Issues

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Issue - 1859
Dated - 12 Jul 2003
Rank and file took the lead in France

THE STRIKES in France during May and June were amazing. Some people have compared them to the public sector workers' strikes of December 1995. In many ways they were better. On 13 May, for example, there were at least eight million on strike.

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Rank and file took the lead in France

THE STRIKES in France during May and June were amazing. Some people have compared them to the public sector workers' strikes of December 1995. In many ways they were better. On 13 May, for example, there were at least eight million on strike.
12 July 2003
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Strikers battle against low pay misery in NHS

HOSPITAL WORKERS in Bolton were set to be on strike again this week against one of the NHS's biggest private contractors, ISS Mediclean. They planned to strike on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and another three days next week.
12 July 2003
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‘We stayed on strike till we won’

"WE FOUGHT for our principles and we're overjoyed!" Isabel and Sophia were celebrating on Friday of last week in Tower Hamlets, east London. They and over 100 other nursery workers had just heard of their stunning victory - one that should be a model and a lesson for every trade unionist. Three weeks of all-out indefinite strike had humbled the New Labour council and forced it to retreat on all the key issues at the centre of the fight.
12 July 2003
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Anti-war

SHEFFIELD: More than 300 people attended a public rally with George Galloway last week, called by Sheffield Stop the War Coalition and supported by Sheffield trades council amongst others. Phil Turner
12 July 2003
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Mancat

SOME 80 trade unionists from Natfhe, Unison, PCS, FBU, Usdaw and Amicus marched with their banners in Manchester last Saturday. The march was over the bullying of staff at the Mancat college. One department with 20 posts has seen 35 pass through it in two years. The management made an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss the branch secretary last year. Now the college has declared compulsory redundancies in the trade union education unit, which includes a number of union branch activists.
12 July 2003
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London weighting

"WE ARE out because we are low paid and we deserve more." That was the simple message from pickets at Old Palace School in Tower Hamlets, east London, last week. They and hundreds more staff employed by local councils across London were out on strike all week as part of the fight to win a decent London weighting allowance.
12 July 2003
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Buses

SEVEN HUNDRED Stagecoach bus drivers in Exeter and east Devon struck on Tuesday of this week after a 93 percent vote for action over pay. The drivers, who are almost all members of the RMT union, are currently on between £5.50 and £5.93 an hour for a 41-hour week. They are calling for a minimum £6.50 an hour and a one-hour reduction in the working week. This is the first strike by bus drivers in Exeter for 30 years.
12 July 2003
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Final salary pensions

THE THREAT of strike action by bus workers on Wiltshire and Dorset buses has forced the company to withdraw its plan to shut the final salary pension scheme. The 460 workers, members of the RMT union, were due to strike last month. The workers will keep the final salary pension scheme and their contributions will increase by 1 percent to a total of 6 percent. The company's contribution to the scheme is 10.5 percent.
12 July 2003
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Imperial Home Decor

THE AREA of Darwen in Lancashire has been devastated by the announcement of 177 job losses at the Imperial Home Decor Group (IHDG). On Tuesday of last week the workers were assembled and individually picked out for redundancy.
12 July 2003
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Left sweeps board, democracy returns

PCS CIVIL servants' union members were celebrating a historic victory for democracy as their union conference began on Tuesday of this week. The Democracy slate of the socialist Left Unity group and the centre-left PCS Democrats swept the national executive elections last week. It won 34 of 43 positions.
12 July 2003
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Labour left meeting

THE INCREASING anger among Labour Party members at Tony Blair saw some 400 people gather at a conference on Saturday organised by the Labour left. The bulk of those at the "Save Our Party" conference, called by the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, have spent many years inside the Labour Party. John McDonnell MP spoke of "the level of discontent, disillusion and lack of trust in the New Labour leadership."
12 July 2003
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Anger in Camden

"THE TESTS have got to go. I would be personally willing for my children not to do them." That's what headteacher Angie Tate told a packed meeting in Camden, north London, last week.
12 July 2003