Recent Articles
University Staff Take Joint Strike Action
Sandra Lee, UNITE rep at Leicester University said: “We have had our pay effectively frozen for years. Now senior managers are paying themselves large bonuses whilst 10% of our staff don’t earn the living wage. As far as we are concerned whether teach medicine or law, whether you discovered Richard IIIrd or whether you keep […]
The Fight Against Academies in Leicester
By Simon Robinson, Leicester NUT, personal capacity Rushey Mead School is a large secondary school in Leicester. It has been an ‘outstanding’ school for years and has strong links to the local community. It is also a brand new school building, one of the last few to get this funding before the government pulled the plug. […]
Uplands Junior School Latest
By Heather Rawling Life member NUT It has emerged that the now suspended and discredited head Tim Luckcock (yes I have spelt his name correctly) and the governing body spent over £48,000 on legal fees in the last year — a phenomenal amount for a school. This would have paid for the classroom teachers they […]
Amos Sherriff: Play Tells a Piece of Forgotten Leicester Socialist History
By a Resident of Leicester A Man of Humble Beginnings charts the life of Leicester socialist, Amos Sherriff. Although originally written for four actors, it received its premiere as a one man show performed by its author, Tony Church, with recorded voices and photographs at the Upstairs at the Western theatre in the city on […]
Theatre Review: A Man of Humble Beginnings
By Tony Church Leicester Everybody’s Reading festival is performing my play A Man of Humble Beginnings, about pioneering Leicester socialist, Amos Sherriff. Amos was born in a Leicester slum in 1856. Sent to work at six years old, he could not read or write until, at 22, the Salvation Army taught him to do so. Amos […]
Teachers Strike: Leicester Report
By Heather Rawling Life member NUT Young teachers proved Beth Davis, NUT president wrong when they took strike action and demonstrated to defend education and teachers pay and condition. At a Leicester City NUT meeting she said young teachers weren’t interested in striking to defend pensions. Yet in a rousing speech at the demo rally, […]
Firefighters on Strike: Report from the Picket Line
After two years of futile negotiations with a government firmly committed to torching public services, members the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) were finally pushed to take strike action today in an effort to ward off the vicious vendetta the government is pursuing against the public. In this instance, firefighters across the country went on the […]
Challenging the Bedroom Tax
Members of the Leicestershire Anti- Bedroom Tax Federation and the UNITE Community trade union who went to Leicester City Council’s Housing Scrutiny Commission last night felt that they had some success. Andy Connolly, Assistant City Mayor responsible for Housing, and a number of councillors on the commission said that they would be prepared to consider […]
Uplands Junior School Strikes Again
Support staff, members of GMB and UNISON at an inner city school in Leicester took strike action on 4 September against plans to halve the number of Teaching Assistants. Last term there were three days of strike action by teachers in the NUT at Uplands Junior School. These were over grievances against the head teacher […]
Keith Vaz and G4S
Last July the BBC reported that: “A £230m outsourcing deal between security firm G4S and Lincolnshire Police will be ‘closely monitored’ by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Chairman Keith Vaz said the committee is keeping an eye on the contract with G4S, which is under fire for a separate deal to provide staff for the […]
