Driverless dreams

By Christian Wolmar Hardly a day passes without an announcement about the imminent advent of driverless cars. We are being bombarded with predictions that soon the roads will be full of self-driving pods, leaving their occupants to read a newspaper or, more likely, play with their devices while being taken to their destination. The government …

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Pathways to progression: improving progression rates for young retail workers

Pathways to progression, written by the Fabian Society for the TUC, looks at low-paid employees in 2001-2004 and again in 2014-2016. It finds that retail is the worst industry for pay and progression. Out of people on low pay in 2001-2004, two in five (42 per cent) who worked in retail were still stuck in …

A new collectivism: how private sector trade unions can innovate and grow

A New Collectivism is a multi-author report on how trade unions can modernise to meet the challenges of the changing world of work. It is a follow-up to our hotly debated report on the future of the union movement in Britain. The report features an introduction from the current general secretary of the TUC Frances OGrady …

Future unions: towards a membership renaissance in the private sector

New research supported by a wide range of union leaders sets out a radical plan to reverse the decline in trade union membership and boost pay in the private sector. The 11-point plan is published by the Changing Work Centre, a joint initiative between the Fabian Society and Community union. Private sector union membership is now …

Reinvigorating our skills system to support older workers

By Charlie Samuda Looking for a new job is daunting at the best of times. Even with unemployment at a record low, many of the jobs available are part-time, poor-quality or unreliable shift-work. It’s an uphill struggle if you don’t have the right qualifications to start with. Now that further education funding has been slashed …

How trade unions address a new set of challenges for women at work

By Frances O’Grady The trade union movement has a long and proud history of representing – and winning – for women workers. From the chainmakers of Cradley Heath and the Bryant & May match workers through to the sewing machinists at Ford in Dagenham, trade union women have organised, bargained and campaigned for a fairer, …

Making a living from cutting our own hair

By Carsten Sorensen There is currently much debate on the future of paid employment in light of technological advancements in speech recognition, robotics, artificial intelligence and a range of other areas. We are often presented with evocative imagery of self-driving cars and, occasionally, the digital immortality of bodiless beings. I wish here to emphasise more …