news articles

[see news articles for 2008 2006 2005 2004 2003 ]

STUC meeting opposes treaty [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
The campaign to oppose the imposition of what amounts to a state constitution chaining Britain to the EU continues apace, as evidenced by a fringe meeting on 13 November at this year's Scottish TUC Women's Conference in Glasgow.
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End Cuba blockade, says UN [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
On 24 October, US President Bush called on the Cuban Army and people to overthrow the Cuban government, promising to tighten the 45-year-old blockade and set up a "freedom fund" with allies to rebuild capitalism in Cuba after the government was overthrown.
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Local govt ballot fiasco [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
As indicated in the October edition of Workers, the pay negotiations in local government were heading for the rocks, with every other local government trade union having gone through the motions of consultation before biting off the government's pay offer of 2.5 per cent. Meanwhile, Unison pressed ahead with a ballot for industrial action. This decision came out of a combination of cowardice, where they were not willing to address the political realities already acknowledged by the membership, and preparedness to allow the adventurism of the ultra-left.
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News Focus - Plain lunacy: building that flooded a county [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
As you entered the Gloucestershire town of Tewkesbury during July to September by the old A38 route you would have seen a banner draped on the front of an old house saying "Don't let the town drown Mr Brown".
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ID Cards - Fingerprinting children [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
All children aged 6 years and upwards are to be fingerprinted for EU passports and nationally issued ID cards. Hidden away in European Commission and European Parliament resolutions and regulations [Article 62(2)(a) of the Treaty establishing the European Community; Regulation of the European Parliament and Council amending Council Regulation (EC no. 2252/2004!], the decision to press ahead has been given the green light. Serious consideration as to the fingerprinting of children aged younger than 6 years has been undertaken but shelved after "technical considerations".
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Euronotes - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
Despite being warned by the Labour-dominated European Scrutiny Committee of MPs that its "red lines" were not met and would "leak like a sieve", the government did not push for any further changes to the text before signing up.
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Civil Liberties - Tap, tap...tap, tap... [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
In early October an extension to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 was introduced. All details of phone records from landlines and mobiles have now to be retained by telecommunications companies for a minimum of 12 months and can be handed over without opposition to the police and to central and local government officials plus a further 650 public bodies and quangos. This changes the original requirement that companies should voluntarily retain and forward the information – they must comply.
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Unemployment - On the rise [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
Figures released by the government indicate a rise in unemployment of some 7,000 people in October, bringing the official number of unemployed in Britain to 1.7 million people.
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Lisbon Treaty - Mass Portugese march [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
During the EU summit last month Intersindical, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers, organised the biggest demonstration in Lisbon in the last 20 years. Up to 200,000 people gathered to oppose the 'neo-liberal' EU reform treaty, which more or less equals the rejected EU constitution.
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Health campaigners and trade unionists take to the streets [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
Health campaigners and trade unionists took to the streets on 3 November in a march and rally called by Unison to celebrate and defend the NHS.
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Health - US nurses strike [WORKERS, DEC 2007]
Nearly 700 nurses have been on strike at nine Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia since 1 October.
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CWU on the front foot [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
As Workers goes to press, the future shape of the dispute between the Communication Workers' Union and Royal Mail remains unclear. The union has used imaginative tactics to maximise the impact of the strike and has exposed an apparently uninterested management and government.
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School buses 'not fit for road' [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
Almost half of all school buses pulled over by police in the London Borough of Barnet in an October inspection were found either not fit to be on the road or driven by people who should not have been behind the wheel.
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Big win in hospital fight [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to stop Whipps Cross University Hospital in Waltham Forest, northeast London, being downgraded were celebrating in October after a key National Health Service report concluded that there was no alternative but for it to stay as an acute general hospital.
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Obituary: John Kelly-Chandler [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
It is with great sadness and loss that the death of Comrade John Edward Kelly-Chandler is announced. John had been suffering from terminal lung cancer during the last 12 months and though stoically bearing through the treatment and ravages of the illness, he succumbed while on holiday in Ravello, Italy, on 9 October 2007.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
The Independent's front page article on 18 October, "10 Myths about the reform treaty", was a word-for-word reprint of a Foreign Office briefing note, without any attribution that this was the source. The Independent has refused to comment.
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Currencies - Catch a falling dollar [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
Since September 2003, the US dollar has lost about a quarter of its value against sterling. It has fallen even more sharply since the US Federal Reserve cut rates from 5.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent this September. It is also at record lows against the euro.
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School Meals - Council backs down [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
School Meals in Waltham Forest, north east London, will continue to be kept as an in–house subsidised service until 2009. This victory was achieved after a local campaign fought to prevent the reduction and privatisation of the service, with many local people signing their petition for a properly funded service.
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Iran - Blair calls for war [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
In Blair's first major speech since leaving office, at a Roman Catholic charity dinner in New York on 18 October, he called for a new war, against Iran. This might be considered merely the raving of an ex-Prime Minister, had not Brown agreed with Bush in July that Britain would back air strikes on Iran if it could be justified as a "counter-terrorist" operation.
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Education - Northern Ireland strikes [WORKERS, NOV 2007]
Classroom assistant members of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance began a successful campaign on pay with a one-day strike on 26 September, then 3 days the following week and then on to indefinite strike the week after. All 26 special schools in NI were closed and all 3,000 NIPSA classroom assistants remained resolute and disciplined throughout.
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A welfare state for banks [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
Before demutualisation Northern Rock was a respectable regional building society. But with constant measures of deregulation, successive governments have ripped up all the safeguards against financial chaos. After demutualisation, Northern Rock became an aggressive borrower and lender, soaring up the Stock Exchange, to a position where it arranged 20 per cent of all mortgages in Britain. As recently as 25 July, it announced a 30 per cent dividend increase.
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Community fights for health [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
At a public meeting in north east London held by the Save Whipps Cross campaign, local people heard from platform and floor speakers about what is happening with their local District General Hospital. A year on from the massive public meeting held when the downgrading of Whipps Cross was first proposed among a series of options for local health provision, no formal consultation has yet been held.
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Phoney war over public pay [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
The Unison Health ballot over acceptance or rejection of a pay award of 2.5 per cent – tweaked towards the low paid – has sunk without trace. A 20 per cent ballot return voted by 2 to 1 to accept the offer, with only 81,000 out of 405,000 bothering to vote at all. The RCN vote to consider rejection and industrial action, even though their own rules prohibit them from taking industrial action, came in on an even smaller return (18 per cent) and was promptly hidden away by the RCN national council. Trade unionists in health cushioned by three-year deals, Pay Review Bodies and similar embraces from the state need to reflect seriously on where they go next.
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News Analysis - Iraq: all about oil [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
Britain's vaunted political system has achieved something new – following the USA into not one but two unwinnable wars at once. These are not "wars for peace" or "wars for democracy". As Alan Greenspan, the ex-chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has admitted, "the Iraq war is largely about oil." And the Afghan war is largely about oil pipelines.
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Euronotes - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
In September the TUC passed a motion from the GMB calling on the government to hold a referendum on the new version of the EU Constitution. The Guardian noted that "...Europe is not just a rightwing preoccupation. ... The TUC debate today demonstrates that the sceptics are far from defeated. Indeed, we may be witnessing a...shift within the British left, from support to opposition to Europe."
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Trade - Another month in the red [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
In July, total exports of goods rose by 2.5 per cent to £19.2 billion while imports rose by 4 per cent to £26.3 billion, according to the Office for National Statistics. So the trade deficit for the month was £7.1 billion, after June's £6.5 billion. These are the kinds of figures we used to see after a year's trading, and a bad year at that.
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Migration - Councils hit by inaccurate stats [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
The Local Government Association has said that inaccurate migration statistics have left as many as 25 local authorities paying for services to migrants who had not been included when the central government grant to authorities was being calculated. Up to 25 councils, including Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester were affected.
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Migration - The rip-off documented [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
Since 2004 when ten new states joined the EU, more than 475,000 Polish and Lithuanian workers have come to work in the UK. A study commissioned by the TUC and conducted by Compas, a research unit based at Oxford University, shows that most had found insecure and poorly paid employment, with more than half of those surveyed encountering problems at work.
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Classroom assistants lobby [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
Classroom assistant members of NIPSA, the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance, lobbying commuters on their way home from work in Belfast. They voted by a massive 93.5 per cent for strikes, beginning on 26 September, in response to a derisory offer from the employers in June to their long-running dispute over pay and job-evaluation.
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EU Constitution - Dorset village referendum [WORKERS, OCT 2007]
Residents of a Dorset village voted last month in favour of a national referendum on the new European treaty in the country's first official poll on the subject. Villages in East Stoke, near Wareham, decided by 90 per cent that the nation should be surveyed on the new legislation. Of the 333 on the electoral roll, 72 voted yes and 8 no.
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The never-ending war [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
The war on Iraq has now lasted longer than World War One. 165 British soldiers and 3,674 US soldiers have been killed, and 25,000 wounded, with the last two months being especially costly.
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And not even a tender... [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
The word "marketisation", an attempt to prettify the word "privatisation", itself an attempt to beautify the phrase "flogging off", is often not strictly true. Sometimes contracts are awarded without the tender ever appearing in any kind of market.
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A bonanza for the lawyers [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
The National Audit Office has revealed that two-thirds of former miners – 296,000 out of 430,000 – suffering from lung disease or other coal-mining industrial diseases have received less in compensation than the lawyers administering the scheme. The Labour government's acceptance that compensation should be paid to miners after the historic 1998 High Court decision against British Coal (rather than appealing against the decision) was a great step forward.
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News Analysis: Safety on the River Thames [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
A Parliamentary Select Committee set up to head off protests about implementing an EU Directive reducing safety standards on the River Thames has let the government off the hook. The key issue is whether or not a new "harmonised" licence will be brought in for captains on the Thames.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
The government has privately admitted its claim that keeping a veto over taxation as one of its "red lines" was "purely presentational": it was never up for negotiation. Yet Gordon Brown still says that the government will ensure that its "red lines" are defended in coming negotiations over the final form of the new European Union treaty.
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United States - Falling wages [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
In the USA, wages have been forced down by 2 per cent since 2003. And workers' share of Gross Domestic Product is the lowest since records began in 1947, according to official figures.
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Cuba - Healthcare on film [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
EARLIER THIS summer the Royal College of Nursing and Unison hosted their first joint meeting on international health issues. The meeting, at the RCN headquarters, featured a short film, On the Slopes of the Himalayas, a documentary about the work of Cuba's medical brigade in Pakistan following the massive earthquake which devastated the country in October 2005.
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Mining - Kellingley's future confirmed [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
Kellingley Pit at Knottingley near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, facing closure two years ago, is now confirmed as having at least another 20 productive years as new coal seams are opened. Some 700 mining jobs have been secured at the Big K, the vanguard striking pit during the 1984-1985 miners' strike, following a £60 million new investment from UK Coal.
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Housing - Crisis point [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
Unions at the TUC will draw attention to the UK housing crisis, with average house prices in excess of £200,000, and rising at 11.3 per cent over the year.
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Multinationals - The takeover of Britain [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
Do foreign multinationals promote British firms? New research shows that attracting foreign investment and foreign companies actually tends to stifle promising indigenous firms.
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Remploy - Steward sacked [WORKERS, SEPT 2007]
Following the announcement of 2,500 redundancies in the Remploy Factories (see Workers, July 2007), comes the sacking of a Remploy GMB steward in Newcastle, seen as part of a continued assault on GMB shop floor activists by Remploy to maintain a climate of intimidation.
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The language of cuts [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
The government is planning to cut access to free English classes, contradicting its claim that a top priority is to provide courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages, known as ESOL courses. In response, the University and College Union (UCU) says that the prohibitive costs will result in far fewer people taking English classes.
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Cuba outflanks the US [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
WORKERS has often reported on US attempts to use third parties to attack Cuba in the old United Nations Human Rights Commission. The commission became so discredited that the US was voted off. But the United States continued to use other countries to attack Cuba, moves that eventually resulted in a UN investigator being appointed to investigate both Cuba and Belarus (another country that values its independence) for human rights violations The discredited body was eventually replaced by a new UN Human Rights Committee, but the old decision remained.
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Ex-Muslims launch body [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
LAST MONTH saw the launch and establishment of the British branch of the Council of Ex-Muslims. This follows on the launch, during the last 5 months, of similar branches in Germany, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. These are ex-Muslims openly proclaiming a secular and human rights programme in opposition to right-wing reactionary political Islamists and their apologists.
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News Analysis - The cost of overseas adventures [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
A TOTAL of 153 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq (as of 24 June). Conditions are worsening for our unfortunate troops. If it isn't safe to send Prince Harry, it isn't safe to send anyone [question to Downing Street: princes were always targets in wars...what's so special about this one?].
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet called on Britain to join the euro. He said, "...the single market to which [the eurozone] is tightly linked can only fully function with a single currency. Imagine for a second that you are the United States and that the currencies differed between Massachusetts, California, Florida and Alaska – what would you really see: a single market in the United States? My argument is no more complicated." But isn't the United States a single state, unlike the European Union?
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Tax ...and the rich get richer [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
Gordon Brown once boasted that he'd "squeeze until the pips squeaked". Well, he didn't have Britain's super-rich in his sights when he said it: 85 per cent of the 400 people thought to earn more than £10 million a year don't pay income tax – around £2 billion in lost revenue.
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Abortion - Catholic crusade [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
On Vatican orders, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, and his top bishops in England, Wales and Scotland have attacked Britain's abortion laws, likening them to Nazi-style policies.
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Pensions - Unison goes to ballot [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
Early July will see Unison – with just under 1,000,000 members the largest grouping in the Local Government Pension Scheme – begin balloting over acceptance or rejection of the renegotiated scheme.
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Education - Progress at Harlow [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
Lecturers at Harlow College in Essex have made a big stride forwards in their battle against the imposition of the principal's plan, which threatens the quality of education there, when the principal broke his refusal to speak to national union negoatiators.
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Breweries - Tetley's: hot property [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
After 180 years of brewing on the site in Hunslet, Leeds, Tetley's brewery is under threat of closure.
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Remploy - Under government threat [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
Over 2500 disabled workers employed in the Remploy Factories are facing redundancy under a government-inspired scheme to eliminate this unique employment system. Forty-three factories are to be closed. Mergers, reductions and streamlining are proposed for 40 more.
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NHS - Blood money [WORKERS, JULY 2007]
Despite continuing opposition from Unison, Unite (formerly the TGWU and Amicus unions) and the Royal College of Nursing, the NHS Blood and Transplant Service is continuing with its threat to cut 600 highly skilled staff and close seven out of ten blood processing centres.
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Call to defend Cuba [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
There is widespread admiration and support in Britain for Cuba. There may need to be a readiness to translate that support into something more tangible soon, a speaker at the CPBML's May Day rally in London revealed. "It's not widely known in Britain, but thanks to our links with the Cuban Communist Party it is known to us, that the north Americans have established for Cuba all the things they established for Iraq before they invaded that sovereign country."
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Civil service strikes continue [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
Civil servants continue with their campaign to protect pay and public services in the face of government determination to cut costs. The union of Public & Commercial Services (PCS) has voted to carry on with its challenge to the government, and to work with other unions, such as Unison.
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School meals threatened [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
LONDON BOROUGH Waltham Forest is planning to be the first council in Britain to close its central school meals service. If this goes ahead, many local schools will stop providing children with a proper lunch, replacing them with sandwiches.
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News Analysis - The EU's attack on Russia [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
The European Union's stance at its recent summit with Russia has increased international tensions and the danger of war. It seems most likely that, in a break with previous practice, no joint declaration will be issued at the end of the summit, because of the extent of the disagreements.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
Newly elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy was the first European Union leader to call for a 'mini treaty' to be introduced without a referendum. He wants a bigger EU budget, direct EU taxes and a directly elected EU President. He wants to remove more vetoes and new powers for the EU over migration, energy and health. He said, "...health, one of the major issues of this new century, [should] become a Community field of action."
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NHS - RCN to ballot on pay action [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
THE COUNCIL of the Royal College of Nursing has agreed to conduct an indicative ballot of its NHS members to decide if they wish to take industrial action over this year's pay offer of 1.9 per cent. The indicative poll will ask members if they want a second ballot on industrial action and what type of action they would be prepared to take. It is the second ballot that will decide if industrial action is taken.
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EU Enlargement - Migration grows [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
A survey from the Office of National Statistics has revealed a "higher than estimated" number of migrants coming to Britain from new EU member states. In the first three months of 2007 around 150,000 Romanians and Bulgarians arrived at British ports and airports. This calculation does not include people arriving by coaches, cars or trains and is likely to be an underestimate.
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Unions - Attracting employers? [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
Having failed to attract workers to trade unions, the TUC is now trying to attract employers!
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Education - Yanks move in [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
US education company Edison Schools is to be paid £1 million to take over the management of a north London comprehensive, Salisbury School in Enfield. Like other big private US operators, Edison has been waiting to get its hands on British state schools. Until now it has only provided consultancies here.
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Nursing - Student training slashed [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
Alongside the chaos in doctor training arrangements, the government has generated an equally damaging crisis in nurse education and the allied health professions. Thousands of newly qualified nurses have not been employed, though workloads are the same or higher. The same pattern has been seen across the allied health professions, with newly qualified physiotherapists, occupational therapists and others not gaining employment.
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Metrification - Victory over Brussels [WORKERS, JUNE 2007]
Britain will be "allowed" to keep pounds, ounces, feet and inches, after EU Industry Commissioner Gunther Verheugen dramatically announced he would drop plans to enforce metrification by 2009.
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Nurses to act over pay [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Pay was the main focus of the recent Royal College of Nursing congress in Harrogate. Members had already decided not to invite any government ministers, and the new general secretary of the RCN, Peter Carter, set the tone with a speech that focused on pay and employment.
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NUJ eyes web challenge [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
IT WAS back to Birmingham for the National Union of Journalists on its hundredth anniversary – back to the city where the NUJ was founded in 1907. And it was in many ways back to basics, too, with most of the discussion on industrial issues such as the move to "integration", with journalists increasingly being asked to write stories for both print and web while simultaneously taking photographs and video and preparing podcasts. Freedom of Information – or more accurately its absence – figured strongly as well.
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RMT fights privatisation [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Commuters using the East London Line were presented with an urgent message from the RMT union on 12 April as part of its ongoing campaign against the privatisation of London Rail. Transport for London's proposals under the new franchise, which will extend to the East London Line, are too complex and compromise public safety to a frightening extent, says the RMT, accusing TfL of drifting blindly into fragmentation.
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EU Laws - Taking over [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Between 1998 and 2004, 23,167 legal acts were adopted in Germany. No fewer than 18,917 were of EU origin.
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Water - No drought for profits [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Further summer droughts are forecast by the water industry regulatory body for London and the South East. Almost at the same time Severn Trent Water announced nearly 600 redundancies.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said recently, "We would be wrong to limit European construction to simple economic integration. The market and currency issues, useful and beneficial as they are in everyday life, have only ever been means, tools in the realisation of a larger objective."
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Kosovo - A fully fledged EU colony? [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
The UN mediator on Kosovo has called for Kosovo to be given "independence under international supervision", saying, "independence is the only viable option for Kosovo". He said it should be governed by an EU official who would have the power to veto laws and sack elected politicians. He said it should be occupied by substantial NATO military forces, which would be both its army and its police force. Strange independence!
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Power - A comeback for coal [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
A new huge 1600 megawatt coal fired power station has been announced for Tilbury in Essex, Hatfield Main pit has reopened with a 900 megawatt power station planned on-site and five new coal mines are being proposed for South Wales.
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Wages - The cost of London living [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has announced that the London Living Wage has risen from £7.05p to £7.20p.
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Poverty - Britain's huge gap [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Britain has the third biggest gap between the haves and the have-nots among the 24 OECD countries, according to a study in the Journal of Public Health. The USA has the biggest. We have the second highest child death rate; the USA has the highest.
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Trade Deficit - On the way to a new record [WORKERS, MAY 2007]
Britain's trade gap widened from £4.1 billion in January to £4.3 billion in February.
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Doctors' fury at job chaos [WORKERS, APR 2007]
Late last month junior doctor representatives and their consultant colleagues walked out of talks with the government about the disastrous online application system the government had imposed to supposedly make appointment to specialist posts "more equal".
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EU attack on job security [WORKERS, APR 2007]
The European Union is gearing up for massive changes in the way workers across its member states are employed – those that are employed, of course: unemployment in the Eurozone, for example, is running at 7.4 per cent. The changes are foreshadowed in a Green Paper, "Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century", which was launched in autumn 2006.
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Seventeen pence, that's all [WORKERS, APR 2007]
WHOOPEE! The national minimum wage has gone up by 17p per hour for an adult (over 21 years) to £5.52p, with 15p for 18-21 year olds and 10p for 16-17 year olds. The government has refused to include 21-year-olds as adults on the basis that they are more closely aligned to 20-year-olds rather than "older" people. Odd, that: most 20-year-olds become 21 years old en route to getting 'older'.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, APR 2007]
Politicians across Europe are still trying to think of ways to present the discredited EU constitution in a different light.
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News Analysis - Effects of the Services Directive [WORKERS, APR 2007]
Workers are constantly told that it doesn't matter what legislation is proposed by the EU because – subsidiarity in the ghastly jargon – member states have the right to uphold their own social laws. The way it works is this: a Directive (which has legal force) is passed to a member state for implementation in that country after parliamentary scrutiny and amendment (where a state already has laws providing for higher standards than in the EU politicians call this "gold-plating").
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Iraq - Literacy slumps post-invasion [WORKERS, APR 2007]
Educational levels, essential to modern civilised life, have plummeted in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. In just four years, the number of adults who can read and write has dropped from 90 to 68 per cent, according to reports presented in March at a Unesco conference in Dohar.
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Afghanistan - NATO's bloodbath [WORKERS, APR 2007]
NATO air strikes in Afghanistan last year are estimated to have killed between 2,000 and 3,000 civilians. The US launched 2,527 air strikes, dropping 987 bombs and firing 146,000 cannon rounds. The RAF used 500 bombs and rockets in September alone.
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Children - Worse off in Britain [WORKERS, APR 2007]
A new United Nations Children's Fund report, Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries (Unicef Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, 2007) found that Britain and the USA are the worst places to grow up while northern European countries are the best.
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Power - British firms off shortlist [WORKERS, APR 2007]
No British company has been short listed for the decommissioning and decontamination work associated with the ten Magnox nuclear sites.
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Mining - Money above ground [WORKERS, APR 2007]
With four deep coal mines still in production, how long before UK Coal drops the Coal for UK Estate Agency after inheriting 50,000 acres of land following the privatisation of British Coal?
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ID Cards - Thousands oppose photo laws [WORKERS, APR 2007]
Documentary makers, journalists and the general public have picked up on a government proposal to outlaw photography in public places unless "proper" ID cards are displayed or prior authorisation granted.
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Health fight goes national [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
SATURDAY 3 March will see numerous events across Britain as campaigning against the continued drive by the government for greater marketisation and private sector control over the National Health Service gets under way. There will be rallies, demonstrations, pickets, conferences, marches, leafleting and other activities.
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Hospital protest marches on [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
The largest protest seen in the north east London borough of Waltham Forest took place on 3 February as upwards of a thousand people hit the streets to call for their local hospital, Whipps Cross, to stay in the face of proposals that could lead to the downgrading of services (see photo, above).
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National civil service strike [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
On 31 January about 200,000 civil servants struck in support of their jobs, conditions and public services. Support for the action, which was called by the Public and Commercial Services Union, was widespread. Further action is planned, including strong support for the TUC's "Work Your Proper Hours" day on 23 February, where members are being urged to take full rest and lunch breaks as well as leave work on time. So far the government is unmoved.
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Steel - Mouse swallows elephant [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
As reported in the January edition of Workers, the British steel industry is in a continued state of turmoil. And once again, a foreign buyer is the cause.
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Outsourcing - Prudential exports jobs [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
Prudential – Britain's second largest insurer – has started its first transfer of jobs to India.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
The European Commission is calling for the abolition of trade union rights. A Green Paper, "Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21st century", follows a 2006 White Paper on "flexicurity". This asserted that workers could have job security if they embraced flexibility. It stands reality on its head: labour rights result from struggle by organised workers, not their acceptance of market forces.
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Agriculture - Protest over milk pricing [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
Dairy farmers dressed as cows and Women's Institute members in milk baths have protested in Downing Street against low producer milk prices. They want government protection from "unfair" practices by supermarkets. The decline in the dairy sector is closely linked to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
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Silicon Glen - Occupation at computer firm [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
WORKERS AT the Simclar computer components factories in Irvine and Kilwinning, Scotland, occupied one of the plants after the company closed them without notice, sacking the 420 workers.
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Engineering - Pump firm targeted [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
A subsidiary described as "a still profitable, world-class centre of engineering skills" – Weir Pumps of Glasgow – has been sold to a Swiss company, Sulzer, for nearly �50 million. The other price tag is the loss of 450 of its 700 workforce.
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Blood Service - Pickets against cuts [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
UNISON and Amicus members picketed Blood Centres in Leeds, Birmingham, London, Sheffield, Southampton, Newcastle, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and Manchester on 14 February in protest against proposed cuts.
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Museums - Campaign against closures [WORKERS, MAR 2007]
MORE THAN 200 people attended a mass visit to the William Morris Gallery in north east London on 14 February as part of the campaign to prevent its closure, along with that of the Vestry House Museum, a local history museum, archive and former workhouse.
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Civil servants vote to strike [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS) members across the civil service have voted for a one day strike on 31 January, followed by other action such as overtime bans. They are protesting against changes in conditions, job losses and reductions in public services. The strike is timed to coincide with the tax return deadline and will affect jobcentres, benefit offices, passport offices, driving tests, courts and museums.
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EU puts squeeze on Belarus [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
"It's indicative that we see such a vitriolic reaction! We appear to be causing the government some concern, to say the least," said James Howard, Director, International Trade Union Confederation, following a measured and reasonable response by the Belarus government to EU threats to withdraw economic trading agreements with the country under the EU's Generalised System of Preferences. (See December 2006 issue of Workers.)
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One-sided partnerships [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
A new TUC report, EPAs: A Threat to Workers, outlines Economic Partnership Agreements being negotiated between the European Union and six regional groupings of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The report strongly criticises EU external policy for trying to impose liberalisation on those ACP countries.
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News Analysis
Rich, poor and Labour [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
Under Labour, from 1997 to 2002, the number of Britons with more than £5 million in 'liquid assets' rose at the rate of 13% a year. Between 2002 and 2004, the number rose again by 50%. The rich stay rich, and get richer; the poor stay poor, and get poorer. The growing inequality makes British society less mobile. The USA, Britain and South Africa, the world's most unequal societies, have the least social mobility.
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Retailing - Wal-Mart casualisation drive [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
Following the GMB's successful threat of industrial action and negotiating strategy against Wal-Mart in the summer of 2006, the supermarket giant's anti-union strategy – another one – is slowly emerging.
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Food Processing
Birds Eye factory under threat [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
Around 600 jobs are under threat at the Birds Eye frozen food factory in Hull, would-be Labour leader Alan Johnson's constituency. The work is to be transferred to Bremerhaven in Germany and other existing capacity at Lowestoft.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
The EU Constitution is back on the agenda after the summit of EU leaders on 14 December. They agreed a timetable to conclude negotiations on a new document by 2008. The German government will then produce a report on the future evolution of the Constitution.
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Waterways - Thames campaign rebuffed [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
The government has ignored the campaign by Thames skippers, crews, health and safety campaigners and trade unionists to not implement an EU Directive which will reduce safety and training qualifications for Thames freight and passenger traffic.
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Local Government
The pensions pirouette [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
The pirouettes between the Local Government Pension Scheme employers, the trade unions and the government are beautifully choreographed as the draft regulations are laid, negotiations stagger on, sabres are rattled and members shake their heads in disbelief.
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Museums - NE London closure fight [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
In a packed meeting on 25 January, Waltham Forest residents denounced and pledged to fight the planned weekday closure of the William Morris Gallery and Vestry House Museum, which combined with staff restructuring will badly cripple these two institutions in northeast London.
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Venture Capital
The filleting of Little Chef [WORKERS, FEB 2007]
The Little Chef roadside restaurant chain has supposedly been saved from closure. Analysis by the GMB union of how the closure threat arose is illuminating. In 2003 the venture capital company Permira, using £712 million of borrowed money, bought 368 Little Chef restaurants and 22 Travelodge hotels from Compass. Using sale and leaseback they raised £280 million on 130 sites.
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Brown's capitalist vision [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
The Chancellor's Pre Budget Report in December could have been entitled "10 more years". His recurrent themes were living with globalisation and free trade; the primacy of the market; and the importance of education and knowledge. There was no mention of a national culture or manufacturing in Britain.
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EU blackmails Belarus [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
On the pretext of a report from the International Labour Organisation supposedly critical of Belarus' trade unions, the EU has threatened to withdraw from the Republic of Belarus economic trading agreements under its Generalised System of Preferences. The threat has come as something of a surprise to Belarus, which has trade union density in the region of 90 per cent – even by the CIA's World Fact Book analysis. Belarus and the ILO seemingly have continued discussion about the ILO report into trade unionism without acrimony.
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Bankrupting the NHS [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
In the first week of December Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health, boasted that she would resign if NHS trusts did not balance their books by the end of the financial year. Seven days later the Chief Executive of the NHS admitted that flawed accounting practices associated with the deficits, cuts and the present crisis made it impossible for the NHS to balance its books. Hewitt won't be resigning.
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News Analysis
Russia: counter-revolution, disease and death [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
The economic destruction following the counter-revolutions in Russia and Eastern Europe over the past 20 years has increased poverty, unemployment and inequality, all of which take their toll on workers' health. The capitalist governments have imposed large cuts in health and welfare spending, hospital closures and a drastic decline in the numbers of preventive check-ups and home visits.
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Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
The German ambassador to Britain said that he expects Germany to introduce proposals for the future of the European Union constitution by the end of its presidency in June. A German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, "We can bring this forward faster than anyone realises."
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Bonuses - Even fatter cats [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
AT LEAST £9 billion is expected to be paid out in City of London finance houses and banks bonuses by the end of December. Enough to fund Britain's daily bills for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for seven months, or to write off the NHS debt of £600 million by 15 times? But no it will go into the troughs of Canary Wharf, the Square Mile and City institutions. Now, if £9 billion is being paid in bonuses, what profits are being generated for capital?
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Higher Education - Oxford dons keep their powers [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
AT THE END of November Oxford dons threw out a plan to give more power to outsiders – for which read industry – at the 800-year-old institution. The vote, by 730 votes to 456, was widely seen as a re-affirmation not just of the powers of the individual colleges, but of academic freedom as well.
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Privacy - Snoop on pupils, teachers told [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
For many years, schools have recorded statistics about their school population, staffing levels and so on, and reported them to their local authority and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). This year, our centralist and intrusive government has given the data trawl a new dimension.
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Motor Industry - Anybody there? [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
Porsche, the luxury car manufacturer, has bought nearly 28 per cent of Volkswagen. It is forecast that 20,000 jobs are now at risk – 1 in 5 – in VW's German factories. Meanwhile in the US, fully half of Ford employees, over 38,000 workers, have sought redundancy.
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AA - Breaking up, breaking down [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
The AA advertises itself as the "Fourth Emergency Service" to motorists. The AA is now in need of some emergency assistance itself as it is being broken up after being recently put up for sale.
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Clothing - Burberry campaign continues [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
GMB members employed at Burberry clothing factory in South Wales are continuing their campaign to prevent the factory relocating to China with the loss of 300 jobs. Burberry, which describes its products as "quintessentially British", seems to think that production in China is acceptable and desirable.
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Health - Blood service haemorrhages [WORKERS, JAN 2007]
The continuing separation of the NHS Blood Service from the NHS continues. The NHS Blood and Transplant Service is to close seven out of ten regional centres, leaving only Bristol, Manchester and London.
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