The Nissan Honda Merger: Could It Be Revved Up Again?

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Tony Burke

Professor David Bailey

By Professor David Bailey

The proposed merger between Honda and Nissan which hit the dust last week would have created the world’s fourth-biggest automaker. The shotgun marriage was set in motion after a struggling Nissan was spooked by reports of Foxconn looking to take a stake in Nissan as part of a proposed shift into EVs.

But the Nissan-Honda merger talks quickly fell apart, after Honda proposed a complete take over. Nissan bosses had wanted a merger of equals despite being in a much weaker position than Honda. they may need to think again.

That seemed like the end of it until an interesting report in the FT this week which reckoned that Honda could still resume takeover talks if Nissan’s chief executive officer Makoto Uchida resigns.

The embattled Uchida wants to go at the end of next year but appears to be rapidly running out of road. It looks like Renault (which has a 36% stake in Nissan directly or via its trust) is pressing for him to go, as are other Nissan board members. Uchida getting the push could then reopen merger or takeover talks with Honda.

And it is Nissan which needs the tie-up more than Honda. Nissan messed up its strategy big time in the key markets of the United Staes and China, and hasn’t had a range of hybrids available in the right markets. That was a big failure, especially given that the firm ironically has a stake in Mitsubishi. The latter is big on hybrids.

With profits and its share price both down markedly last year, Nissan announced that it was embarking on a drastic cost-cutting strategy, looking to shed 20% of capacity and 9000 jobs worldwide. The firm even warned that it had just 12 to 14 months to turn things around. Meanwhile Nissan ‘s ex partner Nissan is looking to offload its stake.

It is difficult to see how Nissan can survive on its own without a partner. It is vulnerable to potential takeover and could even be broken up by a private equity firm which could sell off chunks and make a profit. Chinese buyers for example might be attracted to its plants in the US and EU in a global economy increasingly characterised by tariffs.  Nissan itself has said that it wants a stable anchor investor.

That might still be Honda. Whether that is enough is a big question, however. Honda has also been struggling to develop new EVs, with both firms falling behind Chinese rivals. A merger or takeover might pool resources, give scale and help reduce costs, but could also require a tie up with a Chinese EV maker or tech company to help speed up EV development. A potential Foxconn – Nissan – Honda tie up might offer the best hope of Nissan executives can get their heads round it.

Where does this leave the Nissan plant in Sunderland? Firstly, it still isn’t clear where the cost-cutting axe at Nissan will fall and whether this will affect Sunderland. The plant is super efficient when running at full capacity but has been running well below that in recent years.

A tie up with Honda could bring a boost for the plant, and see Sunderland making Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi models off the same platforms, helping to boost output at the plant. Honda had previously assembled cars at Swindon but shut its plant in 2021. So a merger or takeover could see Hondas made in the UK again, this time at Sunderland. That would be a boost for Sunderland and UK auto.

Another boardroom struggle looks likely at Nissan. The outcome of that could determine whether the tie up with Honda gets going again. Failing that, Nissan will urgently need to find another partner to survive.

What happens next could have major implications for Sunderland.

Originally published on Blogs From The Blackstuff 

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USA Unions: Service Employees Union Returns To AFL-CIO

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Tony Burke

Twenty years ago the US Service Employee’s International Union ended its affiliation to the US trade union umbrella organisation, the AFL-CIO following ongoing arguments that the AFL-CIO were concentrating too much on political matters rather than organising new members and building workplace power in new industries.

The SEIU, under the leadership of the charismatic Andy Stern argued US trade unions had to become more than just ‘servicing  unions’ sitting and watching membership and union power continue to decline.

This was a message Stern brought to London in the when he addressed a packed meeting of union officials and activists at the TUC’s Congress House which I chaired on the behalf of the TUC’s New Unionism Task Group created by the TUC General Council to build an an organising strategy in the UK.

The TUC developed an organising academy based on the US and Australian models, where young activists (not necessarily from their own unions and from campaigning organisations) were trained in innovative organising and recruitment techniques after a rigorous  selection process and placed with sponsoring unions. Among the current crop of trade union leaders who were in the first cohort  union trainee organisers were Paul Nowak General Secretary of the TUC, Sharon Graham General Secretary of Unite and Roz Foyer General Secretary of the Scottish TUC and many current day officials of UK unions started their careers in the TUC Organising Academy.

The SEIU had run a number of high profile organising campaigns in the USA notably ‘Justice For Janitors’ building union membership and power among property  maintenance workers.

The row between SEIU and the AFL-CIO was ugly to say the least. The SEIU were joined by  United Farm Workers Union,  the Teamsters  (who remain outside of the AFL-CIO) and the Communication Workers (who also remained in the AFL-CIO) forming ‘Change To Win’  – later to become the Strategic Organising Centre.

The split was deep and rancorous and gave employers and right wing politicians an opportunity to further weaken the US unions.

Eventually some  unions who left the AFL-CIO made their way back into membership. I well recall the bitterness at the split when one  senior US union official remarked : “What did they change and what did they win?'”

As with many union organisations relationships and splits are complex. The decision for the SEIU to rejoin the AFL-CIO didn’t happen overnight. It took many years of re-building relationships. SEIU President April Verrett said discussions to rejoin the AFL-CIO long preceded Trump’s re-election, but it helped reaffirm the rationale behind the move.

“It’s that much more important to come together, to organise workers, to build real power, because that’s our best offence in this moment,” Verrett said.

Liz Shuler, the AFL-CIO’s  president commented :  “This is an incredible time for us to be amassing our power, uniting and building our muscle together and really showing the power of solidarity. Because we want to make sure that workers continue to have their voices heard as we are about to enter into this new administration.”

US union membership is just below 6% in the private sector and the Trump administration is expected to undo some of the gains made by unions under Joe Biden’s presidency while a Republican-controlled Congress won’t make it any easier for workers to join unions.

The SEIU organises in health, adult and child care,  property services, custodial and law enforcement and other service sectors.  Besides the  ‘Justice For Janitors’ campaign the ‘Fight For $15’ campaign in fast food, helped raise low pay and the re-affiliation means the AFL-CIO will be able to publicly  join SEIU campaigns, including the current campaign to organise in Starbucks led by Workers United, an SEIU affiliate, which has led to more than 500 Starbucks facilities being organised.

Liz Shuler said she wanted to “form a new relationship” with the SEIU after she took over the leadership of the AFL – CIO  in 2021 while  Mary Kay Henr President of the SEIU got the go-head from here union  in 2023.

Shuler said. “We think this is going to be a big game-changer for our movement and for working people broadly.”

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Speech by Hugh Lanning of Labour & Palestine on UN Day Of Solidarity

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Tony Burke

“We can’t de-elect Trump, but we can focus on trying to make Labour and the UK be an independent voice for Palestine.”

Hugh Lanning is one of the founders of Labour & Palestine which is trade union and Labour Party constituency based organisation who support the people and trade unions in Palestine – https://labourandpalestine.org.uk/

Labour & Palestine is chaired by the General Secretary of the train drivers union Mick Whelan. High Lanning is a respected former senior union official of the PCS union, and former chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He gave this speech on-line on 29th November in an event organised by Labour & Palestine. 

How many more days of solidarity must there be before there is justice for Palestine?

Year after year the UN and most of the world passes motions and expresses solidarity. But if you are a Palestinian in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem or in the often-forgotten refugee camps – not only does nothing change it gets worse. Israeli violence and expansionism is not just tolerated, it is supplied with the means, money and support to continue unabated.

The UN’s excellent and much abused United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) produces regular bulletins detailing the facts – the numbers of deaths and injuries. The incursions, the settler violence, the impact of the siege – on and on, month after month for decades. The most recent bulletin details a huge spike in settler violence coinciding with the olive harvest.

Since the occupation, the Israeli have destroyed over a million olive trees as a deliberate policy to undermine one of the few remaining bits of its economy still alive.

It is not a question of facts. It is a matter of willpower. The war on Gaza continues unabated – MAP (Medical Aid for Palestine) has produced a graphic showing how every single hospital in Gaza has been affected by the Israeli attacks, by its military onslaught. Not accidentally, but targeted.

There are now over 2 million people starving. Global inaction cannot be explained by normal political inertia or by Western guilt that dictates uncritical support for the Israeli state and everything it does. Visualizing Palestine, in its latest graphic, describes it as APR – Anti-Palestinian Racism.

A racism that “silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, dehumanizes or defames Palestinians and their supporters. It denies, distorts or silences Palestinian narratives – as was seen most recently with the distortions surrounding the attacks on Palestinian supporters by Maccabi fans in Amsterdam.

The response to the ICC ruling by the US and others that it equates Israel with terrorism, is based on the notion that a Palestinian life is not worth the same as an Israeli life, that an Israeli murderer is not really a murderer. That somehow history can justify current war crimes, more insidiously that Palestinians are somehow lesser beings. Israeli propaganda seeks to dehumanise them at every opportunity. If Palestinians were regarded and treated as equal human beings by Israel and the West – the colonial war on Palestine and the occupation would have been over long ago.

The ICC ruling and the issuing of arrest warrants is a very important step – it makes it harder for Western Governments to ignore Israel’s actions. Signatories of the Convention are under an obligation to detain for trial those identified as war criminals by the ICC.

Where does that leave the Labour Party and the UK Government? Whilst we all suffer from the Trump Blues following the US election, the arrest warrants should provide a golden opportunity for Labour to put clear water between itself and US foreign policy.

However, it has succumbed to Anti-Palestinian racism, as much as both the Republican and Democratic establishments have in the States. Many years ago Engels described them not as parties, but “gangs of political speculators”. That is what the Labour Party has become on Palestine – a coterie of donors, officials and advisers prepared to gamble with peoples lives for the sake of political advantage and power. And their actions, which they would fervently deny, are fundamentally based on a racist view of Palestinians. They treat and regard them differently because of who they are.

Ignoring the hundreds of thousands, now a year later millions of people who have marched in support of Palestine, Labour has placed itself and the determination of its policies “beyond popular reach”. Immune to the views of its members, the public or global opinion or international law.

Our challenge on this UN Day of solidarity is to commit to bringing Labour and this Government back within popular reach. When I was able to visit Palestine, in greeting you warmly Palestinians would say politely – nice to see you and what are you doing in your own country.

We can’t de-elect Trump, but we can focus on trying to make Labour and the UK be an independent voice for Palestine. Not an easy challenge, Israel in losing global support, has cowed the political establishment into silence – not out of fear, but self-interest.

On the back of the massive support for Palestine the past year has shown, we need to build inside and outside the Labour Party, rejuvenated within the trade union movement, on the streets and in the churches a solidarity movement and alliance capable of bringing down the political walls of indifference, of bringing the Labour Party back within popular reach, capable of responding to and listening to what the people say.

Social media can help, but we need to be apostles of the Palestinian story – going out to friends, family, work colleagues, to anyone who will listen, telling the Palestinian story. In the US the JVP – Jewish Voice for Peace, have produced toolkits about how to talk to family and friends about Israeli genocide and the demand for an arms embargo.

This is a conversation we all need to have. Whilst Netanyahu and his Government are trying to silence Haaretz and its critics at home and abroad – we need to speak up.

We need to transform Labour

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Shifting Gear? The EU’s Tariffs On Chinese Battery Electric Vehicles

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Tony Burke

Professor David Bailey

By Professor David Bailey

David Bailey unpacks why the EU have imposed significant tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and explores whether they will have the desired effect.

The European Union (EU) recently took a bold step by imposing tariffs of up to 35.3% on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) imported from China, on top of existing 10% tariffs. The move, framed as a countermeasure against what the EU perceives as unfair competition through heavy Chinese subsidies, will have big ramifications for global trade, environmental policy, and the rapidly developing BEV market.

The EU’s decision stems from concerns that Chinese BEV manufacturers have for years received significant state subsidies, allowing them to produce vehicles at something like a 30-40% cost advantage as compared with European automakers. Chinese industrial policy support is thought to have run to hundreds of billions over recent decades across batteries and BEVs, enabling Chinese firms to build experience, reduce costs, scale up and push ahead on battery innovation. China might ask Europe why it did not do something similar.

Most recently, Chinese firms have invested heavily in next-generation battery technology, including solid-state batteries and cobalt-free options, while European firms have struggled to scale up – witness the recent set back at NorthVolt.

European car makers have been left in the slow lane, in part also because of their own mistakes. For years they pushed diesels as a way of getting tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions down, wasting massive amounts of investment on a technological dead-end, until it came screeching to a halt with Volkswagen’s ‘dieselgate’ scandal and crisis. Years behind in the BEV revolution, EU car makers are now scrambling to catch up.

Chinese automakers like BYD, NIO, SAIC (makers of the MG brand) and Xpeng are competitive not only in terms of cost but also in technological innovation, especially in terms of batteries. Tesla also makes substantial numbers of Model 3 and Y cars in China for export.

This has put a big squeeze on European makers like Volkswagen, Renault, and Stellantis, which are frantically trying to reduce costs and increase production capacity for BEVs at a time when BEV demand seems to have stalled, resulting in a raft of profit warnings from Europe’s big players.

Unsurprisingly, a ‘flood’ of cheap Chinese-made EVs has of late hit Europe, taking 20% of the EU’s BEV market, leading to calls for a ‘level playing field’ from automakers like Stellantis. In response, just over a year ago, the European Commission initiated an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese BEVs, which culminated in the imposition of tariffs.

The tariffs range from 7.8% for Tesla to 35.3% for SAIC, lasting for 5 years, and aim to raise the prices of Chinese BEV imports, buying time for EU auto makers to catch up. The tariffs aim to discourage European consumers from purchasing Chinese-made BEVs and encouraging them to consider European alternatives.

But will the tariffs have the impact that the EU hopes? Some Chinese automakers like BYD have such a huge cost advantage over European rivals that they may be able to simply absorb the tariffs, keep prices the same and still make a profit, albeit at reduced levels. They may also decide to export more hybrids and internal combustion engine (ICE) cars to the EU, which are not covered by the tariffs.

Put another way, the EU’s tariffs may simply not be enough to keep Chinese BEVs at bay. The US and Canada have just hit Chinese BEV imports with a 100% tariff for exactly this reason.

Leaving that aside, if prices of imported Chinese BEVs do go up in Europe, then tariffs will make BEVs less accessible to consumers, particularly in the lower to mid-range price brackets, thus slowing BEV adoption and the EU’s progress towards net zero. This policy dilemma is something the UK will have to wrestle with next.

While the tariffs could offer something of a breathing space for European automakers, their long-term prospects ultimately depend on their ability to leverage this period of protection to invest in innovation, scaling up and reducing costs. The tariffs are not a permanent solution; if European companies fail to close the gap with Chinese auto makers, then in 5 years we could be back to square one.

Europe also needs a better thought through industrial policy to help transform the industry. Tariffs alone will not be enough. The EU’s Green deal was a start but does not match the scale of investment in green industries seen in the US’ Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act and Infrastructure Act. This package is seen as a ‘gamechanger’ in attracting investment in green manufacturing to the US, and away from the EU.

From a Chinese perspective, the EU tariffs represent a significant barrier to entering one of the most lucrative BEV markets in the world. The EU has been a key target for Chinese companies looking to expand globally, particularly as China’s domestic market becomes increasingly saturated with EVs and, as noted, the US had slammed the door shut with 100% tariffs on Chinese BEVs.

The tariffs will exacerbate trade tensions between the EU and China. Beijing has already expressed its displeasure, and has hit back with prospective duties of 35% on brandy. Pork, dairy and other EU exports may well be next. And China may retaliate by imposing tariffs on premium cars, which Germany exports in large numbers to China. Unsurprisingly, Germany headed the opposition to EU tariffs on Chinese EVs, fearing retaliation on its premium car exports.

A tit-for-tat trade war would be detrimental to both sides, hitting trade and growth, and would disrupt supply chains and increase costs for manufacturers and consumers alike. It could also hinder the global fight against climate change by slowing down the adoption of BEVs.

More broadly, the EU’s tariff move has major geopolitical ramifications, as part of a wider effort by Western nations to decouple from China, especially in strategically tech and green sectors. With China itself is doubling down on industrial policy, we may witness a fragmentation of the global trading system.

First published by UK In A Changing Europe October 11th.
By David Bailey, Professor of Business Economics, Birmingham Business School, and Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe.

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Times: Business Chief’s “Being Held To Ransom”

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Tony Burke

According to the front page today’s Times (August 21st, 2024) ‘businesses’ have warned the Labour Government that that strengthening trade union rights could “damage growth” and that “employers fear they are being held to ransom”.

According to Times – business chiefs raised their concerns at the meeting with Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds last week. 

One senior executive of “a FTSE company” (un-named) moaned to the Times that they’ve already got unions “knocking on the door” gleeful about the new powers coming their way. Oh dear!

With the current Tory opposition, looking and sounding ‘dazed and confused’ it was always going to be down to the right wing media to form an opposition to Labour.

The Mail, Express, Sun, Times, Torygraph, GB News and others – (with the BBC hanging onto their coat tails) have resurrected ‘union scaremongering’; ‘beer and sandwiches at number 10”; ‘secret deals with union barons” about the New Deal For Workers’ and the considerable number of improved protections and proposed changes to current anti union laws.

In Labour’s manifesto there are 48 pledges – count ‘em! 

Ending zero hours contracts, ending fire & rehire, bringing in day one employment rights, fair pay agreements, improvements on equalities legislation, ending the use of agency workers during disputes, union access to workers and many individual protections including improvements on bereavement leave, sick pay, legislation to protect the terminally ill at work, protection for interns, introducing modern electronic balloting and workplace ballots – to name a few.

None of these – and other pledges were secret – and were in the manifesto and Labour proclaimed them during th general election campaign.

Attempts to destabilise Labour by the right wing media was to be expected. It happens every time.

As I have previously stated:  “In my experience every time a Labour Government proposes pro worker employment legislation – from the National Minimum Wage, the Health & Safety At Work Act, protection during collective redundancies, equal rights for woman, part time and agency workers etc the Tories, the CBI, the Institute of Directors and parts of the media predict any new legislation to protect workers will damage the economy, create unemployment or mean the end of the world as we know it.”

Earlier this year Peter Mandelson in the Sunday Times poked his oar in advising Labour not to “rush” changes to employment rights. He was roundly derided. Labour Together also warned Labour to “asses reforms on the private sector” something that would happen anyway once consultation on the Employment Bill started. 

Rupert Soames, the president of the CBI also gave press briefings to the media (supposed private feedback) – advising against ‘a European model ’of employment rights’. Again he was roundly derided by the Labour Party and unions. 

It took the Times 7 days to produce a non story with Government officials insisting “no specific gripes were raised at the gathering of ministers, trade unions and business leaders”.

Well it is the summer holidays after all…..

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TUC: Scunthorpe Steelworks – Time To Act To Future-Proof Jobs

Posted on August 20, 2024 by Tony Burke

By Ali Poncia, TUC Policy Officer Decarbonising Industry

A major threat to the UK’s steel industry is brewing at Scunthorpe’s steelworks. We must act now to prevent thousands more job losses in steel and future-proof our vital manufacturing industry.

The planned closure of the Port Talbot blast furnaces and likelihood of mass redundancies has gained significant media attention in recent months. But there are mounting fears that another major threat to the UK steel industry, with much less coverage, could soon be unfolding at Scunthorpe’s steelworks.

British Steel, the Chinese-owned company that runs the steelworks, has put forward a proposal to government and secured planning permission to close its blast furnace operations and switch to electric arc furnace (EAF) recycled steel production, reportedly seeking £600m government support. This switch could reduce steel production capacity in Scunthorpe by 50% and would likely make more than 2,000 of the current 3,200 workforce redundant, with much further reaching impacts on the thousands of jobs that rely on the steelworks, either directly within the supply chain, or indirectly as local businesses that rely on steelworker custom.

Whilst rapid decarbonisation of steel production is a necessity, and a transition to EAF production does cut emissions, this single-track strategy at both Scunthorpe and Port Talbot will leave the UK without primary steel production, and has been heavily criticised as ‘decarbonisation on the cheap’. This approach will ultimately lead to offshoring of jobs and emissions as the UK will be forced to resort to imports to fulfil its demand for primary steel, likely resulting in a higher overall carbon toll.

In Europe, every major steelmaking country is pursuing a combination of green hydrogen-based primary steelmaking and EAFs, with substantial public investment and a central focus on job security.

Steelworkers have long been advocating for investment in upgrades to steelworks that cut emissions, as a means to futureproof the skilled and good quality jobs offered by the industry, and the climate movement stands in their support.

In July, Community Trade Union addressed a rally outside Tata Steel’s London HQ in support of steelworkers, alongside climate organisations including Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and Green New Deal Rising. This followed an open letter signed by more than 30 climate groups in the UK calling on government to halt Tata Steel’s current proposals and negotiate an alternative that secures jobs and future-proofs the industry.

In April, a Unite the Union handed a 30,000 strong petition to local politicians in support of steel jobs at Scunthorpe. Workers’ voices must be included in the plans that directly affect their livelihoods, they must have a seat at the negotiating table that has so far been reserved only for government and steel companies.

More than forty years on from the closure of Shotton steelworks in North Wales that left 6,500 workers jobless in a single day, we now have four decades’ worth of hindsight into the local economic devastation and political disillusionment caused by policy decisions that decimate industry with no credible protections for impacted workers and communities – communities which are failed again and again. Decarbonisation that excludes workers and fails our communities is wholly unacceptable, and entirely avoidable.

The government has earmarked £2.5 billion for steel decarbonisation under its new National Wealth Fund, and Jonny Reynolds, the recently appointed Secretary of State for Business and Trade, has voiced a strong commitment to support steelworkers: “Decarbonisation does not mean deindustrialisation, and I will be working to safeguard jobs […], securing the future of steelmaking communities for generations to come”.

Scunthorpe is now at a crossroads with an ever-shrinking window of opportunity: the government must deliver on its commitment to leverage decarbonisation that brings workers along, or else risk sacrificing a critical industry and further breaking the trust of communities already repeatedly betrayed by false promises.

Right wing media outlets are quick to push out the narrative that jobs must be sacrificed under the climate agenda. Across the UK, the stakes of failing to deliver on the just transition are high, with far-right groups seeking to stoke division and offer a home for anger amongst those failed by the state.

But it’s possible to get the transition right, too. In Scunthorpe, that would mean at the very least:

•Meaningful engagement with steelworkers’ unions to develop transition plans,

•A package of public and private investment, agreed between government, British Steel, and unions, conditional on

•Guarantees to protect jobs and support workers through the transition.

Getting it right offers the potential to not only retain and revitalise a thriving steel industry, but also to form the bedrock of a genuinely worker- and climate-friendly industrial strategy.

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Labour Moves Closer To EU

Posted on August 14, 2024 by Tony Burke

Ever heard of the Product Safety and Metrology Bill? You will do. It is part of Labour’s massive legislative programme and the innocuous sounding bill has already led the Sunday Express to brand it a “Brexit betrayal”. But was it really?

The bill will give Labour the power to recognise EU product safety rules updated by the EU where appropriate, saving money and time for businesses trading in the EU, something hard pressed companies and some trade unions have been demanding.

The bill also undoes some of the Tories Retained EU Law Bill which let individual ministers change or entirely scrap laws inherited from the EU (including ‘bonfire’ of EU employment rights – which the Tories were forced to abandon).

Labour’s bill will make it easier to align with EU agri-food standards which helps companies trying to do cross-border business in the UK.

Although not a done deal the UK manufacturers body Make UK said the bill “removes the uncertainty” created by the Tory Retained EU Law and gives the British government the “future ability to assess and implement EU product regulatory requirements into UK law for specific manufacturing product markets and categories.”

If all goes smoothly we expect more from the Labour government on alignment – crucial for trade unions will be making sure the UK implements new employment protections that have been introduced in the EU since Brexit such as those giving rights to  digital and platform workers.

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Unite Statement On Far Right Thuggery

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Tony Burke

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TUC Statement On Far Right Violence

Posted on August 3, 2024 by Tony Burke

We stand together in peace and solidarity with the people of Southport following the horrific events that took place on Monday 29th July have left us all in shock.

Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those who have died and are receiving treatment for their injuries. They should be the priority for everyone who cares about what has happened

Instead some have sought to use the tragic event in Southport to divide and spread hate – based on mistruths and false information. Far right thugs have taken to the streets of Southport, Hartlepool and London to attack Police and emergency service workers, to target Muslim communities with xenophobic hatred and to despoil the memories of those whose lives were so tragically cut short.

We must not let them get away with their lies and division.

Trade unions have always been at the heart of efforts to unite communities and stand against hate. But the challenge feels even more urgent now.

Whilst what took place in Southport leaves a dark shadow, we have seen some of the best of us. Our emergency service workers who rushed to danger, who provided and continue to provide life-saving care.

Our public service workers providing ongoing care and support and practical help.

Our teachers and support staff in the schools attended by young people affected and our community organisations who have stepped up to help and provide counselling.

So many other individuals, local businesses and organisations who are giving their time and expertise. They all deserve our gratitude. They have discharged their duty professionally, diligently and with compassion for their community.

Once again, it is a diverse range of front-line workers and community activists who have stepped up to repair the damage – material, physical and emotional.

Southport and our communities across the country do not need to meet violence with further violence. Whipping up hate and fear is not acceptable.

As trade unions, we will continue to work with our members in workplaces across the country, to provide practical support and solidarity and defeat the narrative of hate.

Our unions call for an end to the violence and intimidation, and for all those who perpetrate these acts to be brought to justice.

Unity is our strength, and we will stand firm against those that aim to pit different workers and communities against each other.

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Top Ten Global Digi-Tech Companies 2024

Posted on July 22, 2024 by Tony Burke

A recent study has ranked the Top 100 digi-tech companies in the world in 2024, highlighting these tech titans’ financial prowess and innovative capabilities. 

It is worth noting that these companies are not unionised.

According to the study by tech industry experts at coveragely.com, Alphabet ranks 1st with an overall score of 100. It has a net asset value of $293 billion, the highest globally. With a market cap of $2.28 trillion and an annual revenue of $318 billion, Alphabet showcases exceptional financial strength and profitability, boasting an operating margin of 25.49%.

The company’s solid financials include total assets valued at $407 billion and liabilities of $115 billion. Alphabet’s workforce of 180,900 employees each generates a remarkable $1.8 million in revenue, underscoring its efficiency and productivity. These metrics collectively make Alphabet a leading example of technological and financial excellence.

The study by tech industry experts at coveragely.com analyzed various financial metrics, including market capitalisation, revenue, operating margins, revenue per employee, and net asset values, to rank the companies shaping our tech-driven world.

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