news articles

[see news articles for 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 ]

Lindsey comes to London [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Members of the GMB and Unite converged outside Parliament on 3 February to oppose discrimination against British workers and the attempts to undermine the National Agreement Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) – Blue Book.
...[more]

Leeds lecturers fight job loss [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
ACADEMICS AT the University of Leeds are preparing for three days of strike action as part of their campaign against threatened compulsory redundancies in Biological Sciences and a £35 million cut across the university which would mean hundreds of job losses.
...[more]

Scots to rally against cuts [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
For what is expected to be one of the biggest rallies for years on 6 March in Glasgow (see What’s On), the largest teachers’ union in Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland and the Musicians’ Union are collaborating to denounce the raft of cuts to education budgets that are steadily coming into force in all local authorities.
...[more]

Commercial property: the next big crisis [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
A crisis is looming in the commercial property market both here and abroad. At present usually only reported in a low-key way in business pages or programmes, it seems likely to burst onto the scene in the near future, dragging the capitalist world deeper into depression and turmoil and causing untold suffering to workers.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - the latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Electricity users pay over £1 billion a year to subsidise wind farms and other renewables. A government scheme, known as the Renewables Obligation, forces energy companies to fund green energy. Users pay higher bills both directly and indirectly, where industrial electricity users pass on their costs.
...[more]

Shipping - Ministers aid race to bottom [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Maritime trade unions Nautilus and the RMT are jointly campaigning against proposals to undermine wage rates on British merchant ships.
...[more]

Unison - London members keep control [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Unison members in Greater London – “London for Change” – have voted in greater numbers for the interests of the membership as opposed to the interests of external political cliques, for a refreshing fifth year in a row at their February AGM.
...[more]

Civil Service - Fair for all? [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Government workers are not impressed by the promise of “a future fair for all”. In April 2009 the prime minister declared that their redundancy agreement in place since 1987 was too costly...
...[more]

Europe - The no-growth zone [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
In the last quarter of 2009, the eurozone’s total economy grew by just 0.1 per cent.
...[more]

Trade Deficit - Leaping up [WORKERS, MAR 2010]
Britain’s trade deficit leapt from £6.8 billion in November to £7.3 billion in December, as imports far outstripped exports.
...[more]




BA crews to ballot again [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
After the court declared unlawful BA cabin staff’s 92 per cent majority vote for strike action on an 80 per cent turnout, they are now to ballot again. The cabin crew have called for a ten-day strike.
...[more]

Iceland: can't pay, won't pay [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Iceland’s President Olafur R. Grimsson has refused to sign the bill, negotiated under duress, enforcing the payment of £3.5 billion to the British and Dutch governments to refund them for the collapse of Iceland’s deposit insurance fund...
...[more]

Kraft to swallow Cadbury [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
The Unite union is leading protests against the takeover of Cadbury by US giant Kraft. Top of the list of concerns is jobs: Cadbury employs more than 45,000 people worldwide, 6,200 of them in Britain, according to the union.
...[more]

News Analysis - Greece: running out of money [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Greece is a glaring example of what capitalist banks and the European Union (a truly dreadful combination) can do to an erstwhile independently minded nation.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
The EU is proposing a 10-year economic framework, Growth Strategy 2020. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for penalties for member states that fail to reach agreed economic targets, ending national economic sovereignty.
...[more]

Environment - Cuba slams "farce" [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has called the Copenhagen Summit on climate change a farce, undemocratic, exclusive and arbitrary. He said President Obama’s approach was arrogant, cynical and devious...
...[more]

Schools - Huge majorities against SATs [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
Primary Heads in the National Association of Head Teachers and primary teachers in the NUT have overwhelmingly rejected SATs as a way of measuring pupil progress in a joint activity to test opinion, and are currently deciding the next steps in their joint campaign.
...[more]

Colleges - Manifesto launched [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
The university and college union UCU launched its education manifesto on Tuesday 26 January at a lobby event in Parliament to set out its key issues in all areas of post-16 education.
...[more]

Ecuador - Coup conspiracy [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
On 3 January, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa revealed that his government had uncovered a conspiracy to launch a coup.
...[more]

Health and Safety - Dirty offices [WORKERS, FEB 2010]
More than one in four workers described their office as “dirty”, according to a research survey by support service group, Resource.
...[more]




Historic factory to close [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
A historic factory is being culled by government ministers as the destruction of British industry continues – ending manufacture at a site founded 160 years ago.
...[more]

Bill maintains poverty wages [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
A loophole in the law allows ferry operators between British ports to ignore minimum wage legislation and pay non-British seafarers as little as £2 an hour.
...[more]

Stagnation rules [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
Manufacturing output stagnated once again in October, confounding economists’ expectations. Total GDP fell by 0.3 per cent between July and September, worse than in any other G20 country.
...[more]

News Analysis - Vetting, barring, and our schools [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The Government has finally caved in, in the face of the growing chorus of protest against its “Vetting and Barring” scheme, which was recommended by the inquiry into the murders of two schoolgirls by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The VAT fraud from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which allows polluting companies to buy the right to pollute from less polluting ones, has caused the loss of about 5 billion euros in the past 18 months.
...[more]

Climate - Control for World Bank [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The Copenhagen climate change talks were in chaos as Workers went to press...
...[more]

Migration - Poll shows opposition [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The high human cost of the EU’s free movement of labour policy is becoming apparent as winter begins to bite.
...[more]

Steel - Corus workers take the field [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
Teesside steelworkers took their campaign to keep open the Redcar plant to the terraces on 12 December as 100 of them paraded around the ground before Middlesbrough’s match against Cardiff City.
...[more]

ALBA - Coup, attempted assassination [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The recent news of the coup in Honduras had special significance because it was the first against an ALBA country. ALBA stands for Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América – the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. It also means dawn in Spanish.
...[more]

Transport - Signallers strike [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
RMT signalling staff in South Wales started a six-day strike on 14 December over the imposition of 8-hour rosters at the new South Wales Control Centre due to open in January 2010.
...[more]

The Trough - Big bills are back [WORKERS, JAN 2010]
The London freesheet City AM, recently praised by Brown, boasted on its “The Capitalist” page of the latest City boys’ extravagance...
...[more]




Separatist Setback [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The margin of defeat for the Scottish National Party in the recent parliamentary election in northwest Glasgow has proved a setback for the separatist agenda of splitting Britain.
...[more]

Grow it in Britain [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
On Saturday 14 November more than 150 people crowded into the hall of the secondary school in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, to celebrate the town’s two years’ effort towards growing and eating local produce.
...[more]

Teachers attack licence plan [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The National Union of Teachers is urging its members to send messages of opposition to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families over the issue of teacher licensing.
...[more]

News Analysis - The fight for Cadbury [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The battle for domination of chocolate and confectionery sales and production worldwide is under way with a hostile takeover bid by the US Kraft Corporation for the 195-year-old British company Cadbury.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Before the last election Conservatives, Labour and Liberal-Democrats promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. There’s no sign that will happen.
...[more]

Trade Gap - 'Unexpected' widening [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Britain’s global goods trade deficit “unexpectedly” widened in September to its worst since the start of the year as surging imports outpaced the growth in exports.
...[more]

Pay - The norm is...nothing [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
For the first time in the history of the IRS Employment Review’s analysis of pay settlements the median pay award for 2008-2009 has resulted in zero being the norm.
...[more]

European Union - Rule by the unelected [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
In a procedure apparently copied from the Vatican for choosing a Pope, 27 people in Brussels have chosen who is to fill the two biggest jobs in the EU.
...[more]

Transport - East London bus strike [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Bus drivers employed by East London Bus Group were on strike for 48 hours on 20 to 22 November, affecting 58 bus routes across east London and the City.
...[more]

Industry - Government 'has no plan' [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
Rolls-Royce chief executive Sir John Rose has attacked successive British governments for their lack of industrial strategy at a meeting of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London on 10 November...
...[more]

NUJ Conference [WORKERS, DEC 2009]
The NUJ conference took place in Southport this month, where the main themes were resistance to job losses
...[more]




The slump continues [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
Britain’s economy contracted by 0.4 per cent between July and September, according to official figures. Almost every City analyst expected there to be positive growth in the third quarter. But, as usual, every City analyst got it wrong.
...[more]

Anti-SATs campaign hots up [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
All around the country parents, teachers, school leaders and children have been getting involved in the combined campaign of the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers to end SATs tests in primary schools.
...[more]

'State-imposed' Learning [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
The biggest independent review of primary education in 40 years has accused government of introducing a curriculum “even narrower than that of the Victorian elementary schools”.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
A new ICM poll found that 70 per cent of voters want a future Conservative government to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty even if it is already in force.
...[more]

Anti-Union Laws - Another blow [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
Another hammer blow to the right to strike follows from the Court of Appeal decision of Metrobus versus Unite.
...[more]

Working Age - Set to rise [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
The question of whether workers can be forced to retire at 65 years has been referred back to the UK High Court from the European Court of Justice.
...[more]

Colleges - Tower Hamlets victory [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
University and College Union members at Tower Hamlets College in east London won a victory in late September after nearly a month of strike action.
...[more]

Health - All-Ireland response [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
UNISON’s response to the crisis in health care provision in Northern Ireland has been a rallying cry across the province and the Irish Republic to stand up for Health.
...[more]

Refineries - Sugar jobs axed [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
One hundred and fifty jobs have been axed at the French-owned Syral sugar refinery in Greenwich, London.
...[more]

Referendum - N. Ireland Assembly vote [WORKERS, NOV 2009]
The Northern Ireland Assembly voted on Tuesday 20 October, by 47-19, in favour of Britain holding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty...
...[more]




Academy plan defeated [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The Royal Docks Community School in Newham, east London, will be the first in the new breed of Co-op schools to open in the capital, under plans unveiled by the local council, after a dogged year-long campaign against an academy backed by the sponsor, ARK. (See Workers April 2009 and July 2009.)
...[more]

MG Rover: the £10 fortune [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The independent investigation into the bankruptcy and collapse of the MG Rover car manufacturer in 2005 has been published after four years and is 830 pages long. The four directors – the Phoenix Four – got away with personally enriching themselves to the tune of £42 million in five years; their goal was £75 millions.
...[more]

Ballot on new Blue Book [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
A meeting of shop stewards from the engineering construction industry in Manchester on 17 September voted to recommend an offer from the employers on a new national agreement (NAECI - Blue Book) covering workers in the industry.
...[more]

News Analysis - MEP - small job, big bunce [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The European Parliament in Brussels has re-assembled, and the snouts are back in the troughs. The salary of British MEPs has risen from £63,000 to £80,500, on top of generous pensions, expenses and other payments.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
Recent polls show that Britons don’t support the EU. Opinium Research found that 67 per cent of voters wanted a referendum on EU membership.
...[more]

Whisky - Johnny Walker closure [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The destruction of traditional industries continues: 900 jobs will go with the closure by the international drinks producer Diageo of its Johnnie Walker whisky bottling plant in Kilmarnock, which has been in the town since 1820, and its grain distillery in Port Dundas, Glasgow.
...[more]

Skills - Tree apprentices appointed [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
In Britain we need to ensure that skills are not only preserved and developed but also handed on to the next generation so that we have a future economy as well as a past.
...[more]

Health Services - Accountancy sleight of hand [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
An international accountancy standard, inspired by the European Union and implemented by Labour – itself international standard of theft and asset stripping – is set to hit the NHS.
...[more]

Water - Shortages loom [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
The Environment Agency and the water industry regulator Ofwat have forecast that unless a major shift occurs in water provision by 2035 then England and Wales will face water shortages of terrifying consequences. The privatised water companies agree with them.
...[more]

Children - Dependent on benefits [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
Latest figures show that more than a third of children in the London Borough of Enfield are living on an income below the poverty line in a household dependent on benefits.
...[more]

Movement of Labour - New web forum [WORKERS, OCT 2009]
A new website has been launched to challenge government support for structures “that allow, effectively, for an unlimited supply of labour into the UK, helping employers drive down wages and working conditions” and to provide a forum for discussion.
...[more]




Jobless total leaps [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
On official figures, unemployment rose by a record 281,000 to 2.38 million in the three months to May.
...[more]

EU pressure on Ireland [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
EU leaders have agreed to a series of “guarantees” on the Lisbon Treaty in return for Ireland holding a second referendum, after Irish voters rejected the Treaty last year.
...[more]

Local govt pay consultation [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
After much fanfare, the final employers’ offer on pay to local government workers, equating to roughly a 3p per hour increase, has gone out to member consultation.
...[more]

News Analysis - Total Place: a pilot for privatisation [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
So far work worth £112 billion has been taken out of Britain’s public sector and placed in the hands of private companies.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
It has been a quiet summer for the EU and its institutions after the European Parliament elections and before the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on 2 October.
...[more]

Afghanistan - Public support pull-out [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
The government tells us that we have to fight an unwinnable war in Afghanistan to stop terrorists from hitting us here. The European Commission tells us that we cannot legally secure our borders because this restricts the “right to free movement”.
...[more]

Bankers - Drinking away [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
Every Monday morning City A.M., a freesheet handed out in the City of London, carries a news item catchily titled “Bill of the week”.
...[more]

Vestas - Closure pushed through [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
Over 400 jobs were lost in August when Vestas Blades, the British subsidiary of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, axed plant at Newport, Isle of Wight, and Southampton.
...[more]

Steel - Tata sacks hundreds more [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
The announcement in July of 366 more redundancies from Scunthorpe’s steel works, added to earlier layoffs, is causing serious worries in the north Lincolnshire town, Britain’s main steel producer.
...[more]

Bonuses - Gray train still running [WORKERS, SEPT 2009]
IN THE FIRST three months of 2009, British banks’ bonuses totalled £5 billion. Goldman Sachs’ bonus pot is $20 billion – $700,000 for each partner. Morgan Stanley’s bonus pot is $14 billion.
...[more]




Economy fails as jobs go [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
All the parliamentary parties support the free trade policies that underpinned Labour’s economic mirage, which has seen 1.3 million manufacturing jobs destroyed since 1997.
...[more]

Teachers sink Academy plan [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Good news from Newham, east London. On 17 June, Newham Authority went public in the local paper, The Newham Recorder, announcing that it was dropping its plan to turn The Royal Docks Community School into an academy school...
...[more]

Turnout mars Unison election [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Elections for the new National Executive Council of Unison, the second-largest trade union in Britain and the largest in the public services, have concluded. They reveal a problem that can’t be ignored: turnout.
...[more]

News Analysis - Illegal immigration in London [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The Greater London Authority is campaigning to “regularise” the position of illegal immigrants. It held a meeting at City Hall on 16 June to promote this, backed by a report pithily entitled, “Economic impact on the London and UK economy of an earned regularisation of irregular migrants to the UK”.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The European Union aims to have its first-ever internal security policy in force by the end of 2009. The proposal includes: a centralised EU ID card register; internet and satellite surveillance systems; and biometric and risk profiling.
...[more]

Newspapers - Progress in Glasgow [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Journalists at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail in Glasgow have suspended their industrial action over compulsory redundancies and changes in status for many members after the management backed down on several key issues.
...[more]

Finance - Credit crunches further [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The supply of credit has fallen to its lowest level since June 2000. Gross new loans to firms fell to just £7.9 billion in May, down from £9 billion in April and £12.6 billion in March.
...[more]

Colleges - Employers withdraw [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
In Further Education and 6th Form Colleges, the Association of Colleges’ initial 1 per cent pay offer, which they had acknowledged was an “opening” offer and which the unions dismissed as derisory, has suddenly become a “full and final offer”.
...[more]

Eurozone - Negative growth [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Eurozone “growth” will be between minus 4.1 per cent and minus 5.1 per cent this year.
...[more]

Justice - Trial without Jury [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
The government is destroying yet another fundamental liberty, in force since Magna Carta.
...[more]

Trade Gap - Up, up and away [WORKERS, JULY 2009]
Britain’s trade gap in April was £7 billion, up from March’s £6.5 billion, the Office for National Statistics revealed last month.
...[more]




Birmingham march for jobs [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
On 16 May, 7,000 Unite union members from every region marched through Birmingham to demand government protection of jobs.... But this was more than just a union stunt. It was an honest response by people who care about British industry to a government which doesn’t care, and which has replaced industry with credit and speculation.
...[more]

Job cuts sweep Britain [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
There is no corner of Britain unaffected by the banking disintegration, collapse of the housing market, and recession.
...[more]

Failing forecasts [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Since 1997, unemployment has never been less than 1,398,000. It is now 2,220,000, according to official figures. In the past 18 months, redundancies have risen more every quarter...
...[more]

News Analysis - The end of the village [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Traditional village life is in danger, according to the National Housing Federation, as the cost of country living drives young people into the cities.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - the latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas admitted on 12 May that the government’s policy on EU immigration had been wrong and that the government had not predicted the scale of new arrivals after the EU expanded in 2004.
...[more]

European Union - Referendum, says poll [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
A new poll by the Taxpayers’ Alliance/ICM has found that, if people were asked in a referendum whether or not they would vote for Britain to sign up to the Lisbon Treaty, 62 per cent said they would vote not to sign up to it; 28 per cent said they would vote to sign it; and 9 per cent said they didn’t know.
...[more]

Higher Education - Unions reject pay offer [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
The five trade unions in higher education institutions – Unison, UCU, Education Institute of Scotland, GMB and Unite have all jointly rejected the employers pay offer of 0.3 per cent.
...[more]

Minimum Wage - Violation of human rights? [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
The misleadingly titled Tory- sponsored Employment Opportunities Bill clearly demonstrates that the perversion of the English language continues unchecked within the party and demonstrates a centuries-old unbroken despising of workers.
...[more]

Schools - Whistleblower reinstated [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
Three teacher union reps at Copland Community College in Brent, north London, who had been suspended when they revealed that huge bonuses had been paid out to the head, Sir Alan Davies, and senior managers, have now been reinstated.
...[more]

Economy - Debt and declining investment [WORKERS, JUNE 2009]
National debt is now £754 billion, 53 per cent of GDP, up from 35 per cent just two years ago. This is the highest level since 1975-6. Revenues have fallen by 10 per cent, while government spending has risen by 5.3 per cent.
...[more]




Visteon workers fight back [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
Back in 2000 the Ford motor company created a subsidiary company, Visteon, at three of its sites in Britain and Ireland which made car parts – Belfast, Basildon and Enfield. For the past seven or eight years staff numbers at all the sites have been reduced.
...[more]

Lindsey comes to the Olympics [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
Construction workers in the Unite union in London have taken up the fight of the Lindsey oil refinery workers, and are calling for trade union control over the hiring of labour at the Olympic site in Stratford, east London.
...[more]

Teachers vow to finish SATS [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
In the recent past, our schoolchildren have become the most tested pupils in the world. As a result of opposition right across the educational spectrum, Key Stage 3 SATs for 14-year-olds have been dropped.
...[more]

What was on - A visit to 'An Evening with Tony Benn' [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
“The Sage”, Gateshead, is an appropriate billing for the wit and wisdom of this venerable parliamentarian. Tony Benn is the consummate political performer, working his audience with a skill, acquired over more than six decades, that many a professional stand-up comic must envy.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
The European Commission (which has repeatedly failed audit inspection) has called for a pan-European regulator of finance. Lord Turner, chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority (which failed to foresee the crisis), echoed this call, adding that it should be in London.
...[more]

Local Government Pay - The fruits of poor leadership [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
As the dust settles on the 2008 local government pay dispute a further 0.3 per cent has been gained by referral to ACAS, bringing the settlement to 2.75 per cent plus £100 for those on the lowest salary point.
...[more]

Unison - Members retain control [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
For the fourth year running the united member alliance – “London for Change” – has swept the elections in Unison’s Greater London Region March annual general meeting.
...[more]

Privatisation - Promises broken [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
It was always claimed that the reason for transferring staff out of the NHS was to ensure that private sector management could be brought in. It appears that the real reason is to take NHS pensions out.
...[more]

Colleges - Hung out to dry [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
Further Education colleges face disaster after disaster, as government schemes for the sector hit the buffers.
...[more]

Brussels - Pity the underpaid [WORKERS, MAY 2009]
The European Union really knows how to win our hearts and minds. Its MEPs have given themselves pay rises and tax cuts, to come into effect this June.
...[more]




Rally against religious courts [WORKERS, APR 2009]
On 7 March, the eve of International Women’s Day, around 600 people joined a rally, march and public meeting in London to demand an end to religious courts in Britain.
...[more]

Last two recognise Cuba [WORKERS, APR 2009]
COSTA RICA and El Salvador – the only two countries in Central and South America not to have diplomatic relations with Cuba – are to reverse their policies.
...[more]

Strike against Ark academy [WORKERS, APR 2009]
On Thursday 19 March, there was a successful joint strike of 47 NUT and 9 NASUWT members at The Royal Docks Community School in the Newham, east London.
...[more]

News Analysis - What's happened to the billions? [WORKERS, APR 2009]
Last October the government gave the banks £500 billion, supposedly to get them to start lending again. What happened? They cut their lending. In January, the government gave them another £50 billion. Again, they cut their lending.
...[more]

Academies - Opposition grows [WORKERS, APR 2009]
The Goverment isn’t having everything its own way. A report presented to Dudley Council’s cabinet on Wednesday 18 March recommended that the authority does not proceed with the provision of two new academies in the borough.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, APR 2009]
Labour MEPs backed a European Parliament proposal for an ‘integrated European Armed Force’, to be known as SAFE: Synchronised Armed Forces Europe.
...[more]

Unemployment - Dire statistics [WORKERS, APR 2009]
The unemplyment figures published in March were expected to be really bad – but they were even worse than predicted. The additional number out of work and claiming benefit was 138,400, boosting the total to over 2 million for the first time in over a decade.
...[more]

Miners' Strike - Book launch [WORKERS, APR 2009]
On an unusually balmy March evening in Leeds, the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom held a public meeting to launch Shafted, a compilation of writings about the miners’ strike of 83-84 by journalists who covered these events, and miners and their wives who were at the heart of them.
...[more]

Banking - Killing off success [WORKERS, APR 2009]
On 12 March, the government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland put Wrekin Construction Group, an engineering company employing more than 500 workers, into administration – on the same day that the company won £50 million in orders!
...[more]




Mass march by Irish workers [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
Some 150,000 Irish workers – in a country whose population is half the size of London – filled the streets of Dublin on Saturday 21 February. It was the start of a campaign by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in response to the economic crisis and was the largest show of anti-government feeling in Ireland for over 20 years.
...[more]

Bang goes the poverty target [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that 2.3 million children will still be in poverty in 2010, missing the government’s 1.7 million target. An extra £4.2 billion a year will have to be spent on tax credits if the target is to be met.
...[more]

Carnage in the auto industry [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The motor industry in Swindon has been dealt two hammer blows: after the abrupt sacking at BMW’s Cowley plant of 850 agency workers, the town’s BMW plant has enforced lay-offs, sending all staff home for seven days and another 150 jobs are expected to go permanently.
...[more]

News Analysis - The spread of bonuses [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
Newspapers daily report the banking employers’ bonus payments, now bankrolled by the taxpayer, and everywhere there is outrage, possibly tinged with envy in the case of some politicians at least.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
France announced 6.5 billion euros in loans to three national car makers in a bid to save jobs. In return the companies agreed to keep factories open, maintain jobs and produce “green” cars.
...[more]

Adult Education - The missing two million [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
Fewer adults in England are benefiting from adult education classes. In 2003-04 more than 5.1 million adults were on courses funded by the Learning and Skills Council, but by 2006-07 this had fallen to just over 3.1 million.
...[more]

Training - Apprenticeship numbers fall [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The number of college-based apprentices finding work placements is dropping.
...[more]

Devolution...can seriously damage health [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
According to a report from the Nuffield Trust, devolution is weakening Britain’s ability to influence the EU’s growing hold over health policy.
...[more]

Education - Building for the future? [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The Government’s secondary school rebuilding programme, Building Schools for the Future (BSF), is in dire financial trouble. The aim is to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England. Most existing projects depend on private investment (Private Finance Initiatives).
...[more]

Higher Education - Meeting on governance [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
On Friday 6 March the University and College Union (UCU) is holding an open meeting for members from all over the country to discuss their growing concerns about university governance, democracy and the growing business influence on higher education.
...[more]

Photographers exercise rights [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
In London on 16 February more than 300 photographers exercised their right to take photographs outside Scotland Yard on the day section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 became law.
...[more]

Migration - Net loss of British jobs [WORKERS, MAR 2009]
The Office of National Statistics revealed on 11 February that 220,000 British workers currently worked abroad in other EU member countries and that no fewer than 947,000 EU workers were working in Britain. This is a net loss of jobs here of 727,000.
...[more]




Unions say no to third runway [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Despite the government announcement on behalf of big capitalist enterprises in favour of a third runway at Heathrow, a number of unions are to campaign for a sustainable high-speed rail alternative to serve the people of Britain. Integrated into a nationwide network, this would also help to bring together the people of England, Scotland and Wales.
...[more]

Lloyds TSB in jobs massacre [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
A forecast of 40,000 job losses arising from the takeover by Lloyds TSB of Halifax Bank Of Scotland banking services: that’s what is now emerging as the real nature of the “lifeline” thrown to HBOS.
...[more]

Teachers fight academy plan [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Teachers in the NUT and NASUWT are due to strike for two days on 28 and 29 January at The Royal Docks Community School against Newham Authority’s proposal to impose academy status.
...[more]

News Analysis - The spread of measles [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
On 9 January Britain’s Health Protection Agency announced its concern over a possible epidemic of measles, on the back of figures showing over 1,200 cases reported to the agency up to the end of November 2008.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
In a debate in the House of Lords on the Lisbon Treaty, Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown confirmed that the “reassurances” to be offered to the Irish “do not change the Lisbon treaty”.
...[more]

Trade Gap - Another dismal record [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Britain’s trade gap in goods with the rest of the world reached a new record last November. The deficit was £8.33 billion, the Office for National Statistics said, up from October’s figure of £7.63 billion.
...[more]

Afghanistan - No more troops says poll [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Any attempt by Barack Obama to get EU members of NATO to send more troops to Afghanistan will be strongly rebuffed by voters throughout Europe.
...[more]

Energy - Plan for nuclear stations [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Germany’s two largest power companies, E.ON and RWE, have announced a plan to build at least four nuclear reactors in Britain, at an estimated cost of £20 billion.
...[more]

Wind Power - The blades stood still [WORKERS, FEB 2009]
Electricity generation from Britain’s wind farms fell by between 95 and 100 per cent in December and early January. This was due to the stunning fact that it was too cold.
...[more]




Victory at Nottingham Trent [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
University and College Union (UCU) members at Nottingham Trent University were able to celebrate an end-of-term victory in December for their branch and for trade unionism.
...[more]

EU tries to buy elections [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
No less than £27.5 million is to be spent by the European Union in 2009 promoting itself and the EU elections in the United Kingdom. The EU Vice-President, Günter Verheugen, justifies this expenditure on the basis that “the legitimacy of your parliament, and that of the Union as a whole, is at stake”.
...[more]

Newham teachers strike [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
On 10 December 2008, 48 members of the National Union of Teachers at The Royal Docks Community School in the London borough of Newham took strike action in opposition to the threat of redundancies that might arise from the privatisation proposal to turn the school into an academy run by a private sponsor.
...[more]

News Analysis - Higher education and the pound [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
Britain’s reliance on overseas students as a means of funding higher education is a policy that Workers has criticised over the years. Now the financial services firm Grant Thornton, in a recent analysis for The Times Higher Education journal, has recently spelt out the lunacy of this policy.
...[more]

Eurobriefs - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
A report from the House of Lords Economic Committee says that Britain’s electricity costs would rise by £6.8 billion a year to meet EU targets for renewable energy.
...[more]

Transport - New carriages promised [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
The Chancellor’s pre-budget report promised to bring forward delivery of 200 new railway carriages earlier than was planned and stated that this will contribute towards British jobs in the present crisis.
...[more]

Iraq - Withdrawal date set [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
The Statutes of Forces Agreement, signed by Iraq and the USA, and backed by the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi parliament, says that all US forces are to leave Iraq’s cities, towns and villages “on a date no later than 30 June 2009”.
...[more]

Local Government - Pay farce continues [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
The farce around the 2008 pay round in local government continues as the terms of reference for referring the dispute to ACAS, previously agreed between the trade union and employer sides, have now been overturned.
...[more]

Secularism - Anti-Sharia campaign launched [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN Rights Day,10 December 2008, saw the launch, ironically at the House of Lords, of the “One Law for All Campaign against Sharia law” in Britain.
...[more]

Health - Measles cases at 14-year high [WORKERS, JAN 2009]
Measles cases in England and Wales have topped 1,000 in a year for the first time since 1995. Figures released by the Health Protection Agency show that in the first 10 months of 2008 there were 1,049 cases, more than in the whole of 2007.
...[more]




Unite? Anything but united... [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Division and dishonesty are beginning to appear among health trade unions over pay. Some 80 per cent of NHS trade unionists voted to accept the three-year 8.1 per cent deal.
...[more]

EU revenge on Ireland [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Ireland’s brave refusal to ratify the EU Constitution was a step towards true national independence, but it means that all sections of Irish society – for example, Irish farmers – now have to face up to what independence entails.
...[more]

London needs manufacture [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
On Monday 17 November, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry held an important meeting on “The Future of Manufacturing in London”. About 90 people attended, including members of the Greater London Assembly, local businessmen and representatives of Unite, UCU and the South-East Region of the TUC.
...[more]

News Analysis - Independent Sector Treatment Centres [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
We have before in Workers chronicled the ill-fated programme of so-called Independent Sector Treatment Centres. These are the institutions that the Government decided some years ago were necessary in order to reduce, and eventually eradicate, waiting lists for patients in the NHS. In practice they are private sector milch cows...
...[more]

Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be President of Europe. He is campaigning to extend his current role as “conductor of the European Union economic orchestra” until 2010.
...[more]

Credit Crunch - The group that hides its name [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
The “rescued” American International Group (AIG) organised a seminar for executives and financial advisors in a luxurious and exclusive hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, on which it spent $343,000, the Cuban news agency ACN reports.
...[more]

EU Constitution - Luton votes No [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
ITV’s Tonight programme on 20 October featured a mock referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and EU membership held in Luton. Asked how they would vote on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty...
...[more]

Cuba - Scientists call for cooperation [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
In a historic step, Science, the journal of the independent and influential American Association for the Advancement of Science, has said “It is time to establish a new scientific relationship between Cuba and the United States, and not only to pay attention to common challenges such as health, climate, agriculture and energy.”
...[more]

Universities - Nottingham Trent 'greylisted' [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Pressure on Nottingham Trent University (NTU) management is rising now it has formally axed its recognition agreement with the University and College Union (UCU).
...[more]

Food - Inspectors vote to strike [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Meat hygiene inspectors have voted two to one in favour of strike action in a dispute over cuts to overtime payments and the introduction of a “work anytime” system, says Unison.
...[more]

Education - Portability threat [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
Two years ago the government launched a consultation exercise on the funding of nursery education. The stated reasoning behind the consultation was to equalise funding...
...[more]

Afghanistan - Troops out, says poll [WORKERS, DEC 2008]
With the occupation of Afghanistan mired in crisis, a recent BBC opinion poll showed that 68 per cent of the British population want the troops out of Afghanistan. For under-24s the figure was 75 per cent.
...[more]




Government fails the test [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
The hated SATs tests taken by 14-year-olds in England every year are to be scrapped – with immediate effect. So announced Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, on 15 October.
...[more]

Academy hung out to dry [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough is being abandoned by its commercial backer Amey, which is reported to be in discussions with government about the details of the walkout.
...[more]

Library staff act for service [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Librarians, library assistants, and others who work in the country’s network of public libraries are combining with those who use their services to stop closures, and job losses.
...[more]

Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Lord Mandelson, the new UK Business Secretary, will get pay and pension worth £1 million from the EU. All former EU Commissioners can claim a “transition allowance” on leaving.
...[more]

Universities - Strike vote at Nottingham Trent [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Nottingham Trent University wants to end its recognition agreement with the University and College Union, but there is resistance: union members there voted overwhelmingly for industrial action to defend recognition, and were due to strike on Tuesday 21 October.
...[more]

Teachers - NUT ballot on pay strike [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
The National Union of Teachers has balloted members on taking discontinuous strike action over pay. The ballot closes on 3 November and follows a previous ballot leading to a well supported day of strike action on 24 April. This time members in sixth-form colleges are also being balloted.
...[more]

Cabinet - Shuffling the unelected [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Andrew Adonis, junior schools minister, has been moved from his Education brief to Transport. Adonis is an example of the Labour habit of bringing cronies into government without the tiresome need to be elected, by simply giving them a peerage.
...[more]

Construction - Lessons from a faraway isle... [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS has reported that Chinese workers in a remote British dependency out in the Atlantic have literally shut the island down.
...[more]

Trade Deficit - Worse and worse [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
July’s goods trade deficit was a record £8.238 billion (worse than the figure that the Office for National Statistics published earlier) – the biggest monthly gap since records began in…1697! August’s deficit was little better, at £8.198 billion, but this figure will most probably also have to be revised upwards.
...[read]

Iraq - Leave, say polls [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
A July poll conducted for the Independent on Sunday showed that 74 per cent of Britons believe that “British troops should be withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible.”
...[more]

Europe - Why the Irish said No [WORKERS, NOV 2008]
Jack O’Connor is the president of Ireland’s largest union Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union – which represents over 200,000 Irish workers. He told his union’s regional conference in Tralee at the start of October that people rejected the Lisbon Treaty because of an erosion of workplace rights and that new workers from EU accession states have “dragged down” wages.
...[read]




Going, going... [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
If you want to understand Gordon Brown read the Tom Bower biography. Bower identifies the cowardice, indecisiveness, absenteeism, lack of leadership, innumerable wrong decisions seen well before he became Prime Minister, now epitomised in his collapsed public standing and confidence.
...[more]

United in self-delusion [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
Once again the public sector unions at the 2008 TUC agreed a unifying motion to deal with public sector pay. All will come together under the auspices of the TUC Public Sector Committee to determine a strategy of coordinated solidarity and industrial action to fight for wages. That may remind you of the 2007 strategy or of 2006 or of 2005 or the 1926 strategy.
...[more]

The TUC and the missing-card trick [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The TUC has come and gone. Perhaps best summed up by the BBC report of how Unite, Britain’s biggest union created by merger and fictional membership claims, failed to deliver its block vote in support of the Prison Officers Association, which was fronting for the general strike strategy proposed by the “lefts”.
...[more]

Ofcom set to slash news [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
AS WORKERS went to press, workers in broadcasting were bracing themselves for a report on ITV from the regulator, Ofcom.
...[more]

Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly adopted a proposal to allow automatic extradition to another EU country after someone is convicted by a foreign court in their absence.
...[more]

Housing - Mortgage lending slumps [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
THE LEVEL of mortgage lending in the UK slumped even further in August, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
...[more]

Education - Academy suspends 40 [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The head of Academy 360 in Pennywell, Sunderland, last month suspended 40 pupils in the first two weeks of term. This is a new academy, replacing a secondary school which was judged to be failing by the government.
...[more]

London Buses - Strike over pay [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
Bus drivers and other staff working for London bus operators First Capital East and First Centrewest went on a 48 hour strike from Friday 12 September in a dispute over their pay.
...[more]

Afghanistan - Killing civilians [WORKERS, OCT 2008]
The US/British occupation forces in Afghanistan killed 577 civilians between January and August this year (up from 477 in the same period last year), 384 by bombing.
...[more]




Cleaning the tube - Pay victory for RMT [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
Tube cleaners campaigning for a living wage, a return to direct employment by rail companies and an end to “third party sackings” by sub-contractors without a disciplinary hearing or right to appeal were outside City Hall, London on 16 July.
...[more]

Disarray in local government [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The two-day stoppage of Unison and Unite members in England and Wales local government – 16 and 17 July – has come and gone.
...[more]

How Labour loves the rich [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The Labour government has embraced the super-rich, making Britain their tax haven. It allows 25,000 non-domiciled multi-millionaires to pay no income tax. When some MPs briefly suggested taxing the non-doms this summer, the interests of the 25,000 easily defeated those of the 50 million.
...[more]

Karadzic taken to Hague [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested on 21 July. He is to appear before the US-sponsored and largely US-funded ICTY in The Hague, Netherlands, charged with war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
...[more]

News Analysis - The attack on Somalia [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
On the rare occasions when the media mention the conflict in Somalia, they focus on US attempts to hunt down al Qaeda, or on the West's alleged humanitarian motives.
...[more]

Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The latest Eurobarometer poll asked people in Britain if they thought that EU membership was a good thing. The result was about evenly divided between yes, no and don't know. And 50 per cent of us think we have not gained from EU membership, the highest since 1983.
...[more]

Scotland - Local government strike [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
On 20 August members of Unison, the GMB and Unite were on strike for 24 hours in Scotland in protest against a 2.5 per cent pay offer, which given the rate of inflation is effectively a pay cut.
...[more]

Mexico - No to privatisation [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The people of Mexico have voted decisively against the proposal to hand over the national oil company PEMEX to private companies.
...[more]

Coastguards - Striking for more money [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
Over the busy August Bank Holiday, Britain's coastguards went on strike for better pay. Over 700 workers for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency want a better settlement than the offer made by the government.
...[more]

Privatisation - Outsourcing surges [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
The Labour government has speeded up Thatcher's privatisation programme. A Review of the Public Services Industry, published on 10 July, found that outsourced public services have grown by 130 per cent since 1995. The industry is now second in size only to the USA's, and has a £79 billion turnover.
...[more]

Education - Marking fiasco [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
ETS Europe, the private company which turned this year's SATs tests into a fiasco, has been sacked. The US-owned company, which had a five-year £156 million contract to mark the tests for 11- and 14-year olds, has apparently agreed to pay back £19.5 million of the first year's fee.
...[more]

Construction - Lay-off sparks site strike [WORKERS, SEPT 2008]
HUNDREDS of building workers walked off the Langage Energy Centre site in Plymouth on 7 August after 16 men hired the previous Sunday on six-month contracts were told that there was no work for them, amid rumours that cheaper Polish labour was being brought in.
...[more]




Death of a Treaty [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
A YouGov poll of 1,000 British voters, conducted after Ireland's No vote, found that they thought by a margin of nearly four to one that the Lisbon Treaty should be dropped. 54 per cent agreed that "the government should drop the Lisbon treaty and not try and ratify it." Only 14 per cent said, "The government should carry on and ratify the Lisbon treaty in the UK."
...[more]

Blackouts from Brussels [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
The blackouts that plunged 500,000 homes into darkness in May were compounded by European environmental restrictions over the use of coal– and oil–fired power stations. The unexpected shutdown of two power stations earlier this summer led to the worst disruption to the UK's power network in more than 20 years, prompting new concerns over the stability of Britain's ageing power grid.
...[more]

Keele University backs down [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Resolute membership action has forced the employers at Keele University to abandon their attempt to make 38 academic staff compulsorily redundant. The interim settlement reached should enable the university to avoid compulsory redundancies. And if the management does not conduct the negotiations in the spirit which has been agreed, "greylisting" (a voluntary boycott) and the action short of a strike can be reinstated.
...[more]

News Analysis - A matter of priorities [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Workers must focus on what we need to do in the here and now. What should be our practical priorities? What should we be deciding to do in our own country for our maximum benefit? We should plan rationally what we need to produce, and how to produce it, to meet our needs, heedless of fashion or advice from outsiders.
...[more]

Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Each British MEP can claim up to £360,000 a year in expenses and pay, bringing our bill for UK MEPs to £28 million.
...[more]

Tanker Drivers - Victory at Shell [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
Tanker Drivers working for Shell suppliers Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport settled their pay fight in June after a four-day strike that sent panic waves through the petrol industry.
...[more]

Snooping - They're watching... [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
The Home Office is set to create a database to store the details of every phone call made, every email sent and every web page visited by British citizens in the previous year.
...[more]

Sellafield - Ballot over pay [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
AS WORKERS went to press, 2,000 Unite members at Sellafield, the nuclear reprocessing facility in Cumbria, were due to ballot over whether to take industrial action over pay.
...[more]

Transport - Win for station staff [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
A 24-hour strike by station staff at 19 mainline stations in London and across the country at the end of June was called off when Network Rail backed down in a dispute over compulsory redundancies.
...[more]

Post - Because the EU says so... [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
A letter from Brussels to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, dated 28 November 2007, discussed the relationship between the EU and our postal service.
...[more]

Pensions - Closing down [WORKERS, JULY 2008]
More employers are closing their final-salary-related pension schemes to new employees or switching them off to existing workers, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
...[more]




Irish employers back Treaty [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
With Ireland in the grip of a lively referendum campaign on the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation is backing the EU constitution
...[more]

Education pay fight continues [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
NUT members walked out on 24 April in their first national strike for over 20 years, over pay. The union estimates that at least 90 per cent of members took part – most schools either closed or sent classes home.
...[more]

Keele redundancies halted [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
Keele University Council has had to halt its redundancy proposals following massive protests from the University and College Union (UCU).
...[more]

EUROTRASH - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
MEPs have been voting on financial matters. They voted to cover up a report showing widespread abuse of allowances.
...[more]

NEWS ANALYSIS - Columbia: the weapons pour in [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
While the US and Britain direct hostility at Venezuela's progressive government, no attention is paid to the crimes committed by its enemy the Colombian state, whose armed forces are supplied and trained by US and British special forces.
...[more]

EURO - Germans don't like it [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
In a recent poll organised by the BdB German banking federation, more than half of those surveyed think that the euro is to blame for an increase in prices in recent years and about 34 per cent want to ditch the euro and bring back the Deutschmark.
...[more]

ENVIRONMENT - Green Fascism? [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
An interesting posting (2 May 2008) from comments on Michael White's blog on the Guardian website told us, "the only hope that we – and the planet have – is some form of benevolent Green Fascism."
...[more]

UNITED STATES - The poor die young [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
Life expectancy may have reached an all-time high for the USA, but it is declining in many of its poor counties, especially among women, a team from the Harvard School of Public Health has reported.
...[more]

CONSTRUCTION - Grinding to a halt [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
Activity in the UK's construction industry sank to its lowest level for nearly a decade in April, according to a report from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
...[more]

AFRICA : EU pressure resisted [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
African governments are concerned about the impact of the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements, controversial trade opening pacts being negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.
...[more]

POSTAL PRIVATISATION - No benefit, says report [WORKERS, JUNE 2008]
The government's strategy of opening up the postal market to private sector competition has provided "no significant benefits" for households or for smaller businesses...
...[more]




Back clean coal, govt. urged [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
A joint TUC, employers, research organisations and coal companies report has issued an urgent call to the government to support clean coal technology as the future path for Britain's looming energy crisis.
...[more]

Lecturers vote for strike [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
College lecturers in England have voted to strike on Thursday 24 April in support of their pay claim for a 6 per cent rise or £1500, whichever is the greater, for 2008–9.
...[more]

NUT strikes over pay [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
As Workers goes to press, school teachers were due to stage their first strike action over pay for 21 years, on 24 April. Members of the National Union of Teachers voted 3 to 1 in favour of strike action in a 32 per cent turnout.
...[more]

Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Strict EU quotas threaten the extinction of fishing fleets. In the past 12 years 1,000 small boats have disappeared from British ports. Remaining fishermen are now struggling to chase the 3 per cent of the allowed catch of valuable fish species, including cod, haddock and monkfish.
...[more]

Transport - RMT wins written undertakings [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
THE RMT has called off a planned 48-hour strike by 2,500 tube maintenance workers at Metronet, due to start on 28 April.
...[more]

Oil - Pensions strike at Grangemouth [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
AS WORKERS went to press, 1,200 workers at the huge Grangemouth refinery in Scotland were due to strike on 27 and 28 April over owner Ineos's plans to close the final salary pension scheme to new entrants and reduce provision for existing members, says Unite. The strike ballot drew a 97 per cent vote in favour.
...[more]

Migration - Lords report rebuffs govt. [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
A new report by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, 'The Economic Impact of Immigration', rejects the government's claim that a high level of immigration is needed to prevent labour shortages, describing the claim as "fundamentally flawed".
...[more]

Midlands - Eroding the skill base [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Power company E.ON is to move nearly 200 skilled jobs from its headquarters in Coventry to Düsseldorf.
...[more]

Local Government - 2000 into 1000 won't go [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Local government staff in Newham, east London, must regard with some amusement the council's desire to move most of them into its Building 1000 project in Docklands. The council wants 2,000 workers on one site, though at the most the building can only take 1,500 staff.
...[more]

Transport - Pay as you drive [WORKERS, MAY 2008]
Some 1.8 million people signed an online petition against road charging last year. As with the 2 million people who marched against the launch of the Iraq War, the government has decided to ignore these objections.
...[more]




Revolt over post office closures [WORKERS, APR 2008]
Angry customers of Orford Road Post Office, in Walthamstow, East London, staged a "queue-in" on 15 March to protest at its planned closure.
...[more]

Panic over opposition to wars [WORKERS, APR 2008]
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the occupying force's position is desperate. Both wars are unjust and unwinnable, wars of choice not necessity – and bad choices at that, wars of aggression, unwise, reckless and brutal.
...[more]

Pensions deal at Goodrich [WORKERS, APR 2008]
Workers at aerospace company Goodrich have clinched a deal on pensions today following a one-day strike held on Monday 28 January and a continuing ban on overtime.
...[more]

Ministers slash Remploy [WORKERS, APR 2008]
The campaign by the GMB to preserve the Remploy factories looks to have been derailed by the government. The 83 Remploy factories, established after the Second World War and originally employing disabled service men and women, latterly disabled workers, has been sidetracked and buried by callous government tactics.
...[more]

Euronotes - The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, APR 2008]
The European Commission claims that health, education and social services are all internal market matters and subject to majority vote. The recent directive to "marketise" healthcare is the result. Its introduction is delayed until all EU member governments have – they hope – accepted the Lisbon Treaty. The Commission fears that the directive's unpopularity might otherwise derail ratification.
...[more]

EU Constitution - Thousands lobby MPs [WORKERS, APR 2008]
On Wednesday 27 February, nearly 3,000 people from all parts of Britain gathered outside Parliament in an effort to persuade MPs to back a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution.
...[more]

Trade - Yet another record deficit [WORKERS, APR 2008]
Britain's trade deficit with the rest of the world was £4.1 billion in January, unchanged from December. For goods alone, the deficit – the difference between what we export and import – totalled £7.5 billion, also unchanged from the last month of 2007.
...[more]

International Women's Day - London meeting [WORKERS, APR 2008]
Over 100 people attended the celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on 10 March 2008 in London.
...[more]

Universities - Strike over course cuts [WORKERS, APR 2008]
The council of Keele University in North Staffordshire has approved a plan to close most of the School of Economic and Management Studies' current programmes, threatening 38 of the School's 67 academic staff with redundancy.
...[more]

EU Constitution - Referendums yield response [WORKERS, APR 2008]
Ten referendums were held in selected marginal constituencies around the country throughout February. Despite several of the sitting MPs leafleting constituents telling them not to vote, voters gave the polls an unprecedented response. 152,520 people voted across just ten parliamentary constituencies. The turnout across the country was 36.2%.
...[more]

Energy - Offshore workers unite [WORKERS, APR 2008]
FOLLOWING AN 80% vote in favour, the offshore oil and gas workers have voted to merge their liaison committee, OILC, with the RMT.
...[more]

Playing Fields - From sports field to property [WORKERS, APR 2008]
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea wants to redevelop Holland Park Comprehensive School. Its scheme includes the disposal of land for residential development to provide enabling funding.
...[more]




Journalists fight back [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
As media employers – private and public – look to extract more and more profit from their staff, they are meeting increasing resistance from journalists fed up with poor pay, eroding conditions and demands to work longer and harder.
...[more]

RMT guards win jobs fight [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
More than 600 RMT guards and train drivers at First Great Western (recently dubbed Worst Great Western by passenger groups) have ended disputes with the company after winning an important victory in the protracted battle with employers following EU-inspired privatisation and fragmentation of British railways.
...[more]

'No' campaigns gather speed [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
UNITE – one of Ireland's largest unions – has confirmed that it is to campaign for a No vote in the coming Lisbon Treaty referendum (Irish law dictates that Ireland must hold a referendum, but it seems increasingly likely to be the only member state to have one).
...[more]

ALBA: A new kind of bank [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
With the capitalist world's banking system apparently on the edge of collapse, a quite different story is emerging across the Atlantic. New banks are being established to help Latin America and the Caribbean to become independent of the US, the IMF and World Bank and to move towards forms of integration based on respect for national sovereignty.
...[more]

The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
Which international organisations have a President and a Foreign Minister? Does the UN? Does NATO? No: only the EU wants to. Blair says he'll be President – but only if we give him more powers, especially over defence.
...[more]

Slaughter in Iraq [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
The US-led occupation forces in Iraq dropped 1,447 bombs last year, up from 229 in 2006. Since the invasion in March 2003, coalition bombing has killed 116,000 Iraqis.
...[more]

Reclaiming the union [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
The political sea change in London Unison continues. For the third year running, the members painfully reclaiming their Regional Council from the hands of one or two remaining entryists in the Labour Party and their ultra-left allies, have triumphed again in key convenor and regional committee elections.
...[more]

Secrecy over finances [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
WHILE STAFF and trade unions struggle to make sense out of the near bankruptcy affecting the four NHS trusts in outer South East London – Queen Mary's (Sidcup), Queen Elizabeth (Woolwich), Bromley and Lewisham, the government uses the Freedom of Information Act to shroud in mystery the report into why this near bankruptcy has occurred.
...[more]

Prices and profits soar [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
Centrica (British Gas) is raising its prices by 15 per cent at a time when profits from residential dwellings were over £600 million in the first six months of 2007 – and overall group profits are over £2 billion.
...[more]

So that's how they do it! [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
New research from economists at the London School of Economics has highlighted one measurable way in which state schools lose a valuable resource, namely publicly-trained teachers, to private schools, the dishonestly named 'public schools'.
...[more]

New jobs, old insecurity [WORKERS, MAR 2008]
Eight hundred new jobs are to be created at Nissan in Sunderland. The downside is 400 are to be temporary. Meanwhile 400 permanent jobs will be offered to existing temporary workers.
...[more]




Aerospace strike for pensions [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
AROUND 1,600 workers at the Goodrich aerospace sites in Hall Green and Marston Green Birmingham, in Hemel Hempstead, in Liverpool, and at one of Wolverhampton's biggest factories, have voted in favour of strike action after proposals to change the pension scheme took effect on 1 January, closing the final salary scheme to new workers.
...[more]

Nuclear decision, at last [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Finally, after much dithering, the government has brought out its white paper on nuclear power. Nuclear power stations currently provide 20 per cent of our electricity, but they are all scheduled to close over the next 15 years or so.
...[more]

Pay: New thinking needed [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Just before the Christmas break the TUC launched a unified and coordinated campaign of all public sector trade unions over pay – the rejection of the 2 per cent ceiling and diminishing offers during the next three years.
...[more]

News Analysis
Inside the EU's structural funds [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
The four EU Structural and Cohesion Funds give the EU powers over investment, jobs, agriculture and fisheries. They account for over one third of its budget...
...[more]

Euronotes
The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
The European Court of Justice has ruled against Swedish unions blockading a Latvian construction company that employed cheap labour. The right to strike is supposedly a fundamental right under EU law.
...[more]

Education
Teachers' pay offer [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Teachers in England and Wales have been offered a three-year pay deal which breaks the Treasury's public sector cap of 2 per cent. The government has accepted the review board's recommendation of 2.45 per cent this year, followed by two years of 2 per cent but with a review next year.
...[more]

Health
Cuba vs California [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
As California's health care collapses, Cuba announces new health advances.
...[more]

Transport
All aboard the gravy train [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
Rail users face price increases of between 4 and 11.1 per cent as the rail companies hike prices – while passenger satisfaction with the rail companies' performance is at its lowest since 2005.
...[more]

Economy
Deficit grows [WORKERS, FEB 2008]
In 1990, manufacturing was 23 per cent of the economy; in 2005, 14 per cent. So it's no surprise that in 2007's third quarter, our trade deficit was £20 billion (5.7 per cent of GDP).
...[more]




Water campaign wound up [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
In October 2006 the South East Regional TUC – conscious of chronic water shortages, failing infrastructure problems especially in London, rationing and supply problems – called for a regional and national campaign to seek the public ownership of water at the earliest possibility with a specific demand that a national grid for water supply be introduced.
...[more]

Sussex fight for 6th form [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
A whole town on the Sussex coast is up in arms at an attempt to close the local school’s sixth form.
...[more]

Middx. profs win union fight [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
Middlesex University in North London has just signed a recognition agreement which will see all the professorial staff involved in teaching and research being represented by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU).
...[more]

News Focus: A tale of two allotments [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
There has been a resurgence in the demand for allotments – particularly in urban areas. For many, this interest is fuelled by suspicions about food safety.
...[more]

Euronotes: The latest from Brussels [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
When Blair agreed the EU budget deal in December 2005, the press focused on giving up £7 billion of the rebate. More significant is that our net contribution nearly doubles from £2.8 to £5.5 billion a year between 2007 and 2013; an extra £19 billion net over 7 years. The gross contribution, after the reduced rebate, rises to £10.2 billion a year, £71 billion over the whole period.
...[more]

Mauritius: Strike against 'British' law [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
Trade unions and workers' parties in Mauritius have called for a general strike in early December to counter anti-union legislation – modelled on British law – being introduced by the government.
...[more]

USA: Home of the hungry [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
The New York Coalition Against Hunger, an association of churches and charities, says the number of people who use their food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 20 per cent in 2007 with many distribution points struggling to meet demand following cuts in federal funding.
...[more]

Seafarers: EU rules against right to strike [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
On 11 December, the European Court of Justice ruled against Finnish seafarers' right to take strike action.
...[more]

Fashion: Equity opens up to models [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
The trade union Equity has opened its membership to catwalk and photographic models. The move comes after a group of models approached the trade union outlining their need for a representative voice to lobby for better working conditions.
...[more]

NHS: Devolution halts increase [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
Unions in the NHS Staff Council for England have won an increase in car allowances across all but the top grade by 10 per cent. The price of fuel has long been soaring, and workers don't see why they should further subsidise their employer and suffer yet more deductions by stealth from their wages.
...[more]

NHS: Review dodges PFI questions [WORKERS, JAN 2008]
The Interim Chief Executive of Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust in South East London, languishing under a PFI contract that guarantees a £972 million payout to the successful consortium over the first 30 years of the contract, has announced an independent review of the trust's finances and governance.
...[more]