More than 7,000 people joined the Unite March for Jobs rally in Birmingham this weekend.

With UK unemployment currently standing at more than 2.2 million, and around 250,000 people signing up for Jobseeker’s Allowance, thousands of people joined Unite’s March for Jobs rally in Birmingham on Saturday 16 May in defence of their jobs.

The aim of the march was to indicate to the government that “protecting jobs during the recession must be the number one priority”, and more than 7,000 people – the majority of whom were from the manufacturing sector – turned up to show their support.

Tony Woodley, Unite’s Joint General Secretary, said: “Our mission is to get ministers to wake up and act to halt the jobs crisis. And our message is clear: Workers are not going to pay the price for the crisis created by bankers. We are serving notice on all politicians – securing jobs is now our priority. And we are not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

In brief, the union is asking the government to: introduce a working subsidy to keep people in work; more help for businesses from banks; increased support for the manufacturing industry; and greater redundancy protection for workers.

The manufacturing industry has been particularly hard-hit by the economic situation – it has experienced its worst fall in demand in 30 years for UK-manufactured goods and a record decline in output.

Unite is the UK’s biggest union and has launched an e-campaign to mobilise its members and apply pressure on the government for change. The union has so far received 16,000 petition signatures calling on the government to do more to help working people during the recession, and also ensured that more than 500 people wrote to their local MPs to request support for the march.