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8,000 could strike together this month...
unite the fights
to beat pay freeze
T We are not alone!
he fight is on to break
the pay freeze at First Group.
More than 8,000 workers from
Sheffield to central London are
preparing to strike.
First have told managers at its 19
subsidiaries across the country to offer
no pay rise this year.
Workers have responded with a
growing series of solid strikes in the
North West of England, affecting Bury,
Bolton and Wigan, and with more strikes
planned on 12, 19 and 26 October.
Five stoppages and the intervention
of Acas have so far failed to shift First.
But spreading the action can—and
the potential for a wider battle is clear.
After a five to one vote, bus drivers
are now set to strike across South
Yorkshire with action planned for
Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield
on the same days as Bury, Bolton and
Wigan (12, 19 and 26 October).
A planned additional three day strike
in Sheffield over disciplinary action
has been suspended, with the union
recommending a deal.
The way to win
At First in Essex workers voted by 95
percent for strikes. Some 600 workers
will take their first strike action on
Monday 12 October and further action
on 26 October, 9 and 23 November.
Balloting is at “an advanced stage”
according to the union in London and
West Yorkshire.
If the North West, South & West
Yorkshire, London and Essex took
action together then 8,000 workers
would be out.
There is a real chance of hitting
the company hard and smashing the
pay freeze. The money is there for
decent pay at First. In 2009 managers
confirmed a 15 percent bonus for
shareholders—for the last five years!
The union is moving in the right
direction by co-ordinating some local
battles.
But workers should remember what
happened at Aberdeen. There a series
of successful one day strikes was not The unions have to take the kind of
enough to shift the company. action necessary to make the employers
Eventually Aberdeen workers settled crack. And rank and file members have
for 2.5 percent next year but a pay freeze
to keep the pressure on the officials to
this year. This is the same deal that is on deliver the action that is needed.
offer in South Yorkshire.
Workers in virtually every company
are under attack. The union should be
Wider resistance uniting the different fights.
If the union is to do better this time, it
In London last year thousands of bus
needs to co-ordinate strikes across the workers struck together and thousands
country and escalate the action from 24
more were set to strike before the bus
hour stoppages. This did not happen in operators ran to the courts.
Aberdeen.
Now there is a chance to coordinate
The union should appeal to every strikes—not just on a city-wide basis
First worker to get involved in the fight.
but nationally.
Bus operators across the UK will
be looking to what happens at First.
Stagecoach, Go-Ahead and others are
Back postal workers
With all the political parties calling for
trying to push through pay curbs too. cuts in workers’ living standards, it’s
The mood of militancy is spreading
time to build the fightback.
beyond First. Stagecoach drivers in And there is a new mood of
Kettering struck on Wednesday and
resistance across the working class,
will strike again on 12 and 23 October, headed up by postal workers who are
against a 1.8 percent offer.
set for a national strike.
The postal workers’ fight is crucial
for every worker, student, pensioner and
troops out of unemployed person in Britain.
afghanistan! It is a crucial early battle in a much
bigger war—the war over public
Demonstrate Saturday 24 October services, jobs, cuts, union rights, pay
Assemble 12 noon Hyde Park
and conditions at work. It’s about who
March to Trafalgar Square pays for the continuing economic crisis.
The march will be lead by anti-war
.A victory for the postal workers
military families, army veterans
would show everyone else that
and soldiers.
resistance is possible and can win.
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Bus 10/10/09
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