain the treatment of NHS workers on strike in Gloucestershire in recent months.  A small but mighty group of workers have been on strike since March, fighting for fair pay. Phlebotomists, specialists in collecting blood samples, are currently paid at the lowest band in the NHS: just 30p over minimum wage. The all-female group are asking for a correction to their pay band to help them weather the cost of living crisis. The phlebotomists have now hit the highest number of days of any NHS strike in history. After 200 days on strike, Kevin McNamara is still refusing to resolve this fairly and pay the phlebotomists what they deserve. Why have over £100,000 of NHS funds been wasted on defending bullying instead of paying frontline staff fairly?

Movement directors and Choreographers are crucial for the film and television industry. Sign this to show PACT that they should be recognised in collective agreements.

Without a commitment to backpay, we will be forced to take action. We do not take strike action lightly. But after years of being ignored, we have been left with no choice.

Background In 2018 Airedale NHS Foundation Trust created a wholly owned subsidiary, AGH Solutions (AGHS). Since AGHS was set-up all new starters were set on lower NHS pay, terms and conditions.  In 2021, GMB members successfully campaigned to end the race to the bottom, securing alignment with NHS pay bands, significant improvements in NHS annual leave, the introduction and alignment of weekend and night enhancements and more.  The success in 2021 came on the back of industrial action announcements and intervention from the Airedale NHS Trust Board directing AGHS to reach a meaningful agreement with GMB.  Today Now GMB members are back demanding full alignment on all the remaining terms and conditions, including standard NHS pensions, sick pay, annual leave entitlements and enhanced Sunday pay rates. Again, AGHS is refusing to meet GMB demands. Only the Trust can help settle this by intervening to end the dispute. Tell 'Foluke Ajayi that AGHS is the responsibility of the Airedale NHS Trust and that NHS workers deserve NHS terms and conditions. 

The University announced on Wednesday 20 August plans to put 16 roles in the university's Executive Office (EO)  at risk of compulsory redundancy to save £2 million.  This announcement comes only 2 years after the last round of compulsory redundancies which sought to make £3 million savings, with several rounds of Voluntary Severance within that period. Cuts of this scale will have a devastating impact on those individuals losing their jobs and their families, but also on the future of the University and the Highlands and Islands’. It also indicates a reliance on staff cuts to plug a constant deficit. This is not a sustainable solution and is weakening our university. Many of the staff employed by EO are in roles which deliver critical functions like student support, student experience, finance, and ensuring academic quality. Jobs are also threatened in the University’s academic and research functions.  Please join us in fighting back against these cuts which will have a devastating impact on education across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and on the student experience of the students studying with us.

We've seen across the region what happens when these services are outsourced. • Unions not Recognised • NJC Pay Scrapped • Workers left behind Sign our petition to demand the council... • Keeps remaining services in house • Looks at bringing already outsourced services back under council control. We are proud to serve Middlesbrough, but we are not for sale!

PCS members in MyCSP have been on strike for six weeks; and have just agreed to extend their strike for a further six weeks. This is not a strike for more money; they just want their union recognised by MyCSP, and to be able to represent them at the transfer meetings. Nobody wants to take strike action, but MyCSP is unwilling to get around the table and resolve this dispute. In the meantime, huge backlogs of work and unacceptable call waiting times are having a detrimental impact on scheme members who are facing severe delays in receiving their pensions forecasts, their lump sums and statements; as well as pension queries not getting dealt in a reasonable time. Please show your support for the hard-working staff by writing to Duncan Watson, Chief Executive Officer of MYCSP.

By signing the petition we can show  South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust that they should be re-banding our lone working community staff 

Libraries do so much more than lend books! We are one of the last vestiges of public civic life, accessible to all, located at the heart of your community. We provide: • A safe space, open to everyone, cool in summer and warm in winter • A wealth of information, free at the point of delivery • Services such as printing and room hire are far below the commercial rate • IT assistance for the digitally excluded • Free community groups, clubs and societies for you to join • Free crafts, activities and workshops for your children • Partnership programmes with local schools to reinforce learning • Learning and development programmes and classes • A public platform for organisations to liaise with the community in person … and a lot more besides.