STEEL WORKERS at Corus plants across Britain were waiting anxiously at the start of this week to find out if their jobs were for the chop. The Anglo-Dutch company Corus had told its workforce that up to 4,000 jobs would go as part of a "restructuring package" to boost profits.
A FULL-scale rebellion came closer at the English National Opera last week. The head of music, Tony Legge, quit his job as part of a growing revolt over management plans to cut staff. Musicians have been told they face cuts just weeks after the ENO chorus went on strike against the axing of one third of their jobs. The chorus plan a second strike on 3 April.
AROUND 30,000 postal workers in London begin a consultative ballot on 31 March for action over the London weighting allowance. The region is acting because the national union has refused to launch the campaign. MARK DOLAN, a north London branch official, explains why CWU members should vote yes for action.
This year's women's TUC conference in Liverpool was the angriest I have attended. Throughout the conference, opposition to government policies on issues such as equality legislation, pensions, privatisation and the firefighters' dispute was linked again and again to the senseless waste of lives and resources in a war.
BBC STAFF fighting for the reinstatement of journalists Adli Hawwari and Abdul Hadi Jiad have stepped up their campaign. World Service bosses sacked the journalists on 19 February in an attempt to silence two outspoken critics of BBC management. Adli and Abdul Hadi have played a leading role in campaigning against racism and bullying in the BBC.
GUARDS IN the RMT union on ten companies are to strike for 24 hours on Friday 28 March, Monday 31 March and Thursday 17 April after talks failed to secure their safety role.
THE COMMITTEE to Defend Asylum Seekers is raising £10,000 to publish its open letter condemning racist hysteria toward asylum seekers. The CDAS plans to publicise the letter at the end of April during the May election campaign.
THE TORIES and the government are using the cover of war to launch an attack on the firefighters which threatens the freedom of every worker in Britain. Tory defence spokesperson Bernard Jenkins, government ministers and the media are attempting to witch-hunt the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).
THE most scaremongering excuse for war has turned out to be the biggest lie the US and British governments have yet cooked up. They claimed Iraq was on the brink of developing nuclear weapons. That accusation was a central part of the "dossier" Tony Blair published on 24 September last year.
CRISIS IS gripping the Labour Party as Blair drives towards war. Cabinet minister Clare Short attacked the prime minister as "reckless", and threatened to resign if Blair went to war without United Nations backing. In ordinary times that would be enough for instant sacking from her cabinet job. Yet as Socialist Worker went to press Blair had not dared move against his Overseas Development Secretary.
JAILED EGYPTIAN anti-war activists have been freed. Most had been held in jail since an anti-war demonstration in the capital, Cairo, in January. Some, like Kemal Khalil, a leader of Egypt's anti-war movement, had been kidnapped by undercover police. All had been held without charge.
A SERIES of disputes have broken out as employers, including at BAE Systems, Peugeot and the Birmingham Evening Mail, try to make workers pay more for their pensions. Management threaten that unless workers accept pay cuts then pension "final salary" schemes - which offer improved benefits - will be ditched.
