Council workers

WESTMINSTER council workers are continuing their fight against plans by their Tory council to privatise up to 80 percent of council services. National union officials of their Unison union were due to meet this week to discuss possible escalation of the action. This is a crucial strike which has bosses worried.

Rahul Patel, assistant branch secretary of Westminster Unison, says, 'Westminster city councillors have said that this is an experiment that could take local government into the 21st century. They want to use the privatised services in Westminster as a base to bid for contracts in other councils. And it is clear that if they get away with their plan then mass privatisation will be the music of the future in many other councils.'

Council workers everywhere should invite Westminster strikers to tour their area to raise the solidarity that will be vital to winning this crucial fight.

Send donations and requests for delegations to Westminster Unison, 1st Floor (South), Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QP. Phone 07956 579 466.

Pay

COUNCIL WORKERS across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are still being consulted on a pay offer their union leaders want them to accept. The offer came after council workers in the Unison, GMB and TGWU unions staged a one-day strike on 17 July. Union leaders called off further action when employers made some marginal improvements in the offer, though all the extra amounts to is around 0.5 percent for most workers.

Leaflets putting the case for a no vote are available from Socialist Worker's industrial department - phone 020 7987 1919.