Four years ago, the HSE issued a safety alert about the link between mild steel welding fume and cancer. A one-day conference has been held in Glasgow by the Breathe Safe campaign to raise awareness among the UK’s 88,000 welders and their families of potential symptoms including sore eyes, itching and unsteadiness. The General Secretary, … Breathe Safe – campaign launch

Workers at BAE Systems are set to vote on deal worth 12.75% over two years.

The Breathe Safe campaign has been launched. The campaign will raise awareness of workplace health issues related to weld fume. There are estimated to be up to 80,000 welders in the UK and every day these workers come into contact with welding fume. Follow and sign up to the campaign on Twitter and Facebook.

The CSEU is sad to announce that Alan Robson, a much respected and valued former trade union official died on the 1st December 2021 surrounded by his family. Before becoming a full-time trade union official, he worked at Swan Hunters and as a Marine engineer (3rd) on a variety of ships.    He went on to have … Alan Robson – Former CSEU General Secretary

The Guardian article (The big idea: should we work less?, 11 October) was an interesting and compelling argument for shorter working time. It is a discussion that is timely given the twin challenges of decarbonisation and greater automation that many workers face, but it is also long overdue. A report carried out by the New … Arguments for a shorter working week – Letter to The Guardian

Ministry of Defence cost cutting over the contracts to maintain the UK’s surface fleet has hit the headlines.

Last autumn the Government announced its Lifetime Skills Guarantee, as part of its Covid response, which focussed on apprenticeships and a commitment to increased investment.

A shortage of skills could yet frustrate the Prime Minister’s bold ambitions to safeguard both the industry and union

The Keep Britain Afloat campaign has had a huge impact on the campaign to have the Future Solid Support ships built in the UK. Here’s how we did it.

The AFF has published its latest newsletter with news of community and research grants plus a look forward to how Covid will impact the work of the charity.

The CSEU Bulletin has the latest news on ongoing campaigns and events being organised by the CSEU. For further information contact the office.

The Prime Minister has pledged to use the money to create 40,000 jobs, stimulate growth and support the UK’s nations

Splitting national security contracts into smaller work packages endangers the country’s military power, warns unions

The Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions along with the Institute Of Employment Rights and the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom are holding a webinar.

The CSEU appears in this article in the Daily Telegraph following the announcement by the Defence Secretary that ‘significant proportions’ of the FSS programme would be built in the UK.

The Government’s announcement that it intends to scrap the £12 million of funding by April 2021 has been roundly condemned by unions, employers and skills bodies.

The Prime Minister’s announcement this week on training and skills has been met with scepticism and as another “sound bite with no delivery”

The government should target help at industries facing a tough winter, and provide more support for families most at risk of hardship and debt.

The Government is set to sign a statutory instrument but it falls short of what the consortium of unions, skills bodies and employers were seeking.

Industry, unions and training providers are calling for emergency measures to save apprenticeships and provide re-skilling and retraining to secure skills essential for the UK ‘s post Covid recovery.

They discovered that the Germans have an agreed system for short time working to protect employment during times of crisis.

Union chiefs say nine defence projects must be prioritised to safeguard jobs in recession.

Strategic investment in our industrial and manufacturing infrastructure will play a vital role in ensuring that the British economy is able to weather the economic crisis following the coronavirus pandemic. 

MoD refuses to release findings into South Korea deal despite the fact its objective was to learn lesson

The UK Ministry of Defence’s contract tender for three new fleet auxiliaries has begun again, nine months after it was suspended amidst concerns about foreign bidders.

Foreign companies are being invited to take part in early plans to build new ships to support the Royal Navy

The CSEU is launching a campaign asking Government to look beyond the headline job losses and take urgent action to sustain the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on Britain’s aviation industry which is the second biggest in the world.

Campaigning for a shorter working week is part of the CSEU’s DNA. At the end of the 1980s we ran the ‘Drive for 35’ campaign to reduce working time down from 39 hours a week.

The Chancellor has said that he ‘was deeply troubled’ by warnings from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) that the economy could shrink by 35% as a result of the Coronavirus. He’s right to be worried and so should we all. The OBR’s report outlines the scale of the economic crisis facing us. Under current … How would Churchill kick start the economy?

Maybe, once this is all over, we will all come to look at the workers who carried on delivering vital work while the rest of us were sent home in a different way?

Ian Waddell’s article for The Morning Star on the response to Covid-19 in our future working world

The UK Trade Union Congress and the AFL-CIO, have warned the White House and Downing Street that  future trade deal must put workers’ jobs and rights first.

The CSEU has launched a series of industrial conferences on welding fumes at a packed event in Glasgow. The purpose of the conference was both to highlight the traditional dangers associated with welding and respond to the recognition that welding fumes can cause lung cancer

The giant European trade union federation IndustriAll Europe, which covers 7m manufacturing, mining and energy workers has launched a campaign which aims to demonstrate the positive impact of collective bargaining.

The future of Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard could be guaranteed if the Government were to award the contract to build aircraft carrier support vessels to a UK Consortium, a union claims.

Campaigners calling for new Royal Navy supply ships to be built in Britain have seized on comments they say prove the case for keeping the £1billion deal in the UK – The Daily Mirror.

An important document about the aerospace industry has been published by a European body, following an inquiry where I gave evidence on behalf of the UK trade unions.

It has been a busy few weeks for the CSEU as we have really ramped up our campaign on the Fleet Solid Support ships

Breaking news – the High Court have approved our application to gift the money in the 35 Hour Week Campaign fund to the new charity, the Alex Ferry Foundation!

As previously trailed, I am delighted to announce the publication of the CSEU’s report on Fleet Solid Support Ships – “Fleet Solid Support Ships – Supporting the Royal Navy, Supporting the United Kingdom”. 

I am amazed to look back and see that it is over six months since I wrote my first blog – time flies when you are having fun!  It has been a whirlwind so far, with a number of highlights. 

I am delighted that the CSEU Executive Committee unanimously endorsed my appointment as General Secretary of the CSEU recently.