PRIVATE FIRM ISS Mediclean has once again been forced to make an improved offer for low paid health workers because of threatened strike action. The firm has offered all ancillary workers at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride a minimum wage of £5 per hour - the rate the workers were demanding. ISS Mediclean has also offered workers improved weekend, night shift and sick pay entitlements - something it had previously refused to negotiate on.
STRIKING RAIL workers on Arriva Trains Northern led an 800-strong march in Newcastle on Saturday called by the Public Sector Alliance. Other delegations included firefighters, postal workers (with a significant delegation from Oxfordshire), GMB and Unison union members, further education college lecturers, university lecturers, anti-war activists and others.
What you think - a forum for activists to discuss the struggle
WORKERS ON the press and paintline section at Raven Manufacturing near Burnley were on strike again last Monday in their sixth week of action. The workers, who are paid only £5.08 an hour, are fighting for a decent pay rise. Management met the workers recently but refused to budge from its claims that no more money is available, despite a full order book. Meanwhile solidarity with the Raven strikers continues to grow.
UNIVERSITY staff across London have voted overwhelmingly for a one-day strike next Thursday, 14 November. The strike is the latest step in the campaign against the employers' ten-year freeze of the London weighting allowance. During this time transport costs in the capital have risen by over 50 percent and property prices by over 150 percent.
WE'VE WON a brilliant victory in Bridgwater, Somerset, after a seven-day unofficial strike. Around 130 of us walked out for a shorter working week, for overtime rates when we cover for workers in emergencies, and for an end to management bullying and harassment.
RMT MEMBERS on Arriva Trains Northern struck for the 22nd time in their long-running pay dispute on Saturday. "We have issued four more strike dates for next month," one member of the strike committee told Socialist Worker, "21, 23, 24 and 31 December. "That is our answer to Arriva's attempt to break us. Our strikes in December are aimed to hit Arriva hard. But we will need financial support from other trade unionists to sustain such strikes so close to Christmas."
MARK HARDING, a driver on London Underground and a member of the RMT union, won an important legal victory over union representation last week. The decision in favour of the RMT at his employment appeals tribunal has implications for members of every union. Mark explained to Socialist Worker:
CIVIL SERVANTS in the PCS civil servants' union in the Department of Work and Pensions in central and west London have voted by a 70 percent margin to take strike action. The strike is in defence of branch secretary Chris Ford and leading activist Phil Henry.
THE NAZI BNP is standing in a council by-election in Blackburn, east Lancashire. The vote, in the Mill Hill ward, takes place on 21 November. During the campaign the BNP has been stirring up racism and targeting asylum seekers. This propaganda is particularly disgusting because it is going out in an area where three asylum seekers were attacked, two of them hospitalised.
BUS WORKERS in Orpington, Kent, walked out on strike on Wednesday of last week in solidarity with a fellow driver. They are employed by Metrobus, which covers routes in the south east and south coast of Britain. The management came down hard on a woman driver after a minor accident while she was driving.
