Against victimisation

Care workers employed by charity Alternative Futures Group are balloting for strikes to resist a pay cut announced by their employer in November.

The workers, who are members of Unison, face a cut of up to £40 following AFG bosses’ announcement that they will no longer pay an additional allowance for workers who sleep overnight at service users’ homes as part of their shift.

Station staff on London Underground’s Bakerloo Line South Group, which includes Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross, Lambeth North, and Elephant and Castle, have voted by 88% for strikes against short-staffing. Tube union RMT has announced strikes for 26 December and 14 January.

Train drivers on London Underground’s Central Line will strike again over 21-22 December, to demand the reinstatement of unjustly sacked colleague Paul Bailey.

Paul was sacked after passing a random drugs test. Although he registered for the presence of cannabinoid substances, due to taking hemp supplements, he was within the “cut off limit” of 50ng/ml. The RMT union says Paul’s sacking “undermines the integrity of London Underground’s entire drugs and alcohol testing regime”.

Karen Reissmann, Unison activist, North West Health rep, and SWP member, has been suspended from holding office in the union.

This action has apparently been taken because of her prominent opposition to this year’s NHS pay deal, negotiated and championed by Unison health leaders.

Security staff at the University of Leicester are currently in dispute with management, who wish to cut their working week to 35 from 37 hours, with the loss of two hours’ pay. Effectively this works out to be about £800 per year. A large sum for relatively low paid workers but a tiny sum for the university, especially when the team they are targeting is very small.

Workers at the Ivy House pub in Nunhead (South London) have been on strike since the morning of 30 September in a dispute about four sudden, unexplained dismissals, zero hours contracts and union recognition. They want reinstatement or at least suspension with pay and a proper process for reviewing the cases; secure, fixed hours contracts; and recognition of their union, the BFAWU.

Members of drivers’ union Aslef on London Underground are balloting for industrial action to win safer cabs. 

Unions say a recent incident on the Northern Line, in which passengers broke into the cab of a female driver and attacked her, vindicate long-running union complaints about the lack of security of drivers’ cab doors. Aslef’s ballot began on 4 September. RMT says it is also considering balloting its driver members. 

On Tuesday 31 July Indianapolis welder Antoine Dangerfield filmed what became a viral video, watched over 2 million times in two days, of a wildcat strike by Latino construction workers building a new UPS hub.

In the video and in a subsequent interview with Jacobin magazine Dangerfield explains that some Latino workers, working for a different contractor but in the same hub were ordered to go home (effectively sacked) by a white boss he calls racist.

Picturehouse workers will be on strike again for the Sundance film festival happening at Picturehouse Central from 31 May to 3 June.

They will be striking during the opening night on Thursday 31 May, and again on Saturday 2 May. The strikes will hit several premières taking place at the festival.