BUS DRIVERS employed by Stagecoach's Bluebird company in north east Scotland began balloting last week for a strike over pay. The 340 workers are calling for a pay rise in line with workers on Stagecoach's rival firm First Group.
STEEL WORKERS at three plants owned by the Caparo Group are determined to fight to save their pension schemes. The Caparo Group aims to freeze its final salary pension scheme, effectively stealing the contributions workers have built up over the decades. The dispute is crucial to the tens of thousands of other workers facing similar attacks.
UNISON UNION members in further education colleges are to ballot on strikes over pay. The 25,000 support staff have rejected a 2.3 percent pay rise, worth as little as 13p extra an hour for some workers. They are demanding a "substantial" increase that would see all support staff in England and Wales on at least £11,000 a year.
THOUSANDS OF call centre workers across the north west of England could ballot from next week for strikes over threats to their jobs. They work for Reality, which is part of the retail and business multinational company Great Universal Stores.
THE MOOD for a serious fight over pay in the fire brigade is hotting up. Members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) were to march in Swansea this Saturday and the union has called further demonstrations on the Isle of Wight and in Belfast next week.
TUBE WORKERS are to hold a swift ballot for strike action over pay after management broke off talks and imposed a settlement. The move comes as the government presses ahead with its PPP privatisation scheme and follows a highly effective one-day strike by RMT union members on the tube over safety last month.
RAIL WORKERS' action over pay has spread to include three rail companies - First North Western, Arriva Trains Northern and Arriva Trains Merseyside - all in the north of England.
TENANTS IN Merton, South London, have voted against the mass transfer of council housing to a housing association. Some 52 percent of tenants voted against on a 66 percent turnout. It was proposed that all Merton's 9,600 council homes should be transferred.
JOURNALISTS AT the Rotherham Advertiser start a one-week strike from Saturday 24 August over low pay. The 13 NUJ union members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strikes in a ballot. The NUJ chapel (union branch) rejected a 2.3 percent offer from the owner Garnett Dickinson Publishing. The chapel has put in a claim for a 10 percent rise.
DEFIANT STRIKES by 300 workers at Glasgow Royal Infirmary have defeated Sodexho, a brutal multinational that operates in 72 countries. The inspiring news came through on Monday that six days of strikes had forced massive concessions from the firm.
MORE WORKERS are joining the ongoing strike against privatisation at Westminster council in central London. Around 250 workers are now striking against the council's privatisation plans. The Tory-run council plans to privatise up to 80 percent of services. But the workforce is making a stand.
