SOME 30 parents and teachers attended a meeting at Moreland Primary School in Islington, north London, last week to protest against cuts. Moreland is one of ten schools in Islington with a budget shortfall. That is leading to bigger classes, the scrapping of 1.8 teaching posts and redundancies for two teaching assistants.
WORKERS AT the Peugeot car plant in Ryton, Coventry, have been told they have to accept a pay cut or face sweeping job cuts. The workers, members of the Amicus and TGWU unions, are being balloted over whether to take a drop in wages or see the plant's night shift cut and hundreds of jobs lost.
"THE TESTS have got to go. I would be personally willing for my children not to do them." That's what headteacher Angie Tate told a packed meeting in Camden, north London, last week.
THE INCREASING anger among Labour Party members at Tony Blair saw some 400 people gather at a conference on Saturday organised by the Labour left. The bulk of those at the "Save Our Party" conference, called by the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, have spent many years inside the Labour Party. John McDonnell MP spoke of "the level of discontent, disillusion and lack of trust in the New Labour leadership."
PCS CIVIL servants' union members were celebrating a historic victory for democracy as their union conference began on Tuesday of this week. The Democracy slate of the socialist Left Unity group and the centre-left PCS Democrats swept the national executive elections last week. It won 34 of 43 positions.
THE AREA of Darwen in Lancashire has been devastated by the announcement of 177 job losses at the Imperial Home Decor Group (IHDG). On Tuesday of last week the workers were assembled and individually picked out for redundancy.
THE THREAT of strike action by bus workers on Wiltshire and Dorset buses has forced the company to withdraw its plan to shut the final salary pension scheme. The 460 workers, members of the RMT union, were due to strike last month. The workers will keep the final salary pension scheme and their contributions will increase by 1 percent to a total of 6 percent. The company's contribution to the scheme is 10.5 percent.
SEVEN HUNDRED Stagecoach bus drivers in Exeter and east Devon struck on Tuesday of this week after a 93 percent vote for action over pay. The drivers, who are almost all members of the RMT union, are currently on between £5.50 and £5.93 an hour for a 41-hour week. They are calling for a minimum £6.50 an hour and a one-hour reduction in the working week. This is the first strike by bus drivers in Exeter for 30 years.
"WE ARE out because we are low paid and we deserve more." That was the simple message from pickets at Old Palace School in Tower Hamlets, east London, last week. They and hundreds more staff employed by local councils across London were out on strike all week as part of the fight to win a decent London weighting allowance.
SOME 80 trade unionists from Natfhe, Unison, PCS, FBU, Usdaw and Amicus marched with their banners in Manchester last Saturday. The march was over the bullying of staff at the Mancat college. One department with 20 posts has seen 35 pass through it in two years. The management made an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss the branch secretary last year. Now the college has declared compulsory redundancies in the trade union education unit, which includes a number of union branch activists.
"WE FOUGHT for our principles and we're overjoyed!" Isabel and Sophia were celebrating on Friday of last week in Tower Hamlets, east London. They and over 100 other nursery workers had just heard of their stunning victory - one that should be a model and a lesson for every trade unionist. Three weeks of all-out indefinite strike had humbled the New Labour council and forced it to retreat on all the key issues at the centre of the fight.
