THE FIRST North Western (FNW) train company, which runs services in the north west of England, admitted it had to cancel 1,500 trains at the weekend as drivers staged their fourth 48-hour strike over pay. "The action is biting," driver Steve West told Socialist Worker. "But many people are asking why we've gone for two days instead of seven, which would really hurt management.
THE GLOVES are off in the battle on London Underground. Management was set to table a revised offer on Thursday of this week. This is partly designed to divide the tube unions. Last week's strike by members of the RMT and Aslef unions was at least as solid as the one the week before.
THE government-appointed regulator for postal services has come up with madcap proposals which could give bosses an excuse to cut another 5,000 jobs. Graham Corbett, the head of Postcomm, says the price of stamps can rise by 1p but at the same time the average price of all mail products must be 29.1p. This would mean cuts in prices for services such as special delivery and the loss of up to £500 million in revenue.
SOME 3,000 people demonstrated outside Stobhill Hospital and Victoria Infirmary on Saturday of last week against Greater Glasgow Health Board's plans for health services in the city. The Victoria Infirmary in the south and Stobhill in the north of the city are both to lose their accident and emergency and inpatient services.
The European Social Forum (ESF) will be the first Europe-wide gathering of the growing movements against neo-liberalism, racism and war. Tens of thousands of people will gather to discuss, debate and organise. There will also be a major united European demonstration against war. The ESF is for everyone who cares about the future of our planet, everyone who believes a better world is possible and necessary.
THE INQUIRY set up by the government to head off the pay campaign by firefighters and control room staff is a sham, and the words of one of its members show it. Sir Tony Young is a former president of the TUC and is on the inquiry team imposed by New Labour.
TONY BLAIR last week declared war on workers fighting for better pay. He laid into tube workers for daring to be in the forefront of a growing revolt over pay and for standing up to a management that is hell-bent on privatisation. On the same day, he said the pay claim put forward by firefighters and emergency fire control operators was "unrealistic" and would "damage the economy".
A HARD anti-war position was very nearly voted for at the Labour Party's conference in Blackpool on Monday of this week. If just a few big unions had changed their votes then Bush's most trusted ally, Tony Blair, would have had his war policy totally rejected by his own party. Some 40 percent of the conference voted to totally reject any military action against Iraq.
STRIKES ARE back in the Post Office. The anger against management last week burst through the union leaders' efforts to hold it back. A quarter of the Post Office's cash handling network was closed by unofficial walkouts at the beginning of last week as CWU union members reacted angrily to a management briefing.
UNISON MEMBERS facing Britain's biggest PFI project have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action against an attempt to break their union. In a consultative ballot 78 percent voted to back an official strike ballot demanding the reinstatement of their union branch secretary, Phil Billows. Phil was suspended for spearheading a campaign against the huge PFI project at the Royal London and Barts NHS trust.
