THE NATFHE union's special further education (FE) sector conference has voted unanimously for escalating strike action if the employers fail to make an acceptable offer at their meeting with the FE unions next Wednesday. The strikes last May and November were crucial to getting the government to put extra money into colleges.
THE executive of the health sector of public sector union Unison delivered a surprising blow to the government's attempt to drive through a rotten three-year pay deal for NHS staff. The government wants all health workers to accept a three year 10 percent pay deal, worth just 3.2 percent a year.
BUS STRIKES in Norwich have been suspended after management made workers a new offer last week. Some 350 drivers working for the First Group firm in the town recently went on strike for seven days in protest at being made to work longer driving hours. The strike was solid and workers held lively picket lines, stopping some agency workers from going into work.
THERE WILL be local council elections in many parts of England outside London on Thursday 1 May. A number of Socialist Alliances, including Birmingham, Bristol and Colchester, have already selected some candidates. Many more Socialist Alliances will be selecting candidates over the next few weeks.
GLOBALISE Resistance hosted an important meeting last Sunday. It was attended by activists and representatives from NGOs, trade unions, campaigns and local Globalise Resistance groups. The outcome was a calendar of actions around issues and events for the year ahead. DESPINA MAVROU
AROUND 2,500 train drivers working for the freight company English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) are to strike over pay and hours. They include workers who have recently blocked ammunition trains in Scotland. The workers are members of Aslef and voted overwhelmingly for action in a ballot. Strikes have been set for four Saturdays-1,8,15,22 February.
PROBATION OFFICERS in England and Wales are set to take a one-day strike on Wednesday 29 January. This comes after an overwhelming vote for industrial action by members of the Napo union.
FRIENDS AND campaigners were angered by the news that SWP member Tham Sarki was detained on Friday 17 January and is facing deportation. Tham is an asylum seeker from Nepal and is currently studying at Lewisham College in south London.
"It was a political protest over the threat to attack Iraq. It was a sign that as individuals and workers we were not prepared to be part of a murderous war, a conscientious objection to helping kill Iraqi civilians."
THE GOVERNMENT is racked by divisions over university tuition fees. Top universities and Downing Street advisers want colleges to be able to charge students thousands of pounds to study. They want to hit students with a triple whammy-over £1,000 upfront to take up a college place, three years surviving with no grant, and then up to £3,000 in "top-up" fees when they have finished at college.
HYSTERIA GREETED the arrest of seven people after the toxin ricin was found in a north London flat. Newspapers howled about "poison factories" run by asylum seekers bent on mass destruction.
Is this the future for thousands more? "MANAGEMENT'S message was 'Happy New Year and you're sacked', 'Season's greetings, you're stuffed'." Harry McCarthy is a bitter man. He's one of 500 people thrown on the dole by Fullarton Computer Industries in Gourock, 20 miles from Glasgow. Without warning, the company locked the workforce out and told them not to come back after the Christmas holidays.
