LOCAL GOVERNMENT employers have put forward a new offer-but it is still awful. The dispute is extremely significant because it affects the pay and conditions of around 1.5 million workers. The previous offer was 7 percent over three years (equating to 2.3 percent a year). To make it even worse, the employers had attached punitive strings such as ending national premium rates.
IN ANOTHER blow to New Labour's flagship scheme for the NHS-Agenda for Change-ambulance workers in north east England have voted to strike against changes to their conditions.
HUNDREDS OF activists in the PCS civil servants' union were gathering in Brighton for our union conference this week. The conference takes place at an extremely important time for the union.
IF ANYONE needs an argument about the need for effective trade unions, they should note recent events at Kwik-Fit. The company was fined £13,000 last week after a legal case resulting from an injury to an employee at its Hatch End branch. A month before the injury the company had been warned it was breaching safety rules.
POSTAL WORKERS in several parts of Britain have been refusing to deliver BNP election material. Socialist Worker has received these letters supporting them.
Airport strike is on the runway AIRPORT WORKERS employed by Aviance were waiting this week for the results of possible new talks between their union officials and management.
GLASGOW'S Labour-run council has used the worst rogue employer tactics to force 700 striking nursery nurses back to work. It threatened to sack every one of the low paid workers last week using Labour's notorious anti-union law that allows an employer to dismiss strikers after eight weeks of action.
THE GOVERNMENT and the fire authority employers have seized on the firefighters FBU union leadership's latest climbdown over night working to demand more concessions. "This was entirely predictable," says Tam McFarlane, secretary of the FBU South West Region. "Every time we have made concessions the employers have come back for more. That's why members in my area were saying we should not compromise over the stand down time, but should resist. That's what delegates voted for when they agreed to suspend our conference last month. There really is no alternative now to drawing a line in the sand and saying we are going to fight back."
TALKS ARE taking place between the RMT union and Network Rail in the pay and pensions dispute that has already led to a successful strike vote. Both sides have described the talks as constructive, "but it will take a big change from management to deliver anything worthwhile," says one Network Rail worker.
THE BITTER dispute at Euro Packaging in Birmingham ended last week with mixed emotions among the strikers. There was a feeling of triumph and achievement at achieving union recognition in the teeth of ruthless opposition from a hardline boss.
WORKERS IN the Amicus union at the NCR factory in Dundee are demanding a ballot for industrial action over a new pay and conditions package. Union officials are attempting to avoid a ballot. Angry members have twice overwhelmingly rejected a deal recommended by union officials at meetings. The US company has offered the 760 workers a 3.1 percent pay rise and a one-off payment of £350.
BUSH AND Blair's occupation of Iraq is threatening economic chaos as oil prices spiral. Now the siege in Saudi Arabia has triggered a new leap in prices. The impact on the world's poorest could be catastrophic.
