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Michelin - Workers at the factory in Toul (Meurthe et Moselle) began strike action after plans were announced to close it down. As well as occupying and blockading the plant with pickets of burning tyres the 826 workers also confined two managers to their offices during the four-day strike.

Email campaigning has been one of the surprise success stories of the last few years in labour struggle.

Thousands joined street protests in Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg, Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon and other cities.

The 24 hour strike left many schools closed, hospitals providing a reduced service and newsagents without newspapers.

The BBC reported that the French capital's two airports and Marseille airport in the south suffered delays and cancellations.

Belfast
Postal workers in Belfast have won an important victory against management after unofficial action on Friday of last week. It took the workers just one and a half hours to force down bosses’ attempts to change start times.

Managers insisted that the workforce put forward their start times by two hours.

The Financial Times reports:

Strikes have either broken out or are threatened in industries spanning the economy, affecting some 40,000 workers in core areas including shipping, forestry, postal services and steel.

In the most serious development, 12,800 nurses have decided to resign en masse next month if their demands for a 25 per cent wage increase over the next two years are not met.

Egypt’s workers’ unrest is continuing unabated. According to the Egyptian Workers and Trade Union Watch (EWTUW) there have been a total of 580 industrial actions in the period January- September. Almost every month sees an increase in workers’ actions: from around 20 in early 2007 to the peak of 100 and 94 actions in August and September respectively.

The Royal Mail was granted an injunction to stop CWU members at sorting and delivery offices from striking. Royal Mail says an irregularity in the way the strike notice was issued makes the action illegal. The union insisted the strike was legitimate because it fully complied with the law. Rolling strikes similar to those in August were due to start on Monday.

12/10/07 - Reports suggest that the Manpower agency is recruiting casuals during this strike, you may want to print out this pdf and distribute it at your local Manpower branch, or any other agency hiring for Royal Mail.

Almost all offices in North, East, South East and South West London have walked out, along with Liverpool; Edinburgh, Chester, Fife, Livingston, Peterborough, Dalkeith, Bristol, Leicester, Grangemouth, Kilwinning and Kent, also on unofficial strike. Glasgow walked out earlier in the week but have returned to work.