Youth work stays secular
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
THE BODIES that validate training courses for youth workers, the Education and Training Standards Committees for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, have reaffirmed the importance of a secular approach after considering proposals for various faith-based training courses, in at least one case from a company big in private education.
...[more]
New NHS privatisation attack
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
A further tranche of NHS specialist agencies are now under threat of privatisation from health secretary Patricia Hewitt. An organisation called the Business Service Authority is to be created to take over the functioning of the Dental Practice Board, the NHS Logistics Authority, the NHS Pensions Agency, the Prescription Pricing Authority and the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management service.
...[more]
Dismantling Longbridge
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
What future for Rover's Longbridge plant and the 5,000 workers who have been made redundant? The Chinese owners, Nanjing Automobile, press on with drip feed press releases, all indicating positive plans, but practice and action speak louder. The production of 100,000 cars a year and employment of 1,200 workers is proposed for Longbridge by 2010, but only if finance can be raised in the USA. The proposal is deemed "completely unrealistic" by competitors in the auto industry, especially Chinese competitors. Any new joint venture to re-establish Rover seems as distant as the joint ventures the Phoenix Four claimed were in the pipeline.
...[more]
Police - Euro-regionalisation
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
Charles Clarke has said he wants to merge the 43 county police forces to 12 regional "strategic task forces" or "superforces", depending upon which hype the government uses. The proposals miraculously match up with the EU's regionalisation plan for England and Wales.
...[more]
Pay - They're all right, Jack
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
The total pay of top company directors rose by 18% last year, according to the Income Data Services annual board room survey. Almost half of directors now receive more than £1 million, with eight receiving packages worth more than £5 million. IDS, which has assessed directors' pay for the last 15 years, said that it had never seen so many get so much money.
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
The EU'S Court of Auditors said it could not vouch for almost all of the £68 billion spent by Brussels last year because fraud checks were still not in place – the 11th year running that the accounts have failed to be approved. Court President Hubert Weber told the budgetary control committee that he could not sign off on the EU's agricultural spending, its structural fund payments, its internal policy payments or its external actions payments.
...[more]
Engineering - Pay agreement at Goodrich
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
WORKERS at the major engine management system supplier Goodrich Engine Control Systems, Birmingham, have agreed to a two-year wage settlement after a short period of industrial action during September.
...[more]
Sheffield Industry - The last stainless steel
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
Sheffield is to see the closure of its last stainless steel plant in early 2006. Sheffield, where stainless steel was invented in 1913, has now reached the end of the road for steel production. 700 steel workers are to be made redundant and the annual 300,000 tons of products transferred to other plants belonging to the Finnish owners, Outokumpu.
...[more]
Prisons - Record number of inmates
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
Britain's prison population continues to rise with over 78,000 inmates. Britain now has the highest prison population in Europe, having risen 51% in ten years. The government's response is to build yet more prisons – private of course and highly lucrative. The link between the soaring prison population, government policies and money going into the hands of the privateers leaps out forcibly from the data.
...[more]
Housing - The Dolphin clearances
[WORKERS, DEC 2005]
Westminster City Council is proposing to clear over 1,000 tenants from a protected housing trust in central London. The Dolphin Square Trust was built in the 1930s to provide housing at reasonable rents for Londoners. The council previously attempted a sell-off in the 1960s, but was headed off by the then Tory government. It now proposes to sell its lease responsibilities, due to expire in 2034, to a Jersey-based property developer.
...[more]
News Focus - Pensions
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
Public sector unions are breathing a sigh of relief after a deal with the government over pensions. But does it all add up? Or have they become party to a new pensions scandal?
...[more]
Not over yet at Gate Gourmet
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
After sacking 700 staff by megaphone, US-owned catering company Gate Gourmet came to an agreement with the Transport and General Workers Union at the end of September, endorsed by the stewards and accepted by the majority of members at the company. Tony Woodley, the T&G General Secretary, announced that the "great majority of our members" would either go back to work or take voluntary redundancy.
...[more]
Commons cleaners out again
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
Transport and General Workers Union members who clean up in Parliament have decided to strike again, in a follow-up to their action in February and July, when 170 staff took to the picket line. They are only paid £5 an hour, while the MPs who make the mess earn over £60,000 a year. The union is demanding £6.70 an hour, the introduction of sick pay, pensions, and 20 days' holiday as well as public and bank holidays.
...[more]
Drastic changes for schools
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
The latest government education white paper proposes drastic changes to the service. The power of local councils would be severely curtailed: they would no longer be providers of education, but commissioners. Local authorities will have to provide a "diversity of choice". They will be barred from objecting to more popular schools expanding at the expense of other local schools. Disputes over school admission policies would be handled solely by adjudicators who would not be accountable to local people. Education secretary Kelly's brief is to introduce a diversity of suppliers, supposedly competing against each other for pupils.
...[more]
News Analysis - In a flap over bird flu
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
There is no evidence that bird flu has been transmitted from one human being to another, but there is evidence that the current hysteria over bird flu has been whipped up by a UN health official, David Nabarro. He asserted that a flu pandemic could kill up to 150 million people, claiming that the virus could mutate so that it could be passed between humans. "It's like a combination of global warming and HIV/Aids ten times faster than it's running at the moment," Dr Nabarro told the BBC. Avian flu, CJD, the MMR vaccination, genetically modified crops, DDT – the scares are the real pandemic, poisoning people's minds, trying to make us all feel and behave like powerless victims.
...[more]
Identity Cards - Mass protest in Netherlands
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
IN THE NETHERLANDS around 250 people who took part in a campaign of civil disobedience against identity cards have been brought to trial in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
...[more]
United States - Huge anti-war demonstration
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
While anti-war marches in Britain are largely unreported, 24 September saw the largest anti-Iraq war demonstration in recent United States history.
...[more]
Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has declared that Swedish collective wage agreements breach EU laws on the freedom of movement. The commissioner will testify before the European Court of Justice in an upcoming case brought by a Latvian company, which was awarded a contract in Sweden but refused to abide by Sweden's collective agreement on wages and conditions for workers. The company tried to import Latvia's very poor wages and conditions into Sweden.
...[more]
Food Manufacture - Terry's moves to Europe
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
Terry's York chocolate factory closed at the beginning of October. The landmark building and employer in York has seen its 80 year history terminated. Terry's, part of the US Kraft Foods International, has had production transferred to Sweden,Belgium, Poland and Slovakia.
...[more]
Local Government - Islington moves north west
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
The London Borough of Islington is opening a 'one stop' housing benefits call centre in Manchester. This means Islington council saves the payment of London weighting allowance on its wages bill, avoids the ignominy of having a call centre in the Far East – and also gets away from stroppy local trade unionists.
...[more]
Libraries - Sackings spark dispute
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
The sacking of two librarians, Sue Small and Fujikko Kobyashi, from London's School of African and Oriental Studies, has sparked an unprecedented response within SOAS and across the wider academic community. The librarians were both specialists and managed the school's special collections covering China, Japan and Korea. (So much for Blair's injunction that we should learn from the Chinese.)
...[more]
European Constitution - They won't let it die
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
The leaders of the main groups in the European Parliament are refusing to bury the European Constitution. Socialist Party head Martin Schulz says, "I find it totally unacceptable that the President of the Commission has just told us: that's it, for me, the Constitution is not a priority, I have other fish to fry."
...[more]
Trade - Another record deficit
[WORKERS, NOV 2005]
Britain's deficit on trade in goods and services for August reached another new record, at £5.3 billion, up from July's £3.9 billion. Services had only a £300 million surplus, the smallest since these records began in 1993. This means the goods trade gap was £5.6 billion. On top of this, shutdowns in our North Sea oil fields caused a £413 million deficit on oil – also a record.
...[more]
supermarket struggle
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
Morrisons, the supermarket chain, has been forced to the negotiating table and a three-day strike set for 23 September — coinciding with the start of the Labour Party conference — has been postponed pending talks. As Workers went to press, the action had been called off for nine days. Around 4,000 warehouse and distribution workers, predominantly GMB and TGWU members, had voted overwhelmingly for action at three key depots in protest at redundancy proposals from the company. The ballot result, by T&G workers in Bristol, Northwich and Wakefield, and GMB at Aylesford and Warrington, was overwhelming, with more than 75% in favour on good turnouts.
...[more]
uncertainty over uk coal
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
UK Coal, after vigorously denying entering into takeover discussions with Alchemy Partners, now acknowledges that there will be tentative merger talks. In addition to Alchemy Partners, various US mining conglomerates are reputed to be buying a shareholding base in UK Coal.
...[more]
bolkestein olympics threat
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
Workers are under threat from an EU directive that undermines their wages and conditions of work. The Bolkestein Directive (named after its author) allows for an EU-based company that wins contracts for any services to apply regulation arising from the country of origin. A Polish, Lithuanian, Estonian or Czech company would apply its regulatory legislation instead of being obliged to follow British laws, such as those covering health and safety, employment protection, race, sex, disability, age discrimination, the minimum wage and the right to join a trade union.
...[more]
aerospace - reinstatement fight continues
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
The fight for the re-instatement of the Amicus convenor at the Rolls Royce aero-engine test department in Bristol continues. There has been big support for the convenor, victimised for carrying out trade union duties.
...[more]
news analysis - iraq: from bad to worse
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
US VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney said in June that the insurgency in Iraq was "in its last throes". He earlier said that January's elections would mean "the end of the insurgency". Rumsfeld said on 26 June, "The insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on for five, six, eight, ten, twelve years." Blair said on 27 June, "I think two years will be enough and more than enough to establish security." Three different estimates — it just shows that they will say anything to get their way. What they will not do, until we make them do so, is withdraw the troops.
...[more]
burston strike school
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
Burston Strike School, Norfolk, where the long strike was commemorated in a march and rally last month. The school is now a museum recording the struggle.
...[picture]
hong kong - trouble in disneyland
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
A union leader has accused Disney of failing to care for the health of its workers at the new Disneyland in Hong Kong. Lee Cheuk-yan, general secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, complained that employees can only drink water during their 15-minute breaks, which come every four hours, instead of the two allowed in the US.
...[more]
transport - scab security peril
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
A letter to Eurostar from the Department of Transport's Transec security body revealed last month that the use of poorly trained scabs resulted in an alarming fall in the efficiency of crucial counter-terrorist X-ray baggage checks over the August Bank Holiday, when workers went on strike over pay.
...[more]
eurotrash - the latest from brussels
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel has urged rerunning the French and Dutch referendums on the proposed European Union Constitution, saying, "perhaps in 2007, if in one or other country there has been political change, then a second attempt can be made."
...[more]
nursing - students fight poverty
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
The campaign to fight poverty among student nurses continues to gather pace. A recent Unison survey demonstrates that in under two years the number of student nurses leaving their training with debts of over £10,000 has risen from 6% to 14%. Around 55% of graduating nurses have debts ranging from £1,000 to £9,999. Unison is calling for the re-instatement of employment and wage protection previously afforded to student nurses before the introduction of the bursary system.
...[more]
further education - the cost of pfi
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
IN 2002 NEWBURY College in Berkshire became the first to relocate as a result of a PFI investment — one of the largest in a British further education college. At the time, the college's governors said that the only way it could raise money was by using a PFI to move to a greenfield site.
...[more]
police - london force cut
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
At a time when London faces terrorist threats, the strength of its police force is being cut. The cuts stem from a Home Office Initiative and a spending review being carried out by the Metropolitan Police Force. Despite assurances that numbers will increase, a pilot project in Bexley gives a truer picture of the realities to come.
...[more]
ukraine - orange splits
[WORKERS, OCT 2005]
The Western-backed "orange revolution" in Ukraine of less than a year ago is in trouble, with splits in the leadership and corruption in high places. President Yushchenko has had to sack his entire government, including the Prime Minister, Yulia Timoshenko, a billionaire gas oligarch who was originally on Interpol's wanted list and the power behind the throne.
...[more]
the fight at gate gourmet
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
When workers at Gate Gourmet were faced with an ultimatum requiring them to sign a new contract they rejected it, rather than accept worsening conditions and cuts to their already low pay. Gate Gourmet catering assistants, who produce food for BA planes, earn around £12,000 annually, and drivers just below £16,000. The T&G workers' rejection set in motion a course of events that led to strike action, whereupon they were sacked and ground staff at Heathrow came out in sympathy (see Back to Front, p16).
...[more]
sedgefield tenants say no
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
All IS NOT well in Blair's back yard. Tenants in his Sedgefield constituency delivered a stunning blow in July to plans to privatise council housing. Sixty percent of those voting (on a 73% turnout) rejected the council's plans to hand over 9,000 homes to the Sunderland Housing Group, which spent a reported £720,000 in publicity for the ballot.
...[more]
adult learning places cut
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
About 15,000 evening classes and part-time courses are being scrapped following the 3% cut in government funding for adult learning announced by the Learning and Skills Council in June.
...[more]
news analysis - the "modernising" attack on fire services
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
Fire services across the country are under attack as government seeks to "modernise" them under the guise of dealing with terrorism. 46 local control rooms across England are being restructured into 9 regional centres, and both jobs and local knowledge will certainly be lost in the process. For example all 999 calls in the East Midlands will be handled from a business park near Castle Donington from 2008.
...[more]
eurotrash - the latest from brussels
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
Much is made of using treason legislation against advocates of terrorism. However it is still illegal to display the national emblems of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland on your car in place of the EU—GB symbol. Despite government promises to amend EU legislation, they have not initiated any action.
...[more]
karl marx - still the most influential
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
For the third time in as many years, Karl Marx, long dead founder of communism, has been named as the most influential philosopher ever — first in a German poll, then in a Europe-wide poll and now Radio Four!
...[more]
mining - num wins 200 jobs
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
Two hundred new mining jobs are set to be created at the Kellingley pit in West Yorkshire. This decision comes after redundancies in the spring and dire management warnings over the future of the pit due to geological problems.
...[more]
nursery nurses - action against pay cuts
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
A WELL supported one-day strike by Dudley Council's nursery nurses and teaching assistants took place in July. The action by Unison members in the West Midlands borough followed a "Schools Remodelling" proposal by the employers which had unsatisfactory pay grades and, worst of all, proposals to stop paying nursery nurses during the summer break. The pay cut would vary between £1,000 and £3,000, according to the grade.
...[more]
private finance initiative - research campus abandoned
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
The £1.1 billion PFI healthcare and research campus planned for St Mary's in Paddington, West London, has been abandoned.
...[more]
ports - another import facility
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
P&O is proposing to re-develop the moribund Shell Haven refinery site on the Thames. Amid great fanfares the new super-container facility, costing in the region of £1.5 billion, will become Britain's largest port.
...[more]
shipbuilding - last scottish yard under threat
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
The existence of the last shipbuilder in Scotland — Ferguson in Port Glasgow — is at risk now that the Scottish Executive has awarded orders to a Polish company, Remontowa in Gdansk. Under investigation for illegal subsidies, the Gdansk yard was privatised in 2000 and uses cheap labour from Russia — which costs even less than native Polish labour.
...[more]
students - debts soar
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
AS A-LEVEL STUDENTS around the country celebrate record results, the future for them looks increasingly debt-ridden. Student debts for the year 2003/04 were seven times as high as they were nine years before. According to the Student Loans Company, students' publicly owned debts have risen from £1.89 billion to more than £13 billion. The average student debt was £8,430 for 2003-04, up from £3,530 in 1999-2000.
...[more]
tolpuddle march
[WORKERS, SEPT 2005]
The banners of the Dorset branches of the Agricultural Workers Union (now part of the TGWU) leading the annual Tolpuddle march in July. The rally and march drew a historically large number of people — more than 5,000 according to police estimates.
...[see picture]
'single status' strike
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
UNISON and T&G workers at Coventry Council held a successful three days of strike action at the end of May in opposition to their employer's decision to impose pay cuts from 1 June 2005. Their strike has been followed by an indefinite work to rule, which has also been joined by GMB workers.
...[more]
get freight off the roads
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
The rail union ASLEF is to lobby parliament on 13 July in its campaign to get the bulk of freight transferred from road to rail as part of an integrated transport system. This makes sense on environmental, safety and cost grounds and is supported by a huge majority of the public. The road industry is pushing for longer and heavier lorries of between 60 and 84 tonnes, which would be unsuitable for most British roads and cause huge wear and tear. Recent research also indicates that HGVs only pay for around 65% of the costs they impose on society. A 40-tonne, 5-axle lorry causes over 10,000 times as much damage to road surfaces as the average car.
...[more]
trust remortgages its debt
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
Octagon, the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) consortium which manages the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust, has "re-mortgaged" the PFI debt. This is a clever ploy being used by many PFI shareholders. When a company has been selected for a PFI project, it borrows money at a rate of interest determined by the risk factor involved. But after completion, the risk factor disappears. Also, as the government has guaranteed that profits come before everything, so the contractors must be paid before all else.
...[more]
news analysis - what 'pension reform' really means
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
In the recent Queen's Speech are plans to screw even more money out of workers in the form of so-called pension reform. Previous issues of Workers have outlined the deliberate destruction of pension schemes, with employers taking 'pension holidays', boosting their profits by taking surpluses from our pension funds, and government raiding public sector pensions to keep costs within EU parameters.
...[more]
eurotrash - the latest from brussels
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
The most recent figures available — for the years 1999-2003 — show that Britain's total gross contributions to the EU, at 2003 prices, were £37.8 billion. Receipts were £20 billion. So our average loss was £3.6 billion a year. Since joining the EEC, our net contri-bution totals more than £100 billion. Never mind a rebate — we want all our money back.
...[more]
euro - bank governor speaks out
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
Following on from the rejection of the EU Constitution by Holland and France, the Czech Central Bank has now issued warnings against the single currency. The governor of the Czech Central Bank has described the euro as "a significant risk" to the Czech economy.
...[more]
investment - buying bolt holes
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
The ruling class is betraying Britain, abandoning Britain. It is investing abroad - which is actually just buying assets, or bolt holes, abroad. Some 60% of the members of the Engineering Employers' Federation say that they want to shift some or all of their production to China.
...[more]
discrimination - trainee midwives win case
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
In a landmark case, an Employment Appeal Tribunal has found against the government on the grounds of sex discrimination against trainee midwives.
...[more]
pfi - search and rescue for sale
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
In another about-turn, the government is planning to privatise the Ministry of Defence's search and rescue activities. These embrace the RAF, Royal Navy and Coastguard helicopter rescue services at 12 bases across Britain — both helicopters and crew.
...[more]
free movement of labour - stealing Africa's health workers
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
The British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing have confronted the G8 with a simple but profound demand. Never mind "pie-in-the-sky" debt cancellation — always supplanted by another "aid" package — nor fatuous claims to be making poverty history, the BMA and the RCN are calling for an end to the stealing the greatest wealth of any country or continent — its people.
...[more]
northern ireland - action brings concessions
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
Disciplined and united action by non-teaching staff in Northern Ireland (reported in the last issue of Workers) has brought significant concessions from Angela Smith, the Education Minister.
...[more]
safety - university reduces security
[WORKERS, JULY 2005]
Within days of two incidents where staff at the University of Greenwich were subjected to an intruder brandishing a knife, physical threats and property being stolen, the university has announced proposals to reduce the number of security staff.
...[more]
higher education walkouts
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
LECTURERS AT London Metropolitan University (LMU) walked out for a week last month in protest against the university's attempt to impose, under threat of dismissal, new contracts. LMU is an amalgamation of the former University of North London with the former London Guildhall University, and the new contract is an attempt to impose the inferior North London contract on former Guildhall staff — despite assurances at the time of the merger that the Guildhall contract would apply to all staff.
...[more]
bank workers to strike
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
Amicus members employed by HSBC Bank were set to strike as Workers went to press. The strike, on 27 May, is in protest at the proposed new pay and bonus scheme. Ten per cent of staff would receive no pay increase, 45% of staff would receive a below inflation increase and nearly all staff would lose out on the new bonus scheme. HSBC made nearly £9.6 billion in profit last year, has 1600 branches in the UK and employs 60,000 people.
...[more]
N Ireland fight against cuts
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
Friday 13 May — unlucky for Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Barry Gardiner, Education Secretary, as thousands of non-teaching staff struck in Northern Ireland against education cuts. Spearheaded by UNISON and NIPSA (the Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance), with support from the TGWU, schools and libraries were closed and pickets were out across Northern Ireland, with rallies and marches in every major centre. A further ballot was under way on more extended action if the government fails to restore the cuts.
...[more]
news analysis - the manufacturing massacre continues
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
One million British manufacturing jobs have been destroyed under Blair. There were 4.52 million in May 1997. Now there are only 3.52 million. Manufacturing jobs are down 3% in the past two years, the worst performance among the G7 countries — over the same period, such jobs were up 5% or more in the USA, Germany and Japan.
...[more]
eurotrash
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
Get the story right!
At a TUC meeting debating the EU Constitution, Kinnock claimed it said nothing about "ever closer union". He's wrong. The Constitution's Charter of Fundamental Rights says "The peoples of Europe, in creating an ever closer union among them, are resolved to share a peaceful future based on common values."
...[more]
iraq - voting with their feet
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
The Polish government has announced that it will withdraw its 1,700 troops by the end of the year. Bulgaria has said that it will withdraw its 462 troops by the end of December. Ukraine is pulling out its 590 soldiers this May. Italy says it will withdraw its 3,200 troops from September onwards. Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have withdrawn their troops already.
...[more]
election - it pays to lose
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
The two Labour ministers dumped by the electorate on 5 May, Stephen Twigg and Melanie Johnson, will receive "redundancy" payments in the region of £200,000 each. This is based upon the formula of parliamentary salaries, allowances and pensions they would have received for being ministers. Not bad for an employment period of eight years!
...[more]
police - civilian staff walk out
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
Staff abandoned their posts in protests in Plymouth, Launceston, Camborne and at the force's Middlemoor headquarters in Exeter when they learned of the proposed cuts. More than 400 support staff, including forensic staff, mechanics, traffic wardens and switchboard operators, gathered outside the force's headquarters. The local press reported that single mothers wept as they faced the prospect of salary cuts, with many wondering how they would avoid losing their homes.
...[more]
italy - 'horrible martyrdom'
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
The US insurance company Banque AIG's analysis of Italy's circumstances in the Euroland financial never-never land reads as a nightmare. Italy faces a "horrible martyrdom", with possible 20% devaluation required as a desperate measure to avoid slump and collapse.
...[more]
schools - twin blow to academies
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
THE GOVERNMENT'S academies programme received two hammer blows in May with the news that the Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough has been described by Ofsted as "failing to provide a good education" — and that staff at the flagship academy were balloting on industrial action against plans to cut jobs and introduce new contracts. The NASUWT says that the academy is planning to cut around 20 of its 98 jobs.
...[more]
health - new minister, new privatisation
[WORKERS, JUNE 2005]
Patricia Hewitt, the new Secretary of State for Health, is a keen supporter of Euro-liberalisation. Within a fortnight of the election, she has proposed pushing ahead with increasing the proportion of operations on NHS patients carried out by the private sector, towards a target of 15%. This doubles the amount of money going into the private sector at the expense of the National Health Service. Unison's head of health, Karen Jennings, expressed the union's disappointment.
...[more]
news analysis - unionisation of the doormen
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
There is chaos in the security sector — and it is all down to government policy on door supervisors. But the workers in the sector are organising themselves.
...[more]
stuc faces election pressure
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Now in its 108th year, the Scottish Trades Union Congress met in Dundee in April — subjected to a low-key but pervasive pressure from the Labour Party to support its "historic third term". No voice dared advocate Blair by name, but a raft of invited speakers pushed his message, including Wales TUC Vice President David Lewis, who demanded the unions get behind the Warwick Agreement to support the re-election of Labour. He implicated the STUC in this quest by praising their "shared agenda".
...[more]
from ASBO to CRASBO
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
The use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders has been welcomed in many areas as a deterrent to low level types of crime such as prostitution, drug dealing, vandalism and graffiti. But ASBOs ignore the background of such crime: unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and homelessness, all largely economic, are not being addressed as a class issue.
...[more]
rally against EU constitution
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
On Saturday 9 April Conway Hall in Central London was packed for a Anti-EU constitution rally. The audience came from all parts of Britain and also included small delegations from Ireland, France, Spain and many of the Scandinavian countries. The broad range of speakers included Doug Nicholls from Trade Unions against the EU Constitution, who gave a succinct overview of how trade union opposition to the Constitution has grown since last September's TUC.
...[more]
transport - reverse auctions
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Transport for London has decided to procure consulting engineering and other professional services in construction by 'Reverse Auctions'. In this system firms put in bids by internet and later are asked to bid again to beat the lowest price until a bottom bid is reached which no one is prepared to beat.
...[more]
NHS - think cleaners
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
UNISON, the union representing many healthcare workers, is running a Think Cleaners campaign. At its recent conference for hospital cleaners, union reps raised concerns such as lack of equipment and proper cleaning products, the shortage of isolation facilities for MRSA and the difficulty of having to clean with visitors always around.
...[more]
energy - playing poker with the future
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
The government is still playing high risk poker with Britain's energy industries. Britain has now ceased to be either an exporter of or self-sufficient in gas as the North Sea oil and gas fields expire.
...[more]
eurocash...it's our money
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
The European Union is funded with cash from member states, taking a cut from VAT and a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). The European Commission works out how to spend what comes in, but there is no way to stop the flow. Yet the EU still wants more: its annual budget is forecast to rise by 31%.
...[more]
education - lecturers to debate migration
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Natfhe annual conference meets in Eastbourne at the end of May, a critical time for higher and further education with increasing concern that key departments in core subjects such as Chemistry cannot be sustained in Britain. In addition the union itself is contemplating its own future, with talks on a merger with the Association of University Teachers (AUT) under way.
...[more]
motor industry - sackings at peugeot
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Lost in the reporting of the disaster which has engulfed Rover workers is news that 850 jobs at the Peugeot Ryton car factory in Coventry are also to be axed.
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london - the poverty trap
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Analysis by London trade unions, the Greater London Authority, the Mayor's Office and the London Citizens Organisation has arrived at a "living wage" for London — the absolute minimum you need simply to exist — of £6.70p an hour. Including benefits and tax credits this figure rises to £8.10p per hour. The national minimum wage rises in October to £5.05p per hour.
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railways - march for renationalisation
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Maritime and Transport Union will march from Glasgow to London, via Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, in the run-up to the General Election, demanding the renationalisation of the railways. The march, reminiscent of the Marches for Jobs of the early 1980s, will be led by the Silkwood Colliery Band with the slogan of "Privatisation My Arse", succinctly summing up the disaster of rail privatisation.
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ship repair - thames closure
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
One of the few remaining Thames repair yards faces closure due to lease expiry problems. The Thames Craft Dry Docking Company at Greenwich provides maintenance to the Thames tourist boats, the River Police fleet and innumerable smaller boating and shipping companies.
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unison - don't mention the constitution
[WORKERS, MAY 2005]
Britain's largest union — Unison — is balloting for its National Executive Council. The critical issue is to ensure member participation and lift the appalling return from 2003 with only 5% (sic) of members voting. Confusing though the ballot paper is, confusing though the relevance of certain posts may be, what the election demonstrates is a paucity of clear thinking about such issues as the EU Constitution and its effects on public services.
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news analysis - the referendum question
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
The European Union Act started the government's campaign to get us to accept the EU Constitution. The Act does not set a date for the referendum. Until a date is set the government, EU bodies and campaign organisations can spend as much as they want. This is why the government is delaying announcing dates for the referendum and the general election, keeping the formal campaigns as brief as possible.
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when a break is not a break
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
A spin-off from the Agenda for Change agreement within the ambulance service has led to an interesting debate: When is a break not a break? Currently, ambulance workers have a paid meal break within their shift and are available to respond to an emergency call should one come in throughout that meal break. If they are called out from their break to respond to an emergency call there is a labyrinth of regulations regarding payments which also include "spoilt food allowance" and "no break allowance".
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energy - running out of gas
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
Within weeks of British Gas announcing a 64% increase in profits (on the back of a 22% price increase in gas and 18% increase in electricity to domestic consumers), gas manufacturers said Britain had less than 3 days' gas reserves if the wintry conditions persisted. Prices, it was said, could rise 30% more.
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eurotrash - the latest on brussels
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
Bush for EU Constitution
The US Ambassador to the EU, Rockwell Schnabel, says President Bush supports the EU Constitution. Schnabel reported that the President believed "America supports a strong Europe because we need a strong partner in the hard work of advancing freedom in the world". Clearly the US government thinks its foreign policy will be more effective in alliance with a militarised EU created by the EU Constitution. The USA and the EU have just agreed on new NATO cooperation including training Iraqi police forces and prison guards.
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mining - the only strategy is closure
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
Ellington Pit in Northumberland has closed due to geological problems with a loss of 520 jobs. Kellingley in West Yorkshire is at death's door, having haemorrhaged jobs from 3,000 to 300.
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the pensions battleground
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
In response to the attack on their pensions, local government workers and civil servants, including Crown prosecutors, government lawyers and special advisers had been set to join school dinner ladies and refuse collectors on 23 March in a one-day walk out — one of the biggest since the General Strike of 1926 — against the government's attack on pensions. Ballots for action produced results of between 73 and 83% in support.
...[more]
motor industry - eu manipulation
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
European Union manipulation has stalled a £200 million investment grant for Peugeot's Ryton plant in Coventry for over two years. The grant, to assist in building the Peugeot 207 range, was scheduled for 2002. Its delay has meant that production of the 207 series has now gone to France and Slovakia. Ryton, which employs 3,000 workers, will become the sole producer of the 206 series, a car which obviously has a limited shelf life.
...[more]
motor industry - rover dismantled
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
ON HIS recent visit to China Gordon Brown pontificated about the deal between Rover and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. It was hinted that China will be able to defer VAT payments on production for an unquantified number of years — worth tens of millions of pounds.
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seafaring - scots fight privatisation
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
Scottish seafarers providing a lifeline to the far-flung populations on the many islands to the west of Scotland have voted to strike against an EU-inspired move to privatise the company they work for. The strong feelings of the RMT members involved were reflected in a ballot for strike action announced on 14 March — 66% in favour in a turnout of over 59%.
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bad month for spin machine
[WORKERS, APR 2005]
In the lead-up to the general election, March was a disastrous month for the Labour government's spin machine. New education secretary Ruth Kelly "bombed" in her speech to head teachers, antagonising her audience with a patronising and risible piece about parental choice and influence in running schools. Using Blair-speak just won't do in front of an audience of professionals. She retreated amid jeers from the floor.
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cleaners take to streets
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
Cleaners at the House of Commons took to the streets on 8 February as part of a struggle to unionise cleaning workers and improve their working conditions. Through the Transport and General Workers' Union they are demanding more pay and better contracts, to bring them closer to their better paid counterparts in the House of Lords.
...[more]
unions fight eu constitution
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
Leading trade unionists from more than 20 unions across the country have launched a campaign against the EU constitution, warning that it threatens public services, democracy and manufacturing. The development gives the lie to the impression that the TUC has tried to cultivate, of general support for the constitution.
...[more]
docks - national strike looms
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
Negotiations between Associated British Ports (ABP) and the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G) have broken down over the company's failure to increase its pay offer. T&G workers rejected a 2.9% pay rise, and indicated they would be willing to be balloted over industrial action if talks failed.
...[more]
eurotrash - the latest on brussels
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
Media bias
The Daily Mirror recently ran a poll on the EU constitution alongside a pro-constitution full page article. Yet its readers voted 72% to 28% against Britain signing the constitution, clearly surprising the paper's editors. Meanwhile, an independent commission has examined the BBC's coverage of the EU. Chaired by Lord Richard Wilson, a former Cabinet Secretary, it included pro-EU and anti-EU figures and it found that the BBC's coverage was biased in favour of the EU, concluding, "Although the BBC wishes to be impartial in its news coverage of the EU, it is not succeeding." Pro-EU campaigners always complain that the media are biased against them. But now the BBC has been told to put in place guidelines to ensure fair coverage in the referendum.
...[more]
stock exchange for sale
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
It may bore British workers to death having regular news bulletins every five minutes on every early morning news programme about inexplicable ups or downs on the markets, foreign markets, this exchange, that exchange or whatever, but something is afoot in the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Now, as well as gambling with workers' livelihoods, the stock and share holders are gambling with their own survival, as if in a giant casino.
...[more]
trade gaps - setting new records
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
The US trade gap for 2004 was a record $618 billion, up by 24% on 2003, the previous record. December's shortfall was $56 billion, the second worst monthly figure ever; the worst was November's $59 billion. These deteriorating figures give the lie to Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, who has continually predicted that the gap would lessen.
...[more]
news analysis - identity cards
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
THE GOVERNMENT wants to control us, the citizens, and a key weapon in its armoury is identity cards. Its proposed scheme is draconian — ID cards would be compulsory. And it is costly — even the government admits that the scheme could cost £5.5 billion. The likely price to each of us is £35 to £40 for a card without a passport, and £85 for an enhanced biometric passport. It's not as if there is public demand: a recent poll suggested only 18% of us would be happy to pay even £30 for a card.
...[more]
mining - last north east pit closes
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
The last pit in the North East, Ellington colliery, has been closed by UK Coal. The NUM chairman, Ian Lavery, said, "The closure of the colliery will have severe consequences economically and in employment terms for the area as a whole."
...[more]
mobile telephones - profits up, jobs down
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
T-Mobile is to cut around 800 jobs at sites across Britain, part of a move by parent company Deutsche Telekom (DT) that will see a total of 2,200 jobs axed across Europe, despite a profit of 3.2 billion euros last year and 4% growth. One in eight staff will be affected over the next two years.
...[more]
rover still heading for china
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
The long-overdue wedding announcement of China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and MG Rover, heralded for late last year, still seems to be in a state of uncertainty, despite the Chinese bridegroom's reassuring announcements.
...[more]
teaching - school challenges government
[WORKERS, MAR 2005]
A primary school in Essex has said that without extra money it will not implement the workload agreement forced through by the government last year. Instead, the headteacher, the governors and the staff at North Primary School in Colchester are challenging the government to come up with the cash to fund it.
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local government - brighton council climbs down
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
Teaching assistants in Brighton have called off further strike action (see WORKERS, last issue) after the council agreed to binding arbitration at ACAS towards the end of January.
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constitution debate hots up
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
A MEETING on 15 December in Westminster enjoyed an eloquent denunciation of the proposed new EU Constitution by Trine Mach, the spokesperson for Denmark's June Movement. She noted that Denmark's trade unions were strongly questioning the Constitution, and had formed Trade Unions Against the EU Constitution, which has already been campaigning against the recent EU Directives on Services, and for trade union rights.
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iraq contracts - what are friends for?
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
The government has overridden the British candidate Amec and given Kellogg Brown & Root, a US subsidiary of Dick Cheney's Halliburton, the key job of overseeing construction of the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers, the biggest warships ever built in Britain. Yet KBR is in bankruptcy protection in the USA, and has botched the running of its other British warship facility, the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth. A nice sweetener for Bush, though.
...[article]
economies - bush, blair and deficits
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
The US trade deficit for November was a record $60.3 billion (£32 billion), up from October's $56 billion. Oil imports were a record $13.4 billion. The USA's trade deficit total for the first eleven months of 2004 was $561 billion, far more than the record $496 billion for the whole of 2003. The US surplus on agricultural goods, a constant since 1959, has vanished.
...[more]
eurotrash - the latest from brussels
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
More, and more, and more
The European Commission is demanding a 35% increase in the EU budget, already £70 billion a year. Since 1984 Britain has paid 58 billion euros more to the EU than we have received, compared with France's 29 billion and Italy's 17 billion.
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news analysis - RIP: the Free Trade Area of the Americas
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
In December 2004, the Presidents of Venezuela and Cuba announced the death of the Free Trade Area of the Americas - FTAA or ALCA in Spanish. The US proposed the idea nearly five years ago as a crude copy of the European Union model. The plan was to expand NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Area, combining Canada, the US and Mexico with every country (except one) in the Americas including the Caribbean, North, Central and South America.
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miners at kellingley colliery
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
Miners at Kellingley Colliery, Pontefract, fought a four-month dispute in early 2004 to prevent UK Coal undermining the jobs and terms and conditions of miners working at the pit. The jobs of redundant miners from the Selby complex were saved in return for the introduction of extended shifts and longer days. The company is now seeking 150 redundancies, almost all from the original Selby workforce, due to what it calls "geological problems". The loss of 150 jobs would reduce the workforce to 400 and leave Kellingley as only one of three surviving Yorkshire pits. But for how long?
...[more]
discrimination - pregnant and poor
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
GUESS WHAT happens to trainee midwives who get pregnant? Yes, they lose their income. In a united bid to end this discrimination UNISON went last month to the Employment Appeals Tribunal, supported by the Royal College of Midwives, the Maternity Alliance and the Equal Opportunities Commission. The Department of Health is resisting the action, of course.
...[article]
plastics firm flees britain
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
Rubber and plastics processor Trelleborg announced major restructuring of its British seals business last month, affecting the jobs of around 850 workers. After closing its South Wales plant at Milford Haven in October, it laid plans to close its North Wales plant at Newtown and another at Ross-on-Wye. It also said it wanted to relocate the technical centre and headquarters from Tewkesbury closer to Birmingham, to facilitate the amalgamation of an office and warehouse in Solihull, which will also close. Two manufacturing sites in Derbyshire may also amalgamate.
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cuba boycott - $250 million dollar smoke
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
The US has now introduced draconian anti-smoking measures, including a possible $250,000 dollar fine and up to 10 years in jail. But the legislation only applies to US citizens buying and smoking Cuban cigars anywhere in the world. It's amazing how such a small country can terrify a brutal superpower.
...[article]
horses - rumblings in the stables
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
The National Trainers' Federation and the Stable Lads' Association have announced a new pay settlement for horse racing stable staff. This includes a 3.3% wage increase, a £6 daily subsistence allowance, and improvements on overnight and away day allowances.
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journalism - writer 'suicide'
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
Gary Webb, US journalist and writer, is dead. 49 years old, he apparently shot himself twice, totally destroying his face. The official verdict was suicide, though that does not explain how someone can shoot themselves in the head twice.
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universities under attack
[WORKERS, FEB 2005]
The government's discredited Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is leading to the threat of closures across departments in higher education. Research funding - based controversially on the number of times published research is cited by other researchers - depends on the ratings that university departments achieve in the RAE. But university workers are resisting, warning that the RAE distorts higher education and will lead to the destruction of research across the sector.
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teaching assistants strike
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
An overwhelming majority (over 90%) of school teaching assistants (TAs) in Brighton & Hove, members of both Unison and the GMB, voted to strike over the local council's proposed pay and grading offer in November. This follows lengthy negotiations between the council and the unions under the single status agreement.
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beer - trouble brewing
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
Strike action from Manchester, Northampton and Scottish breweries is set to accompany the run-up to Christmas and the New Year.
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pensions - carpet workers robbed
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
Over 500 workers and pensioners at Abingdon Carpets, South Wales, are threatened with their pensions being slashed by 60%.
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community ousts 'Conman'
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
The campaign by local parents and trade unionists against turning a local school into a city academy scored a notable success this month, when its private sponsor withdrew. McEntee secondary school in Walthamstow, north east London, was to become part of the government city academy programme with £2 million from fashion millionaire Jasper Conran, and £24 million from the public purse.
...[more]
health - drug money bonanza
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
Cervical cancer is a distressing disease of our time. Yet, a new drug to deal with it is seen by GlaxoSmithKline in terms of $15 billion in profit it will bring the company.
...[more]
scottish fleet in fight for life
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
A report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is demanding that 30% of the North Sea's fishing areas must be closed to British fleets. If the report is adopted the effects will be devastating, especially in Scotland, where it would kill off the Scottish fishing industry and the 40,000 jobs dependent upon it. As one fisherman said, "We could become the first island in history to sacrifice its fishing industry."
...[more]
employment law - employers win again
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
The Court of Appeal has overturned the agreement struck in 1997 between BMW and workers employed by MG Rover that guaranteed so-called "jobs for life" — no compulsory redundancy.
...[more]
PFI collapse
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
AT THE start of December the impending collapse of the Jarvis construction company took a great forward leap as the company sacked 50% of its head office staff in a bid to stay afloat.
...[more]
rubbish - outsourcing the sifting
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
The separation and collection of "green" waste is nothing new in Leeds and other cities in West Yorkshire. Nobody got hot under the collar about the new wheelie bins provided for the selected recyclable items when they were introduced a few months ago.
...[more]
construction - 9/11 safety toll
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
Many construction workers who laboured to clear the site and make safe after the 9/11 attack in New York are sick and dying. They have been poisoned by asbestos and other pollutants, because they were not provided with protective equipment or other safety gear.
...[more]
security - draconian measures
[WORKERS, JAN 2005]
Almost half of the proposed bills in the Queen's Speech in December plot draconian law-and-order measures for the country. Britain may soon have the largest prison population in Europe — all in private hands, of course, following Blunkett and Blair's proposals to extend police powers of arrest, make more courts sit without juries, make sweeping changes to the prison and probation services and introduce compulsory ID cards.
...[more]