NATIONAL LEADERS of over 90,000 civil servants in the PCS union met this week but postponed calling further action in the long-running pay dispute. The union will meet with management on Tuesday of next week. If there is no movement union leaders could call new strikes at a meeting on Thursday of next week.
FIREFIGHTERS IN many brigades are responding to the call for resistance at last week's Fire Brigades Union (FBU) conference by withdrawing cooperation with management and even taking unofficial action. \"Every whole-time station in the brigade has gone onto 999 calls only action,\" says Neil Day, secretary of the FBU union in Norfolk.
RMT UNION members on London Underground are balloting for strike action over pay. Members on Metronet and Tube Lines, which run the tube's infrastructure, are also being balloted.
HIGH-HANDED managers at the Mitcham Belle bus company have forced workers to ballot for strike action and for action short of a strike. The workers are members of the RMT union. They are fighting for better pay and conditions and against bosses who refuse to recognise the union.
AFTER THE shocking images of torture by US and British soldiers come the shocking lies and excuses from New Labour ministers. The Red Cross says it \"repeatedly made its concerns known\" about reports of Iraqis being tortured for more than a year.
GEORGE BUSH has demanded another $25 billion to fund the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House promised that the $87.5 billion approved last November would last for at least a year. So far, the \"war on terror\" has cost the US $160 billion. The UN Human Development Report for 2003 says that all its minimum goals could be met if $100 billion was spent on aid to poorer countries.
\"I'VE BEEN waiting for someone to stand against Blair.\" So said Harold, one of the shoppers in Ridley Road market in Dalston, east London, to campaigners for Respect: The Unity Coalition last week.
STRIKING NURSERY nurses in eight Scottish councils have again shown their determination to win decent pay and regrading. They have stayed on strike despite intense pressure to return. A mass meeting of nursery nurses in East Ayrshire voted last week to reject the council's latest derisory offer.
OVER ONE million local government workers could be heading for a major pay battle. Last week both sides in the negotiations over the local government pay and conditions deal upped the ante. The giant Unison, TGWU and GMB unions agreed to consult their members over the deal and possible action unless the employers back down before 21 May. The employers issued a press release saying that they would stand firm over their offer of a derisory 7 percent over 3 years.
PROTESTS BY parents and school students are making waves in Northumberland. The Labour-run county council plans to shut 45 schools as part of a move from a three-tier system-with first, middle and high schools-to a two-tier school system with primary and secondary schools.
TENANTS AND trade unionists from across Britain were travelling to the House of Commons this week to lobby their MPs and attend an important meeting about council housing. It is the All-Party Council Housing group of MPs' inquiry and meeting on the \"Fourth Option\".
