As care workers, we have gone above and beyond during the coronavirus crisis to care for your loved ones. A survey by UNISON North West found that 8 out of 10 of us would not receive our full normal pay if we were ill or had to self-isolate or shield due to COVID-19. As a result, many care workers said they may have to attend work while ill which would drastically increase the risk of spreading infection to vulnerable residents and service-users. As part of UNISON’s Care Workers vs COVID-19 Campaign, we have been calling on local commissioners and care providers to protect our pay when we are absent due to COVID-19. As a result, Salford Council and local NHS partners have introduced the 'Salford Offer' which provides additional funding to local social care providers to protect frontline care workers, service-users and the local community by maintaining the full normal wages for care staff that are absent due to COVID-19. The 'Salford Offer' is the very least that we deserve, yet despite the fact it will cost them nothing, there are a number of care providers in Salford that is refusing the support the 'Salford Offer'. Some of these providers have reported millions of pounds worth of profits over previous years.

Currently, hundreds of hospital cleaners, caterers and security guards working at Aintree University Hospital, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Broadgreen Hospital are employed by private companies. We are employed by private contractors Compass Medirest, ISS and OCS and as a result, we are at a disadvantage compared with NHS employees. Like all of our health service colleagues, we’ve put ourselves at increased risk over the last few months keeping patients safe. We don’t want a medal, we just want to be treated equally with our colleagues who are employed by NHS. We deserve proper pay and working conditions so that we can deliver a high quality service for Liverpool patients. UNISON Liverpool Hospitals Health branch secretary Su Edwards said: “Our members do some of the most vital jobs within our health service. They cook patients’ food, keep the hospital clean and protect patients and staff. “Yet currently, these health service heroes are being treated like second class citizens. There is only one way that companies such as Compass, ISS and OCS can make a profit within the NHS and that’s by cost-cutting. This means that hospital staff employed by private contractors receive lower pay and worse working conditions than colleagues employed directly by the NHS. It is morally wrong. “But it’s not just hospital staff who are getting a raw deal. Compass, ISS and OCS prioritise profit over people- they bid for NHS contracts, then they cut costs and patients pay the price. If we brought these services in-house, we could deliver a higher quality service, with more staff on shift, better hospital food and safer hospitals.”

On Monday morning, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will decide the future of our bus services. We depend on our local busses to get around. But fares are far too high, and tickets options are confusing. During the month of April, whilst the pandemic reduced bus services to 15% of normal levels, local councils were forced to pay out £4.31million to private bus companies in subsidies for tickets that weren’t being used (according to WYCA public figures). What’s more, local councils do not have a real say in how or where bus routes are operated. Since 2014, privately run routes in West Yorkshire have been cut by 10 million miles! Private companies can do what they like with our buses. It’s a wild west free market. This is not right. Our council taxes should not be used to put profit before passengers. Our bus system is fundamentally broken and things need to change.

On Monday morning, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will decide the future of our bus services. We depend on our local busses to get around. But fares are far too high, and tickets options are confusing. During the month of April, whilst the pandemic reduced bus services to 15% of normal levels, local councils were forced to pay out £4.31million to private bus companies in subsidies for tickets that weren’t being used (according to WYCA public figures). What’s more, local councils do not have a real say in how or where bus routes are operated. Since 2014, privately run routes in West Yorkshire have been cut by 10 million miles! Private companies can do what they like with our buses. It’s a wild west free market. This is not right. Our council taxes should not be used to put profit before passengers. Our bus system is fundamentally broken and things need to change.

On Monday morning, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will decide the future of our bus services. We depend on our local busses to get around. But fares are far too high, and tickets options are confusing. During the month of April, whilst the pandemic reduced bus services to 15% of normal levels, local councils were forced to pay out £4.31million to private bus companies in subsidies for tickets that weren’t being used (according to WYCA public figures). What’s more, local councils do not have a real say in how or where bus routes are operated. Since 2014, privately run routes in West Yorkshire have been cut by 10 million miles! Private companies can do what they like with our buses. It’s a wild west free market. This is not right. Our council taxes should not be used to put profit before passengers. Our bus system is fundamentally broken and things need to change.

On Monday morning, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will decide the future of our bus services. We depend on our local busses to get around. But fares are far too high, and tickets options are confusing. During the month of April, whilst the pandemic reduced bus services to 15% of normal levels, local councils were forced to pay out £4.31million to private bus companies in subsidies for tickets that weren’t being used (according to WYCA public figures). What’s more, local councils do not have a real say in how or where bus routes are operated. Since 2014, privately run routes in West Yorkshire have been cut by 10 million miles! Private companies can do what they like with our buses. It’s a wild west free market. This is not right. Our council taxes should not be used to put profit before passengers. Our bus system is fundamentally broken and things need to change.

On Monday morning, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will decide the future of our bus services. We depend on our local busses to get around. But fares are far too high, and tickets options are confusing. During the month of April, whilst the pandemic reduced bus services to 15% of normal levels, local councils were forced to pay out £4.31million to private bus companies in subsidies for tickets that weren’t being used (according to WYCA public figures). What’s more, local councils do not have a real say in how or where bus routes are operated. Since 2014, privately run routes in West Yorkshire have been cut by 10 million miles! Private companies can do what they like with our buses. It’s a wild west free market. This is not right. Our council taxes should not be used to put profit before passengers. Our bus system is fundamentally broken and things need to change.

On Monday morning, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority will decide the future of our bus services. We depend on our local busses to get around. But fares are far too high, and tickets options are confusing. During the month of April, whilst the pandemic reduced bus services to 15% of normal levels, local councils were forced to pay out £4.31million to private bus companies in subsidies for tickets that weren’t being used (according to WYCA public figures). What’s more, local councils do not have a real say in how or where bus routes are operated. Since 2014, privately run routes in West Yorkshire have been cut by 10 million miles! Private companies can do what they like with our buses. It’s a wild west free market. This is not right. Our council taxes should not be used to put profit before passengers. Our bus system is fundamentally broken and things need to change.

It shouldn’t be too much to ask that hospital workers get the agreed NHS rates of pay. But here on site at Tameside General Hospital, there is a hidden workforce earning well below Agenda for Change rates of pay and on lower terms and conditions than other Trust staff. As Engie security guards we put ourselves in danger every day and work tirelessly to keep staff, patients and the public safe. During the pandemic, we have been on the front-line of the fight to keep our communities safe, whilst putting ourselves at significant personal risk. ONS figures show that male security guards have the highest risk of dying as a result of COVID-19 compared with other demographics. In spite of the vital job we do protecting patients and staff, we earn well below the NHS rates. Some of us are on the minimum wage. This is plainly unfair! We have been seeking to resolve this for some time, but to no avail. In February, Engie told us they would not agree to pay us NHS rates. In the absence of progress, we held a UNISON ballot of Engie security staff at Tameside General Hospital and voted unanimously to take strike action to fight for fair pay for all.  In May, Engie have agreed to pay the NHS rates from October 2020. This is a step in the right direction but we lodged our pay claim in December 2019- it's wrong that we should have to wait almost a year for the pay we are rightfully owed. What's more, Engie have only agreed to pay the correct rates if we agree to changes to our shift patterns which may result in pay cuts.  Given the current context, we have done everything we can to avoid taking industrial action. We have given Engie over six months to resolve this dispute. Given the lack of resolution and the potentially detrimental proposed changes to shift patterns, we have no other option- this really is an action of last resort. As a result, we served notice for a two day strike beginning at 7am on Monday 13 July. We hope that Engie see sense and get back around the negotiating table before 13 July. Tameside Hospital staff- please sign to support and consider leaving a comment.

As an island nation the UK relies on seafarers working on roll-on roll-off ferries to keep the economy going. From Dover and Hull alone, these workers move 11 million passengers and over 26m tonnes of road freight in a year. The taxpayer is subsidising the wages of furloughed P&O staff and P&O’s vital freight routes during the pandemic through an estimated £25m support. To date, the Government has refused to make this taxpayer support conditional on protection of key seafarer jobs and skills in struggling port communities where P&O’s operations have a huge economic influence. P&O Ferries, a company established by Royal Charter in 1840, state that they need £150m to continue operating. The company has furloughed over 1,400 staff, mainly UK seafarers but are now seeking to make 1,100 redundancies including 900 seafarers in Dover and Hull by the end of June. Parent company DP World paid out a £270m dividend on 29 April based on over £1bn profit made in 2019. DP World purchased P&O Ferries for £322m in February last year. Ferries remain one of the last areas of major employment for domestic seafarers and are the lifeline supply link between the UK economy and the rest of the world. Successive Government’s have failed to prevent UK seafarers from being replaced by cheaper foreign crews on ferries and other ships working from UK ports, to the extent that UK seafarers held under a quarter of over 67,000 jobs in 2019. P&O Ferries plans would cut 8% from the UK’s total number of Ratings, sending seafarer jobs and skills in struggling port communities into a potential death spiral as employers import Ratings from overseas on wages well below the National Living Wage of £8.72 per hour and on contracts that demand 12 hour days, 7 days a week for 6 months. There are serious maritime safety risks whenever seafarers are required to work exhausting contracts like this. Please support the RMT’s petition to save 1,100 jobs at P&O Ferries and help re-build Britain’s ferry industry.

We are firefighters in East Sussex who are extremely concerned about the proposed cuts to our fire service. During the COVID-19 pandemic, East Sussex Fire Authority are rushing through a consultation on further cuts to our service, including: ● Cutting 10 fire engines from across the county at Battle, Bexhill, Crowborough, Lewes, Newhaven, Rye, Uckfield, Seaford, Heathfield and Wadhurst fire stations; ● Cutting dedicated crews for high-reaching aerial fire appliances in Hastings, even after Grenfell; ● Cutting wholetime firefighter staffing levels across the county, particularly at fire stations in Lewes, Newhaven, Uckfield, Crowborough, Battle and Bexhill; ● Cutting on-call firefighter numbers across the county; ● Reducing night-time fire cover at The Ridge fire station; ● Introducing less family-friendly shift patterns As firefighters, we have a duty to tell you that these cuts are a clear and present danger to public safety. The plans proposed by East Sussex Fire Authority were also drawn up before the COVID-19 crisis, and do not take into account what fire and rescue services should look like into the future. We are currently taking on additional work to support our communities and emergency services, and cuts to our service will negatively impact our ability to keep the public safe. Our service is already under pressure due to years of austerity, which has seen 11,500 firefighter jobs cut across the UK, and 89 firefighter jobs cut in East Sussex. This pandemic has shown just how vital our fire service is – we cannot go back to an austerity model where our public services are the first in line for budget cuts. Public safety must be put first and our service needs investment, for now and for the future. Help us to put pressure on East Sussex Fire Authority to halt the consultation and stop cuts to our fire and rescue service. We are running out of time. Please send an email to the chair of the fire authority now.

Journalists – whether they are staff or freelance – need to be valued and their livelihoods protected. Targeted measures aimed at supporting quality journalism and bolstering independent, diverse, ethically-produced content are urgently needed. Covid-19 has demonstrated just how important credible, trusted news and information is, and NUJ members will play a vital role in reflecting and shaping the recovery yet to come. But this is not and cannot be about the preservation of the status quo. Journalists are not seeking handouts or compensation for the industry – we are looking for investment in our future to transform the news industry, make it fit for our collective purpose and truly serve the public good. Pledge your support today for the NUJ's recovery plan to create a news industry reimagined. Download the full plan from the NUJ website - https://www.nuj.org.uk/documents/from-health-crisis-to-good-news/