Strike Watch UK 18/11/03 – 28/11/03

1) Manufacturing
2) Transport
3) Public Sector
4) Others

1) Aerospace Firm Hit by Wildcat Action
24/11/03
Production at beleaguered Belfast-based aerospace firm Shorts ground to a near halt today as a bitter pay dispute intensified. With workers 48 hours away from an all-out and potentially lengthy strike, members of the two main unions downed tools in a row over conditions. Management estimated only 100 out of 3,500 staff were continuing to operate a shop-floor production tracking system at the Queen's Island plant. "There's no work being done. If you see a manager you bang your rivet gun but that's it," said one. Shorts, which is Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing employer, has been locked in a long-running dispute with the unions. The firm's Canadian-based parent company, Bombardier, has made it clear it needs to cut the workforce in the province to boost competitiveness.

2) Possible dispute at asbestos factory
24/11/03
Bosses at a Yarmouth factory closed because of asbestos contamination have been warned that staff would be unhappy to make up lost production through unpaid overtime. Most of the 210-strong workforce at Omni-Pac UK's egg carton factory in Yarmouth has been off work since environmental tests showed up a potential danger four weeks ago.

3) Blind and disabled workers at a factory in Edinburgh are staging a strike in a dispute over the running of the plant.
25/11/03
The Edinburgh Blindcraft site is being hit by a walkout as part of a campaign by the National League of Blind and Disabled for a financial investigation. It is the second in a series of planned stoppages at the factory, where more than half of the workers are disabled.

4) Nissan Car workers vote over strike
24/11/03
Workers at the Nissan car plant in Sunderland are being balloted over strike action. A row has broken out over plans by the car firm to move 60 workers 240 miles away in a shake-up of its purchasing department. The result of the ballot is expected on the 8 December. The Wearside plant is rated the world's most efficient car plant and was set a 2003 target of building 350,000 cars, with some models exported back to Japan.
27/11/03
Purchasers set to strike at Nissan
Purchasers at Nissan in Wearside could soon go on strike in what would be
the first industrial action at the award-winning car plant since it opened in 1986.

5) Land Rover boss: strike will kill us
27/11/03
Controversial Land Rover boss Steve Coultate today broke his public silence to warn workers that a vote for strikes over pay could break the company. The director of manufacturing, speaking on the eve of a ballot for industrial action among the 7,500-strong workforce, pleaded with employees: "Don't put our futures at risk."

6) Gold workers strike called off
22/11/03
Johnson Matthey has its European HQ in Royston, Hertfordshire A planned strike by staff at gold bullion and precious metals company Johnson Matthey has been called off after the firm took legal action. Members of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation at two factories were due to take industrial action next week in a dispute over pay.

Transport

7) Trams hit by drivers' strike
26/11/03
Tram drivers say their pay is below the average. Croydon's tram service is being hit by its first ever strike with workers threatening a series of walk-outs over pay. Drivers belonging to the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) want the same pay as colleagues on London's buses and Tube.

8) Gatwick Express strike to go ahead
27/11/03
A strike by train drivers on the Gatwick Express will go ahead tomorrow after last ditch talks aimed at resolving a pay dispute broke down today. Members of the train drivers' union Aslef will walk out for 24 hours, with further stoppages planned next month, including Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Gatwick Express said it would run a "comprehensive" service on strike days, although the number of trains is expected to be cut by about half.

9) Tube workers planning go-slows and station closures
21/11/03
Millions of passengers face weeks of disruption on London Underground in the run-up to Christmas after tube workers voted yesterday for industrial action over safety. The RMT rail union is to advise drivers to go slow and withdraw staff to shut stations it judges overcrowded in a guerrilla campaign against the private companies now in charge of much of the network.

10) Bus drivers vote on strike action
26/11/03
BARROW and South West Cumbria could be facing New Year bus chaos after drivers voted to strike over a pay offer. Stagecoach is offering its drivers a 3.5 per cent rise at most depots, including Barrow and West Cumbria. But drivers in Carlisle are being offered more than four per cent because of a chronic staff turnover rate of 50 per cent a year.

Public Sector

11) Binmen on strike
26/11/03
BINMEN in North Lanarkshire will go on strike this Friday after negotiations between the GMB union and North Lanarkshire Council broke down. It’s about ‘introductuion of new conditions’, but it remains unclear what these ‘new conditions’ look like.

12) Strike action deferred at Charleville and District Associaton for Handicapped
24/11/03
Strike action by workers has been defered at the Charleville and District Association for the Handicapped. All out strike action was proposed to begin today. The seven SIPTU members at the heart of this proposed industrial action say they have no sick pay scheme, no pension entitlements and earn just over 7 euro an hour.

13) Council workers in London walk out again
26/11/03
Hundreds of council workers are staging the latest in a series of selective strikes in London over pay. Several boroughs are affected by the walkout by
members of the public sector workers union Unison. School support staff, housing benefit workers and caretakers are among those taking action.

14) Civil servants in Scotland set to walk out again
26/11/03
SCOTLAND could soon be in the grip of crippling strike
action which would hit benefit payments, disrupt the issuing of new passports and lead to driving test cancellations. Union leaders today warned of of a winter of discontent in a pay row which involves tens of
thousands of civil servants across the UK. The Department for Work and Pensions has imposed a wage increase of 2.6% despite staff voting against it.

15) Teachers in Northern Ireland to vote on possible strike move
27/11/03
NORTHERN Ireland's largest teaching union said today it was confident that its members will back a ballot for industrial action over pay. The NASUWT is one of four teacher unions in the province which has called for its members to vote early next month on possible strike action. The Department of Education has told the unions it cannot afford to backdate a £1,000 pay settlement owed to 13,500 teachers.

16) Job centre staff stage walkout
22/11/03
Staff have walked out at nine offices
More than 500 staff from job centres and social security offices in Glasgow have staged an unofficial walkout. They are protesting against a decision by their employers to bring in a pay deal, before staff had voted on whether to accept it. Nine separate offices have been affected.
27/11/03
Unions back Jobcentre strike ballot
The threat of industrial action by tens of thousands of workers in Jobcentres and benefit offices across the UK in a dispute over pay increased today when union leaders backed strikes. Officials of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union voted for a strike ballot in protest over a 2.6% pay rise. The decision will have to be ratified by the union's disputes committee but around 90,000 civil servants now look set to vote on industrial action.

17) Nursery Nurses Strike action began in May
24/11/03
A fresh round of strike action at council-run nurseries across Scotland has been announced. Unison said there would be week-long stoppages in some parts of the country as the union seeks further talks
with local authorities. Other areas will see grouped days of strikes over the first two weeks of December. Nursery nurses are paid about £13,000 a year and are seeking a £4,000 pay rise of to reflect the extra duties they say they have had to undertake.

18) RIOT POLICE GO IN AS PRISON STAFF STRIKE
22/11/03
RIOT police were sent into three Northern Ireland jails last night after prison officers walked out. Warders refused to go on duty after lunch in a dispute over terror threats. About 60 per cent of 500 staff joined the protest. Special police units trained for street disorder went in.

19) Britain's smallest strike
22/11/03
One of Britain's smallest strikes looks set to go ahead in Sheffield over moves to privatise six security guards' jobs. The civil service workers, who provide round-the-clock security at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the city, were expected to receive their ballot papers on Friday
25/11/03
Security guard strike halted
Plans by six security guards to strike over the privatisation of their jobs have been put on hold.

20) Strike action throws schools into turmoil
27/11/03
UP TO 2,000 schoolchildren across the borough are facing a week of
disruptive strike action. School support staff at Worcesters Primary School, Firs Farm Primary School, Garfield Primary School, Carterhatch Primary School and West Grove Primary School will stage a five-day walkout over pay on Monday.

21) Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant workers stage second strike
21/11/03
Hundreds of workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant are holding their second strike on Friday. The action is being taken by members of the GMB and Amicus unions at the Cumbrian site in a long-running dispute over pay.

22) City finance workers in job exports protest
22/11/03
FINANCIAL services workers have launched a campaign to safeguard their jobs amid fears that thousands of posts in the Capital will be moved to India. Members of the Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTU) collected hundreds of signatures outside the banking giant's Hanover Street branch yesterday in protest at the group's pilot schemes to examine moving jobs abroad. Last week, Lloyds TSB-owned Scottish Widows revealed plans to establish up to 50 back-office processing positions in India.

23) Sainsbury's staff threaten Christmas strike
27/11/03
Hundreds of Sainsbury's staff are threatening strike action which could hit the supermarket three days before Christmas. Union bosses say nearly 800 warehouse workers at the Sainsbury's depot in Haydock, Merseyside are
considering a walkout over pay "for around December 22." The move would badly affect all stores in the north of England as the depot supplies them with every grocery item. It could cost the company millions of pounds in lost revenue during the busiest period of the year. Workers have been at odds with Sainsbury's management since April, when they called for a rise in their £5.75 hourly wage to meet the regional average distribution wage of £8, reports the Liverpool Echo newspaper.

24) Granada staff prepare for strike ballot
25/11/03
Staff at Granada will vote on strike action in a dispute over pay just two months before the birth of the long-awaited single ITV. Some 1,500 members of the National Union of Journalists, Bectu and Amicus will hold a ballot on industrial action in protest at an imposed pay rise of 2%. Granada bosses have also turned down a union demand for a minimum salary of £13,500.

25) Festive post faces strike threat
26/11/03
HUNGRY Oldham postmen and women could call a Christmas delivery strike after their canteen was closed at breakfast. The move by management proved too much for the workers at the Royal Mail's Hamilton Street depot, who are
already operating an overtime ban, have withdrawn their goodwill and staged an unofficial strike last week.
30/11/03
Now postal workers threaten Christmas strike
Postal workers are threatening massive disruption to Christmas deliveries with two 24-hour strikes in London timed to coincide with the final dates for posting before the holiday.