COUNCIL WORKERS in Newham, east London, were due this week to start a ballot on industrial action to defend their union branch. The New Labour council has renewed its threat to axe the Unison union branch's full time officers, and to force it out of its existing union office in a council building.
THE BATTLE against poverty pay in the civil service is continuing. Some 90,000 workers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are set to strike for two days on 13 and 14 April. This follows a strike in February that closed down job centres, benefits offices, pension centres and the Child Support Agency.
IN TWO key areas of the north west of England meetings of the Unite Against Fascism coalition gathered anti-Nazi campaigners together last week. In Oldham, former British National Party councillor Maureen Stowe urged people at a rally to stamp out the BNP in the elections in June.
ANGRY PARENTS and children joined a lobby of Barnsley Labour councillors called by the NUT and Unison unions last Tuesday. Barnsley council is applying to replace a secondary and two primary schools with the country's first "three to 19 academy". This would take local schools out of the local education system. GEORGE ARTHUR
AVIANCE, THE airport servicing company at Gatwick, have launched a serious attack on their workforce. At the beginning of the year they announced a series of cost cutting measures. In response the workforce staged a series of unofficial actions that caused severe disruption.
Walkout in Aston SOME 100 postal workers at the sorting office in Aston, Birmingham, stopped work on Monday of last week. Their strike was against the sacking of Peter Longbottom, who was accused of having consumed alcohol before arriving at work. One union activist said, "Members were particularly annoyed that the same manager who accused Peter of drinking was the one that sacked him. Judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one."
A PLANNED strike by track workers on London Underground has forced the private company on the network into a climbdown over six sacked employees. Metronet, which runs two thirds of the track, had said it would not take back under any circumstances six workers it singled out at Farringdon depot.
COUNCIL TENANTS in Wrexham have delivered another hammer blow to the government's drive to privatise council homes. Over 13,000 tenants of the North Wales council have decisively rejected privatisation in a ballot.
"WHAT'S SHOCKING is not just the employers' demands, but the fact that our own union leadership is railroading the members." That was the response of Andy Brickles of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in the East Midlands Region to swingeing attacks on conditions which are to be put to a snap ballot.
BUS WORKERS in Stratford, east London, experienced first hand last week the sham of New Labour's "big conversation". Around 100 drivers, engineers and workers in the canteen at Stagecoach's depot on Waterden Road heard transport minister Alistair Darling urge them to "ask whatever they want".
SOME 2,000 people joined a Stop the War Coalition protest against Blair in Manchester on Saturday. Blair and other ministers had gathered in the city for New Labour's spring conference. Police created a "Red Zone" around the G-Mex complex where the conference took place, setting up special barricades and roadblocks defended by armed police. As the conference began on Friday of last week, anti-war activists held a "Trial of Tony Blair".
