United against US OVER 10,000 Shia and Sunni Muslims marched through Baghdad on Monday to oppose the US occupation. US snipers overlooked the demonstration from rooftops as protesters chanted against the new US governor in Iraq, Paul Bremer, and his plans for a delayed Iraqi government in the future.
ACTION OVER low pay by journalists working for US media giant owned Newsquest is hotting up as more vote in favour of industrial action. Sixty journalists from Newsquest Lancashire are in their fifth week of an indefinite strike and are set to be joined by 48 of their Bradford colleagues on Monday.
SOME 140 nursery nurses in Kirklees completed five days strike action last Friday. The strikers, who are members of the Unison union, had already taken four days of action as part of their campaign to win a regrading. The action is having a big effect.
AMICUS MEMBERS at the Fujitsu Services site at West Gorton, Manchester, voted by two to one in an indicative ballot for action up to and including striking in support of their pay claim.
COUNCIL TENANTS and trade unionists face major battles in the coming months as the government presses ahead with its plans to privatise council homes. Some 125,000 council homes are targeted in the coming year in 17 major councils for straightforward transfer to housing associations, dubbed Large Scale Voluntary Transfers, from Manchester and Hartlepool to Lambeth and Islington.
DEMONSTRATORS protested against Nazi BNP councillors in Burnley on Thursday of last week. Around 80 Anti Nazi League members picketed Burnley council's first meeting since eight BNP members were elected. The Nazis turned up in two chauffeur-driven limousines to celebrate their election win.
SECTION ELECTIONS in the PCS civil servants' union have resulted in important gains for the left. The right wing lost control of the key inland revenue group and were almost wiped out in the Department of Work and Pensions.
"WE'VE NOW got to go out and win a resounding vote against this deal on the stations, and then at the recalled conference." With those words Paul Embury from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) at Islington station, north London, summed up the feeling of many hundreds of activists in the union.
AROUND 350 low paid health workers in the North Lincolnshire NHS trust have rejected a pay offer from their private employer, Carillion. Domestic, catering and portering staff have walked out on strike on two different occasions in support of their £5.02 an hour pay claim. The workers, at hospitals in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole, endure terrible pay and conditions. Many don't get sick pay or a work pension.
POSTAL WORKERS in London are continuing their pay campaign although the prospect of unofficial action is unlikely in the short term. London branch secretaries and reps met the CWU union's general secretary, Billy Hayes, last week.
AROUND 1,000 workers employed by local councils in London were striking for three days this week from Tuesday to Thursday. The action is part of council staff's ongoing fight to win an increase on the London weighting allowance - the money they get for working in the capital.
