TRADE UNIONISTS in west London are organising to raise solidarity with the Sky Chefs workers in the run up to Xmas. They are calling on everyone-trade unionists, campaign groups, etc-to collect money to take to the picket line on Sunday 19 December. The 270 workers were sacked by Lufthansa just over one year ago for taking part in a legal one day strike.
Sheffield A SHEFFIELD council worker has won his industrial tribunal case over disciplinary measures taken against him for his trade union activities. Paul Page works for private company CSL in Sheffield council's financial services section. The workers had been privatised by the Labour council, which lost office to the Liberals in last May's elections.
TONY BLAIR constantly talks about "modernising". But the reality for many workers is of employers threatening to turn the clock back to the days when workers had no sick leave, no maternity leave and few holidays. Workers in two London councils hit back against these Victorian-style employers this week.
POSTAL workers across Britain are angry at Royal Mail's plans to make them work harder and for less money this Christmas. Management has tried to push through Christmas arrangements that claw back on overtime, concentrate the mail on fewer deliveries and squeeze staffing numbers and conditions. The result is that a remarkable 130 areas across Britain have demanded strike ballots.
RIGHT ACROSS the world people protested against capitalism this week. Their target was the World Trade Organisation. Tens of thousands marching in Seattle were attacked by police. Across France tens of thousands joined marches like the one shown here in Paris. In London and other cities across Britain people staged protests. Similar protests took place from Brazil to Bangladesh, from Argentina to Australia.
THE US city of Seattle was deeply divided on Tuesday. Police with armed personnel carriers waded into peaceful protesters. It was the first use of teargas and rubber bullets in Seattle since the Vietnam War. Even Glenys Kinnock was shocked at the police violence. She talked of the "extraordinary over-reaction of the police".
JOHN PRESCOTT has junked any idea of cutting the number of cars on Britain's roads. In a complete U-turn, Prescott announced the speeding up of the government's programme of road building schemes. Any idea of creating an environmentally safe and cheap integrated transport system has gone out of the window.
AN EXCELLENT 50 copies of Socialist Worker were sold to pickets during last week's Wandsworth council strike, while 29 papers were sold to striking postal workers during their unofficial strike in Glasgow. Socialist Worker readers in the post produced two copies of a strike bulletin.
FORD WORKERS have voted to accept the company's revised pay and hours offer - but only just. Workers voted to accept the three year deal by 54.5 percent to 45.5 percent. The vote was 8,016 votes for the deal and 6,696 against.
"BRUCE BUCKLEY, hear us shout - electronic tagging, out, out, out!" That was the message from around 500 home helps and their supporters to the director of Derbyshire social services as they marched through Chesterfield last Saturday.
THE FIGHT for the leadership of Britain's biggest union will be between a candidate wanting to cosy up to the government and a socialist standing against the attacks from New Labour. The election is a result of current UNISON leader Rodney Bickerstaffe's decision to stand down.
DELEGATES FROM the PTC civil service union met in Scarborough last week against a backdrop of continuing low pay and government attacks. The delegates were split up into their "groups", such as Inland Revenue, Employment Service (ES), and so on.
