Category: Reports
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Remploy Glasgow – 1st day of 4 day strike!
The first of a four day strike at Remploy Springburn in Glasgow was absolutley solid. Only one staff member crossed the picket line, a HR manager who sneaked in early. Pickets did shifts all day with no less than thirty workers manning the gates. The mood was determined but angry, especially when pickets read in…
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Why I am lobbying the TUC for a strike against austerity!
With over 350,000 public sector workers already sacked and over one million young people on the dole, it’s terrifying to think that the vast majority of the cuts are still to come – unless we fight them! These cuts aren’t necessary. £120 billion of tax goes unpaid every year largely by big business and the…
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Solidarity needed in fight to save jobs (Taiwan)
Three hundred textile workers in the Hualon Corporation’s factory in Miaoli County, Taiwan declared indefinite strike more than a month ago on 6 June. Since then they have occupied the factory for one month to stop the machines from being moved out. They are fighting for money owed on their wages and pensions going back…
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Why I’m lobbying the TUC for a 24-hour general strike (C&A)
When my father used to tell me of the privations he endured in the 1930s depression including walking from Brighton to Aldershot in a fruitless search for work it just sounded like scary stories from history, but I can see things going back that far and further if this government isn’t challenged. It’s clear from…
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Action For Rail Conference Manchester
About 60 union reps, mainly from the rail unions, but also from the NHS, civil service and local government, came to the Manchester ‘Action For Rail’ conference to organise resistance to the McNulty report into the future of the railways. They were joined by trades council activist and public transport campaigners. We heard from Martin…
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40 years since Pentonville
PENTONVILLE 5 AND THE DOCK STRIKE OF 1972 – (Two personal views of how the dockers defeated the Tories) WHAT WE CAN LEARN TODAY ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THAT MOMENTOUS STRUGGLE 40 YEARS AGO (Laurence Humphries) 40 Years ago in the summer of 1972 new technology had revolutionised dock handling and ‘containerisation’ was in place.…
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Solidarity with the striking Turkish textile workers
5,000 textile workers in Gaziantep, Turkey are taking industrial action for an indefinite period for increased pay and for a better working environment. It has been over a week since the struggle of thousands of textile workers at Gaziantep Baspinar Industrial District started for reasonable pay and work conditions. The workers at ?ireci Tekstil, Zafer…
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Support the Remploy fight
Article, interviews and reports For months the Con-Dem government have stated their intention to close 36 out of 54 Remploy factories across the UK. Remploy workers had already voted overwhelmingly to take strike action on 19 and 26 July to save these plants and the related jobs. Now this has added urgency because on 10…
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Second strike day at Remploy factories
Leeds The second day of strike action at the Leeds Remploy factory saw large numbers of pickets once again. A delegation from the PCS DWP group executive came down early on to support the strike as did members of other local trade unions. The pickets’ anger showed with chants of ‘Maria Miller Factory Killer’ directed…
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Jobcentre call centres strike against draconian conditions
obcentre staff who deal with calls from people entitled to benefits are striking today over oppressive working conditions and unrealistic targets. More than 6,000 PCS members in 32 call centres in England, Scotland and Wales are reigniting industrial action first taken last year against draconian conditions that prevent them from providing the kind of service…
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Essex firefighters strike: 42 take on “big brother”
Hundreds of striking firefighters and their supporters paraded through Essex’s county town of Chelmsford on Wednesday 18th July in a show of defiance against the dictatorial attitudes of the Fire Authority and the unnecessary cuts in service they are trying to force through. FBU banners from as far afield as Northern Ireland and Cornwall showed…
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Building the fightback at the North West Shop Stewards AGM
20 July The North West Shop Stewards Network held its AGM on July 17. Thirty trade unionists heard Steve Acheson, blacklisted electrician, speak on the recent BESNA victory and the continuing battle against blacklisting. Many of those attending were construction workers and they lambasted the mostly unelected trade union officials in UNITE and UCATT for their…
