Strike Watch UK 08. – 13.12.2003

Transport

08.12.2003
Baggage handlers in Liverpool walk out over pay
Baggage handlers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport have gone on strike in a dispute over pay. Around 120 staff at the airport walked out at 1900 GMT on Monday. Last-minute talks failed to resolve the dispute in time to avert strike action. Management put a new pay offer on the table which is due to be voted on Wednesday. Members of the GMB union voted in favour of a series of walkouts, in protest at plans to cut their pay by 40%.

09.12.03
Tube go-slow suspended
A planned 48-hour go-slow by London Underground workers has been suspended following a breakthrough in a row over safety. Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union had been due to take industrial action tomorrow and Wednesday, which would have caused chaos for millions of travellers in the capital.

10.12.2003
DRIVERS ARE SET TO STRIKE FOR ONE DAY in Loughborough
Commuters in and around Loughborough face disruption tomorrow as bus drivers stage another one-day strike. Kinch Bus drivers are preparing to walk out in a
dispute over pay. Drivers went on strike last Friday, bringing the town's bus service to a virtual standstill. Drivers are unhappy over a 3.3 per cent pay increase offered to them in October. Buses to the university, East Midlands Airport and Leicester via Charnwood
villages will be hit. www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk

11.12.2003
STAGECOACH bus services running across the Littlehampton area are likely to
be disrupted on Saturday after drivers voted to go on strike. The industrial action, over pay, coincides with what is likely to be one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, in the run-up to Christmas. The Transport and General Workers' Union voted to reject an offer of just over eight per cent and is planning two more days of industrial action on Wednesday, and on January 5.

12.12.2003
Strike threat to trams and buses in Manchester
GREATER Manchester faces Christmas transport chaos after Stagecoach bus drivers voted to strike over pay. Stagecoach staff in the T&G union have agreed to take industrial action and
are about to notify the company of their decision. Bosses admitted it would cause "massive
disruption" over the festive season. The move comes as tram drivers in the rail union Aslef are threatening strike action and are being balloted on plans for 24-hour walk-outs in a long-running wrangle over wages and conditions.

12.12.2003
Bus strike hits Christmas shoppers
TRENT BUS services returned to normal on Sunday after the first of a series
of one-day strikes on Saturday. Two further strikes by Trent drivers are planned for tomorrow (Saturday December 13th) and on Saturday December 20th, hitting shoppers in the Eastwood and Kimberley area.Barton Buses drivers were not involved in the dispute, so their services
remained unaffected. Managing Director Brian King has repeated that there will be no talks with the Transport and General Workers´ Union until after the threat of strike action has been lifted. More than 240 of Trent´s 600 drivers voted in favour of a strike after rejecting a pay reward averaging 4.2 per cent.

12.12.03
Last-ditch bid to avert Metro strike
Eleventh orning could avert a 24-hour strike by Tyne and Wear Metro staff which is set to stop the trains from 9pm tonight. Unions and bosses reached deadlock on Wednesday night but there was a breakthrough late yesterday when the two parties agreed to resume talks over the strike action which centres on plans for a 35-hour working week.

12.12.03
Strike action threatens Eurostar after union rejects imposed pay deal for drivers
Drivers on Eurostar trains are to be balloted in the New Year for strike action after workers rejected an imposed pay rise. The rail union Aslef said that drivers and train managers will vote on whether to stage a series of 24-hour strikes on the services, which connect London with Paris and Brussels via the Channel tunnel. The union said Eurostar had imposed a pay rise of 3.2 per cent in the first year and 0.5 per cent above-inflation rise in the second year, which it considered unacceptable.

Automotive

09.12.03
Nissan workers vote for strike in relocation row
A group of workers at Nissan have voted to strike in a dispute over the relocation of the company's purchasing department. Members of Amicus have voted by 17 to 5 in favour of industrial action in protest at being told to move from the factory in Sunderland to a site in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. The union complained that the workers were not consulted over the transfer and had been treated like "robots". Amicus officials will hold talks with the workers to decide the next move in the dispute.

13.12.03
Land Rover close to strike
The Midlands' biggest factory is on the brink of strike action after Land Rover workers rejected a two-year pay offer worth 6.5 per cent.
 http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/content_objectid=13721729_method=full_siteid=50002_headline=-Land-Rover-close-to-strike-name_page.html

Mixed Economy

11.12.03
Strike at Lloyds TSB Newcastle Call Centre starts
The finance union UNIFI is to start an industrial action ballot tomorrow (11 December) over the closure of Lloyds TSB's Newcastle call centre. The ballot will close on December 23. The aim of the action is to save jobs by saving the centre.
* Over 5,000 staff are employed in contact centres.
* Lloyds TSB call centres are situated in Glasgow, Sunderland, Newport, Bridgend, Swansea, and Dudley

11.12.03
New refuse contracts spark first bin strike in 10 years
THE first strike by refuse collectors in Scotland for more than a decade meant the waste of thousands of households and businesses was not collected yesterday. More than 150 members of the GMB in North Lanarkshire Council's cleansing department refused to work in the first 24 hours of a two-day stoppage. Union officials also warned that strike action could go on over Christmas.

11.12.03
FE union threatens strike ballot
University and college courses across Britain could be disrupted early next year after an influential teaching union agreed to ballot members over industrial action. Following a meeting of the Association of University Teachers' ruling executive on December 5, the union's leadership said it would ask members to consider strikes, boycotts of assessment and job evaluation exercises and a temporary end to call-out and absentee cover, as they step up a pay campaign.

12.12.03
Sellafield workers call off strike
Workers at Sellafield are to vote in a fresh ballot on whether to accept a new pay deal. Union shop stewards at the British Nuclear Fuels site in Cumbria have agreed to recommend an improved offer for acceptance and confirmed that a strike planned for tomorrow had been called off. Workers have staged a number of strikes in recent weeks after complaining that the company had reneged on an offer to close a £2,000-a-year gap between the pay of manual and white collar workers.

12.12.03
Threat of strike action at paint factory
WORKERS at a Suffolk paint factory were today threatening strike action over compulsory redundancies at the firm. Last ditch talks were being held between unions and ICI, in Needham Road, Stowmarket, today in a bid to avert industrial action. But a ballot of the 95 members of staff has revealed an overwhelming 93 per cent are prepared to vote with their feet. The news was announced at a meeting yesterday and follows staff being told there would be six enforced redundancies at the Stowmarket operation. A further 20 employees, drawn from the Stowmarket and Slough sites, have already taken voluntary redundancy, while 66 others have been redeployed or left the company.

09.12.03
 http://www.thisisessex.co.uk/essex/business/BUSINESS1.html
Hatfield Peverel: Dairy is facing strike threat
Workers at a Hatfield Peverel dairy which provides milk for local supermarkets look set to strike. Employees at Arla Foods in Bury Lane have voted in favour of industrial action after rejecting a pay offer which is believed to include a three per cent pay rise.

09.12.03
Miners in strike threat over hours
The country's biggest coal producer is facing the threat of industrial action after announcing plans to introduce flexible working at one of its pits. The National Union of Mineworkers said UK Coal was attempting to take the industry back to the "dark ages" by preparing for seven days a week production at Kellingley colliery in Yorkshire. The company revealed that 70 jobs are to be axed at Ellington colliery near Morpeth in Northumberland because of losses, and also announced that the Selby complex in Yorkshire will close next June, three months later than planned.

11.12.03
Sainsbury's staff in festive strike threat
WORKERS at Sainsbury's distribution centre in Haydock are threatening to strike during the run-up to Christmas. Warehouse staff at the depot have rejected a three per cent pay offer and
are demanding an increased flat rate of £8 per hour. The 800-strong membership of the shop workers' union, Usdaw, was forced to vote in a lorry parked outside the factory gates last week. This happened after bosses asked officials not to discuss the pay deal on site until managers had explained it to the workforce.

09.12.03
Miners in strike threat over hours
The country's biggest coal producer is facing the threat of industrial action after announcing plans to introduce flexible working at one of its pits. The National Union of Mineworkers said UK Coal was attempting to take the industry back to the "dark ages" by preparing for seven days a week production at Kellingley colliery in Yorkshire. The company revealed that 70 jobs are to be axed at Ellington colliery near Morpeth in Northumberland because of losses, and also announced that the Selby complex in Yorkshire will close next June, three months later than planned.

11.12.03
NURSERY STRIKE HITS HUNDREDS
HUNDREDS of children face disruption today as nursery nurses stage further strike action. Seven nursery schools in Renfrewshire will be hit by this latest industrial action, which nursery nurses are staging to highlight their bid for improved pay and conditions, as well as a nationally recognised career structure.

09.12.03
Vulnerable Fifers at risk if pension staff go on strike
FIFE'S POOREST, including pensioners and those on benefits, could be among those worst hit if disgruntled work and pensions staff vote for strike action in the new year. The Public and Commercial Services Union announced yesterday that it would be balloting more than 86,000 members nationally on industrial action following a "discriminatory and derisory" pay offer. The Fife branch has warned the region would be greatly affected if the 700 local members walk out next month. Services hit would include payment of social security benefits; the work done by JobCentre staff; advice provided to pensioners on claiming benefits, and Child Support Agency work.

09.12.03
'No Strike Threat to London Post' says Union
The deputy General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Dave Ward, said today that there would be no disruption to London's postal service over the Christmas period. "The capital's postmen and postwomen know that the public rely on us throughout the year, but especially at Christmas," Dave said. "We're not going to let them down."

10.12.03
Ulster civil servants in strike
Services to be hit by pay walk-out
A RANGE of public services are expected to be disrupted tomorrow in Northern Ireland's first province-wide Civil Service pay strike for 16 years. The one-day stoppage is the first in a planned series of protests by members of the union NIPSA. Services expected to be hit by the walk-out include social security offices, motor tax and vehicle licensing offices and driving test centres.