New Deal 'intensive activity period' courses (day prison for poor people) are made so dull and demeaning that some 'clients' prefer to go on a work placement, essentially unpaid labour, and many employers are involved. I can't understand why unions and workers permit this to happen.

You can actually play this to your own advantage as you aren't liable for your work. On my first New Deal I nearly got myself placed in a secure Qinetiq facility, until I got bumped by state (social) security. I organised one trip with the RSPB just to get some travel. After that I got myself 'placed' at a permaculture site, doing what I would've been doing anyway so if you can come to an arrangement with a sympathetic employer it is an effective way out of the New Deal without losing benefits. Another way if you are homeless is just to sign on in a new dole centre every week, which is how I delayed my first New Deal for a year. Some offices will try to make you daily sign, and halt/delay your dole if you don't, but if you are genuinely travelling between dole regions then it obviously can take many days to hitch so you will get your cash eventually - but best to have some in reserve to start with.

I've never seen anyone pressured to go on a placement except to escape the mandatory monotony of the course. If you do go on a placement, you are at the mercy of the non-paying employer who can cut your benefits for six months if you are late or they don't like you. It would be easy to get them not to accept you in the first place, when you first attend just ask where the petty cash is and what the sex life in the business is like.
I don't do placements now, I prefer the sitting around. I've found the doleys at the course are worth learning from and working with, either by showing them how to fuck the system or by interesting them in side-projects. For instance, the only person to break into the last UK Nato conference on Afghanistan was a New Dealer who couldn't point to Afghanistan on a map and hasn't read a newspaper in his life.

I just did a quick search on the GMB website and all I can find is New Labour PRopaganda on the New Deal.

The GMB are obviously firmly in the pockets of the employers on this issue and should be treated like any other Stasi sell-outs.