Issue: 2069
Dated: 22 Sep 2007
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Working people will have to pay twice over for the credit chaos that struck down mortgage lender Northern Rock this week.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which took place in Brighton last week, showed the tensions between the unions and Gordon Brown’s government.
The postal workers’ CWU union has announced a new programme of strikes as part of its dispute with Royal Mail.
Around 200 residential and daycare workers employed by Fremantle in Barnet, north London, were set to strike on Thursday of this week.
Brent peace march
What triggered this crisis?
The TUC last week passed an NUT-backed motion attacking the government’s public sector pay policies and calling for public sector unions to coordinate strike action. Thousands of teachers have signed petitions calling on the union to step up its pay campaign.
Branches of the NUT teachers’ union have two weeks to nominate candidates for its national officers’ elections.
Hundreds of thousands of health workers are going to receive below-inflation pay awards after union leaders decided on a compromise with the government.
Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, was challenged over the tax arrangements of private equity firms as the unions claimed their jobs and conditions were affected by company takeovers.
New Labour’s business and enterprise secretary John Hutton unveiled what the media, reading the press releases, referred to as "a package of new measures" over employment law.
Refuse workers in the GMB union in Islington, north London, struck on Tuesday of this week against changes to recycling and collection rounds.
It now looks increasingly likely that the Unison union will be balloting its members in local government for strike action over pay. The ballot is set to start on 3 October.
A major battle is brewing in Europe’s biggest local authority.
Adult daycare staff in Glasgow are balloting to take strike action as the centres they work in face closure.
Housing workers ballot over pay Members of the Unite union at English Church Housing Group (ECHG), part of the Riverside Group, are balloting for action against the company’s 2.5 percent pay offer.
Bus drivers at Stagecoach’s Chesterfield depot have voted by a substantial majority to accept an improved pay offer.
A long-running dispute between the Unite union and IT services company Fujitsu has been settled. Unite members at Fujitsu’s Central Park site in Manchester voted by 99.6 percent on an 89.2 percent turnout to accept the company’s offer for new agreements covering union recognition, redundancy and redeployment rights, pay and benefits.
Tony Benn joined over 1,000 trade unionists and activists at the chainmakers’ festival at the Black Country living history museum in Dudley last Saturday.
A systematic campaign that sunk roots across a working class community paid dividends for Respect supporters in Brent, north west London, as they celebrated coming third in a council by-election on Thursday of last week.
Disabled workers battling to save Remploy factories are set to join the Unite union demonstration outside the Labour Party conference on Sunday.
The press coverage of the recent tube strike in London took me back to a different time, a time when union leaders seemed to rank a close third – behind the Moors murderers and cop-killer Harry Roberts – as public enemy number one.
The TUC took a stand against the neoliberal agenda in Europe last week and New Labour’s role in the race to the bottom by calling for a referendum on the latest European Union (EU) treaty.
The TUC also backed a motion calling for a national demonstration in defence of public services.
Gordon brown is faced with a major housing crisis and growing support for the fourth option (direct investment to improve existing and build new council homes). Because of this Brown has announced, ahead of Labour Party conference, £500 million for councils which build homes.
Cleaners from the T&G section of the Unite union demonstrated outside the Lloyds building in central London last Saturday.
Mental health workers in Manchester decided at a 120-strong union meeting last week to take two further days of action during next week’s Labour Party conference.
Around 150 nurses from the Morriston hospital in Swansea packed an angry union meeting last week, threatening to strike unless a swathe of job losses are reversed. Feelings are running so high that many felt that they should walk out immediately.
Royal Mail has put its cards on the table. For a small compromise on pay – a 6.7 percent rise over two years – it wants to rip up every national and local agreement between the company and the CWU postal workers’ union.
Some 10,000 people marched in Berlin last Saturday against Germany’s role in the Afghanistan war.
Almost immediately after the break up of talks with the CWU, Royal Mail sent out letters to thousands of postal workers telling them that their start times are to be changed.
A clash took place last week between Royal Mail management at the Oxford mail centre and Bob Cullen, a leading CWU union rep, resulting in a complaint to the police.
The National Union of Students (NUS) has joined calls for people to attend the Stop the War national demonstration outside parliament on 8 October.
Veteran anti-war Labour MP Bob Wareing has vowed to stand against New Labour after his constituency party deselected him from his Merseyside seat last week in favour of former minister Stephen Twigg.
The battle between Royal Mail bosses and the CWU postal workers’ union is at a crucial stage, the outcome of which will determine the future of the union in the industry.
The general election in Greece last weekend saw the ruling right wing New Democracy party retain power with a reduced majority.
A strike by more than 10,000 tea pickers in Kenya in East Africa has won an 8 percent pay increase.
Thousands of poor farmers and indigenous activists marched through the Bolivian city of Sucre last week in support of constitutional changes proposed by President Evo Morales.
Children have returned to school after a summer which has seen an increased demonisation of young people.
Staff at my school returned from the holiday expecting our head teacher to lead a training session on behaviour management. Instead she was attending a summit on gang culture at 10 Downing Street.
Bank runs were supposed to be a thing of the past, relics of the Victorian era or the Great Depression of the 1930s. But last weekend customers queued to withdraw a reported £2 billion from Northern Rock.
Before the recent launch of a summit on safety with the construction industry, Peter Hain, the work and pensions secretary, said, "I will not tolerate an increase in construction deaths. Booming house building, yes. Booming infrastructure, yes. But not with the blood of workers in the foundations."
Today the media portrayal of young people as a "problem" is widespread, but it is certainly not new. The demonisation of young people in Britain dates back at least to the 18th century, and tends to rise and fall in accord with broader changes and tensions in society.
You released a track called Upper Clapton Dance that talks about crime and violence. Could you explain why you think it is has become so popular?
The campaign against school segregation in Little Rock in the US in September 1957 challenged a racist society. Ken Olende looks at the events
On the 50th anniversary of the campaign against school segregation in Little Rock, Ken Olende looks at how racism and class solidarity have always pulled the South in different directions
In August 1914 the First World War broke out in Europe. Lenin, the Russian Bolshevik leader, had long argued that a war could create a revolutionary situation in which workers would rise up against the barbarism.
La RadiolinaManu ChaoCD out now The incredibly popular musician Manu Chao returns with his third studio album, his first in six years.
Rastafarians Malcolm Willidon and John Mills stand outside the Metro Community Centre, Notting Hill, London, which, as the sign says, is "occupied by the youths until the ILEA Inner London Education Authority meets for talks with us".
The past few years have witnessed a flourishing of artistic and cultural forms that are inspired by the worldwide movements against war and globalisation. The band Slovo, with its latest album Todo Cambia, stands unashamedly in that category.
The mainstream media is usually keen on opinion polls, yet it curiously overlooked the results of a survey by the ORB agency last week.They asked 1,461 Iraqis how many household members had died as a result of the conflict since the 2003 invasion.
No applause for Brown I attended the TUC conference in Brighton last week and was present for Gordon Brown’s speech. I feel compelled to comment on Brown’s attitude towards public sector pay.
"There are always good days and bad days."Adam Applegarth, the chief executive of Northern Rock
Meetings And Events