Strike Follow

WE'VE WON a brilliant victory in Bridgwater, Somerset, after a seven-day unofficial strike. Around 130 of us walked out for a shorter working week, for overtime rates when we cover for workers in emergencies, and for an end to management bullying and harassment.

RMT MEMBERS on Arriva Trains Northern struck for the 22nd time in their long-running pay dispute on Saturday. "We have issued four more strike dates for next month," one member of the strike committee told Socialist Worker, "21, 23, 24 and 31 December. "That is our answer to Arriva's attempt to break us. Our strikes in December are aimed to hit Arriva hard. But we will need financial support from other trade unionists to sustain such strikes so close to Christmas."

CIVIL SERVANTS in the PCS civil servants' union in the Department of Work and Pensions in central and west London have voted by a 70 percent margin to take strike action. The strike is in defence of branch secretary Chris Ford and leading activist Phil Henry.

BUS WORKERS in Orpington, Kent, walked out on strike on Wednesday of last week in solidarity with a fellow driver. They are employed by Metrobus, which covers routes in the south east and south coast of Britain. The management came down hard on a woman driver after a minor accident while she was driving.

TONY BLAIR restated his hard line against the firefighters on the very day leaders of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) suspended another strike in the hope of getting a pay offer in talks. He said on Monday of this week, "If people make excessive wage claims we will have to resist them."

PICKETING lecturers and support staff at over 300 further education colleges forced management to close colleges in a one-day strike on Tuesday. This is the second strike this year by members of the lecturers' union Natfhe, who also struck for two days in May.

ANGER OVER pay is driving more and more workers to take action. The Bank of England is demanding that public sector pay rises are limited to an average 4 percent. This "average" includes vast sums handed out to overpaid managers and fat cat executives.

NEW LABOUR presents itself as a party that won't be pushed around. But over the last week we have seen how it can be forced to change its tune. First the government insisted it would not be influenced at all by the firefighters' threat of strike action. Blair resorted to the same sort of language Thatcher used against the miners.

SOME 500 cleaners, porters and telephonists in Swansea were to vote this week on an improved offer from their private bosses, ISS Mediclean. Some workers are angry at their Unison union officials for calling off a planned week-long strike. More could have been won, but the Swansea workers have shown that action is getting results in the health service.

ANTI-NAZI campaigners in the north west of England stepped up their fight against the Nazi BNP and National Front (NF) last week. The BNP won three council seats in Burnley in May this year. Local activists are determined to strike back.

WORKERS AT Resourcesaver in Bristol took strike action last Wednesday over management reneging on a deal to cut working hours. Resourcesaver is responsible for collecting black boxes for recycling. Doug Varney from the workers' of the Unison union branch explained, "Management had agreed to cut the working week to 40 hours - that's five eight-hour days. Now management have imposed a standard nine-hour day.

AROUND 130 postal workers in Bridgwater, Somerset, are on all-out, indefinite, unofficial strike. They are taking action in protest against management's broken promises and relentless harassment.