Workers' Liberty

At the time of going to press, 1,200 members of Amicus/Unite employed at Grangemouth oil refinery are due to begin 48 hours of strike action at 6.00am on Sunday 27 April – the first strike in a British oil refinery since 1935.

In the small hours of Monday March 12 1984, hundreds of Yorkshire miners moved across the border from Yorkshire into Nottinghamshire. Their destination was Harworth pit, and by the evening shift they had picketed it out.

Following a big majority for strike action in RMT's ballot, RMT and TSSA have jointly announced a 72-hour strike. The two unions' joint press release is copied below. LUL management's attack on our staffing levels and job security is very serious - and we must all now pull together to ensure a serious response: the best possible turnout for the strike days.

On Thursday the 21st of February, we will find out if some 450 members of the TGWU/Unite have voted in favour of national strike action, an event which would be a first in Shelter's 41-year history.

TGWU/Unite members in the homelessness charity Shelter have voted by an overwhelming 87% to reject a raft of proposed cuts to pay and conditions, in favour of a strike ballot.

Trade unionists in Luton are setting up a joint committee to organise solidarity with the postal workers and other disputes now developing.

What is the government going to do with the illegally striking prison officers? Send them all to jail?

The strike's suspended but the fight's not over: Workers' Liberty's bulletin can be downloaded here.

Off The Rails supporters met on May 5th in Birmingham. Under the title “Making our unions fit to fight”, the meeting brought together activists from various disputes to share experiences and discuss how we could make the unions more effective and membership-led.

The text of a leaflet I have put out as RMT rep on Bank group of stations ...

1. LUL owes you money. You should have had your 4% pay rise last April 1st - nearly ten months ago.

2. LUL let you go through Xmas without your rise, a nasty action worthy of Scrooge, which left staff struggling with the cost of the festive season.
   
   

Heathrow Express workers have fought hard against the company's attack on pay and conditions, but the employer's hostility, and division between the unions, has left issues unresolved.

ASLEF and RMT were due to strike over the three-year pay offer on 7, 11 and 21 September. This made the company agree to talks at last, and both unions suspended the first two dates (obviously, they still haven't got the hand of the idea that you can talk and strike at the same time).

By Robin Sivapalan

Two thousand five hundred Metroline drivers finally slammed the brakes on their bosses’ profiteering on 14 November, venting years of frustration in a solid strike on 96 bus routes across north-west London,

I'm not in the habit of posting news of every strike going on this blog. Or there wouldn't be room for anything else. But sometimes, a strike pops up that is particularly worth reporting and worth commenting on.

Network Rail operational staff will finally get their 35-hour week - but after an unacceptable wait and at the price of being locked into a two-year pay deal. Many rank-and-file members are left demoralised after RMT stumbled its way through the dispute.

After months of fighting, and twelve separate days out on strike, workers on Virgin Cross Country are facing the possibility of a painful defeat. RMT's attempt to stop cuts in Sunday pay rates has failed so far. Strikes were suspended at the end of March. Although Virgin appeared to relax its previous intransigence and agreed to talks, and in spite of the General Secretary's direct intervention, they have brought no real result. RMT is recommending members vote No in a referendum on a new offer, but the dispute looks to have little chance of revival.

Off the Rails leaflet about this year's RMT dispute with Network Rail. Click 'read more' to read the text; 'download' to view, download and/or print.

Workers on the Docklands Light Railway in East London have voted for strike action for the first time in the 19 years since the DLR was established.

South Africa

Hundreds of thousands of workers in South Africa supported a one-day general strike in protest against job losses on 18 May.

By Tom Unterrainer

DRIVERS working for NCT in Nottingham struck for 24 hours on 27 May in the first of a sequence of actions planned for consecutive Saturdays. The first strike saw the city’s bus system grind to a halt as TGWU members picketed the main depot in a solid day of action.

Police shot and killed two workers, another was crushed to death in a melee, and over 40 others were wounded, most by gunshots, when authorities launched an assault to expel striking workers occupying the SICARTSA steel mill in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico on 20 April.

“The student movement did not start with a single blow. At first it was just the students of Rennes who dared to bet that their strike would snowball, and who shut down their university, on their own for a week.

“It will be the same among the workers...”

by colin foster

28 March saw the biggest strike in Britain for decades. According to Unison and the other unions involved, over a million local government workers struck against the Government’s plans to cut their pensions.

Dumfries and Galloway: A mass picket of 300 people at the council offices in Dumfries. All council workplaces were affected, and 30 schools were closed. Everyone thought the day strike had been a success and was determined to continue with future strikes in order to win their demands. Elaine

by a unison member

Build unity; reach out to other sections of the working class; organise hard-hitting action — and local government workers can win the huge battle over pensions due to open on 28 March.

By Polly Maclean

It looks as if the construction workers at Cottam power station, near Lincoln, may have won a victory in their brave fight to win union-agreed wages and conditions for the Hungarian workers imported to work alongside them.

An all-out unofficial strike by workers at Cottam power station, between Nottingham and Lincoln, started in late February.

Two showings of "The Take" (Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis) about the 'recovered factory movement' in Argentina (89 minutes) plus a short film "An Interview with Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis" (17 minutes), about the making of the film plus a meeting with the representative of the Zanon committee, from Argentina.

Friday 30th December 2005.

As the year was drawing to a close and the likelihood of a settlement to the dispute with London Underground had been extinguished, I thought it would be prudent to sort out some sort of positive action for New Year’s Eve. Spent the day frantically trying to get hold of branch officials and Functional reps (full-time negotiating reps for our grades), but my branch officials were on holiday and Functional reps were not answering their phones.
Managed to get hold of my Branch Secretary and arranged to meet with the industrial rep of a neighbouring group to participate in a leaflet distribution event up in Central London on Saturday. It was good to be doing something.

South Africa is undergoing a strike wave, the second in a matter of months, with miners, municipal workers and civil servants about to take strike action. This follows stoppages in recent weeks by urban workers, grocery clerks and airline workers.