Tribune – Comment, news and reviews from Britain's democratic left

Workers on power station and refinery building sites will be offered a new deal that meets almost all union demands – including an inflation-busting pay rise – after talks between union officers and shop stewards last week.

Unions will again call on the Government to restore compensation for pleural plaques sufferers at the Labour Party Conference next week.

Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has become the majority shareholder (with 57.5 per cent) in ConservativeHome – the grassroots party website. Lord Ashcroft wants the website to become a new free news site running right-wing bloggers’ “exclusives”. But Conservative Home, run by Tim Montgomerie, is also offering a more exclusive – and expensive – service.

Opposition to free trade deals with Colombia grew around the world last week, as legislators called the Colombian government to account over the continuing violence against trade unionists.

European trade unions, social NGOs and left-wing politicians this week launched a major campaign for reform and regulation of global financial markets.

Gordon Brown has told the United Nations Security Council that Britain is willing to build just three, rather than the planned four, Trident nuclear missile carrying submarines as a new report reveals that the escalating cost of replacing the system is now a staggering £97 billion.

More than two-thirds of the Cabinet have ignored a plea from postal workers for talks on the Royal Mail dispute amid a national ballot for industrial action.

The RMT has called for an end to job losses at Network Rail after it was revealed that 2,549 maintenance jobs are now under threat.