Unions Follow

Why is the PCS union planning to ballot over 280,000 members for strikes in the new year?

Bus drivers working for Metroline in London are in dispute with their bosses over pay – and have taken two days of strike action so far to press home their point.

Tug workers in the T&G union around Britain’s ports are balloting over industrial action.

Over 100 cleaners protested outside the headquarters of the financial multinational Merrill Lynch on Monday.

Over 1,000 workers from Barking & Dagenham council joined a lunchtime protest on Monday. Council bosses want to cut the wages and conditions of thousands of employees as part of the "single status" agreement.

The JJB dispute is threatening to erupt again after the firm sacked a leading union representative.

Canary Wharf in east London is the site of the cathedrals of capitalism. It is the most concentrated area of wealth in Britain. Its only rival is the very heart of the City around the Bank of England.

IN 1998 a relatively unknown train driver from Leeds, Mick Rix, won the general secretary election in Aslef. He was the first in a series of new left wing trade union leaders now known as the "awkward squad". Their election signalled a wider radicalisation taking place inside Britain's trade union movement.

"What do we want? Shift pay! When do we want it? Now!" These chants echoed round a small North Wales town last Sunday as workers from Ifor Williams Trailers continued their battle for night shift pay and other improvements.

WORKERS IN the press and paintline section at Raven Manufacturing near Burnley are continuing their series of one-day strikes over pay. Pay levels are appalling, with this group of engineering workers on just £5.80 an hour.

Lecturers and support staff in London universities are now set to strike on Thursday 14 November over allowances for working in the capital. A meeting of the London region of the Natfhe union, which represents lecturers in the former polytechnics, decided the strike date last Saturday. The AUT union, which has members in the "old" universities, is balloting for a strike on the same day.

ROLLING STRIKE action by council workers in London continued last week as finance staff in nine London boroughs walked out. The selective action is part of the workers' fight for an increased London weighting allowance.