Read our weekly union solidarity round-up 23-30 September

The Labour Party Conference has begun and there are already rumours of a showdown between some unions and the party leadership, Politico reports. Unite has put forward the motion to reverse the cuts to winter fuel payments. The likelihood seems to be that the vote will be pushed to later in the week so as to avoid interfering with key speeches.

Meanwhile, PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote prepares to speak at 4pm today at a fringe meeting with the 4 Day Week Campaign. Her latest blog, assessing the needs of public sector workers, emphasises the calls for a pilot scheme at Defra to address employee burnout, stress and poor well-being.

This follows a meeting last week between government ministers, businesses and unions, talking over the New Deal for Working People. Unions and business groups joined a ministerial round table with Angela Rayner, Jonathan Reynolds and Justin Madders last week, looking into proposals for a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts under the New Deal. Hear TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak give it some analysis on Politics Live.

UK activity

The Royal College of Nursing is set to get its results today (23) on the proposed 5.5% pay rise for its NHS members. This will come after it recently reported that student nurse enrolment is 21% down on three years ago. 

Meanwhile, GMB protests the unfairness at Liverpool hospitals where outsourced workers who served during the Covid-19 pandemic were denied the NHS lump sum/Covid bonus because their employment contracts moved in 2023 from ISS to Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust.

PCS begins its Climate Change Week today with activities planned across many of the 200 or so civil service and associated employers. Having moved for a national climate change service at TUC, PCS is encouraging members to take up ‘green rep’ roles to raise awareness and drive forward decarbonisation.

And the CWU pleads with the Scottish Government to heed its warnings over the serious harm to postal workers that is caused by dangerous dogs.

Global

In Argentina, hard-right minister Patricia Bullrich has escalated the sustained government attacks on unions by filing extortion charges against Pablo Biro, General Secretary of the Association of Airline Pilots (APLA). The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) describes this as “another egregious attempt to silence legitimate dissent” that “threatens the entire labour movement”.