Aviva Cut 1,100 Staff, Unite Reaction

September 30th, 2009 LONDON - Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: "This agreement is a smoke screen designed to deflect criticism away from those who brought our banking system to its knees. The industry remains over populated with the greedy, arrogant and corrupt.

August 24th, 2009 LONDON - Unite, Britain's biggest union, has today described RBS's planned cuts to its pension scheme as a 'body blow' to its 60,000 staff. RBS today (25th August) announced changes to the group's defined benefits final salary pension scheme.

August 5th, 2009 LONDON - In a video interview published on cantos.com this morning, Aviva's Chief Executive Andrew Moss said that Aviva reported a GBP747m bottom line profit for the first half of 2009. Another "major positive" cited by Moss is that the capital position of the Group has increased to a regulatory surplus of GBP3.2bn at the end of June up from GBP2bn at the year end.

July 1st, 2009 LONDON - Unite, the UK's largest union, is astonished that many London buses are so inadequately maintained they can not turn off the heating during the summer meaning temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius on some buses, making it hotter than Dubai. Unite has been pressing the employers to ensure that air conditioning is fitted into the cabs of all the buses for many years.

April 7th, 2009 LONDON - Unite, one of the former sponsors of the Rise anti-racism festival, has today (Wednesday), slammed London Mayor Boris Johnson for his short-sighted and hasty decision to cancel the event on the basis of what he deemed to be a lack of 'major sponsorship'. Unite regional secretary, Steve Hart, said: "Unite was never approached by the London Mayor, or by any of his staff in the run-up to this decision.

April 6th, 2009 LONDON - Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: "The news that 4,500 RBS staff in the UK are to lose their jobs is truly devastating. Unite is appalled that thousands of people, who form the backbone of the RBS operations, are to be made redundant.

March 24th, 2009 LONDON - Unite has accused HSBC of "creative accountancy" with jobs as HSBC concedes that the true number of job cuts is in fact 2,900 as the union has rightly claimed, and not 1,200 as HSBC had originally claimed. Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary, said: "As if it was not bad enough for staff of HSBC to hear from the media that their jobs are at risk, we now have a situation where the company is failing to come clean with the true extent of these cuts.

March 24th, 2009 LONDON - Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary, said: "To slash 2,900 jobs demonstrates the insincerity of the claim by HSBC to be 'the world's local bank'. This decision will ravage a number of local communities as sites are closed and other work is sent abroad.

March 17th, 2009 LONDON - Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: "Another review with more rhetoric than substance will do nothing to reassure consumers or staff in the financial services industry. Action is well over-due by those who oversee the UK's financial services sector in order to overhaul the flawed sector and bring back trust.

March 12th, 2009 LONDON - Unite, the UK's biggest civil air transport union, welcomes the announcement today (Friday) from the High Court that the challenge to the expansion of Stansted airport has been suspended. Steve Turner, Unite National Officer, said: "We are delighted at this decision today and hope we can now move on and develop an expansion programme at Stansted airport.

August 6th, 2009 British insurer Aviva reassures on profitsLONDON — British insurer Aviva PLC saw its share price spike around 6 percent Thursday despite slashing its dividend as the company posted better than expected results and announced plans to float off its Dutch unit to raise more money to shore up its balance sheet. Aviva said it made a net profit of 747 million pounds ($1.27 billion) in the first half of the year, in contrast to an 84 million pound loss in the same period of 2008 as margins in the life and pensions business improved.

August 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - For more than half of urban families planning and funding for their child's education takes priority over investing in retirement plans or medical insurance, a survey released Wednesday said. The Young Scholar Insights survey conducted by Life Insurance Company Aviva found that 67 percent of 2,250 respondents in 10 cities surveyed thought investing in child's education if the first priority.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed an outlay of Rs.40,745 crore for 2009-2010, which is 2840 crore more than the allocation proposed in the interim budget. "Rs. 15, 675 crore will be deployed through internal resources and Rs.9, 170 crore from market borrowings.

July 16th, 2009 Lloyds Banking Group cutting 1,200 more jobsLONDON — Lloyds Banking Group announced Thursday it would cut another 1,200 jobs to reduce costs and rationalize operations after the government-backed merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland. Lloyds, whose biggest shareholder is the British government, said 650 permanent jobs would go by the first quarter of next year, 180 staff would move to new positions and 370 agency and contract staff would be cut in its group operations and insurance divisions.

May 15th, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - Temples in Malaysia should be used to unite the Malay Indian community, the Tamil Nesan quoted Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) secretary-general Dr. S. Subramaniam, as saying.

September 17th, 2009 Union returning to AFL-CIOPITTSBURGH — One of the unions that left the AFL-CIO in a bitter dispute that split the labor movement four years ago is coming back to the labor federation. The union of hotel, restaurant and clothing workers known as UNITE HERE is bringing its 265,000 members back a day after Richard Trumka became the newest AFL-CIO president.

March 26th, 2009 KATHUA - Farmers who had lost their agricultural land to border fencing in Kashmir are happy with realignment of fencing border. Farmers of Kathua district have thanked government for fencing re-alignment.

May 29th, 2009 Leader of UNITE HERE resigns as labor feud growsWASHINGTON — The long-simmering clash between rival factions at the labor union UNITE HERE grew increasingly bitter on Friday as its general president resigned and accused his opponents of breaking into his office to steal sensitive files. It's the latest turn in a nasty divorce that has split the union of roughly 400,000 hotel, restaurant and clothing workers and diverted millions into a drawn out legal dispute.

April 21st, 2009 BERLIN - Scientists have developed a novel reaction scheme by which CO2 can be efficiently converted into methanol under very mild conditions. The technique was developed by researchers working with Yugen Zhang and Jackie Y.

July 1st, 2009 Unions say prepared to continue BA talksLONDON — Trade unions said they were prepared to continue talks on Wednesday with British Airways PLC over job cuts and reduced pay — despite the passing of a deadline set by the carrier to reach a deal. The airline and unions representing flight attendants and ground staff have failed to agree on cost-cutting measures, including a pay freeze and more than 3,500 job losses.