TUBE WORKERS took their fight against the privatisation of London Underground onto the streets last Tuesday. The RMT union's campaign for a yes vote in the ballot for strike action was kicked off by Bob Crow.
A STRIKE by hundreds of workers in the PCS and Prospect civil servants' unions closed the British Museum in central London on Monday of this week. They were protesting against £6.5 million of cuts which will lead to the loss of 150 jobs-15 percent of the workforce. "After two other periods of redundancies it was time to make a stand," said Hadrian Ellory-Vandecker, the Prospect representative in the museum. "Management will be cutting back on essential services-there will be gallery closures. There will be a large number of compulsory redundancies. It's appalling." "This is the first time in its 250-year history that the Museum has been closed by industrial action," said Annette C
LINCOLNSHIRE Free Press and Spalding Guardian journalists have just embarked on a 20-day strike. This latest action comes after two five-day strikes proved unsuccessful at getting management talking. Our salaries and recognition of our professional skills and experience have been eroded over many years.
Solidarity at the chalk face THE UNISON union strike made last week one of the most exciting I have ever experienced. I called a NUT union meeting on Tuesday, and 40 people turned up to decide our action. There was a fantastic discussion, and an emergency staff meeting was held on Thursday.
THE firefighters' FBU union leaders have been campaigning for unity in the fight to win a £30,000 wage. But right in the middle of the campaign they have suspended two union officials. Joe McVeigh and Neale Williams have been suspended following allegations of electoral irregularity in the Bowgate branch of the FBU. The accusations concern the ongoing election for the London delegate to the national council.
ANOTHER 17,000 job losses in the post and a disgracefully lacklustre response from union leaders. That was the bad news for postal workers last week. Workers are being asked to pay for mistakes by the bosses, and the government's crazed commitment to the market and privatisation. The bosses used gross lies to justify the job losses.
THE SOCIALIST Alliance is holding a recall conference for trade union activists on 29 June. It is a chance to discuss how to take our campaign to democratise the trade union political funds forward. This comes as the Labour right wing campaigns to block moves to give members a democratic say in how their political fund is allocated.
TWO SMALL independent bookshops, Housmans and Bookmarks, are fighting the threat of a libel case. They face a case brought by someone criticised in Searchlight magazine in 1993. The shops' defence is based on the impossibility of small bookshops taking responsibility for what is in the thousands of publications they stock.
THE CHART-topping band Chumbawamba launched an attack on the BNP, after announcing they would play in the Anti Nazi League (ANL) concert in Burnley on 27 June.
THE INQUEST into the death of Harry Stanley opened last Monday. Harry was shot dead by police as he walked home from a pub in Hackney, east London. No criminal charges are being brought against the police as a result of Harry's death.
