Manchester Follow

OVER 100 Amicus union members at IT company Fujitsu Services in West Gorton, Manchester, attended a mass meeting last week. They met to discuss their pay claim, and the company's attacks on their long-standing union recognition and redundancy agreements.

CORPORATE conscience was switched off once more last week, leaving electricians in Manchester with no alternative but to take industrial action. Employers Crown House & DAF, who hold the lucrative construction contract for Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens and Court House sites, attempted to end a dispute by sacking skilled members of their workforce.

AROUND 140 council manual workers, members of the TGWU and GMB unions, met on Wednesday of last week in central Manchester to discuss resistance to the imposition of new contracts by Manchester City Council. Hundreds of cleaners and "street scene" workers face new duties and the loss of weekend working pay enhancements.

AMICUS MEMBERS at the Fujitsu Services site at West Gorton, Manchester, voted by two to one in an indicative ballot for action up to and including striking in support of their pay claim.

COUNCIL TENANTS and trade unionists face major battles in the coming months as the government presses ahead with its plans to privatise council homes. Some 125,000 council homes are targeted in the coming year in 17 major councils for straightforward transfer to housing associations, dubbed Large Scale Voluntary Transfers, from Manchester and Hartlepool to Lambeth and Islington.

OVER 400 people packed into Friends Meeting House in central Manchester on Friday of last week for a Stop the War Coalition rally on the occupation of Iraq.

"WE HAVE to stop the British National Party, make people more aware about the threat they are, and do much more campaigning." Those were the words of Darlington council worker Margaret Clemence, who joined 2,000 trade unionists at last Saturday's demonstration in Manchester against racism.

TRADE UNIONISTS and campaigners were set to march through central Manchester on Saturday in a united protest against racism. The demonstration and rally was called by the TUC and the Unison union, and backed by the Anti Nazi League. It is a recognition of the danger posed by the British National Party (BNP), which has been targeting the north west of England.

GUARDS ON three more train operating companies have voted to join the campaign of strike action by the RMT union to defend safety. That brought the total number of companies involved in a strike called for Thursday of this week to 12. Delegates to the RMT's train grades conference in Manchester last week applauded news of the three latest ballot results and discussed the importance of the whole dispute.

THOUSANDS OF people who could not get to London last Saturday demonstrated in their own cities. Up to 2,500 protesters blocked roads in the centre of Bristol for the third day running while around 4,000 marched through Manchester. Some 1,000 protesters in Newcastle were physically blocked from marching by the police, and 1,000 demonstrated in Aberystwyth, Wales.

GUARDS IN the RMT rail workers' union on ten companies were set to strike for 24 hours on Friday of this week and Monday of next over safety. "It is the first effectively national strike we have had on the guards' side since privatisation," says Alex Holden, a guard and RMT safety rep in Manchester. "The fragmentation of the industry means we have had to have a series of synchronised ballots." The companies are:

IT IS with immense sorrow that we record the death of Norma Wilson, for many years a full-time organiser for CND in Manchester. Norma died after a long, courageous and cheerful battle against cancer. Many readers will have heard Norma speak at Marxism.