CIVIL SERVANTS in the PCS union working for DEFRA, the merged former ministry of agriculture and the department of the environment, have voted for strike action over pay disparities. Some 1,677 to 845 voted in favour of striking in a 50 percent turnout. Some 2,048 to 465 voted in favour of action short of a strike.
COMPANY BOSSES have doubled their pay in the last ten years. So have barristers. Top civil servants have seen their pay jump by 55 percent in ten years, judges by 58 percent. The people whose work keeps public services going have had no such bonanza. The gap between those at the top and the rest of us has soared. A decade ago top managers at big companies grabbed four times the average wage. Now they get almost six times the average.
TONY BLAIR'S dossier to justify war against Iraq is a rehash of well worn lies, baseless speculation and exaggerated claims. It has taken his government a year to come up with this document. Nothing in it adds one ounce to the weight of the warmongers' case.
RAIL WORKERS on two major companies are stepping up strike action over pay and looking to coordinate their disputes. Drivers in the Aslef and RMT unions on First North Western (FNW) are to strike for 48 hours every weekend from now until the end of November. Guards and station staff in the RMT on Arriva Trains Northern struck for the 19th time on Saturday. Action by both groups of workers will hit services across the whole of the north of England.
THE POST Office has announced it is going to privatise another major section. Management wants to hand over the CHD cash handling and distribution business to Securicor. The move will affect 3,000 workers. Around 200 CHD staff at Canning Town in east London walked out in protest on Monday after the plans were unveiled.
HOSPITAL cleaners, porters and receptionists employed by private contractor ISS Mediclean in the Swansea NHS Trust have voted by 96 percent to take strike action. They are fighting for a pay rise that would give them the same pay deal as colleagues employed directly by the NHS.
AN INDEFINITE strike by bus drivers was set to begin in the Edinburgh region this week. Over 1,300 drivers are facing a hostile management that is determined to defeat the workforce.
LIVERPOOL council lifted the suspensions and the threat of sacking to a Unison union convenor and a senior shop steward last week. This was a terrific victory. The convenor and steward were both suspended two weeks ago and this was seen as a direct attack on union organisation.
OVER 100 members of the GMB union at William Freeman Ltd in Barnsley struck for their second one-day strike on Thursday of last week. They are demanding a 4 percent pay rise. This is the first strike in the company's history.
