Strike Follow

THE MAGNIFICENT all-out strike of 4,500 nursery nurses across Scotland is still going strong in its eighth week. The strikers, members of the Unison union, are fighting for a decent national pay deal from COSLA, the Labour-dominated local employers. Scottish nursery nurses voted to continue their action at a meeting on Tuesday of this week.

MANY SOCIALIST Worker sellers went to striking civil servants' picket lines this week. In Leeds they went to the Eastgate job centre on Tuesday. Sadie reports, \"The pickets were all very friendly. Two of them bought the paper. We had a good discussion with a range of political views. One picket said he thought Respect could give civil service workers a new confidence to take on Labour. Another said he agreed with Respect but was sad that Labour Party members had not been able to change the party from within. All the pickets were grateful we had come to show our support. In the run-up to the strike we sold five papers at Quarry House office.\"

Nursery nurses in Scotland are continuing their all-out strike to win a decent national pay rise and regrading. The 4,500 strikers are members of the Unison union and have been out for almost seven weeks. On Tuesday they marched through Ayr.

WORKERS AT the Health and Safety Executive, members of the PCS and Prospect unions, are continuing our campaign for a fair pay rise for all, with a work to rule and withdrawal of good will. This follows our successful one-day strike on 29 March.

THE STRIKE by around 100,000 civil servants in the PCS union on Tuesday and Wednesday showed the angry mood about low pay. Workers in the biggest civil servant employer the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the prisons service struck for both days. Colleagues in the Office for National Statistics struck on Tuesday. DWP workers struck previously in February, while the prison service struck in January.

Network Rail THE RMT rail union has called a strike ballot for its 7,000 members in Network Rail in a dispute over pay and pensions. The vote will include signalling, maintenance and station staff. "The company has imposed a pension scheme for new entrants that is no better than a glorified savings plan subject to the whims of the market," says RMT general secretary Bob Crow. "In addition their pay offer of 3 percent is the lowest in the rail industry. This is a company whose directors have handed themselves bonuses of up to £450,000 on top of telephone-number salaries. Those same directors are looking at another fat bonus if they keep our members' pay down."

"THE STRIKE has been brilliant," said civil servant Kate Douglas from the picket line in Oxford on Tuesday. She went on: "We have had a lot of support from claimants who went in and gave the management hell. An Oxford postal worker who is taking part in their stoppage came to our picket line to bring greetings."

UNION MEMBERS at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital have provided a superb example of the solidarity 4,600 nursery nurses need as they approach six weeks of all-out strike action. The Unison union branch at the hospital donated £3,000 to the strike fund and activists are taking collection sheets round the wards.

THE SCOTTISH nursery nurse dispute has reminded activists like myself of the tremendous energy, endeavour, imagination, determination and inspiration of the Timex strike some 12 years ago. The Timex strikers were another group of mostly women workers who showed no regard for the accepted limitations of trade union struggle.

OVER 100,000 civil servants are set to strike on Tuesday and Wednesday. The workers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the prisons service and the Office for National Statistics are fighting for decent pay. This is a crucial battle for the future of public services and the PCS civil servants' union. The government is out to break the PCS.

WHAT DO you get for bravely standing up to a bullying gang which management has failed to take action against? If you are Oxford postal workers then your bosses threaten you with "punitive action".

"WE'RE INTO week five of our all-out strike and are even more determined to win than when we began." That's what Carol Ball, union convenor of 4,600 striking nursery nurses, told Socialist Worker. She was speaking after a magnificent 3,000-strong rally in Edinburgh outside the headquarters of Cosla, the umbrella body of Scottish local authority employers. Strikers left an empty table outside the building.