Hundreds of workers at Manchester airport voted unanimously last Saturday to go on all-out strike in their battle over pay. The vote was held at a mass meeting of 350 strikers at the airport. The security staff, members of the TGWU union, held a four-day stoppage that halted services over the lucrative Easter holidays.
Council workers in London are to ballot on a one-day strike on 14 May over pay. The workers are demanding a rise in the London weighting allowance, which covers the extra costs of working and living in the capital. They want £4,000 a year, a modest demand compared to the £6,000 allowance the police get.
Council workers in Cardiff struck on Wednesday of last week to defend a colleague who was sacked after speaking out over the underfunding of children's services in the city. Some 3,200 members of the Unison union took part in the strike, which closed offices and hit services across Cardiff.
"The Labour Party is more pro-business, pro wealth creation and pro-competition than ever before." That was chancellor Gordon Brown's shocking description last week of what he and Tony Blair have turned the Labour Party into. Brown was trying to reassure big business that the government would continue to look after their interests, despite widespread opposition to New Labour's embrace of privatisation.
The Labour Party is finding it almost impossible to find enthusiastic members to fight its local election campaign on 2 May. A Guardian article last week gave a glimpse of the widespread disillusion inside the Labour Party:
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The Tories think they can rebuild their fortunes by playing on people's fear of crime. Those fears have been fanned by the wave of crime stories in the tabloid papers. Papers like the Mail, the Sun and even the self proclaimed "socialist" Mirror have pumped out lurid tales of a country gripped by an epidemic of violent crime.
Socialist Worker sellers hit the streets last week with the Stop the War Coalition's statement, "Don't Attack Iraq". They met with a brilliant response right across the country, with thousands signing, and hundreds of people taking away copies from street stalls to use at work and college.
This year's May Day looks set to offer anti-war and anti-privatisation activists across Britain a chance to take to the streets. The Greater London Trades Union Congress organises a march in London every year. Now trade unions have joined forces with Globalise Resistance to unite the labour movement and anti-capitalist activists.
Rail Workers are taking strides forward in the battle for decent pay. But some companies are trying to tough out union action. Rail workers on Arriva were set to strike at the end of this week, and to be joined by strikers on the Tyne and Wear Metro next week.
A 350-STRONG conference in support of refugees took place in Manchester last Saturday. Suresh Grover from the National Civil Rights Movement summed up the mood at the opening session. He said:
Some 180 trade unionists attended a conference on Saturday called by the South East Region of the TUC (Sertuc) in London in defence of public services. There was not only unanimous condemnation of privatisation but also a strong feeling that unions should be coordinating action to stop it.
