POSTAL WORKERS at Sevenoaks delivery office in Kent staged a sit-in in their canteen last week after management implemented the new TDS delivery system. Around 50 people work at the office. There was anger when a manager said the new arrangements would mean 160 hours of work going out of the office but that there would be no extra money.
HILDCARE SOCIAL workers in Liverpool were set to start a three-day strike on Friday in a dispute over lack of staff and workloads. Around 145 workers, members of the Unison union in Liberal Democrat run Liverpool City Council, will be out on Friday. They will also be out next Monday and Tuesday.
RESPECT: THE Unity Coalition got a brilliant launch in Canterbury in Kent last weekend. Up to 50 people came to a mock trial of Tony Blair and afterwards we spoke about the new Respect coalition.
THERE WERE picket lines in towns and cities across Britain this week as 90,000 civil servants went on strike against low pay. Next week some 50,000 lecturers in the AUT union in universities will also strike. It is a sign that the growing anger over pay is turning into action. Millions of workers face the same struggle to make their wages last to the end of the month and pay the bills.
CALLS ARE mounting for a full independent inquiry into the tragic deaths of four rail workers after details emerged of a near identical incident last year. Rail workers told Socialist Worker they have been warning for months about the continued use of subcontractors and unsafe working practices. These are the underlying issues that investigations into previous rail incidents have skirted round.
"WHEN I heard the noise my first instinct was to run and call the police. Then I realised it was the police." This is pub owner Dawn describing the terrifying moment 150 police raided her property in Peckham, south London.
STRIKING lecturers at Leicester College have voted to face down their principal and to stay out on strike over half term. The indefinite strike by 150 members of college lecturers' union Natfhe is a vital battle for the union, which has faced a decade of market-driven attacks in further education colleges.
TENS OF thousands of university lecturers are to strike over pay across Britain and Northern Ireland next week. On Wednesday 47,000 lecturers belonging to the AUT union in the "old" universities, those which were never polytechnics, will be out. In addition to Wednesday's strike, lecturers in Wales will also strike on Monday, in England on Tuesday, in Scotland on Thursday and in Northern Ireland on Friday.
A LONDON Citizens' Delegates Assembly attracted around 400 people on Thursday of last week. The assembly, 70 percent of which was black or Asian, voted on proposals to put to candidates standing for mayor of London on 10 June.
THE NATIONAL Union of Students (NUS) has called for a national shutdown of higher education next Wednesday to coincide with the AUT lecturers' union strike next week. The shutdown is part of the NUS week of protest against government plans to impose top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year on students.
WORKERS AT Land Rover were being balloted this week after their bosses were forced to make a revised pay offer. The 8,000 workers in Solihull and Gaydon in Warwickshire have held two 24-hour strikes supported by mass pickets.
MORE THAN 1,000 people marched in London last week as part of demonstrations in several countries demanding the release of Kurdish leader Ocalan and freedom for Kurdistan. Demonstrators in London were agreed that the US occupation of Iraq had not brought genuine Kurdish liberation any closer.
