Public and Commercial Services union

Morning Star Editorial: Starmer copies the Tories in misrepresenting migration

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-copies-tories-misrepresenting-migration

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussion at the Organised Immigration Crime Summit at Lancaster House in central London, March 31, 2025

KEIR STARMER’S anti-refugee summit picks up where the Tories left off in giving unauthorised migration exaggerated status as some kind of national crisis.

Just as Rishi Sunak penned a joint article with Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni calling for a Europe-wide crackdown on irregular arrivals, Meloni took centre-stage by video link today, citing Italy’s use of a third-country processing hub in Albania as a model increasingly adopted across the continent.

Meloni depicts Italy as a pioneer. It is, though not in a good way. It successfully pushed the EU to abolish its last official search-and-rescue service in the Mediterranean nearly five years ago and it has led the way too in prosecuting civilian search-and-rescue missions it smears as people-smugglers.

As the Public and Commercial Services union and Care4Calais recently urged, the easiest way to end criminal people-smuggling operations would be to provide safe routes for people to claim asylum, perhaps through an extension of the scheme for Ukrainian refugees to people of other backgrounds.

There is no reason why victims of one war should be privileged over victims of others, and Britain bears responsibility for many of those wars. Yvette Cooper’s own reference to gangs working from the “hills of Kurdistan to the money markets of Kabul” cites two countries devastated by invasions we took part in, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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The international refugee crisis is driven by war, poverty and climate change.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-copies-tories-misrepresenting-migration

‘A wasted opportunity to do what is really needed’

Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Starmer copies the Tories in misrepresenting migration

Reeves plans new cuts as economy sags

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a meeting at Downing Street in London with regulators. She is expected to use the meeting to announce more detail on how the Government will cut the cost of regulation by a quarter and set out plans to slim down or abolish regulators themselves, March 17, 2025

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves is set to announce a huge new programme of spending cuts as unemployment rises and anger at Labour’s assault on disability benefits mounts.

She will use her spring spending statement next week to unveil a fresh austerity programme as the government continues to rule out tax rises on the wealthy as an alternative.

Despair is turning to anger among backbench Labour MPs and trade unions at the government’s course, which is already seeing Labour plunge to record lows in the opinion polls.

Ms Reeves’s death-wish economics come as official statistics showed joblessness increasing, including among young workers.

Unemployment is up by 0.1 per cent, with a youth unemployment rate of 12.9 per cent.

Commenting on the figures, Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The labour market figures today highlight the cruelty of the government’s reforms to disability benefits.

“Unemployment is rising, and the wider measure of underemployment is now at 4.75 million with only 816,000 vacancies in the economy — meaning there are already nearly six people chasing every vacancy.

“Those figures exclude disabled people currently deemed unable to work or with only limited capacity for work.

“The reality is that the government’s proposals will not help disabled people off of benefits and into work, but off benefits and into deeper poverty.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-plans-new-cuts-economy-sags

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Continue ReadingReeves plans new cuts as economy sags

Met Police staff to strike for the first time over work from home row

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The New Scotland Yard sign outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London

METROPOLITAN POLICE staff have voted to strike for the first time, having been ordered back to the office in the New Year.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members were outraged after managers reneged on a blended working deal that allowed them to work from home part of the week.

The new edict affects 2,400 civilians who support the day-to-day work of police officers, but disproportionately impacts women, part-time workers and those with disabilities.

Depending on where they work, the increase in office attendance is from 40 to 60 per cent, 60 to 80 or 80 to 100.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Our members are not bobbies on the beat.

“They are desk-based civilians who work from home just as productively as if they were in the office, but without the stress and cost of a daily commute.

“It’s time politicians and the right-wing media stopped their obsession with telling people where they have to work and started listening to the evidence of academics, employers and employees that shows working from home is a perfectly viable option for many people.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/met-police-staff-strike-first-time-over-work-home-row

Continue ReadingMet Police staff to strike for the first time over work from home row

Unions walking a tight-rope with ‘right-wing’ Labour government, FBU leader says

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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his speech and press conference in the Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street, London, August 27, 2024.

Union figures weigh in on Starmer’s government at Morning Star’s TUC fringe event

UNIONS must walk a tight-rope dealing with a right-wing Labour government, a senior trade unionist has said.

TUC president and Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack made the statement at the Morning Star’s fringe meeting at the TUC Congress today.

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RMT president Alex Gordon said many of Labour’s economic policies “bear an uncanny resemblance to those of its defeated and demoralised Tory predecessors” and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to keep Tory spending policies “means the same but worse, as society and the economy continue to deteriorate from the cumulative impact of austerity.”

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union general secretary Fran Heathcote said it was “an absolute disgrace” that the government would not lift the widely condemned two-child benefit cap and suspended seven Labour MPs for backing this in Parliament.

The Budget will be “the defining moment in the new government,” she added, saying: “Is it going to rebuild public services and living standards or will it unleash a new wave of austerity?”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-walking-a-tight-rope-with-right-wing-labour-government-fbu-leader-says

Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he's proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he’s proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue ReadingUnions walking a tight-rope with ‘right-wing’ Labour government, FBU leader says

Whitehall cleaning, security and support staff to strike for five days

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WHITEHALL cleaners, security guards and support staff are to strike for five days after being offered a below-inflation pay rise.

They are angry to have been offered just a 3.5 per cent rise by outsourced contractor ISS when inflation is running at 6.8 per cent, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said.

Nearly 100 PCS members at the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, Department for Business & Trade and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology are set to take action from September 4 to 8.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It’s obscene that ISS can afford to pay board members £988,000 — a rise of 8.9 per cent from last year — yet claim they can’t afford to pay cleaners a fair rise.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/h-150-whitehall-cleaning-security-and-support-staff-strike-five-days

Continue ReadingWhitehall cleaning, security and support staff to strike for five days