strikes

The Unite union has confirmed that strike action which is expected to halt the services of First Capital East Buses and First Centrewest Buses in London will go ahead from 3.00am Friday 29th August. The action will affect bus routes across east, west and central London (see below).

Female precarious workers for the Korean firm Kiryung electronics today enter their 1,100th day of action in demand of direct employment.

following the offer of a paltry 2.5% pay increase, well below inflation levels, 700 Rescue Co-ordinators backed by the Public and Commercial Sevices Union have taken strike action against real-terms cuts to already poor pay.

Unite will hold a consultative ballot with its members at Swissport which will begin shortly. Therefore, the union will suspend industrial action at Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports pending the outcome of the ballot result.

Schools were closed, rubbish went uncollected, ferry services were disrupted, and services like libraries were closed. Union leaders said an estimated 150,000 workers took part in the one-day strike over pay. The pay row is over an offer of 2.5% for each of the next three years, an offer made "derisory" by the rising cost of living.

Some 1,000 track, signal and train maintenance staff working for Tube Lines, the contractor responsible for running the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines, were due to walk out. The strike would have meant that any signalling problems - a daily occurance - or track faults would have closed down the lines.

London Underground workers on the District and Northern lines will begin a 24 hour strike on August 22nd.

The workplace struggles that took place in 1987 occurred within the wider background of political reform. For thirty years South Korea had been ruled by a military dictatorship, and growing calls for democracy had echoed across the peninsula through the 1970s and early 80s.

The workers, represented by the Communication Workers Union, have been offered a 4.1% pay rise by the company, meaning in real terms a pay cut. Official inflation in the Isle of Man is running at 6.5%, though as workers spend more on necessities such as food and gas, which have seen global price hikes in the past year, they are more severely hit by inflation in necessities.

More than 120 members of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will walk out on 25th August. The workers want a higher basic wage than the £6.37 per hour which the staff, who work for contractor OCS, receive.