privatisation

Ghazl el-Mahalla workers protest privatisation

Workers from the Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory held a demonstration Thursday against alleged plans to sell off the Ghazl El-Mahalla company to private investors.

At 3pm some 40 women workers had congregated outside the gate of the factory, located in the Delta town of Mahalla El-Kobra. At 2:45 pm hundreds of workers were filing out of the factory, ahead of the scheduled time for the end of the morning shift at 3 pm.

800,000 bank workers on strike in India

More than 800,000 bank employees from 50,000 branches across India started a two-day strike Wednesday to oppose privatisation, merger and acquisition of state-owned banks.

Reports from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir said the strike was total.

Thailand: Rail strikes against privatisation

Following a wildcat strike which shut down the state rail network on October 31, the rail union is threatening further action if privatisation continues.

The Bangkok Post reported that the State Railways of Thailand (SRT) labour union will resume striking against the Surayud government next month if the authorities fail to meet its demands involving the controversial leases of SRT property to the private sector and revision of SRT privatisation schemes.

UK: Tube maintenance workers begin six days of strikes

The first of two 72 hour strikes by more than 2,300 workers at failed private maintenance firm Metronet is to go ahead from 6pm tonight.

The strikes were called after the company and its administrator failed to give the unequivocal guarantees on jobs, transfers and pensions that the union is seeking.

"The letter we have received from Metronet and the administrator falls way short of the guarantees our members need and deserve," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today

Privatisation by the back door: The health workers’ strike and the future of medical care in Poland

Laure Akai analyses the neoliberal reforms to Poland's health service as the doctors' strike enters its fourth month.

Some hospitals have given up the strike, some hospitals are concluding private deals with doctors. Nurses have organised separately from the doctors with a slightly different agenda. And it well may turn out that the results of the strike are strikingly different salaries for health care workers throughout Poland and increased privatization of the health care industry.

UK: Post Office strikes continue

Workers at Crown Post Offices struck yesterday and on Friday, and are due to strike again tomorrow to stop plans to outsource services to WH Smiths.

While management tried to downplay the effects of the strike, the CWU claimed that members supported the strikes in overwhelming numbers. Post Office Limited (POL) Head Office was placed in disarray due to severe staff shortages as managers were once again forced to travel at great cost across the country to cover members’ jobs.

Poland’s health care workers’ strike: new challenges and old problems

As a mass health-care strike enters its sixth week, all that may be achieved is the speeding-up of the privatisation process.

The Doctor’s Strike and the Nurses’ Occupation

Belgium: Flights grounded by wildcat strike

Thousands were affected when security guards at Charleroi airport walked out in a row over privatisation

The BBC reported that all flights in and out of Ryanair's Belgian hub at Charleroi airport were grounded on Friday after security staff walked out in a wildcat strike.

A row over the privatisation of public sector security personnel caused the disruption, which began at dawn and spread to Liege airport in the east.

An estimated 8,000 passengers have been affected by the action so far.

1977: The great Northampton General Hospital lie in

A short history of a successful example of creative direct action against healthcare rationing in a British hospital.

30 years ago: Rita Ward and the Great Northampton Hospital ‘lie-in”
We hear a lot these days about the ‘creeping privatisation’ of the NHS. We have a Labour government committed to turning our free National Health Service into just another business along the lines of the American model, which sees poor people refused medical treatment because they can’t afford it.

Argentina: railway station burnt by passengers

Angry passengers attacked and destroyed offices, before burning them down in protest at the atrocious state of the privatised service.

The trouble started when a train broke down 600 metres from Constitucion station, south of Buenos Aires. After 20 minutes a group of passengers (these trains are packed solid with no air conditioning and little ventilation) walked to the station to demand answers. When they did not get any they began to destroy the information offices.