Sunderland's Peterloo - film by Dave Hackney and myself

This 14 minute film explains why over 100 people assembled close to the Glass Centre on Sunday August 3rd 2025 to remember the dramatic events of exactly 200 years ago when lives were lost at the hands of the employers and the army in a battle over pay, conditions and the right to form effective trade unions. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J_VXf_IIVs 

Photos by John Harvey - not for reproduction without permission.

Organiser David Gordon Scott speaks to the crowd outside the world famous St Peter's Church just up from the River Wear prior to the short walk down to the quayside 

                                                                        Sunderland Mayoral Councillor Ehthesham Haq 

                                            Darren Proctor - RMT National Secretary 

                                                                    Eileen Richardson 

Unite celebrates Durham Miners' Gala 'Big Meeting' 2025

 This is my article on this years Durham Miners' Gala - the full version that includes Mark Harvey's great photos is online at link below 

 

'Unity is strength'

News Feature

Unite celebrates Durham Miners' Gala 'Big Meeting' 2025

https://unitelive.org/unite-durham-miners-gala-big-meeting-2025/

Many Unite members were part of a mighty crowd of well over 150,000 on Saturday (July 13) as the Durham Miners’ Gala ‘Big Meeting’ retained its place as the largest annual labour movement gathering in the country.

Platform speakers included for the second time Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, whose descendants include her great uncle who was killed in the Durham coalfield in 1921. He left behind a wife and two young children who received meagre compensation.

On a much happier note, there was also a special moment for two Unite members on the march, with Indea accepting Ed Ive’s marriage proposal to the approval of those gathered (pictured below). Congratulations to them.

The large attendance is a testimony to the resilience of the miners who were faced with an attendance of little more than 10,000 in 1986. With most mines earmarked for closure by the Thatcher government following the year-long 1984-85 strike, it would have been easier to announce the ending of an event that first began in 1871.  Why not slip quietly into the night?

There was never really any likelihood of that when such as Dave Hopper and David Guy, now long since gone, were alive. Comrades, we salute you. There are now no pits, but as Durham Miners Association (DMA) general secretary Alan Mardghum told the crowds, this special day continues to bloom because it “promotes a message of hope, of sticking together, that unity is strength.”

It was the 139^th Gala and following last year’s soaking, as Unite member Mick Joyce (pictured below) from Pelton told the world, “The traditional sunny day has returned.”

Ice cream sellers cashed in as families and friends made their way through the historic city of Durham with its magnificent castle and cathedral.

Banners were raised and the brass bands, including Unite’s very own, had the crowds singing and cheering along.

Refreshments were needed as such is the crowds it takes three hours — long enough to strike up new friendships — to move just a mile through the narrow, cobbled streets to the Racecourse Ground next to the River Wear.

Afterwards, there is time to allow for a well-deserved rest at the Unite refreshment tent before there’s a chance to listen to the speakers.  In addition to Alan Mardghum and Sharon Graham speakers included RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey, Chris Peace of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, Matt Wrack from the NASUWT teachers union and last, but by no means least, Husam Zamlot, Ambassador to the UK for the State of Palestine.

The large Unite contingent, suitably dressed in red t-shirts with the slogan Reclaiming our working class on the back included delegations with their banners from the North East Yorkshire and Humber region, Leeds City Council, Nissan, the London and Eastern Region, West Midlands Region, East Midlands Young Members, F&R nationally that protects firefighters, North West Service Industries and the Central London Voluntary Sector.

They were buoyed throughout by the brass band which is based in Sheffield, home for many years to the headquarters of the National Union of Mineworkers, at one time the most powerful union in the country.

Unite retired member Mick Rafferty (pictured below), who is still representing members in his role as an accredited support companion, was a miner until Brodsworth Colliery which, despite still having tonnes of coal to mine, was closed in 1990.

“I come every year,” Mick said. “It’s the last remaining such event that commemorates the mining industry and the communities and honours the struggles of those who fought to make pay and conditions better. I think it’s an absolutely fantastic occasion that takes up very good, broad political aspects. There’s always a good crowd but support from even more people within the labour movement would be great. Readers should put the date in the diary – the second Saturday in July next year.”

Striking Sheffield bin worker at Veolia, Joel Mayfield (pictured below), wearing his Lumley Street Warriors special t-shirt, was attending his first Gala because “I want to be part of this amazing show of working-class solidarity and celebration. There’s a carnival, celebratory atmosphere.

“I also want raise awareness by handing out leaflets of the ongoing 11-month strike aimed at union recognition and collective bargaining rights.”

Marching alongside Joel and his workmates were bin strikers from Birmingham who have now been on all-out strike since March. Both groups resilience is matched by Unite’s financial backing.

Regional officer Zoe Mayou (pictured below), previously a  Gala visitor when she worked in the health sector, had helped organise the trip from the West Midlands because “Unite wanted the strikers to experience such an uplifting environment and to spread news of one of the biggest union campaigns going on.

“There’s going to be a few red faces later on because of the hot weather but nevertheless the brass bands have encouraged quite a  bit of dancing as well.”

As the Big Meeting has always stood for respect for fellow human beings wherever they may be in the world, it was an event the Unite member Maher Nassour (pictured below) from South East London was delighted to be participating in for the first time. Especially as Durham City itself reminded him of parts of his home country of Syria.

Charity sector worker Maher was keen to highlight the horrific situation facing the Alawites, a significant section of the Syrian population, who are experiencing persecution at the hands of the security forces under the new regime. “This is run by President Ahmad al-Shara who until a few months ago was on the UK terror list. Yet, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy shook his hand very recently.”

Sharon Graham (pictured below) was introduced to the crowd by the DMA Chairman Stephen Guy who told them, “Her leadership has been marked by a focus of direct action to achieve better outcomes for workers across many sectors.”

Sharon began by saying how proud she was to be “in the heart of the industrial north, in the coalface of the first industrial revolution.” The Unite general secretary brought with her greetings from over 800 Unite reps who had attended the Unite policy conference in Brighton earlier in the week.

She informed the crowd the conference “once again declared its total support for the Palestinian people… let me be clear, what is happening in Gaza is genocide…. a war crime.

“Let me say today, what I have said many times before. Any Unite member who wants to take action or refuses to handle goods destined for Isreal then Unite will support them.”

Sharon Graham went on to tell the audience that Unite had backed its striking members in the last three years with £65m in strike payments and that “under my watch, no striking worker will ever be starved back to work.”

Sharon was warmly applauded.

The same was true when Husam Zomlot, who has lost family members, including children, at the hands of the IDF in Gaza, later spoke so passionately. Earlier Eddie Dempsey spoke of how “the spirit of solidarity had brought everyone together” and how “the market had run the country for the last 40 years” and that this needed to change.

Back to Sharon’s speech, the crowd heard how delegates in Brighton had supported a re-examining of Unite’s long-standing relationship with the Labour government and had suspended the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s membership in protest at her handling of the Birmingham bin strike.

“I do not understand the choices a Labour government are making… in cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners, cuts for the disabled and yet leave the super-rich totally untouched,” said Sharon, who told MPs that if they want Unite’s backing they needed to support picket lines.

Sharon, who left school at aged 16 to start work as a waitress and whose heroes include the Dagenham Ford women sewing machinists ended her speech by telling everyone, “This is our moment. Let’s lift our heads as well as our banners. Be proud to be in a union. Let’s prepare our class for the fights to come. See you on the picket line.”

By Mark Metcalf

 

OUR LAND IS FOR GROWING ON

 

OUR LAND IS FOR GROWING ON

 

uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2025

The government’s ‘Our Vision for land use in England’ consultation document on food security, economic expansion and the environment has the potential to increase ‘green’ jobs and boost employment in the smaller agricultural machinery suppliers market, says soil scientist and Unite campaigner Dr Charlie Clutterbuck – but only if it aims to target increased food production at home

With the Britain set to be battered by prevailing trade winds, Charlie’s new website reveals how unproductive plots of land across the Western Pennines could be recultivated. It is a programme that could be developed nationwide - especially as under 1% of land is used for horticulture, largely growing fruits and vegetables.

This being overlooked under the ‘Our Vision’ consultation as each of the targets talked about are to do with the environment - e.g. trees, water, carbon & biodiversity.

But there are no targets for food.

This follows the last government’s prioritising of carbon offsetting, resulting in increasing number of businesses, including many from the City of London such as Standard Life and Aviva, buying  productive farmland and planting trees to profit from subsidies for ‘homegrown carbon credits.’ Large landowners are following suit.

“Today, I hear local business people say that they prefer to buy carbon credits. Worryingly, not so for food,” states Clutterbuck.  

England is a mosaic of different land uses, with two thirds of its area (67%) being agricultural while built-up areas take up 11% of land.

Charlie’s site is at https://sites.google.com/site/lookattheland/home/land-use-in-england

It is a virtual tour showing land use in the Western Pennines is changeable. Charlie knows as he once farmed there. It is not an easy task.

GPs can be employed by walkers on the 14 walking stages outlined stretching from Ilkley, via Hebden Bridge and Burnley, on to Pendle where the Witches perished for challenging the local landowners who evicted them from their farms.

Land reflects a lot of history, much of it about power and struggle. 

GPS can be employed by walkers for accuracy.  

Charlie’s aim “is to reveal how land may have looked in previous times, thus helping decide future patterns. We need to question how we could run the land better  - both for people and the planet. Much needs changing.”

The rewards though could be substantial. “By cutting our food imports, much of which is ultra-processed, from the current 50% we’d reduce travel miles, slicing our CO2 emissions.

“The current £5 billion countryside land-based subsidies should be concentrated on aiding smaller scale food production, thus increasing rural jobs and boosting demand for smaller farm machinery from companies manufacturing them. It is a win-win situation,” contends Clutterbuck.

Charlie’s site on land use: https://bit.ly/3HzoY84

SUPPORT FOR MIGRANT FRUIT PICKETS

 

SUPPORT FOR MIGRANT FRUIT PICKETS

An unpublished Landworker magazine article

 

Unite’s Steve Leniec (@SteveLeniec) and Bridget Henderson added Unite’s support for migrant workers protesting outside the Home Office in London about the poor conditions they have endured whilst working for Haygrove soft fruit supplier whose products end up in the delivery boxes of such as Riverford and Abel and Cole.

Workers raised banners stating ‘Justice is Not Seasonal’ and ‘End Forced Labour.’ It was the first time migrant workers have taken their case to the capital. Their spokesperson Julia Quecaño Casimiro gave an impassioned speech.

Around 1,000 Haygrove workers are recruited by labour provider Fruitful Job under the Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme. (SWS) Launched in 2019 this recruits temporary agricultural workers for up to six months from outside the EU. Without them many fields would remain unpicked. According to NFU President Tom Bradshaw, worker availability has been “a significant barrier to growth” and the organisation would like to see a longer-term scheme put in place.  Amidst the farmers protests about inheritance tax it would be great to see the issue of low pay for migrant and all farmworkers raised.

From an initial 2,500 SWS entrants, mainly Ukrainians, the numbers have risen annually to 45,000, 2,000 in the poultry industry and 43,000 in agriculture, in 2025.

From the start, SWS attracted press coverage – including in LANDWORKER– highlighting complaints from many workers of discrepancies between the information they received before travelling and the work actually given on arrival. The Tories were even forced to conduct internal studies into the scheme but steadfastly refused financial support to allow migrant community organisations and trade unions, essentially Unite, to meet and organise workers.

In 2023, Unite and the TUC joined NGOs in establishing the Seasonal Worker Interest Group to advocate for migrant seasonal workers including access to independent worker support. However, Sir Keir Starmer’s government has maintained the SWS largely unchanged. This has encouraged, despite DEFRA’s claims that the vast majority on the schemes are content, the recent protests.

“Around 25 overseas workers, mainly Latin American, and Chilean particularly, were protesting. They were backed by many organisations, “ states tractor driver Steve.

“They reported an abuse culture. They never obtained their promised wages because of working in less cultivated fields. Despite having the skills, it was impossible to pick quickly enough to earn even the minimum wage.”

Bonded Labour

Steve reports “these workers are bonded to one employer; unable to seek work elsewhere” and  “after their complaints were ignored they took the brave decision to stop work” six months ago. Helped by the Landworkers’ Alliance and the United Voices of the World, they were presenting a petition calling on the Home Office to resolve their desperate plight. This included not having any monies to get home and forcing a reliance on charitable organisations for food and accommodation. Disgracefully, the government body refused to accept the petition.

Steve’s short speech on Unite’s behalf was translated to the rally.

“I said we supported them and understood their problems. Like all farm workers they pay the cost for cheap food prices brought on by the supermarkets’ constant shove to reduce the farm gate prices. But, of course, they also have additional worries by not knowing their rights and how to obtain them.”

To support SWS migrant workers, Steve is pleased Unite is launching a Scottish pilot scheme alongside the Edinburgh NGO Worker Support Centre https://workersupportcentre.org.uk that aims to prevent labour abuse and exploitation for marginalised and isolated workers.  

An app will explain to workers in multi languages their rights including how to join Unite and what support they could expect during  their short stay; which has made previous recruitment efforts difficult as migrant workers are often hidden from local communities.

Meanwhile, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, established thanks to the TGWU/Unite led campaign that followed the 2004 Morecambe Bay Cockle Pickers tragedy, has shared a series of short videos explaining the process of applying for the seasonal worker scheme and detailed that workers should be aware before starting work of their rights. Go to:- https://www.gla.gov.uk/whats-new/latest-press-releases/30012025-glaa-reminds-sws-workers-to-understand-their-rights

Workers can call the GLAA on 0800 432 0804 and the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline on 08000 121 700. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

 

 

BRIGHTER PATH AHEAD

 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2025 

WALK THIS WAY

There should be a brighter path ahead after the government announced that they are planning to remove the 2031 cut-off date for recording historic rights of way.

There are thousands of miles of unrecorded right of way across England that are enjoyed by walkers, cyclists and equestrians.

In March 2024 the BBC found that around 8,000 requests for paths to be added to the official map were waiting to be processed, with cash strapped local authorities struggling to keep pace with the public’s clamour for them to be added to the official map. These paths and bridleways can now be retained but still need to be recorded.

Help is on hand from the Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society (OSS). The latter is Britain’s oldest national conservation body, whose Find Our Way fund can aid local groups to carry out research. This can be time consuming as it is complicated as you need maps and evidence from users of the highway and you must contact as many landowners as you can find before a claim can be made to the local authority. They will then investigate by walking the route and undertaking their own research. In the final case a public inquiry could be held.

Following the announcement of the intended removal of the 2013 cut-off date,  – the OSS is now hoping to persuade the government to make it compulsory for lost commons to be registerable throughout England.  Currently they can only be registered in Cumbria and North Yorkshire, yet, grossly unfairly, landowners can apply to deregister commons throughout England.

The Open Spaces Society is at www.oss.org.uk

The workers’ stories of the North East brought to life at Beamish Museum, Stanley, County Durham DH9 0RG

 

HEARTWARMING DAY OUT

The workers’ stories of the North East brought to life

Beamish Museum, Stanley, County Durham DH9 0RG

 Beamish Museum is a unique place with its open-air mixture of town and country stretching across its 350-acre site.

Little wonder it’s enjoyed daily by thousands of visitors who can discover how previous generations worked the land, including in the bowels of it, before the vast majority of rural workers were swept into towns and cities to work in industry.

“Agriculture and pits are central to the North East’s history,” explains locally born Samantha Shotton, Beamish’s Chief Operating Officer, dressed as an appropriate well-to-do Victorian period dress. “Our founder Frank Atkinson in the 1960s could visual the loss of the traditional way of life for ordinary people,” and so he set out to preserve examples of everyday life in urban and rural life.

Just off the A1M and located outside Stanley, midway between Durham City and Newcastle, Beamish, opened in 1972, is a great day out for all ages.

Increasing numbers of Unite members who make an annual pilgrimage to the Durham Miners’ Gala on the second Saturday in July may want to consider taking time out to make the short trip.

The ticket price, which helps pay the wages of up 550 staff in the summer that are engaged on a range of jobs that includes working with animals and maintaining the historic moving trams and buses that younger children particularly love getting on and off, includes multiple visits.

For older visitors the Museum, open all year, also has regular health and wellbeing group sessions. These are located in Clover Cottage, which is packed with sights, sounds, smells and tastes that are familiar to dementia sufferers. This work is based in Beamish’s most recently recreated 1950s town, chosen after research amongst its visitors.

Close by resides both the 1940s and 1900s towns. The latter’s busy main street is packed with shops, including one advertising opportunities to escape poverty by emigrating to Canada and the US, that leads down to Rowley Station. It was the invention of the railways that transformed trade, thus enabling the growth of new industries regionally and worldwide.

One of the most hauled and valuable North East goods was coal, the mining of which in 1913 employed 165,246 men across Durham in 304 mines including the former Mahogany Drift Mine that Beamish visitors can access today before exploring a 1900s pit village.

Beamish’s oldest building, parts dating back to the 1440s, is Pockerley Old Hall, with its beautiful Georgian gardens and view. This was home to Mr. William Morgan, one of 13 local tenant farmers in 1825.

Engager Kevin Carroll explains Morgan “did very well such that we later find him living in Chester-Le-Street as a gentleman. It was a period when the rural landscape was changing dramatically away from strip farming to the larger fields combining agriculture and livestock.”

Those employed by Morgan did not do as well.

“You’d be taken on at a local hiring fair in the spring time, required to work extremely hard from the moment the sun came up till it went down and only get paid after the harvest. If you were not pulling your weight then you were gone as there was plenty of other people out there who needed work.”

Some workers who slept at the Hall would be forced to sleep up to six in a bed which they accessed through a roof top hole as they were not allowed to use the main stairs just in case they dirtied the carpets or disturbed their employer.

“Two apprentice farmers, the sons of nearby farmers, had a separate bedroom next door,” explains Kevin, who has worked at the Museum for 20 years and still really enjoys doing so by describing it “like a giant family.”

Fast forwarding to over a century later, stories of wartime life can be found on the 1940s farm where in front of a blazing hot coal fire, Pam Hudson, one of 300 volunteers, was clearly enjoying herself explaining to visitors about the importance of the Land Girls, reformed at the start of WWII to replace male workers sent off to fight

“Nationally in 1944 there were 80,000 and, despite having no previous agricultural experience, they helped increase food production from a low in 1943 by tackling a big rat problem, milking cows, planting vegetables, sugar beet and wheat for flour.

“We have lots to be thankful for and I like to tell, especially to the children, their stories as otherwise their achievements will be forgotten.”

Visitors can also access a 1950s farm to discover the story of how hard it was to make a living from upland farming and traditional rural skills in the North East just after the war.

Add in the sheer beauty of the location and its animals, wildlife and trees that mean visitors can just sit or stroll around doing little then it’s no wonder visitors enjoy their day out.

“We have been in the cafe” explains Janice, whose daughter Jessie, pushing her son Arthur in his wheelchair, said “she especially liked looking round the old houses and admiring the wallpaper.”

For Oliver, a regular visitor, his favourite parts of the museum are the “trams, park, picnic and pigs,” whilst according to his nan Alison the four-year old has also developed a “real love in the growth of the animals. He learns lots coming here.”

That’s heartwarming for Samantha Shotton to hear. “If children come with their families and they start a conversation with another generation that can be really important for both. Also because of our approach then learning can be fun as well. All of which combines to keep the history of the North East going.” Which was, of course, Frank Atkinson’s aim.

 

 

Northern Ireland farm workers receive pay boost thanks to Agricultural Wages Board

 UNITE the union Landworker magazine Summer 2025 article 

Unite reps on the Northern Ireland Agricultural Wages Board have helped push up the minimum wage rates for Northern Ireland agricultural workers from 1 April.

Standard grade 2 workers have been the biggest beneficiaries with their hourly rate rising from £8.62 to £12.50, just 10 pence an hour below the real Living Wage to which thanks to union pressure, the department of agriculture, environment and rural affairs (DAERA) has been forced to announce they are working towards adopting.

 “This is a good move as the Living Wage Foundation’s norms standards is the only UK wage rate independently calculated, based on the cost of living, ensuring that workers receive a fair wage that meets their everyday needs,” says Unite regional officer Joanne McWilliams .

Grade 3 lead workers have had rises from £10.77 to £12.73 an hour with grade 6 farm management hourly wages now at £13.90.

County Tyrone’s Ronnie Corbett, an employee at Moy Park Chickens for over 25 years, is one of six Unite reps who annually face a struggle to convince six Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) reps on the AWB to reward their employees more favourably.

In 2024, the UFU hoped to pay nothing extra but thanks to backing from the board’s independents a 6% increase was awarded. This followed rises of over 8% in 2023.

“The UFU always plead poverty, but they need these short-term workers who are actually skilled as picking lettuce and cabbages at the necessary pace is a real task. And you saw what happened in England following Brexit when they could not recruit workers. Fields did not get picked and food rotted,” said Ronnie.

“I’d like to see better pay and conditions but fact is that farmers are struggling to put pressure on the supermarkets to increase farm gate prices. Farmers fear speaking up but Unite through Joanne McWilliams is doing so,” explains Ronnie, who is also concerned that NI family farms will be bought out by the likes of venture capitalists Blackrock in the near future.

According to Ronnie, the NI AWB’s continued existence - which was only made possible by Unite leading a united campaign in 2021-22 that involved rural councils helping to defeat plans by the Northern Ireland Assembly Rural Affairs Minister, Edwin Poots to scrap it - means workers do not need to rely on casual, cash in hand work as there is a framework of terms and conditions.

“It stops abuse and helps unify an isolated,  fragmented workforce. Migrant workers whose English is their second language get the same rights.”

At the same time, Unite aims to maintain pressure for further improvements throughout 2025. “We expect some horse trading at future meetings as their appears to be an understanding that the skills base should be better rewarded.

“That the AWB exists means we can put our concerns to the farmers regularly and negotiate ongoing improvements.”

All NI reps like Ronnie hope to see the restoration of the AWB in England. “I am glad that Unite is putting pressure on the Labour government as an English AWB can help rebuild terms and conditions and encourage more people to work in agriculture and horticulture.”

This article is dedicated to Jimmy Bradley, a Northern Ireland Unite steward who died last year.