HOSPITAL WORKERS in Bolton were set to be on strike again this week against one of the NHS's biggest private contractors, ISS Mediclean. They planned to strike on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and another three days next week.
BEHIND THE noise of the row between the government and the BBC over the war on Iraq one thing is absolutely clear. Tony Blair lied to justify the war, and is still lying today. "There is not a single fact in either dossier that is actually disputed," claimed Blair last week. He was trying to defend the two dossiers his government produced in the run-up to war.
DEPUTY PRIME Minister John Prescott has revealed the reality of the deal which ended the firefighters' dispute. He said on Monday that 6,000 jobs, one in ten, could be cut under government plans to "modernise" the service.
THE LATEST British contribution to peace and stability in Iraq is to send one of Northern Ireland's top policemen to run policing in the city of Basra. Stephen White is an assistant chief constable in the Northern Ireland police force. His "achievements" include policing "flashpoints" like Drumcree.
DELEGATES gathered in Blackpool for the last AEEU engineers' and electricians' union conference last week. The union is to officially merge with the MSF union to form Britain's second biggest union, Amicus.
SOUTH YORKSHIRE bus workers voted to accept First Group's latest improved pay offer, which they won through strike action. Over 1,100 workers, members of the TGWU, held three days of strikes and threatened to stage a four-day strike.
PRESSURE FROM local campaigners in Lewisham, South London, has won Tham Sarki, an asylum seeker from wartorn Nepal, a temporary reprieve from deportation. Over 750 letters were written to David Blunkett in support of the Lewisham College student.
SOME 1,000 Otis lift engineers, members of Amicus, went on strike on Friday of last week in their continuing dispute over pay. Ken Biggs, the national organiser of the lift section of the union, told Socialist Worker, "This is not just about a 1.7 percent pay deal and an extra 2.2 percent only granted by local managers after individual interviews.
SOME 59 NUT union members at Crofton School in Lewisham, south London, took strike action on Thursday of last week. They are fighting against the redundancies of three teachers on annual contracts at the school.
Hackney AROUND 200 people came to hear George Galloway speak against the occupation of Iraq in Hackney, east London, on Saturday of last week. The meeting was part of the Turkish and Kurdish Day Mer Festival for Peace. Mustafa Yalciner, from the Turkish Labour Party, joined Galloway on the platform.
