Strike Follow

Tens of thousands of civil servants were due to strike this week. Behind the strikes is a fight to stop government attacks on the welfare state. Workers in benefits offices and job centres across Britain were set to strike on Wednesday and Thursday, after PCS union members voted 16,770 to 14,659 to strike against the government's decision to remove safety screens.

leaders of the CWU postal workers' union have postponed a decision over the timing of a national strike ballot until Monday of next week. On that day the union's postal executive will meet and hear reports on talks about pay and job security. Union insiders suggest that a deal on pay is likely.

Janitors at schools and education centres in Edinburgh planned to strike on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week over pay. The city council is refusing to pay a nationally agreed irregular hours payment of £20 a week. The money is to compensate workers for their 6am to 6pm days. Pat Rafferty, TGWU official, said, "We have been trying to resolve this issue since May 1999. We offered to move to 7.30am start times but the council rejected this."

Behind the three month long all-out strike by Benefits Agency and job centre workers lies the crisis which has been created by New Labour's draconian benefits system.

Members of NATFHE, the university and college lecturers' union, were due to strike at Middlesex University in north London on Wednesday of this week over compulsory redundancies.

Workers at the huge multinational firm Scottish Power began a two-day strike on Tuesday of this week.

Caledonian Macbrayne (CalMac) ferry crews on the Clyde are planning an indefinite strike from Monday. The action would affect CalMac's services from Ardrossan, Gourock and Wemyss Bay.

Rail Workers on South West Trains are voting in two strike ballots-over pay and the treatment of union officials. Over 2,000 RMT union members are taking part with the result expected on 17 December.

More than 200 tugboat workers have voted to strike as part of a campaign for better pensions. Members of the TGWU union based in London, Southampton, Liverpool and Felixstowe have backed industrial action.

Postal Workers are set for a head-on confrontation with their bosses and the government over privatisation. The Communication Workers Union had been preparing to hold a strike ballot over pay. But it has now switched to the question of putting out to contract sections such as vehicle services, parcel deliveries and cleaning.

Bus strikes get results Bus workers in two Stagecoach companies in Hastings and the north east of England have voted to accept improved pay offers. Two days of strike action by workers in Teesside, Hartlepool and Darlington forced Stagecoach management to increase their offer to a flat rate of £6 an hour.

Workers at Scottish Power in Scotland, Merseyside and north Manchester are set to take strike action on Tuesday and Wednesday. Scottish Power is one of the world's top ten utility multinationals. It also owns Southern Water and Pacificore in the US. The workers do essential jobs, maintaining and repairing breakdowns in the electricity network.