Over the last two weeks workers in garment factories of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have been rebelling against low wages, long working hours and the denial of their trade union rights.
There were signs at the start of this week that Royal Mail management were preparing for new attacks just as workers were organising for a national strike ballot in five weeks time.
For the British trade union movement, the 1930s were a turning point. A long wave of militancy that rose in 1910 crashed in May 1926 when the union bureaucracy called off the General Strike.
A general strike over the lack of jobs won wide support in South Africa on Thursday of last week. It was best supported in the mines, car plants, the metal industry and schools.
The TSSA rail workers’ union conference took place last week as strike ballot papers were about to go out to all TSSA and RMT members on the railways over pensions.
Lecturers at Northumbria university are due to begin indefinite strike action from Tuesday of next week after effectively being locked out by their employers.
Firefighters in the FBU union in Hertfordshire are likely to start an eight-hour strike this Saturday. The strike will go ahead if, as expected, a new set of employer proposals over fire service cuts is rejected by members at a meeting later this week.
Some 700 RMT members at Go-Ahead’s Wiltshire and Dorset bus operation were to strike for 24 hours on Thursday this week and a further 48 hours on Thursday and Friday next week over pay.
