Strike Follow

Liverpool

SOME 600 workers at the Scottish Agricultural College voted by 63 percent to strike over a deal that amounts to a pay freeze for most staff.

LIKE JOHN from Glasgow (Letters, 30 November) I too served in the army. I was involved in the firemen's strike in 1977. I was young and naive. I joined the army thinking it would be a good way to see the world. How wrong I was. I had only been in the army a few weeks at the time of the strike. As we were new recruits in the army, that we had to break the strike was stupid, irresponsible and dangerous.

A BOGUS group posing as an authority on immigration in Britain has become the toast of the right wing press and Tories. Migrationwatch UK is constantly quoted in the Times, Sun and Daily Mail. These are the papers that relish attacking workers on strike as much as they enjoy bashing refugees. The group's name is supposed to make you think it is a respected think-tank, like Human Rights Watch.

"MAYBE I was naive when this began," says Steve Kendall from Stevenage. "But during the eight-day strike I realised just how much support we could get. You don't get it by standing around burning wood, but by getting out into workplaces and communities. That's one of the biggest lessons we've learned in my area. Now we are saying the union has to come up with what to do next. We are looking for someone to come up with something. We are still determined to win. The attacks on us have hardened the mood."

TEACHERS AT Kingsland School in Hackney, east London, are to ballot for strikes over the sacking of their union rep, Indro Sen. Teachers in four other schools are to hold consultative strike ballots over the same issue.

PRESS AND paintline section members at Raven Manufacturing on the Altham Industrial Estate near Burnley have halted their strikes. This follows a letter from management threatening to sack them. The bosses' letter said they could do this under the law which allows sacking after eight weeks of a strike.

AROUND 6,000 gas engineers have voted to go on strike for better pay. The engineers work for Transco, the privatised monopoly that runs the national gas pipe network. Transco offered them a 3 percent pay rise, conditional on changes to working hours and cuts in allowances and sick pay. The workers voted to reject the offer by 5,700 to 60. The vote for strike action was just as overwhelming.

DRIVERS ON First North Western were set to strike this weekend as they resumed action over pay. This follows the rejection of a terrible offer from their management. Strikes would hit the company hard in the run-up to Christmas and could coincide with action on two other rail companies.

SHOCK, bewilderment, anger. Those words sum up the emotions FBU members felt when our executive suspended the strike due to start this week. Calling off the strike for "exploratory talks at ACAS" is a major mistake. There is a serious danger that our pay campaign will not deliver, and could even end in defeat.

THE FIREFIGHTERS' strike has lifted the lid on the operations of a tightly knit group of intensely political men. They are the unelected bankers, media barons and industry chiefs who control the crucial levers of power. Without having to formally make an agreement they know that at key moments like this they have to set aside their rivalries and line up against a common enemy - workers in struggle.

WORKERS AT a factory near Burnley have entered their tenth week of selective strike action. They are Amicus-AEEU press and paintline section members at Raven Manufacturing. The workers earn £5.08 an hour and are fighting for a pay increase. Strikers have just discovered the managing director had a 17.4 percent increase last year, bringing his salary to £166,000.