Updated 4:35am 19 June 2013

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Kevin Rowan

Kevin Rowan

Kevin Rowan, regional secretary, Northern TUC

Challenges ahead in battle against poverty

YET another report last week highlighted the fact that we still face major challenges when it comes to tackling poverty in the North-East.Read

Why Europe matters

WHATEVER people’s thoughts about the EU, there can be little doubt that engagement with Europe is of vital importance to this region.Read

Kevin Rowan, regional secretary, Northern TUC

Northern stereotypes still remain

IT’S a while since I’ve bumped into a tab-smoking, cloth-capped, whippet-toting Andy Capp that somehow manages to prevail as a legend of the North-East in some of the ‘thinking zones’ in the South-East.Read

Kevin Rowan column

Migration is not a new phenomenon, it's as old as humankind. The development of the European Union has meant greater mobility and an increase in migration and is leading workers and governments to question whether this is good for us or not.Read

Learning reps have a vital role to perform

There is an emerging consensus that the employers of the future are those that don't just focus on pay as the main reward for working, as important as that will be, but that also offer a range of "softer" benefits.Read

Kevin Rowan column

It is interesting to hear the `new' policy debates over the current election for deputy leader of the Labour Party. Among the areas of interest, housing policy is now being described by some as having arrived at "the top of the public policy agenda".Read

Kevin Rowan column

I am occasionally surprised by the remaining stubborn reluctance to acknowledge, let alone act on, the energy and environment agenda.Read

Kevin Rowan column

As we come towards the end of Work Wise Week, part of a campaign run in conjunction with The Journal to highlight and promote different ways of organising work and working time, I have been able to work from home.Read

Kevin Rowan column

I was pleased last week to be part of a panel questioning the four organisations hoping to run the Intercity East Coast Franchise following the cancellation of the contract with GNER.Read

Kevin Rowan column

Regardless of how long a woman has worked for an employer, she is now able to take up to 52 weeks' maternity leave and is entitled to up to 39 weeks' maternity pay.Read

Kevin Rowan column

It is an astonishing, sad and somewhat tragic fact that simply being at work kills more people throughout the world each year than wars do.Read

Kevin Rowan column

It probably missed most people's attention last week, but the latest figures in the DTI trade union trends survey, released by the TUC, show significant trade union growth in the North-East.Read

Kevin Rowan column

A little over a week ago the Daily Mirror `Hope not Hate' tour bus pulled up at Grey's Monument. The tour was all about promoting race equality in the run-up to the forthcoming elections, a message that appeared to go down well in the streets of Newcastle.Read

'Government should pay costs of equality'

Despite being signed in 2004 by unions and local government employers, around one-third of all local authorities have still not implemented an agreement on equal pay and single status for their staff.Read

Kevin Rowan column

There are those who criticise the over-bureaucratic administration associated with the European Union.Read

Kevin Rowan column

My guess is that many people won't know that this Wednesday, March 21, is actually the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, established following the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, when 69 anti-apartheid protesters were killed.Read

Kevin Rowan column

Last week's potentially historic agreement by European Union leaders to set binding targets on the use of renewable energy sources was both a recognition of the importance Europe has in global challenges and a powerful statement about how critical the energy and climate change agenda has become.Read

Kevin Rowan column

While most political parties express their support for fair treatment for all workers, their actions allow certain groups of workers to endure worse treatment, poorer terms and conditions and greater exploitation than colleagues often doing exactly the same job in exactly the same workplace - agency workers.Read

Kevin Rowan column

Asbestos-related illnesses, and in particular the virulent and aggressive mesothelioma continues to plague the region, and will do so for some time to come.Read

Kevin Rowan column

I was very pleased to be part of the launch of the Work Wise campaign in the North-East last week.Read

Author Profile

Kevin Rowan is regional secretary of Northern TUC and also writes a weekly column for The Journal covering all major business issues affecting the North East. Kevin was formerly the regional organiser of the GMB where he was been involved in a series of campaigning issues. He was brought up in Cumbria and studied government and public policy at Northumbria University.

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