🎙️ Hear the first of a three-part Labor Notes Pod series on our “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” training on foundational organizing skills In this first installment, we explore the idea that apathy isn't real, i.e. Your Co-Workers Actually Want a Better Workplace! labornotespodcast.podbean.com

More from the ONS report on health. Healthy life expectancy at birth has fallen to its lowest level since records began (2011–13) for both men and women — despite small post‑pandemic rises in overall life expectancy. Many are living slightly longer, but spending more of their lives in poor health.

Latest ONS data shows a stark health divide in England. People in the most deprived areas spend less than 50 years of their lives in good health on average. In the least deprived areas, that figure is around 70 years. This gap is a national scandal, or it should be.

National demonstration for rent controls and council housing : thelabourcampaignforcouncilhousing.org/2026/03/09/n...

British Steel 'needs nationalising by the summer'. The whole industry needs nationalising. It relies on never-ending public subsidies. Profits privatised, losses socialised. Private sector only looks at short-term profits, can't do national planning.

Resident doctors are once again out on the picket lines across England. This dispute was entirely avoidable. We were close to getting a deal before the Government changed the goalposts at the last minute. All resident doctors are asking for is a fair offer on jobs and pay.

America is self-sufficient in oil and gas. According to Reform and the Tories they should be insulated from what is happening in the Gulf. In reality US petrol and diesel prices have sharply increased because of the war against Iran. Having your own oil/gas is not a protection.

Just read this in the Guardian: 'The US vice-president JD Vance has just repeatedly criticised allegedly unprecedented and “disgraceful” foreign interference in the Hungarian parliamentary election, while effectively strongly endorsing Viktor Orbán to win the vote on Sunday

Full solidarity with the BMA. The government could have prevented the dispute but as the video shows, Ministers back tracked on a possible deal at the last moment. They should go back to the union and seek a deal.

During PCS’ first delegation to Ukraine we visited Bucha. The memorial in the local church to the massacres was devastating. Seeing the photos and first‑hand accounts leaves no doubt: the Russian army is not liberating anyone — it is an occupying force.

On 4th anniversary of the liberation of Bucha, when the world saw* the horror of Russian occupation, please watch this documentary on life after occupation: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... *and promptly forgot

The future will be electric. Storage, charged with renewable electricity will allow the sun to shine at night & the wind to blow on calm days. "Grid batteries reach stunning new peak of 44 pct of evening demand in world’s fourth biggest economy" 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋 reneweconomy.com.au/grid-batteri...

Please look at this: www.facebook.com/reel/1482279...

This is really interesting labornotes.org/2026/03/gear...

The “Dash for Gas” in the 90s saw UK electricity production shift from coal to gas. But imagine if we’d dashed for renewables instead. Decades of investment in wind, solar and hydro could have given us cheaper bills, true energy independence, and no reliance on volatile gas markets.

If calls for “more UK gas” were really about energy security, we’d hear demands to reserve North Sea gas for UK consumers, break the link with global market prices, and bring production and pricing under public control. But we don’t — because that’s not the real agenda.

The North Sea gas fields are mature, and output has been declining for years. Production cannot be rapidly increased, yet this point is never made by the media. Any new investment in gas production will take years before producing any meaningful output.

As argued yesterday, boosting domestic gas production won’t bring prices down. At best, you could claim it strengthens fuel security by reducing reliance on other countries.

Predictably, calls to ramp up North Sea gas production are growing louder, amplified by a largely uncritical media. In the next few days I will set out why this call, whilst possibly understandable, in fact will not have the effect hoped for.

Political elites are out of step with the public appetite for net zero, according to analysis that identifies rightwing media narratives as fuelling a false backlash against climate action: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"For years, NYU’s handsomely paid administrators have consolidated power over university life while casualizing the school’s teaching force, not only by hiring part-time adjuncts but also by creating a second tier of full-time contract faculty." 📰 https://ow.ly/a9HZ50YwiAg

The Women's Auxiliary Brigades are an essential part of the UAW's history of activism and social justice. UAW Archivist Gavin Strassel explains. #WomensHistoryMonth

As well moving to more integrated transport, preferably delivered by publicly owned bodies, we also must see a move to more electric buses, trains etc. The latest estimate is that by 2030, the UK is likely to have well over 10,000 zero‑emission buses in service, the bulk of those in London.

I'm in favour of integrated transport as this means greater use of public transport and more people not using their cars. So this appears to be good news: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Exactly

From the PAC report on consultant spend: 'The Cabinet Office seem unconcerned at the many and obvious inconsistencies and inaccuracies in its own data about what departments spend on consultants. Given these problems, and its seemingly indifferent position on the matter,

I support the RMT and the proposed action. A 4-day week should only be introduced with the agreement of all unions and workers, not imposed upon them as a way of increasing work intensity.

The seminar was good, another step on the road to safer workplaces, safer work systems and really tackling the causes of ill health and sickness.

Andrea Egan: “Under my leadership UNISON’s solidarity with Ukrainian unions and workers will continue and grow” We were very pleased that the speakers at the 4 March Ukraine Solidarity Campaign rally at the UK Parliament for the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion included Andrea Egan,…

Rights around collective bargaining are too weak in the UK. We need to campaign to strengthen them. This is a vital task for the union movement - and it should be for the Labour government.

Whilst concentrating on Ukraine no doubt the war in the middle east will be discussed as well.

Statement from Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company: “True liberation is only possible through the conscious and organised leadership and participation of the working class… the path to the liberation of the workers and toilers does not lie in the path of a leader

The NAO say that HMRC collected an extra £16bn from big businesses last year as it took a more hands-on approach, using dedicated officials to chase unpaid tax. This shows that if you fund the HMRC, that is if you support PCS members in the HMRC, then you get that investment back manifold.

To learn more about the history of worker organizing at Starbucks, check out @haymarketbooks.org's Heat the Ground Up, an oral history of Starbucks Workers United, featuring commentary from Jenny Brown of Labor Notes. 2/2

If this government won’t #SaveEducation, we will.

Disappointingly the union did not get over the 50% threshold in the DWP ballot. You can read more here: www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...

Without unions, powerful unions at that and sectorial bargaining then workers will not share the benefits of AI.

Will 3.3% be the going rate for the public service? If it is, it's not good enough

21 February, 2 pm, Piccadilly Circus. Join us to say "Occupation is not peace!"

Nigel Farage wants you to work until you drop. The best response? Start your 4 Day Week. Your business and your employees will thank you! www.4dayweek.co.uk/book-a-consu...

The DWP strike ballot ends on Monday, 23 Feb. It is vitally important we get a YES vote but of course the anti-trade Union laws mean we have to get a 50% plus turnout as well. Every vote, your vote, therefore counts. So vote, and vote YES.

A union machinist just won a Texas State Senate seat Trump carried by 17 points. He was outspent four to one. How did he do it? By tossing out the Democrats’ playbook and running a grassroots economic populist campaign with a strong pro-labor message.

Please listen to the podcast if you can. We can learn lessons from the labor movement in Minnesota. In fact faced with a Reform government in the UK we have to learn those lessons!

Interesting report from Minnesota. 'Edwin Torres Desantiago, the Immigrant Defense Network manager, told MPR News in November that 2,500 people were trained as (constitutional) observers. He said the total now is nearly 30,000 trained observers in 77 out of 87 counties in Minnesota'.

From the book 'The Good Society'; of all the 40 countries in the OECD and the EU, Britain had the greatest rise in child poverty in the decade before 2023, at 20%; close to a third of British children now live in poverty.

Please read this article on Kate Pickett’s book the The Good Society. It shows how inequality drives the crises in care, health, education and justice and why tinkering at the edges won’t fix a system this broken.

Congratulations to the Resident doctors who voted in the ballot. The government now has a choice; heed the vote and negotiate a deal or face further strife.

As thousands of ICE agents swarmed the Minneapolis area since December, workers have been facing them on the job and organizing in various ways to fight back, @lfelizleon.bsky.social reported ahead of the Jan. 23 day of action in Minnesota: labornotes.org/2026/01/will... 🧵 1/7

From the large windows of a skyway between buildings in downtown Minneapolis, it looked like some 50,000 to 100,000 demonstrators were in the streets, snarling traffic, lifting banners, and waving handmade signs in gloved hands, @Lfelizleon writes labornotes.org/2026/01/twin...

The International Committee also discussed, and decided on actions concerning Iran, Ukraine, Sudan and the Far Right in Europe.