Strike Follow

AROUND 100 GMB union members are taking strike action at Lupton & Place's two die-casting factories in Burnley. They have already struck for three days and planned a further three-day strike this week. The workers have not had a pay rise for years.

A NATIONAL strike ballot involving all 180,000 postal staff in Britain begins next Tuesday. It has been called by the CWU union in opposition to management plans to launch a joint venture with one of Britain's nastiest multinationals. Bosses want to transfer 4,000 CWU members in the Romec cleaning and maintenance section to a new company 49 percent owned by construction group Balfour Beatty.

AROUND 6,000 workers in Reality call centres, part of the Great Universal Stores (GUS) empire, will be balloted from next Wednesday for strike action over a threat to their jobs. The workers fear their jobs will go as Reality, a home shopping company, is transferring work to call centres in India.

DRIVERS ON First North Western trains struck solidly on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, forcing management to seek talks over pay. The action brought services to a standstill across the north west of England. It also boosted drivers on Arriva Trains Merseyside, who have voted overwhelmingly to strike over pay.

NEW LABOUR is preparing a scab force to try to break strikes planned in the public sector in the next two months. It has drawn up secret plans against firefighters and postal workers who are fighting for decent pay and against privatisation. Ministers have agreed that the private firm Deya, which delivers Yellow Pages, could handle mail like utility bills during a post strike.

BUS DRIVERS employed by Stagecoach's Bluebird company in north east Scotland began balloting last week for a strike over pay. The 340 workers are calling for a pay rise in line with workers on Stagecoach's rival firm First Group.

TUBE WORKERS are to hold a swift ballot for strike action over pay after management broke off talks and imposed a settlement. The move comes as the government presses ahead with its PPP privatisation scheme and follows a highly effective one-day strike by RMT union members on the tube over safety last month.

JOURNALISTS AT the Rotherham Advertiser start a one-week strike from Saturday 24 August over low pay. The 13 NUJ union members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strikes in a ballot. The NUJ chapel (union branch) rejected a 2.3 percent offer from the owner Garnett Dickinson Publishing. The chapel has put in a claim for a 10 percent rise.

MORE WORKERS are joining the ongoing strike against privatisation at Westminster council in central London. Around 250 workers are now striking against the council's privatisation plans. The Tory-run council plans to privatise up to 80 percent of services. But the workforce is making a stand.

WORKERS ACROSS Uruguay halted the Latin American country in a general strike on Thursday of last week in protest at the economic meltdown. There is a run on the country's currency, and the much vaunted financial sector is crippled.

MORE THAN 100 journalists on the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal struck on Thursday of last week as part of their continuing fight for a fair wage. This is their second one-day strike. More action is planned-journalists will walk out again for two days on Friday and Saturday this week. Those two days will badly hit a planned relaunch of the group's Sunday Sun on August 11.

ABOUT 300 workers employed by the private contractor Sodexho at Glasgow Royal Infirmary struck for three days this week over pay. This follows a two-day strike last week. Strikers picketed the hospital enthusiastically and showed they are solidly behind the strike. One of the pickets told Socialist Worker, "We're sick of low pay and being pushed around by this management. Those on strike are porters, domestics, and catering and security staff. We are an important part of the NHS and we deserve to get a decent rate of pay."