Everything is going up in price. Inflation is up to 4.4 percent, even on the figures that the government uses. That’s more than twice what Gordon Brown insists public sector workers’ pay rises should be.
Today, in the latest challenge to Gordon Brown’s curbs on wages, over 150,000 council workers in Scotland are striking against a below-inflation three year deal.
Around 60 council workers in the Unison union in Haringey, north London, walked out of work on Tuesday of last week after two union activists were suspended.
Workers in East North East Homes Leeds held a successful day of strike action in defence of their Unison union convenor John McDermott, who has been suspended from work.
Around 5,000 members of the PCS civil service workers’ union are to join the Scottish local government workers in striking over pay on Wednesday of this week.
Cleaners for the Eurostar trains in London are set to strike on Monday of next week after they voted 100 percent for action over pay. They work for the OCS contractor and get just £6.37 an hour.
Over 1,000 workers in the RMT transport workers’ union at Southeastern Trains are to begin a ballot for action this week over two different issues. Almost 500 guards, drivers and customer service hosts are to be balloted over management plans to reduce the safety role of the guard and extend the driver-only operation.
This week sees a major battle on London Underground as around 1,000 maintenance workers strike over pay and conditions at the privatised Tube Lines consortium.
Hammaad Munshi became the youngest person convicted under the Terrorism Act this week. He was under police surveillance from the age of 16 and was found guilty along with two other men of "making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism".
