Strike Follow

THE PRESS and Paintline section at Raven Manufacturing on the Altham Industrial Estate near Burnley are striking over pay. The 20 Amicus-AEEU members have been offered only 1.5 percent after a previous 18 month deal of only 2.5 percent. They are on a one-day strike every Monday.

OVER 1,000 members of the civil servants' PCS union are due to start balloting for strike action on 10 October. Workers in central and west London are considering action in defence of their PCS branch secretary, Chris Ford.

ALL THE universities in London face the possibility of joint strike action by a united front of academics and administrative, technical and support staff for the first time ever. University workers are pressing for an improvement in their London weighting allowance.

THE FIRST North Western (FNW) train company, which runs services in the north west of England, admitted it had to cancel 1,500 trains at the weekend as drivers staged their fourth 48-hour strike over pay. "The action is biting," driver Steve West told Socialist Worker. "But many people are asking why we've gone for two days instead of seven, which would really hurt management.

THE SUDDEN death of Mike Cohen last week at the age of 67 is a sad loss to the labour movement. Mike was a familiar figure whenever ordinary people were fighting back. Rare was the strike or demonstration in London where he was not there, taking photographs for socialist publications, mainly the Morning Star and also for others including Socialist Worker.

THE GLOVES are off in the battle on London Underground. Management was set to table a revised offer on Thursday of this week. This is partly designed to divide the tube unions. Last week's strike by members of the RMT and Aslef unions was at least as solid as the one the week before.

THE PEOPLE who head the institutions of global capitalism are nervous over the outcome of next Sunday's presidential election in Brazil. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, known universally as Lula in the South American country, looks set to top the poll. He is a former left wing socialist and mass strike leader. Lula has soared in the polls as popular discontent has grown with the current government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

UNISON MEMBERS facing Britain's biggest PFI project have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action against an attempt to break their union. In a consultative ballot 78 percent voted to back an official strike ballot demanding the reinstatement of their union branch secretary, Phil Billows. Phil was suspended for spearheading a campaign against the huge PFI project at the Royal London and Barts NHS trust.

CONFUSION AND bitterness spread through the ranks of 1,300 bus drivers in the Edinburgh region on Friday of last week. The drivers, who work for the Lothian bus company, were set to begin an all-out strike that day against a new pay deal. Their TGWU union leaders called the strike off at the last minute on Thursday evening after they received a new offer from management.

FIREFIGHTERS AND control staff across Britain are already returning a big yes vote in their strike ballot, which began last week, according to Fire Brigades Union regional reps. Documents from the Ministry of Defence have revealed that the government is to ship 3,000 of the troops it had trained to scab on any strike to the Gulf. Last weekend also saw a taste of the kind of propaganda New Labour is prepared to put out in an effort to undermine high levels of public support for the FBU union's campaign.

THE NATIONAL Union of Teachers (NUT) is to hold a second ballot for a one-day London-wide strike over allowances for working in the capital. Ballot papers will go out on Friday of next week to be returned by 29 October, for a strike on Thursday 14 November. The second largest teachers' union, the NASUWT, is consulting reps in London before moving to a ballot for a strike on the same day.

HUNDREDS OF college workers, members of the Unison union in 11 pre-1992 London universities, took strike action last Thursday as the first step in their campaign to win an increase in London weighting to £4,000. Faced with a freeze on London weighting for the eleventh consecutive year, workers demonstrated that they had had enough.