Political visit to UK during the 2010 General Election
Eric Russell of the USW political department
recently spent a week with fellow union members in the United
Kingdom during what was one of the most notable elections in
history, one point was made clear: unions are the
force worldwide fighting for fairness in the workplace; for dignity
in what workers are paid; and for equality in access to health care
regardless of race, class, or gender
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>
Health Care Campaign
Health care for all in the United States is one of the most
important issues facing the nation. Workers Uniting believes that
reforms to the private health insurance system will not only help
workers at the bargaining table, but is the morally right thing to
do for the more than 47 million Americans without health
insurance.
For years, the extremely high cost of health care has taken away
from wages, pensions, health and safety improvements and other
important issues at the bargaining table. And millions have
suffered tragedies because of corporate greed at insurance
companies who put profit over people.
Workers Uniting has been an invaluable ally in the fight for
members in the U.S. and in the UK, where workers are battling to
keep the successful universal health care system that so many are
fighting so hard for in the United States. The global union is
using its power in multiple nations to put pressure on insurers and
politicians to do the right thing by putting people over profits –
by providing universal health care in the United States.
In the UK, Unite is campaigning against the breaking up of the
National Health Service (NHS). Through Workers Uniting the unions
are lobbying against the privatisation of healthcare in the United
Kingdom and Canada. By highlighting the pursuit of profit by the
medical and insurance companies, Workers Uniting is bringing
attention to the damage being done to the valued and respected
NHS.
Click here for more information >
Manufacturing
Manufacturing jobs across the USA, UK and Canada are
disappearing. The United States has lost more than 5 million
manufacturing jobs since 2000 - at least 2.3 million directly
attributable to the trade imbalance with China. These include not
just production workers but administrative, information technology,
research and development and management as well.
Manufacturing generates 15 per cent of the UK’s GDP, employs 12
per cent of the UK's entire workforce and accounts for £150 billion
in exports, yet the UK government continues to pay insufficient
attention to manufacturing and the consequential loss of jobs to
the economy.
American manufacturing workers are among the most productive in the
world, but they operate under enormous, competitive disadvantages.
American manufacturing facilities are also among the most
efficient, clean and safe in the world.
Revitalising manufacturing will require improving trade policies
and ending incentives for corporations to flee U.S. shores.
Addressing the nation’s healthcare crisis and ensuring that workers
have the freedom to decide for themselves whether to join a union
without employer interference.
Workers Uniting is campaigning for direct investment by
American, Canadian and UK governments in workers by adopting a
positive procurement policy. The union is campaigning so that the
global race to the bottom ends for the sake of working people in
the USA, Canada and UK, and workers around the world.
Economic downturn
Workers across the world are victims of the worst global
recession in nearly a century. Unite and USW members are suffering
as the economic downturn claims millions of jobs and livelihoods,
and jeopardises the future for working families everywhere.
Every sector has been impacted. In response to the economic
freefall, Workers Uniting has produced an action plan for how
governments should address this global crisis:
Click here to view the Executive
Summary or alternatively
Click
here to download the full report.
Click
here to download a leaflet providing an overview of the
response