New Labour is cutting funding for adult education by 4 percent nationally – cuts that will cost thousands of jobs and courses.
Teachers from 29 schools in and around Bolton, in education secretary Ruth Kelly’s own constituency, have shown that they are willing to take strike action against New Labour’s education bill.
Nine year wait for pay The five schoolkeepers at South Camden Community School in Camden, north London, were set to take strike action on Wednesday of this week in support of their pay dispute with the council and the school.
The AUT and Natfhe lecturers’ unions have been continuing their exam and marking boycott this week.
Blair's 'visit' to Matthew Boulton college Over 200 students from Matthew Boulton College, and Aston and Birmingham universities demonstrated against Tony Blair’s planned visit to Matthew Boulton College on Thursday of last week. For "security" reasons Blair stayed away, but the students demonstrated all afternoon to make sure he didn’t sneak in, and finished with a victory march.
The announcement of 1,000 redundancies – 15 percent of the workforce, including 370 nurses and midwives – at the crisis-hit University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS) is the first volley in a new barrage of NHS cuts that will run into the new financial year.
Members of the GMB union at more than 21 Asda depots are balloting on strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Construction workers at Cottam power station near Nottingham were discussing a deal about returning to work as Socialist Worker went to press.
Plymouth postal workers are awaiting results of talks before preparing for further strikes. Protracted negotiations last week got close to a settlement over the initial issues over conditions and staffing which led to the dispute.
A privatised rail contractor was sentenced to nine years imprisonment last week for the manslaughter of four maintenance workers near Tebay in Cumbria in 2004.
The chancellor Gordon Brown is attempting to hold down health service pay, interfering with supposedly independent pay review bodies.
School caterers and cleaners covering around 50 schools in Aberdeen are set to go on strike this Thursday and Friday unless a new deal is offered by the local council.
