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THE TGWU, Amicus and GMB unions have called a march and rally to save Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in Coventry.

THERE WAS cheering, waving and much beeping of horns last Friday when over 340 GMB union members at the Edrington whisky group in Glasgow walked out on strike.

Pressure forces reinstatement MANAGEMENT and GMB union officials claim that the long-running dispute in the Brighton and Hove refuse collection service is at an end after an agreement was signed last week. Intensive talks between the union and management followed an overwhelming vote for strike action in response to enforced changes in working practices that saw 11 workers suspended.

AROUND 500 manufacturing workers marched through Birmingham on Saturday on a march called by the TGWU, GMB, Amicus and other trade unions. They were marching to protest against the decline of manufacturing industry. Contingents from Land Rover, Vauxhall, Alstom and other workplaces in the Midlands marched behind their union banners.

OVER ONE million local government workers could be heading for a major pay battle. Last week both sides in the negotiations over the local government pay and conditions deal upped the ante. The giant Unison, TGWU and GMB unions agreed to consult their members over the deal and possible action unless the employers back down before 21 May. The employers issued a press release saying that they would stand firm over their offer of a derisory 7 percent over 3 years.

KEVIN CURRAN, the general secretary of the GMB union, disgracefully praised Gordon Brown's job cuts plans. Curran said, "The chancellor has bravely negotiated cuts in Whitehall departments that will ensure that public service investment reaches communities where it can most help individuals and families." Paul Kenny, head of the London GMB, said he was "mystified and angered" by the comment.

WORKERS AT Mid Kent Water have started a strike ballot over a maintenance contract for raw sewage work. A GMB spokesperson says, "The ballot comes after harassment of staff who have refused the work."

WORKERS AT the main refuse collection depot in Brighton & Hove staged a 48-hour unofficial strike on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. The walkout followed the suspension by management of GMB steward Richard Warren. Workers returned to work on Thursday after voting overwhelmingly to work to rule-refusing to work overtime or catch up on work missing during the walkout.

HUNDREDS OF Tyneside shipyard workers staged an unofficial "wildcat" strike last week over allegations of bullying in the workplace. The one-day walkout was by around 600 platers, welders and riggers in the Amicus and GMB unions at the giant Amec shipyard in Wallsend on Tyneside.

MANUAL WORKERS in the GMB union working for Manchester city Council struck for a day on Monday against the imposition of the Single Status agreement. They voted three to one to strike in an official ballot. Many other council workers in other departments refused to cross their picket lines.

NEW DISPUTES are brewing among British Airways workers at Heathrow. Some 4,500 BA engineers moved a step closer to an industrial dispute when their union negotiators failed to reach an agreement with BA management last week. The engineers are represented by the Amicus and GMB unions. They are potentially an extremely powerful group of workers.

CONSTRUCTION workers at Heathrow's new Terminal Five complex have won significant gains over working hours that will enable them to have something approaching a family life. Bosses of construction firm Laing O'Rourke caved in at the end of last week under the pressure of a strike ballot planned by the GMB union and of threatened wildcat walkouts by the 1,500 workers on the site.