PROTESTERS OPPOSED to the government's treatment of refugees lobbied a Labour Party regional policy forum in Canterbury last Saturday. The meeting was attended by around 80 invited party members, three Kent Labour MPs and transport minister John Spellar. Tom MacGowan, a spokesperson for Kent Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers (CDAS), said, "We handed out an open letter calling for opposition to racist government policies on asylum seekers.
CWU union leaders held back calls for a more combative response to attacks from Post Office management at the annual conference last week. But, because delegates were furious about management's assaults, the union leaders had to make occasional signs of militancy. Deputy general secretary John Keggie ordered the expulsion of the Royal Mail observers from the hall in response to news that some delegates were facing disciplinary charges for attending the conference.
MEMBERS OF the National Union of Teachers (NUT) at St Paul's Way School in east London face an outrageous attack from their own union leaders for standing in solidarity with other workers at the school. NUT members refused to cross Unison union picket lines set up by support staff during a recent London-wide two-day strike.
STRIKES OVER low pay by journalists on the Lincolnshire Free Press and Spalding Guardian have started to bite. Members of the journalists' NUJ union extended their action-which is now in its fifth week-after two earlier five-day strikes failed to get management talking. New talks with the Johnson Press owned group began as Socialist Worker went to press.
Labour lord steel pensions rip off STEEL WORKERS at the Caparo Steel Group in Scunthorpe, owned by Labour peer Lord Paul, are to take industrial action to defend their pensions. The company wants to replace a final salary pension scheme with a stakeholder scheme, which would leave workers' pensions dependent on the ups and downs of the stockmarket.
"IT'S TIME for ordinary men and women to stand up and be counted. We are struggling for every worker against the employers in Britain and Ireland." That is the message from Gordon McNeill, a shop steward in the TGWU union at Belfast International Airport. Gordon and 23 other security workers have been sacked for striking against poverty wages.
UP TO 600 workers at Arriva buses in Northumberland staged a 24-hour strike last Friday. The strike follows an 84 percent vote in favour of industrial action in a postal ballot.
CRAIG JOHNSON from the Arriva trains strike committee received a standing ovation when he addressed the RMT union's national conference two weeks ago. He spoke the day before the train company was brought to a halt by a one-day strike.
THE SOCIALIST Alliance is organising a national conference to discuss how to vote in any future referendum on joining the single currency. Two motions have been submitted so far. One argues for a vote against joining the single currency, and has been submitted by Will McMahon, John Rees, Alan Thornett, Weyman Bennett and Rob Hoveman.
THE RIGHT wing coup inside the PCS civil servants' union looks like it could be backfiring. Barry Reamsbottom, the outgoing general secretary, and his misnamed "Moderate" supporters attempted at the end of May to depose Mark Serwotka, the elected general secretary.
SUPPORT FOR the left wing candidate in the AEEU-Amicus union leadership election is growing as the contest enters its last week. The ballot ends on Friday of next week. Derek Simpson is the left wing challenger to Ken Jackson. His challenge has already provoked an alarmed response from New Labour.
LONDON'S airports could be hit by strike action over the busy summer holiday period. Workers at the handling agents Aviance have rejected a measly 1.5 percent pay offer and are now being balloted for action.
