Strike action in Germany by the public sector union Verdi is now into its fourth week. Roughly 30,000 public sector workers in nine federal states and the municipalities are on strike on any given day.
Seafarers were ordered to return to their jobs last week by a special "civilian conscription" decree signed by Kostas Karamanlis, the Tory prime minister of Greece. This was an attempt to break a week long strike which has paralysed the country.
Strike action by about 60,000 workers is set to take place across higher education on Tuesday of next week, followed by action short of strike including an appraisal and assessment boycott.
Royal Mail totally capitulated to our central demands. We achieved a complete climbdown. We went out on strike against bullying and harassment and won our key objective of an independent review of employee relations and industrial relations in Belfast.
The CWU union postal executive was meeting this week with calls growing for a national strike ballot. Even more offices are now balloting over local disputes. The latest group includes Plymouth, Stoke and Preston mail centres.
Postal workers across Northern Ireland have given a marvellous glimpse of how to stand up to the bosses and defeat bigotry. Protestants and Catholics have struck together, marched together and stood united against attempts to divide them along religious lines.
