Dave Prentis is the former general secretary UNISON.
Read Dave’s blog for views on issues UNISON is working on and information on what he’s doing.
Dave Prentis
Today is World Day for Decent Work, when the International Trade Union Confederation marks the day in support of decent work for all people of working age across the globe. This year’s theme is corporate greed – and that couldn’t be more timely. We’ve all seen the cynical ways that multinational companies (MNCs) and the […]
We’ll continue to fight for and alongside striking staff in Derby to win them the pay deal they deserve. And I want to see Durham teaching assistants voting for strike action too, so we can show their local council the strength of feeling wherever vital public servants like teaching assistants are mistreated.
Politics is not an exercise in wish fulfilment. Actions are what matters. Poverty can’t be willed into extinction merely by asking for it. Nor fairness introduced to the economy through platitudes. Tax avoidance won’t end while she heads a government that actively encourages greed. The centre ground can’t be claimed while pursuing an unashamedly retro right-wing agenda.
It’s 80 years since one of the pivotal moments in modern British history: key to the anti-fascist struggle; ky to how our country held firm against the rising tide of hate stalking Europe ; key to how a community and a nation’s radical campaigners came together to defend the rights of those under attack
Theresa May entered Downing Street three months ago promising to do things differently. She was going to stand up for working people. She was going to be on the side of ordinary families. It’s a trick new Tory leaders often deploy, but it’s never long before they show their true colours.
We must ignore the doom mongers, the next election is not lost – but the year ahead has to be about how Labour wins back the support of voters across the country.
Only by bringing the party back together, can we build better public services for all. Only by bringing the party back together can we ensure decent pay for our public service champions.
As we enter conference season, the Labour Party – and Jeremy Corbyn with his renewed mandate – have an opportunity to show those in the country and the party who are skeptical about his leadership that he has the ability and the ideas to win for Labour and for Britain
UNISON has repeatedly called for an independent and thorough investigation into what really happened at the “Battle of Orgreave” during the miners’ strike. The official version of events – put forward by the police – was that the miners were to blame for the violence that erupted that day, and that the police were acting […]
This week, I’ve been at Brighton with unions from across the country at the TUC, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to speak to and on behalf of Derby teaching assistants and other school support staff in Westminster yesterday
The blame for the social care crisis must be laid at the government’s door: ministers must get tougher with enforcing and more money must be put into care
This week the labour movement comes together – as it has done so for almost a century and a half – at the Trades Union Congress. There can seldom have been a time when unions have been more in need than in this defining moment. In the aftermath of a referendum in which the British […]
Everyone deserves to go to a good school – regardless of their background or their academic ability. That simply won’t be achieved by stacking even greater advantage and privilege in the hands of a few schools to the detriment of everyone else.
I was proud that as a member of the Trade Union Share Owners group, UNISON was able to play a role in holding Sports Direct to account, by pushing them to allow independent investigation of their working practices.
The British people chose to leave the EU in June, but that does not mean that they choose to lose their rights at work, or that we should accept a bonfire of pro-worker legislation as a result.