TRADE UNIONISTS on Merseyside held a benefit night for the sacked Friction Dynamics workers last week. It raised over £5,000. The workers, members of the TGWU union, were sacked by the boss of their factory in Gwynedd, North Wales, over 15 months ago.
OVER 5,000 firefighters and control room staff marched in Glasgow on Monday as part of the Britain-wide campaign over pay. It was a brilliantly colourful and noisy protest with big delegations from London, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Ireland and many other places. Many of those present said that it was "not like a trade union demo-it was more like the sort of thing they do in Europe".
AROUND 200 workers at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary could be on strike next week. The planned action follows a 95 percent vote for action. The porters, domestics, security and catering workers are employed by Sodexho. This company made money from the asylum voucher system. It pays workers at the infirmary as little as £4.10 an hour.
UNIVERSITY STAFF are being consulted over a new pay offer. It is for a basic rise of 3.2 percent plus another 0.3 percent on average for transferring to a new pay scale. Lecturers and academic-related staff in the AUT and Natfhe unions will be consulted on the offer as will administrative staff in Unison.
JOURNALISTS at the Mirror-owned Newcastle Chronicle and Journal planned their first day's strike action for this Thursday in a dispute over pay. Another strike is scheduled for next Thursday. The strike is the latest in a wave of action on regional newspapers across Britain.
ANTI-DEPORTATION campaigners will be holding a vigil at the Home Office in London next Thursday to highlight the case of Aziz Ahmed and his family. Aziz, a political refugee from East Africa, has been held in detention for over a year, in four different centres.
A HUGELY successful strike by London's tube workers last week has shown they have the power to stop New Labour's crazy PPP privatisation scheme. Members of the RMT union struck for 24 hours from 8pm on Wednesday. The same day hundreds of thousands of council workers walked out. The strike hit London Underground management hard.
PREPARATIONS ARE gathering pace for the European Social Forum (ESF) in Florence, Italy, from 7 to 10 November. The ESF is modelled on the World Social Forum that met in Porto Alegre, Brazil, this year and last. It will be a focus for those resisting capitalist globalisation everywhere in Europe.
THE PAY revolt on the railways is growing. Drivers on First North Western Trains are set to strike in their fight for decent pay. Aslef members on First North Western have voted to strike after rejecting a 3.5 percent offer. They plan three 48-hour strikes-on 28 and 29 July, 4 and 5 August, and 11 and 12 August.
AROUND 1,500 airport staff at London's key airports have voted nine to one in favour of strikes this summer. The staff work for Aviance, which deals with many airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Monarch, Singapore Airlines and Easyjet. Some 80 percent of their work is at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
OVER 350 tanker drivers who work for P&O Trans European are considering a new pay offer. It was put forward at the last moment to halt a planned three-day strike. The drivers deliver petrol and other fuels under contract for Shell. An extended stoppage would see petrol stations running out of supplies. Pickets were gathering at 13 depots across Britain as news came though that the strike had been called off.
