Solidarity 108, 15 March 2007

RMT climb down on Central Trains

By a Central Trains driver RMT rail union reps on Central Trains decided in the first week of March to “suspend” industrial action by guards over the company's new computerised rostering system, Crewplan. Last week a deal was reached at ACAS under which Central Trains undertook to look into local problems under Crewplan, depot by depot. Union reps on the Company Council now have three weeks to visit depots and collate grievances, and then there will be negotiations on them through a joint working party consisting of reps and managers.. This cannot be considered a victory, since Central Trains...

...and on London Underground

by a tube worker The RMT’s National Executive has decided to accept London Underground’s pay offer and not go ahead with strike action. But deal is well short of what we wanted and what staff deserve. After a 76% vote for strike action, the RMT's London Transport Regional Council discussed the situation on 22 February. At that meeting the majority of reps said that members in their area did not want to strike (even though they had just voted to), because: • the other two unions (TSSA and ASLEF) would work during the strike, reducing its effectiveness; • they were upset about members of other...

Signal workers strike in Scotland

By Peter Burton RMT signallers working for Network Rail in Scotland were due to hold two 48-hour strikes this month over the company's continued failure to implement a 35-hour week agreement signed last summer. The union looks like it has now come to an agreement with the company, and the strikes have been called off. A previous 48 hour strike ended on Monday 12 March. If the deal is, as looks probable, a victory, the determination of the union, will have paid off. The first RMT strike was solid and provoked stormy arguments in the Scottish Parliament between the Nationalists and Labour First...

ESOL fightback and Adult Education cuts

A thousand lecturers and students gathered at parliament at the end of February to lobby MPs over plans to restrict access to free English language courses. Under government proposals asylum seekers over the age of 19 will no longer be entitled to free ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) lessons. From September, this entitlement will be restricted to young people and those given permanent leave to remain in the UK who are receiving unemployment or income-based benefits. Other migrant students will be required to pay up to half the cost of their courses. More than 140 MPs have signed...

Right wins in UCU election

Sally Hunt, the right-wing’s candidate for the post of UCU general secretary, has been elected on 52% of the vote. Hunt defeated Roger Kline, the candidate backed by most the of the left. Hunt was elected with 8463 votes to Kline’s 7117. The turn-out was a miserable 14%. There was at least one clear difference between Hunt and Kline, namely Kline's opposition to the pay sell-out last year, pushed through by Hunt. On the other big issue dividing the lecturers' unions in recent times, the proposal for an “academic boycott” of Israel, both Kline and Hunt opposed the boycott. Hunt becomes the...

Stop this privatisation!

By a Probation Service Unison activist WITH privatisation legislation now heading for the House of Lords, the probation unions Napo and Unison need to urgently organise for joint action to stop the rot. We’ve got an uphill task. UK-wide probation areas are preparing for the first raft of privatisations. Probation areas have been told to spend more of their budget on buying services from the private sector, and this is already going ahead. In some cases such “outsourcing” will mean probation work being carried out by other public sector organisations (which the union hasn’t opposed in principle...

Burslem defies victimisation

By Chris Leary WORKERS at the Burslem sorting office in Staffordshire are in the process of balloting for further strike action against the sacking of a long standing worker after a previous strike. The ballot – 99% yes to further action! – concerns the misapplication of conduct procedure by Royal Mail managers. The sacked worker was first suspended for eight weeks on the testimony of just two managers for eight weeks. Andrew Plant, branch secretary of CWU Midland No. 7 branch which covers Burslem, told Solidarity that since the ballot for action was announced, Royal Mail managers have moved...

Will to fight on public sector pay

By Mike Fenwick, leeds health unison and leeds keep our nhs public GORDON Brown will impose a below inflation pay award on the public sector this year. The armed services are exempt but all those working in the NHS, civil service etc will have an effective cut in salary. The headline award for nurses is 2.5%, but, staged, in two payments, it becomes only 1.9%. Deduct the 0.25% Gordon has claimed for extra pensions contributions, and consider that the inflation rate is 4.2%: that’s a real terms cut of 2.55%. Workers in local government are expecting an even lower offer. Civil servants, already...

After 3 March build for national action

Saturday 3 March saw the first nationally coordinated day of action in defence of the NHS for nearly twenty years, organised by the TUC led NHS Together group of unions and professional organisations. Most of the great and good of the trade union movement turned out to speak and give soundbites to local papers and regional television news programmes. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told a rally of 1,000 in Sheffield, warning how the government was risking all its good work by rushing ahead with further reform “too quickly”. It’s not the speed of progress but its direction that is the...

Somalia: Islamic courts or democratic unity?

by robin sivapalan THE North London Workers’ Liberty forum “What next in Somalia after military intervention?” on 22 February was attended by about 70 people, including many Somalis living locally in Wembley. Abdi Hassan from the Somali Civil Liberties and Human Rights Right organisation outlined the picture on the ground in Somalia, with nightly raids by the government and Ethiopian forces resulting in a growing death toll, disappearances and mass displacement. He characterised the actions of the Transitional Federal Government as amounting to war crimes, a barely disguised act of genocide...

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