Solidarity 037, 25 September 2003

Unions must get serious on London Weighting

By Tony Jeffries Unison members in London local government have voted in favour of strike action over London weighting allowance (LWA), and are set to hold a one-day strike on 16 October. The employers, represented by the Association of Local Government, recently made an offer of £201 per year increase - and only for workers earning less than £14,796. Unison members have thrown it back at them. The union's claim for £4,000 LWA was originally submitted in July 2001. Currently local government workers get between £1,500 and £2,850. The ALG is responsible for firefighters' London weighting and...

Unison: Support the nursery nurses!

By Vicki Morris The Scottish parliament on Wednesday 24 September was due to debate the nursery nurses' dispute, with Scottish Socialist Party MSP Carolyn Leckie moving support. Five thousand nursery nurses, members of Unison, who work in Scottish local authority nurseries are pursuing a pay claim for £18,500. Their average pay currently is £13,000. They also demand a 35-hour week, full pension rights and a clear career structure. Their programme of strike action began on 21 May. They held a week's strike from 8-12 September, and have now embarked on a programme of two-day selective strikes...

We can win free education

By Alan Clarke (NUS Executive member, in personal capacity) The National Union of Students has traditionally held a national demonstration on education funding every Autumn - oh, except in 1997 and 1998, when fees were actually being introduced! The tradition of not doing anything which might actually upset the Labour government has been continued this year, with the NUS leaders organising the demo on a Sunday (apparently to allow non-students to attend - so why not on a Saturday?) and refusing to produce anything with a slogan more radical than the ultra-minimalist demand of "Stop top-up fees...

Help Iraqi workers organise!

By Colin Foster Workers in Iraq are striving to organise themselves to assert their interests in amid the chaos of war destruction and the increasingly discredited US/UK occupation. They urgently need support and solidarity for their efforts. They face powerful and dangerous enemies - not only the occupation authorities, but also Iraqi forces such as the resurgent Islamic fundamentalists - and are having to start from scratch. Iraq had a rich history of trade-union militancy in the turbulent years between the fall of the old monarchy in 1958 and the first Ba'thist coup in 1963, but for over 20...

No Sweat shorts

Argentina Solidarity Campaign/Indymedia Anti-sweatshop action at Labour Party Conference, Bournemouth Sheffield No Sweat dayschool Argentina Solidarity Campaign/Indymedia Videos about "recovered workplaces" (workplaces abandoned by bosses, and run by workers in Argentina), plus discussion. Free. 7pm, Monday 17 November, at the Spitz Gallery, Spitalfields market, London E1 (near Liverpool Street station). More details: argentinesolidarity@yahoo.co.uk Anti-sweatshop action at Labour Party Conference, Bournemouth 12 noon, Monday 29 September: protest outside Conference, meet at the "eternal flame...

Workers of the world: ROUND-UP

by Pablo Velasco Indonesian party fights for legal recognition Hong Kong: Article 23 postponed Korean unions to stand in parliamentary elections Yale University strike General strike in Bangladesh Colombian Coca-Cola workers face the sack Indonesian party fights for legal recognition The Party of United People's Opposition (POPOR) in Indonesia is fighting to be registered as a legal political party in time for next year's elections. To be granted legal recognition the party, which includes socialists and trade unionists and is led by Dita Sari, must prove that it has branches in at least half...

The writing on the wall

Something you won't read in the mainstream press... Socialists and the "anti-war vote" MAB and political parties Something you won't read in the mainstream press... I am a serving firefighter in Yorkshire and have watched and read much about the exercise held at Bank station in London which was supposed to simulate a large scale terrorist chemical or biological attack in the centre of London from a fire service point of view, we are not ready or equipped to deal with something like the staged incident on the Underground. The people of the UK have a right to know when they are being conned by...

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