Strike Follow

JOURNALISTS AT the Independent and Independent on Sunday were set to start a strike ballot this week. They had given management at the national newspapers until Wednesday to come up with a serious pay offer or a ballot for action would begin. Management at the papers, owned by Irish businessman and newspaper baron Tony O'Reilly, want a pay freeze for staff.

LEADERS OF the CWU postal workers' union have called off a strike planned for this week. They claim they have achieved a "major victory" over pay. In fact they have surrendered to Royal Mail bosses' and threaten to weaken workers' ability to fight in the future. It is important that activists throw themselves into defeating the proposed deal in the forthcoming ballot.

A RECENT letter from the managing director of Arriva trains shows exactly why workers at the company are continuing their campaign of strike action. The brief note was a response to a heartfelt letter from the wife of a conductor in Hull. She listed the pressures on her husband and the abuse he often faces from passengers, some a result of the chaotic service Arriva runs. For this and his responsibilities for safety on the train his basic salary is just £15,500 a year for working shifts.

OVER 50,000 council workers across London are set to strike next Tuesday, 14 May. The one-day strike is over a demand for higher London weighting, the extra pay many workers get for the costs of living and working in the capital. Housing, transport and other costs are higher in London than elsewhere. And workers, many of whom are already on low pay, are being hit hard.

WORKERS AT Manchester airport were due to strike during Thursday's elections as part of their continued fight against the imposition of new contracts. These mean up to 40 percent pay cuts, longer hours, less holidays and more shift work for 350 security workers.

WORKERS ON Arriva Trains Northern were asking for support as they prepared to strike again this week in their on-going battle over pay. Retail and station staff were to strike for 48 hours, followed by guards on Friday and Saturday. That follows a 48-hour strike last week.

WORKERS AT Rolls-Royce Aerospace in Bristol are continuing to fight over plans to transfer their jobs. All three shifts in the compressor section walked out on strike on Monday of last week.

LIBRARY AND computing workers at Kings College London held a successful one-day strike on Thursday of last week. The workers, members of the Unison union, were protesting against a cost-cutting restructuring of the department.

THIS MONTH could see escalating action over pay. Around 150,000 Royal Mail workers are set to strike for 24 hours from next Wednesday evening. Management is insisting that postal workers accept new delivery arrangements as part of a pay deal.

"IT'S BEEN fantastic," was how one of the striking journalists in the Guardian Media Group in Manchester summed up the start of a round of strikes over pay last week. Some 27 journalists who work on weekly papers across north Manchester and Salford were on strike again on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Victory against Labour flagship COUNCIL WORKERS at New Labour's flagship council in Newham, east London, were celebrating a victory on Monday of this week. The victory came the day before the 2,500 workers were set to strike because the council had derecognised their Unison union. But on Monday the council backed down and signed an agreement to negotiate with the union.

LONDON AND Glasgow are not yet Rome and Barcelona. Nor is Britain yet seeing the kind of militant industrial struggle witnessed in the Italian general strike on Tuesday. Italian workers are fighting the government of Tony Blair's right wing friend Silvio Berlusconi, who is pushing through a major attack on workers' rights. But Britain is not immune from the mood of resistance.