Britain
Leeds refuse workers vote to continue strike
SEP (Britain) warns against sellout by union leadership
By our reporter, October 9, 2009
At a mass meeting of striking refuse workers in Leeds yesterday, the 300 strikers present voted to continue their five-week strike against attempts to slash wages by up to £6,000 a year.
Britain: Postal workers vote for national strike
By Robert Stevens, October 9, 2009
Postal workers in Britain voted Thursday for national strike action in their ongoing dispute with the state-run Royal Mail.
British care industry using foreign students as cheap labour
By Ajantha Silva, October 8, 2009
Employers in privately run nursing homes, care homes, and care agencies are more and more dependent on foreign students as their main source of cheap, skilled and flexible labour.
IMF chief economist calls for drastic UK spending cuts
By Robert Stevens, October 6, 2009
The International Monetary Fund has said Britain must introduce radical spending cuts, including raising the retirement age beyond 65 and introducing charges for health care.
Britain: BAe Systems faces prosecution for bribery
By Jean Shaoul, October 5, 2009
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to ask the attorney general to prosecute arms manufacturer BAe Systems for bribing officials in South Africa, Tanzania, the Czech Republic and Romania.
Britain: The denouement looms for Labour
By Chris Marsden, October 3, 2009
At its annual conference in Brighton, Labour indeed looked like a party that had “lost the will to live.”
Britain: Postal workers call for disaffiliation from Labour during strike ballot
By Paul Bond, October 2, 2009
Around 15,000 postal workers are thought to be involved in strikes affecting large parts of the UK, while a consultative ballot amongst London members of the CWU voted overwhelmingly for the union to ...
Britain: Leeds refuse strike enters fourth week
By our reporter, October 2, 2009
The strike by 600 workers employed in refuse collection, street cleansing and waste management in Leeds has entered its fourth week.
A dramatic account of the death of Jean Charles de Menezes
Stockwell, by Kieron Barry
By Paul Bond, September 29, 2009
A review of Kieron Barry’s play Stockwell: The Inquest into the Death of Jean Charles de Menezes.
Britain: Behind the disciplinary action in the Unison trade union
By Julie Hyland, September 28, 2009
The disciplinary action taken by the public sector union Unison against several of its members raises important issues of political perspective.
Britain: Businesses to control more state schools as government-backed academies fail
By Harvey Thompson, September 26, 2009
The start of the new school term has seen a welter of government activity in support of the expansion of its privately run academies programme, even as the educational value of these institutions is d...
Britain: Nationalist campaign by Unite union bureaucracy over Vauxhall-Opel takeover
By Robert Stevens and Julie Hyland, September 25, 2009
The sell-off of General Motors’ European operations, Opel and Vauxhall, to the Canadian-Russian consortium Magna has elicited a poisonous “us first” response by the trade unions involved.
