Strike Follow

South Bank University, London, saw lecturers strike for three days last week against compulsory redundancies. Now lecturers are withholding marks, which means that exam boards can't go ahead.

THE FRICTION Dynamics workers and their supporters marched through the North Wales town of Caernarfon last Saturday. The 87 workers, members of the TGWU union, were sacked over a year ago during an official strike. Friction Dynamics' owner, boss Craig Smith, used New Labour's anti-union laws to sack the workers.

IN A disgraceful attempt at union busting, Glasgow's Labour council has hired scab labour to break an official strike. Last weekend council officials hired the private firm Scotia Security. Along with senior managers, they were used to break the strike by 140 low paid Unison staff who work for the city's leisure and recreation service. The strikers asked council workers in other unions to respect their picket lines on Saturday and Sunday.

Good lessons in taking action SOUTH BANK University lecturers in London were set to strike as Socialist Worker went to press. They will be out for three days this week, from 11 to 13 June. Lecturers will also be withholding marks as part of their action against 128 proposed redundancies.

NINE THOUSAND London Underground workers are to vote on industrial action. The RMT union ordered a strike ballot over safety and privatisation as the Labour government's moves to sell off London Underground suddenly moved forward last week. Despite earlier talk of the process being tangled up in legal manoeuvres till next year, maintenance workers now face privatisation at the end of this month. RMT members are to be balloted from 14 June. Voting will end on 24 June.

BULLY BOSSES at Arriva Trains Northern have been rocked by the thirteenth strike this year. Arriva's lowest paid workers walked out again last Friday for 24 hours. Some workers are paid just £9,500.

KURDISH ASYLUM seekers are on hunger strike outside the Plymouth headquarters of the National Immigration Office. The protest started on Thursday 6 June following repeated attempts to obtain a hearing and acknowledgement of asylum rights.

UP TO 15,000 firefighters marched through London on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday 50,000 council workers across the capital were to strike. And on Monday almost one million council workers across Britain started voting on strikes. All these fights focus on one issue-the miserable level of pay many public sector workers get.

"On TV the old generals talk of first strike and second strike capability as though they're discussing a family board game. My friends and I discuss Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the dead bodies choking the river, the living stripped of their skin."

SOLIDARITY. The dictionary definition is, "Agreement in aims or interest. Total unity." If ever there was total unity it was on the picket line of the first day of strike action outside the offices of the Spalding Guardian and Lincolnshire Free Press last Saturday.

SACKED WORKERS at the Friction Dynamics firm in North Wales are calling on all trade unionists to support their demonstration planned for this Saturday, 8 June. The workers were sacked during an official strike over a year ago.

THE conference of the Natfhe lecturers' union took place over the bank holiday, just a few days after a two-day strike by over 30,000 further education college lecturers. The campaign over the insulting 1.5 percent pay offer to further education lecturers dominated the conference.