Manchester Follow

CALLOUS BOSSES at Manchester airport sacked at least 16 security workers over the holiday weekend. Manchester airport management tried to impose new contracts, slashing pay and conditions, on 570 security staff earlier this year. Security workers had official strikes against these cuts.

HEALTH WORKERS in Manchester plan a demonstration this Saturday, 8 June, in protest at cuts. A mass meeting of over 500 people pushed management into postponing their plan to axe 26 staff from mental health services.

BOSSES AT Manchester airport have used threats of sacking to force through new contracts on security workers. Pay cuts of up to 40 percent, job cuts and increased working hours were imposed overnight. Many have left the job rather than accept the new contract.

TWO demonstrations to highlight opposition to New Labour's attacks on refugees are planned next month. The protests came out of the 350-strong conference in Manchester in March that gathered together campaigners for refugees from across Britain.

THE JOURNALISTS on Guardian Media Group newspapers in Manchester have won a victory over pay after a series of strikes. Management were forced to increase their pay offer the day before a nine-day stoppage by NUJ union members was due to start.

WORKERS AT Manchester airport were due to strike during Thursday's elections as part of their continued fight against the imposition of new contracts. These mean up to 40 percent pay cuts, longer hours, less holidays and more shift work for 350 security workers.

"IT'S BEEN fantastic," was how one of the striking journalists in the Guardian Media Group in Manchester summed up the start of a round of strikes over pay last week. Some 27 journalists who work on weekly papers across north Manchester and Salford were on strike again on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

BOSSES AT Manchester airport reneged on a promise to meet with workers' representatives last week. TGWU union officials had suspended planned strike action by the 350 security workers after management insisted they would not negotiate unless strikes were called off.

WORKERS AGAIN halted flights out of Manchester airport on Friday of last week when they began a 24-hour strike over pay and conditions. This was the latest in a series of strikes by 350 security workers at the airport against plans to introduce new security contracts that cut workers' wages and conditions.

"WE ASKED them nicely for a living wage and they replied with a big stick. We've got to take that stick off them and beat them with it." That's how young journalists on the newspapers in Greater Manchester owned by the Guardian Media Group described their decision to hold three two-day strikes over pay and derecognition.

Journalists at a string of weekly newspapers owned by the Guardian Media Group in the Manchester area have voted for strikes over low pay. Staff at the Rochdale Observer, Asian News, Middleton Guardian, Heywood Advertiser, Rossendale Free Press, Accrington Observer, Oldham Advertiser and Salford Advertiser are to strike for six days.

Hundreds of workers at Manchester airport voted unanimously last Saturday to go on all-out strike in their battle over pay. The vote was held at a mass meeting of 350 strikers at the airport. The security staff, members of the TGWU union, held a four-day stoppage that halted services over the lucrative Easter holidays.