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.

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. 

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!

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 

Buses matter to people and their communities.  Their experiences and ideas should help shape the future of our services. The call for a public voice in decision making is backed by the following organisations: 1. Better Buses for South Yorkshire 2. Barnsley Trades Council 3. Doncaster Trades Council 4. Sheffield Trades Council 5. Rotherham Trades Council 6. Sprotborough & Cusworth Parish Council 7. Barnsley Methodist Circuit 8. Sheffield Methodist Circuit 9. Extinction Rebellion Sheffield                                                                                            10. South Yorkshire Climate Alliance 11. Sheffield Green Party 12. Doncaster Green Party 13. Greenpeace Sheffield 14. Unite Community South Yorkshire 15. Sheffield People’s Assembly 16. South Yorkshire Fossil Free 17. Sheffield for Democracy 18. A Fleet for Change (Sheffield) 19. SADACCA  (Sheffield & District African Caribbean Community Association) 20. Burngreave Clean Air Campaign 21. Gleadless Valley Climate Action Network 22. Tell the Truth Sheffield 23. We Own It

Square Chapel has a strong history of supporting community events and professional performances and is a popular venue in the local community.  Square Chapel was a popular arts centre with good community outreach prior to becoming insolvent during the covid pandemic. In September 2020, the venue was reopened when it was taken over by Wigan based Arts at the Mill. Square Chapel CIC was subsequently established.  In early February 2025, Square Chapel CIC announced the arts centre was closing and all future events were cancelled. Five months later, this valuable community asset remains closed and not serving the people of Halifax. Arts Council England (ACE) has now withdrawn its funding from Square Chapel. It has recently been announced that the Square Chapel building will be rented out to provide dressing rooms during the Piece Hall concert season. Square Chapel should provide good art, good work and be an artistic hub for the community. Halifax MP Kate Dearden has written to ACE supporting the reopening of Square Chapel and calling for the Halifax community to be involved in discussions about the future of the centre. We need this popular arts centre back! We need answers and we need the building to be back open and operating for the people of Halifax. Equity, TUC Yorkshire & Humber Creative and Leisure Industries Committee and Calderdale Trades Union Council are jointly calling for the public to have their say on the future of Square Chapel Arts Centre. Make your voice heard by joining the petition to Save Square Chapel for the people.

Phoenix, Greenfields, and Hungerford day centres provide invaluable support to some of the most vulnerable adults in society, including adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and for those with frailty and dementia. They are oversubscribed and much loved by the community. Closure of these services is short sighted and will place additional pressure and costs on other public services such as homecare, care homes, and the NHS. Dedicated and experienced centre staff will lose their jobs and service users (and their families) will be negatively impacted. The centres are purpose built and were recently refurbished at significant cost to the council. They survived and thrived despite a decade of council cuts and austerity. But today these essential services risk being lost forever.

These nurseries serve some of the most deprived communities in Barnsley. They offer outstanding services and are a vital lifeline for vulnerable children. Parents, children, carers and staff need your help to save this vital provision. Tell Barnsley Council to think again - Sign the Petition, Save Barnsley Nurseries.

On 1 April, a huge portion of Wiltshire's health services (including 2,000 NHS trained staff) will be given away to a billionaire private equity investment firm, Twenty20 Capital.  This unprecedented transfer risks patient care, the breakup and disruption of services and the driving down of health workers pay and conditions.  The local Integrated Care Board, who awarded the contract to private healthcare firm HCRG (owned by billionaire private equity investment firm Twenty20 Capital) in October, did so quickly, quietly and without meeting several of their legal obligations. Please join us urgently in asking the relevant councils to formally request the Secretary of State pause this transfer to enable proper scrutiny and accountability to take place and avoid disruption to the public health service. Organised by: UNISON Southwest and Protect Our NHS

Schools do not have the resources to offer these kinds of experiences themselves. Primary school children in particular are being left behind. In spite of the National Theatre’s cuts being branded as a “sad loss”, “unfair”, a “slap in the face”, and “depressing” by union and sector leaders, the organisation has so far refused to listen. The National Theatre has stated that increased costs and cuts to Arts Council England funding are among the reasons for these decisions. And yet its total annual income recently increased from £89 million to £121.4 million, while the primary school touring represented a tiny fraction of the organisation’s expenditure. The National Theatre already receives more Arts Council England funding than any other theatre organisation. This is not simply an issue of needing a more transformative and equitable approach to public arts funding. It is a question of priorities and responsibility for one of our largest theatre organisations.  Austerity is a choice.

The creative industries generate £28.3bn in turnover and £13.5bn in Gross Value Added, making up nearly 6% of the UK economy [1]. Their success relies on a diverse workforce, which can only be achieved with a social security system which supports  new starters and low earners to build their careers. The MIF reduces diversity and so directly affects who we see on our stages and screens and whose stories are told.  Not Here to Help, a report for Equity by Dr Heidi Ashton, Centre for Culture and Media Policy Studies, The University of Warwick, found that the MIF drives self-employed creatives away from creative work because they cannot afford to stay in it [2], with nearly half of respondents subjected to the MIF saying they had or were considering leaving the industry.    The MIF is a particular barrier to disabled people.In our casework we have seen that those moving to UC from tax credits tend to claim UC for ill-health rather than be subject to the MIF. This is a highly regressive impact of the MIF. Pushing people away from high quality work is at odds with all sustainable employment evidence and the government’s plan to “Get Britain Working”.    Sign this petition to call on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to abolish the minimum income floor in Universal Credit.    Petition created by David John, Honorary Treasurer and Audio Artists Councillor at Equity. [1] https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/contribution-art-and-culture-sector-uk-economy. [2] https://www.equity.org.uk/campaigns-policy/policy-work/universal-credit-report. 

Applecart arts is a creative venue, housed by Newham Council in the old registry office, providing performance arts to the local community and jobs to Equity members. They are a cornerstone of the community yet Applecart Arts is facing closure due to cashflow issues. Equity represents many freelancers who find work at Applecart. Such a loss of freelance work is totally counterproductive to what a borough serious about culture is trying to achieve. You cannot have art without the workers who create it!