UK RMT Scotland Rail strike suspended after talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7657523.stm

Page last updated at 22:17 GMT, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 23:17 UK

Rail strike suspended after talks

Rail journeys across the country were severely disrupted by the strike
A second 24-hour Scottish rail strike due to start at midday on Thursday has been suspended.
Following a nine-hour meeting with Network Rail and the conciliation body Acas, the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union suspended the walkout.
An RMT spokesman said progress had been made and the union's executive would consider a full report before making a statement later in the week.
A total of 450 signal workers were due to take part in the strike action.
A 24-hour walkout on Tuesday severely disrupted rail services and caused traffic chaos throughout Scotland.
The row centres on rota changes and compulsory safety assessments.

We are pleased that strike action has been suspended and will continue to seek a negotiated resolution to this dispute
Network Rail
The RMT insists employers have failed to move on its demand to stop last-minute changes to rotas. Network Rail said it had made concessions on that issue but safety assessments remained the sticking point.

Workers Liberty
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/09/24/solidarity-3139.
Acid test for RMT as
key activist victimised

Tubeworkers: under pressure
Andy Littlechild, a well-known
local rep at Lillie Bridge and
activist on the “company council”
— the top relevant union body — was
suspended by the infrastructure company
Metronet on Tuesday 16 September, on
trumped-up charges.
The London Underground Engineering
and Fleet branches, and the RMT union
executive, have voted to ballot Metronet
workers for strike action. If Metronet is
allowed to get away with this, every union
rep across the network will be in danger.
The workers whom Andy directly works
with are reported as being very solid in
their determination to stop the victimisa-
tion. Success will depend on making sure
all workers across Metronet know the
issues. Leaflets are already being distrib-
uted to workplaces by reps and activists.
The spark was a local manager ’s arbi-
trary insistence on workers wearing hard
hats at all times. Andy was working on a
job with an agreed risk assessment not call-
ing for hard hats.
The manager wrote a new risk assess-

3500 UK London bus strikes’ carnival atmosphere creating "mobile strikers’ karaoke"
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=15990

Posted: 6.05pm Tuesday 16 September 2008

News

London bus strikes’ carnival atmosphere

Bus workers at the Metrobus garage in Orpington joined the pay strikes on Friday of last week (Pic: » Guy Smallman)

by Esme Choonara

Around 3,500 striking London bus workers brought many garages and routes to a standstill on Friday of last week.

Workers in the Unite union employed by First struck for two days – their second strike over pay in a fortnight. They were joined on the first day by 1,000 Unite members at Metrobus.

There were pickets of up to 100 drivers at every striking garage. Strikers brought flags, gazebos and barbecues to create a carnival atmosphere.

Some First reps even toured the picket lines with a loundhailer and music – creating a mobile strikers’ karaoke.

The hoots and waves of support from passing drivers employed by other companies gave a sense of the growing mood over pay on the buses.

At every garage workers spoke about how their pay has fallen behind rising prices. Many drivers said they are forced to pay essential bills with credit cards each month.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/06/tradeunions.labour
TUC faces battle over call for general strike
· Hardliners angry ministers blocked leftwinger's bill
· POA refuses to withdraw 'embarrassing distraction'
David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
The Guardian, Saturday September 6 2008

Restoring secondary picketing powers for the unions has been an important cause for the left but has been rejected by Gordon Brown. Photograph: Frank Baron

Hardline unions are set to split the TUC next week with a motion calling for the first general strike since 1926 in protest against Labour's refusal to give back secondary picketing rights and allow prison officers to strike.

The Prison Officers Association has angered the TUC council by calling for a series of one-day general strikes in protest at ministers blocking a leftwing Labour backbencher's bill this year which would have restored many of the union rights taken away by the Conservatives in the 1980s and 1990s.

It will be backed by the RMT rail union, led by Bob Crow, which has organised a series of strikes on the London Underground and in national rail companies over wages and conditions this year. Other unions such as the Fire Brigades Union and the Public and Commercial Services Union may support it.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=15852

Posted: 4.07pm Friday 29 August 2008

Hundreds join picket lines as London bus workers

On the picket lines at Westbourne Park in west London (Pic: » Guy Smallman)

Joan, chair of her local Unite branch, on the picket line at Willesden Junction, north west London (Pic: Sarah Cox)

Up to 100 strikers joined the picket line at Lea Interchange in Leyton, east London(Pic: Swalee Emambaccus)

by Esme Choonara

Thousands of bus workers in west and east London are striking today over pay – making a huge impact on services at one of the biggest companies in the city.

Hundreds of strikers, members of the Unite union, joined picket lines outside the nine garages.

The drivers at First Centrewest and First Capital East are striking over pay after rejecting a 3.5 percent pay offer. Supervisors at First Capital East also joined the strike.

The strike was extremely solid with only a small handful of drivers going in across the company.

Several bus workers joined the union on the picket lines so that they could be part of the strike.

At the Dagenham garage in east London, strikers said that 80 percent of engineers didn't cross the picket line.

http://www.wrp.org.uk/news/3497

aturday, 30 August 2008
LONDON BUS STRIKE ‘SOLID’

Defiant striking busworkers outside the Northumberland Park bus depot in north London yesterday
‘the strike was properly solid! Only four buses went out of 142 buses,’ Unite Rep Mickey Leachman said when he spoke to News line at Lea Interchange Garage on the picket line about the strength of the bus workers’ pickets yesterday.

Bus workers across north, central and west London, came out on strike for better pay and to bring drivers’ and other grades performing identical jobs, up to London-wide pay levels which can differ by as much as £6000 a year.

Leachman continued: ‘We want one pay for all and equality. There are other bus companies which have balloted for industrial action and they will be taking place in the near future.

‘We would like to see all bus workers out together!’ he emphasised.

Unite Branch Secretary Jay Mistry told News line on the picket line at Westbourne Park Garage: ‘We have had low pay rises as long as I can remember and I’ve been here 15 years.

‘We now feel that we have more support from the union and because inflation is so high we are not accepting a low offer.’

Saturday, 23 August 2008
GATE GOURMET TACTICS! – GMB accuses Airfield Services
The GMB trade union yesterday accused Stansted security contractor Airfield Services of Gate Gourmet tactics.

It said that Airfield Services was showing gross irresponsibility in refusing to accept an invitation to ACAS to avoid disruption to the travelling public and warned a Gate Gourmet-style lock-out situation is brewing.

Airfield Services on Thursday night refused an invitation from GMB and airports owner BAA to go to ACAS to seek a resolution to the pay dispute that has given rise to a strike on Monday 25th August 2008 at Stansted Airport.

33 GMB members who operate sophisticated security scanning equipment to check luggage going in to the holds of planes gave notice a week ago of strike action in protest at a pay offer of 1.5%.

Since then there have been no direct talks between the company and the union.

Airfield Services refusal to go to ACAS means strike action on Monday is now inevitable, the GMB added.

The union said: ‘The consequence is likely to be disruption to the travelling public using Stansted Airport and an increased security risk to everybody in the airport and on planes leaving the airport due to the lack of qualified and trained luggage scanners.’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/15/transport.theairlineindustry

Gatwick and Stansted airport workers vote to strike on bank holiday
More than 400,000 holidaymakers face severe disruption at Britain's busiest airports for charter and low-budget flights
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday August 15 2008 18:03 BST
Article history
More than 400,000 holidaymakers face severe disruption at the end of the month after staff voted to go on strike at Britain's two busiest airports for charter airlines and low-budget carriers.

Union leaders warned that industrial action at Gatwick and Stansted could spread across the UK with workers at Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle airports also holding walk-out ballots.

Baggage handlers and check-in staff at Gatwick and Stansted will stage 24-hour strikes on bank holiday Monday on August 25, and August 29, after rejecting a 3% pay rise offer.

The strike by workers at airport services firm Swissport will affect services by Gatwick-based airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Thomsonfly, Monarch and First Choice and flights operated by Ryanair and easyJet at Stansted, where they are the biggest customers.

The Unite union said all airlines using Swissport's services would be grounded. "The flights could not operate. If these strikes go ahead it would effectively shut down the airlines' operations," said Steve Turner, Unite's national secretary for aviation.

http://www.labournet.de/internationales/rumae/constanta_eng.html

Updated: 28.07.2008 13:21
Europe 's Eastern gateway blocked: Strike in the docks of Constanta

In Romania the strike wave continues: on Thursday morning, 17th of July 2008, five hundred dock workers at the Agigea Sud terminal went on indefinite strike. The terminal belongs to the container port of Constanta , a town at the Romanian coast of the Black Sea . Their main demands: a wage increase of 700 RON (about 200 Euro), a bonus for seniority, extra-payment for over-time and a clear regulation of the working-time.

The author of this article, Ana Cosel (contact per mail: ana.cosel[at]web.de) , has been in Constanta and was able to talk to the workers.

The first day of strike

At the main gate of the container port Constanta Agigea Sud a wind-torn leaflet announces an indefinite strike, starting at 7 am, 17th of July 2008. On the port premises no movements can be seen, the cranes remain silent and unused. The company has locked out the strikers. About 150 workers on picket-line have gathered at the gate, shouting slogans: "We work, and we want to be paid for it!", "Thieves, thieves" and "We won´t be slaves in our own country!". The Constanta South Terminal is run by DP World, well equipped with modern facilities. 85 per cent of the total container turn-over of Romania 's biggest port happens here. According to their own figures last year the company made twelve Million Euros profit.

Call For Solidarity By Istanbul Dockyard Strike

To: solidarity.limteris@googlemail.com
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 11:35 PM
Subject: URGENT CALL! STRIKE AT THE DOCYARDS IN ISTANBUL!

URGENT CALL! STRIKE AT THE DOCYARDS IN ISTANBUL!

The dockyard workers of Tuzla/Istanbul go on strike on the 16th of June against labour-related accidents. The strike is called by the dockyard workers' union LIMTER-IS.
The number of the dockyard workers, who died at accidents, has risen to 98 with the latest accident at Selahattin Arslan Dockyard, where 35 year old Ihsan Turhan lost his life.
In Turkey, 900 workers loose their lives every year in labour-related accidents in different sectors. 55 thousand workers have died in the last 60 years with the same reason and 145 thousand workers have become disabled.
The dockyard workers have been struggling against the increasing accidents under the leadership of their union Limter-Is for many years. This struggle has become even more intensified during the last months and in February the dockers went on a two-day-strike which found an important echo inside and outside the country.
In face of the fact that the dockyards' bosses and the government did not fulfil the promises given during that strike, Limter-Is has called for strike once again to solve the question.