OVER 150 protesters filled the steps of Ealing Town Hall in west London on Tuesday last week to protest at the council's plans for £17 million of cuts. West Acton preschool playgroup, Hanwell nursery, the Caribbean Elderly and Ealing Alzheimer groups, Ealing pensioners, Unison, the NUT, NASUWT and Ealing Trades Council all brought banners and chanted "No more cuts".
WORKERS AT three top museums have voted to take industrial action in a dispute over pay. The National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford, the National Railway Museum in York and London's Science Museum are affected. Curators and conservators are angry that a new pay grading system has been delayed.
OVER 90,000 civil servants in the PCS union are set to strike on Monday and Tuesday. The strike will hit job centres, benefit offices, pension centres and the Child Support Agency, all part of the government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
No more cover-ups No more lies Thousands died for oil and US power...
BBC workers have staged an unprecedented revolt over the Hutton whitewash and the government's attacks on independent journalism. The mood of many of the 24,000 BBC workers to resist has not diminished since last Thursday's spectacular walkouts over the Hutton report and Greg Dyke's departure.
HOW MANY manifesto pledges did the government tear up last week? They bullied their MPs into voting against the pledge not to introduce university top-up fees. That was on every news broadcast and in every newspaper. But very few people noticed housing minister Keith Hill announce that he was ditching a pledge to bring all council homes up to a "decent homes standard" by 2010.
The executive of a key section of the PCS civil servants' union last week called off planned strikes over pay. Pressure was building from members this week for the strikes to be put back on
PRODUCTION workers at London Taxis International (LTI), manufacturers of the "London Taxi" in Coventry, walked out on all-out indefinite strike on Tuesday of last week. They are sick of year on year below-inflation pay deals and dragged-out pay negotiations. The strikers are in the TGWU and Amicus unions.
BOB McNEILL, Mark Crossland and Eddie Grimes, who are taking part in Britain's longest running industrial dispute, travelled to London on Thursday of last week to attend their bosses' appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal offices. They were part of a group of workers in the Amicus union at the William Cook's foundry in Sheffield who were told not to return to work after striking for one day in April 2001. They have been campaigning since.
OVER 150 members of the PCS and Prospect civil servants' unions packed into a meeting at the HQ of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in London last week. Both unions are balloting for action over the 2003 pay offer after 90 percent voted to reject it. Feelings are running high as HSE management are determined to limit rises at the top of all pay bands to 0.5 percent per year for three years.
STRIKE ACTION by workers at Sainsbury's distribution depot in Haydock forced the company to increase its pay offer. The workers, members of the Usdaw union, voted to accept the deal which brings their pay up to £7.60 an hour, with shift allowances on top. The vote was 426 for the deal, and 218 against.
REPRESENTATIVES from NUT teachers' union associations met in Leeds on Saturday to discuss how to build the campaign to elect Ian Murch as general secretary of the NUT. Doug McAvoy, who has been general secretary for the last 15 years, is due to retire in June. The NUT has been painted as part of the awkward squad over the last year.
