SOLIDARITY works-that's the clear lesson from Tyneside this week. Thousands of shipyard workers walked out on strike on Monday of last week in solidarity with 98 sacked workmates. This forced management to reinstate the workers and open talks on pay, the issue that sparked the dispute.
NOTTINGHAM BUS drivers have voted to accept the latest pay deal offered by Nottingham City Transport. The vote was carried by 362 votes for and 208 against. The deal appears to be an improvement on earlier offers, but it will mainly benefit new recruits. More longstanding bus drivers will receive a smaller pay increase.
ACTIVISTS IN the Amicus union are building support for the Amicus Unity Gazette slate that is standing in upcoming national executive elections. This is a great opportunity to create a strong union willing to stand up to the bosses and New Labour.
OVER 900 people packed into a World Development Movement meeting in London last Thursday to hear speakers report back from the WTO talks in Cancun. Prof Yash Tandon, an African delegate to the WTO, gave a perspective from the inside. The FT had a report saying that poor countries were "likely to be the biggest losers" from the collapse of the talks. Yash explained how this was completely upside down-no deal was much better than a bad deal.
STAFF ON the Heathrow Express, which takes passengers from central London to Heathrow airport, have voted in favour of strike action. The Aslef union plans three 24-hour strikes next month after 41 out of 76 members voted in favour.
IRENE STANLEY, the widow of Harry Stanley, joined campaigners to lay flowers at the site where he died on the fourth anniversary of his death. Harry Stanley was shot by police while carrying a wooden table leg through Hackney. The police claimed that they thought Stanley was armed. The family is continuing its fight for justice.
HYDRO ALUMINIUM Motorcast announced last week that it intends to close its Leeds factory. This will mean a loss of over 600 jobs over the next 15 months. The Amicus shop stewards have told the workforce at the factory that they intend to fight these proposals by whatever means necessary. The workforce has given us 100 percent support.
BIRMINGHAM'S NEW multimillion pound Bullring shopping centre opened last month with massive publicity. But it's a 21st century building under 19th century management. A shop worker told me about working there:
REFUSE WORKERS in Edinburgh voted last week to reject an offer from the council to end their long-running dispute over pay. They were offered a one-off payment of £1,000 each to end their unofficial work to rule. A refuse worker from one of the depots said, "We are determined to stick this out. We're not greedy-we just want a fair deal."
OVER 2,000 nursery nurses from the Unison public sector union took part in a noisy and vibrant demonstration in Edinburgh on Wednesday of last week as part of their fight for decent pay. Members of the public tooted their car horns, cheered and applauded to demonstrate their support as the march passed them. Nursery nurses in different areas of Scotland struck on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week.
TRADE UNIONS in the north east of England are at the forefront of local campaigns against the Nazi British National Party (BNP). This was shown at the TUC Northern Region's anti-racism training day held in Sunderland last Saturday.
