Solidarity 073, 12 May 2005

Campaign for safer schools

By Pat Yarker A sixteen-year old schoolboy pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey this month to raping his teacher in her classroom at a south London school. He was 15 years old at the time of the assault in September 2004. The prosecutor, Brendon Kelly, told the court that the teacher “did all she could to resist”, and detailed how she had fought against her attacker. Her courage and presence of mind in retaining some of her attacker’s semen in her mouth later enabled conclusive DNA evidence of his guilt to be laid before him, and was instrumental in his guilty plea. This in turn ensured that the...

Stop forced privatisation in Iraq

Support oil union's campaign By Colin Foster Three and a half months after the 30 January elections, Iraq now has an elected government, a coalition of the Shia and Kurdish alliances, with some seats set aside for Sunni Arab politicians. The Sunni-Islamist “resistance” has marked the occasion with a new surge of bombings. Meanwhile, May 25–26 will see Iraqi trade unionists and civil society activists gather at the Oil Institute of Basra for a two-day conference aimed at fighting the privatisation of Iraqi oil. The conference is organised by the General Union of Oil Employees, a union strong in...

Nationalise the railways!

Local RMT members and supporters joined a lively demonstration through London on Saturday 30 April, demanding that rail privatisation be reversed. Marching from Whitehall Place to King’s Cross, demonstrators took their message to thousands of shoppers and tourists. For the previous two weeks, a group of 25 union members had marched through cities from Glasgow to London on a mobile demonstration. RMT’s “Rail Against Privatisation” campaign aimed to put the issue on the political agenda during the General Election campaign. Although around three-quarters of the population want the railways...

Euromayday: rights for all

By Vicki Morris Mayday in Europe, in addition to the traditional marches, witnessed a number of “Euromayday” events. The organisers are more or less anarchistic activists involved in struggles of the unemployed and insecurely employed and are generally scornful of the “organised” labour movement. In general, that attitude isn’t helpful. However, the aims of the movement — to organise the unorganised, to foster rank and file control of struggles, to link struggles — are good aims. In France Euromayday was organised by Stop Précarité, a network for various struggles against “précarité” (the...

Sans papiers win a bitter victory

Twelve “sans papiers”, migrants with no legal status, who had been on hunger strike for 50 days in France, have learned that they will get full rights. They had moved to a trade union centre in Paris after they were turfed out of the offices of Unicef. The demands of the sans papiers were endorsed by branches of the CGT, CFDT, CGT-FO and Solidaires trade unions, and by many political and campaigning groups. But for these men to do something so desperate — they are all still in very poor health — shows how badly neglected their cause is, day to day, by the trade union and wider movement. We...

Industrial news in brief

The European Parliament has voted to scrap an opt-out from the rules limiting the working week in the EU to an average of 48 hours, but the ruling won’t come into force for another three years and it could still be blocked if the UK Government wins support in the Council of Ministers. UK unions are rightly pleased about the Euro-Parliament vote. Under the current system — used more in the UK than elsewhere — individuals can opt out if they “want” to work longer hours. The EU “Working Time Directive” guarantees workers 11 hours’ rest per day and regular breaks; a weekly working time of 48 hours...

NHS: Private contractor staff go to arbitration

By a health worker UNISON members employed by private contractor Serco at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have decided to take their claim for NHS pay and conditions to arbitration with ACAS. Serco had made a revised pay offer taking basic pay for porters, domestics and catering staff at the hospital to around £5.60 — a significant increase on their current £4.85 but a long way short of the union’s claim for full parity with the new NHS pay system, Agenda for Change, which would have brought in a system of annual incremental rises for all staff, together with extended annual leave...

London Underground: 35 hours without job cuts

By a London Underground worker A shorter working week deal on London Underground which gave workers a 35 hour week is about to blow apart. Management have used the deal as cover to viciously attack staffing levels, to push through cuts that they have wanted for a long time. Double-cover supervisors, platform turns, Ticket Office opening hours, gateline coverage — are all in the firing line. The company has pushed this at local level, trying to kid us that it is a harmless “consultation” and a small sacrifice to get our 35-hour week. In fact, it’s a push to make our work harder and more...

Will the postal service be privatised?

By a CWU member Hardly had the last election result been counted, and the Chair of Royal Mail, Allan Leighton, began to call for a share issue and employee buyout for the ailing firm. He says he wants to pump £2 billion extra investment into the postal industry. His proposals, as far as they have been made clear, assume a part-privatisation of Royal Mail. The CWU has written to all MPs saying it opposes such proposals. This is not the first time that Allan Leighton has tried to set Labour’s agenda for the future of the Post Office. The “Warwick Agreement” between the Labour-affiliated unions...

Truck drivers: end European exploitation

Truck drivers from across Europe have agreed to work towards more European-wide trade union co-operation to tackle problems on social dumping, security and health as well as organising in pan-European companies. At a conference attended by over eighty delegates from nine EU conference at the T&G Centre in Eastbourne, delegates highlighted action on these points as well as individual country concerns. Jimmy Hill for the T&G said the union’s key concern was to implement the “Drivers’ Charter” so that we can push for a national minimum for drivers of £10 an hour or £25,000 a year for a 48 hour...

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