WORKERS AT Addis in Swansea voted unanimously this week to reject the company's demand that they take a 5 percent pay cut. Addis, a German-owned firm which makes household goods, tried to do what Peugeot did.
WORKERS AT Addis in Swansea voted unanimously this week to reject the company's demand that they take a 5 percent pay cut. Addis, a German-owned firm which makes household goods, tried to do what Peugeot did.
THE PCS civil servants' union conference in Blackpool last week revealed the depth of anger that the people who are forced to implement government policy feel towards New Labour.
THOUSANDS OF people attended the biggest Durham Miners Gala in over a decade on Saturday of last week. The event was co-sponsored by the National Union of Mineworkers and the Unison union. It attracted the support of many other trade unions, including the RMT, Aslef and Usdaw.
OVER 70 pickets were out on Monday morning at Royal Bolton Hospital as workers began their latest three-day strike over pay. The 150 workers are fighting for £5.60 an hour minimum for porters and £5 for domestics. They are employed by ISS Mediclean, one of the biggest NHS contractors.
MEMBERS OF Leeds NUT union were set to strike on Thursday of this week after an 81 percent ballot in favour of action over the threat of compulsory redundancies. Some schools will be closing as a result of the action and picket lines are being planned across the city.
PROTESTERS from Camden Stop the War Coalition staged a picket outside Alastair Campbell's Camden house last week. It was in response to the publication of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report, which cleared Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell of any involvement in "sexing up" the evidence to justify war in Iraq.
WORK ON a "wall" in Manchester to symbolise the wall of silence in the West over Palestinian rights started at 11am in front of the town hall last Saturday. Cardboard boxes were collected, banners were made and declarations, photos and Palestinian flags stuck onto the boxes. The demonstration started at 2pm. We carried the boxes to the square in front of Manchester town hall. Together we built the wall.
THE WORKERS at Remploy, the government-aided company that mainly employs disabled workers, have given Remploy's final wage offer a massive 70 percent rejection. This comes after underhand bully-boy tactics from the board. The 5,700 workers are members of several unions - the biggest is the GMB, but some are in the TGWU, GPMU and KFAT.
THE RESULT of the vote by workers at Peugeot's car plant in Ryton, just outside Coventry, was released last week. The management offered them a "choice" - vote for a pay cut or 700 jobs will be axed. The workers voted 1,580 to 799 votes for the pay cut.
The film Etre et Avoir (To Be and To Have) should be required watching for all New Labour politicians. It might enlighten those who believe education can be reduced to a barracks regime of testing designed to fit young people for the needs of employers. Etre et Avoir follows in great detail the life of a real school in the French countryside. The school is tiny so there are children from four years old to ten in a single classroom.
LOVE MUSIC Hate Racism has organised a tour to raise awareness about the need to stand up to the divisive poison of the Nazi BNP. The inaugural tour features three young bands, Miss Black America, Antihero, and Cultural Ice Age.
AROUND 700 bus workers in Exeter and south and east Devon struck for two days last week. This followed a 93 percent vote in favour of industrial action. Strikers, members of the RMT union, want £6.50 per hour minimum and one hour off the 41-hour week. Stagecoach bosses are offering £7 per hour but that's tied to the loss of paid meal breaks, reduction of holiday entitlement from five to four weeks per year and unpaid work time for daily vehicle checks, walking time from the depot and cashing up.
