Strike Follow

Hundreds of workers at Manchester airport voted unanimously last Saturday to go on all-out strike in their battle over pay. The vote was held at a mass meeting of 350 strikers at the airport. The security staff, members of the TGWU union, held a four-day stoppage that halted services over the lucrative Easter holidays.

Council workers in London are to ballot on a one-day strike on 14 May over pay. The workers are demanding a rise in the London weighting allowance, which covers the extra costs of working and living in the capital. They want £4,000 a year, a modest demand compared to the £6,000 allowance the police get.

Council workers in Cardiff struck on Wednesday of last week to defend a colleague who was sacked after speaking out over the underfunding of children's services in the city. Some 3,200 members of the Unison union took part in the strike, which closed offices and hit services across Cardiff.

Rail Workers are taking strides forward in the battle for decent pay. But some companies are trying to tough out union action. Rail workers on Arriva were set to strike at the end of this week, and to be joined by strikers on the Tyne and Wear Metro next week.

Security staff in the TGWU union at Manchester airport continued their industrial action with a 36-hour strike beginning at 4am on Friday of last week. Strikers lobbied five of the ten councils that sit on the control board of the airport on Friday morning. They gave out thousands of leaflets, and were encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response from the public. Later that day stewards addressed a support meeting of trade unionists and campaigners from across the city.

Why have Post Office managers felt confident enough to move towards 40,000 job losses and the destruction of Parcelforce? One big reason has to be the behaviour of the CWU leaders last week. They met to discuss the possibility of holding a one-day strike over pay on Wednesday this week.

A strike and demonstration by over 40,000 teachers in and around London on Thursday of last week was the biggest for 30 years. It marked a turning point. "I feel we are laying to rest the ghosts of 20 years of demoralisation," said one experienced teacher as she sped by with a group of recent university graduates.

SOME 1,100 TGWU union members at Manchester airport have voted to escalate their action against wage and holiday cuts. On Friday 22 March workers will walk out for 36 hours. This will be followed by a 96-hour strike over Easter weekend.

Postal Workers could hold a national strike on Wednesday of next week. It would be about pay. Postal workers are fed up with poverty pay-a basic of just £250 a week. Many work six days a week and start at around 5.30am. The executive of the CWU postal workers' union believed it had secured agreement over pay with Royal Mail. CWU deputy general secretary John Keggie said the deal would mean £300 a week pensionable pay by October 2003.

UNISON union members in Tower Hamlets, east London, are celebrating a victory after the council withdrew proposed new sickness, disciplinary and organisational changes. This follows a highly successful strike at the end of February, and plans for further strike action.

More than 100 Express and Star journalists packed into a workplace union chapel meeting last week. We voted to take industrial action in support of our pay claim-there were ten votes against. We have agreed six separate days of action, set to start this Friday, with three-hour stoppages on each, working up to a full day's strike. The stoppages will take place from 5pm to 8pm each evening, a time designed to hit production the most.

THE ISSUE of pay electrified the first day of the annual conference of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) held in Eastbourne last week. Successful strike action by workers at the Bradford Telegraph and Argus group of papers has been a major boost to the fight against low pay. Conference delegates greeted Sarah Walsh, a leading member of the Bradford NUJ workplace union chapel, with massive applause.