By Mark Evans, President Swansea Trades Council and retired unison member On October 9th, I highlighted that Health Care Support Workers (HCSW) felt betrayed by the decision of Swansea Bay University Health Board to renege on a local agreement to upgrade these poorly paid employees from Grade 2 to Grade 3. Following a protest outside Morriston Hospital, they held a lobby ...

By Mark Evans (President Swansea Trades Union Council) An article in February’s Labour Research magazine, ‘How will new partnership law strengthen workers’ voice?’, highlights that some unions have hailed the new Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 as “historic” and “momentous”. Wales Trades Union Congress (TUC) policy officer Nisreen Mansour said the new act “is a huge win” for ...

By Mark Evans, Swansea and West Wales Socialist Party The Senedd’s (Welsh Parliament) Equality and Social Justice Committee report ‘Calling time on child poverty; how Wales can do better’ highlighted what most working-class people already knew in Wales; the Welsh Labour government is failing to tackle child poverty. The committee, taking evidence from experts, was told that the Welsh government ...

By Mark Evans (Carmarthenshire County Unison Branch Secretary (personal capacity) Unison Local Government Service Group Executive personal capacity) The Welsh Labour government has threatened new round of cuts to Welsh public services, incredibly including to the NHS (already on its knees), citing a £900 million hole in Welsh public finances. The Socialist Party has highlighted how the Welsh Assembly Labour Government ...

By Mark Evans, Swansea and West Wales Socialist Party On 8 July, a protest was called in Llanelli by the far-right group Patriotic Alternative (PA), supposedly for ‘boots on the ground’. Only a handful of PA members turned up. Socialist Party members played a central role in the counter protest against PA, organised by Swansea Trades Council, alongside Carmarthenshire County Unison ...

By Mark Evans (Branch secretary, Carmarthenshire Unison) The rushed and secretive home office plan to house 207 asylum seekers in Stradey Park Hotel’s 77 rooms by July the 3rd without consultation with the local community and with Carmarthenshire County Council and Hywel Dda Health board and other public bodies only receiving the plans at the last minute has inevitably resulted ...

By Mark Evans, Secretary Carmarthenshire County Unison (in a personal capacity) A report from the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) Finance Subgroup paints a bleak picture for the future of local government and the important services it provides in Wales (COVID-19 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY FOR QUARTER TWO AND FUTURE BUDGET PRESSURES). The report includes a survey by the WLGA ...

By Mark Evans (Branch Secretary Carmarthenshire County Unison and Local Government Service Group Executive writing in a personal capacity) An audible collective sigh of relief was heard from workers and the vast majority of the population in Wales aside from big business when the Labour Welsh Government (WG) announced it was diverging (slightly) from the UK Tory government in how ...

By Mark Evans Branch Secretary Carmarthenshire County Unison (in a personal capacity) Workplace report published  by the Labour Research department in its March 2020 edition published a two page article with the headline ‘Social Partnership approach is way forward in Wales’. It claimed that the devolved (Labour) Welsh Government working closely with the Wales TUC “has developed a social partnership ...