TENS OF thousands of lecturers in further education colleges across England and Wales are set to vote in the next two weeks on whether to accept a proposed pay and conditions package.
BULLYING BOSSES and a low pay offer have prompted journalists at the Emap publishing group in North London to vote for industrial action. Journalists were offered just 3 percent to cover inflation. They had asked for 8 percent.
CLEANERS AT Derriford hospital in Plymouth are in dispute with their employers, ISS Mediclean, over pay and conditions. Only two out of some 200 union members voted no when they were balloted on whether they wanted to take action at Derriford hospital. They are demanding that they should get the same pay as staff employed directly by the NHS.
AROUND 250 CWU union divisional, area and branch reps met last Saturday at an official meeting to discuss the recent pay ballot, management attacks and the way forward for the union. The meeting was much more positive than anyone might have expected a week before.
ELECTRICIANS AT the Piccadilly site in Manchester have now been locked out for 20 weeks by their employers, DAF Electrical. We were employed on the £30 million project on a self-employed basis. We noticed that management were employing unskilled workers to carry out electrical work on a lower wage.
OVER 25,000 postal workers in London were set to strike this week in a defiant response to their management. The strike is over London weighting, but it has greater significance. It will be another important step on the road to the union recovering its self confidence and fighting spirit after the setback of losing the national pay ballot.
UNOFFICIAL AND illegal action by hundreds of Oxford postal workers has won a landmark victory. An Oxford CWU member told Socialist Worker, "We feel ten feet tall. We were in a big battle and the rank and file and our reps did not blink. We pushed them back and have given an example for postal workers everywhere."
"HOW CAN they ignore us any longer? All we want is the truth, justice and change." So said Geoff and Diane Gray, speaking at a Socialist Alliance meeting in Hackney, east London, on Monday of this week. Geoff and Diane are campaigning for justice following the death of their 17 year old son, Private Geoff Gray, in suspicious circumstances at the notorious Deepcut barracks.
"I WISH it was not necessary to be warning people about a Labour government with policies that are a threat to the NHS." That statement came from a former Labour cabinet minister on the eve of the party's conference. Frank Dobson, Blair's first minister for health, launched a blistering attack on the government's key health policies, speaking in Sunderland on Monday of this week.
POSTAL WORKERS are in a bitter struggle with their bosses which will affect the confidence of workers and managers right across Britain. Crucial strikes are scheduled for next week. Several key mail centres were on the verge of unofficial strikes on Tuesday.
ON FRIDAY of last week over 400 postal workers in Oxford's mail centre walked out unofficially on strike. An Oxford CWU union rep told Socialist Worker, "Union headquarters sent out an excellent circular detailing the attacks from the top of Royal Mail. Our reps wanted to distribute it to the members.
