Strike Follow

THOUSANDS OF lecturers in the NATFHE union could strike for two days in October in a dispute over pay. Around 42,000 lecturers are to be balloted on whether to accept a 3.7 percent offer from management.

HUNDREDS OF Benefits Agency and Employment Service civil servants in the PCS union in south west London and Brent in west London are continuing their indefinite strike action. It is against management proposals to remove screens. The strikers all work in the government's new Pathfinder scheme.

ROSSINGTON miners, near Doncaster, are continuing their struggle over bonuses. The official strike is now starting its fifth week. The miners want the bonus to kick in when the pit has produced 17,500 tonnes a week. UK Coal has offered to pay it at 21,500 tonnes a week.

PRODUCTION workers at the Royal Shakespeare Company are to strike this weekend over redundancies. The dispute will threaten disruption to performances in Stratford-upon-Avon, says the BECTU union.

Hundreds of pupils as young as five struck for the whole day on Wednesday of last week at Hornchurch School in Essex against the siting of a mobile phone mast yards from the school

AROUND 300 medical secretaries across the north of Glasgow planned to strike for three days this week. The action follows a stunning 91.3 percent vote for strikes in a ballot. The workers' UNISON union branch has been pursuing a regrading claim for all medical secretaries for 14 months.

SOME 300 bus workers in Hampshire employed by multinational transport firm First Group have held two days of strike action in a dispute over pay. Drivers and engineers, members of the TGWU union, went on strike last Friday and Monday after being offered an 18 pence an hour rise.

THE CIVIL servants' PCS union is balloting over 300 members for all-out strike action in the Brent and Streatham Jobcentre Plus Pathfinder pilots. The mood is excellent, with over 100 members at an evening rally last week headed by general secretary elect Mark Serwotka and Brian Butterworth from Brent UNISON.

OVER 100 social workers in Newham, east London, will strike again next Monday. This latest 24-hour walkout is part of UNISON's campaign for fair and equal treatment for all social workers in the borough.

WORKERS ON Merseyside are raising money for the Sefton council workers fighting to save services for the elderly and disabled. Some 900 social services workers in Sefton council have held six days of strike action to stop the closure of six facilities.

Thousands of council workers in Hackney, east London, were to strike this week against cuts, redundancies and worse conditions. The action was planned for Wednesday, the local budget day as well as Gordon Brown's.

"Next time there's an unofficial strike in the post we will sack those who have led it and encouraged it." That is what Post Office bosses warned leaders of the CWU union at the end of last week.