Solidarity 3/152
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Solidarity 3/152, 28 May 2009
CWU debates response to jobs threat and privatisation
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Maria Exall, a member of the Executive of the post and telecom union CWU, spoke to Solidarity about the union's conference coming up on 7-11 June.
In the telecom sector conference, the big issue is “Service Delivery Transformation” for BT Openreach engineers. BT is demanding:
• A new “foundation grade” which will put all new workers on £4000 lower wages.
Union News in brief : Linamar, Tube, UCL, PCS
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Roundup of Union news in brief: Linamar, Tube, UCL, PCS
Student action pushes back Uni bosses
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Anti-cuts campaigns seem to cut deep. At Edinburgh University, details of £400,000 of cuts within the Division of European Languages and Cultures were leaked by a courageous member of staff to the Students’ Association. The reasons given were the “current climate” and the lack of profit made by the department.
North Korea tests bomb
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On 25 April, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in three years. It followed this up by restarting its main nuclear reactor, threatening to attack South Korea if it joins US-led inspections of ships suspected of carrying nuclear weapons, and firing five short range missile tests to show its teeth.
New wave of solidarity strikes
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New strikes over jobs and union agreements have broken out in engineering construction similar to those at the end of January and the start of February this year.
According to Contract Journal (19 May), the dispute started with 50 laggers walking out at the South Hook Liquified Natural Gas terminal in Milford Haven.
Tube workers prepare to strike
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28 May, the day after Solidarity went to press, was the last day of the RMT's ballot for strike action among 10,000 workers on London Underground and at Transport for London over pay, jobs and management bullying.
Labour activists demand reselection proceedings against MPs who fiddle expenses
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By 19 May, 200 mainstream Labour Party figures had signed a letter to the National Executive urging it to “support the immediate removal of the whip from individual MPs who have brought the party into disrepute over this issue and allow CLPs [constituency Labour party] to trigger reselection ballots against them”.
Art and revolution
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Sacha Ismail reviews the Tate Modern’s exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Liubov Popova and Aleksandr Rodchenko.
What we did when we got BNP leaflets
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This month comrades in East London came home to find election material for the British National Party had been put through their doors. A leaflet was quickly drafted arguing that postal workers should refuse to give out BNP material on the basis of working class anti-fascism.
We then took the leaflet down to the Bow delivery office to catch the morning shift.