Strikespotting UK 11.01.04 – 25.01.04

24/01/04
Aircraft workers on strike
MORE than 100 workers at the Beagle aircraft firm in Christchurch staged a one-day strike yesterday in support of a pay claim.
A spokesman for the strikers said the union was demanding a 6.5 per cent increase for workers who had not received an expected pay award in August.
But the firm, part of the aerospace division of the multi-national Smiths Group, has offered only two per cent, half of it backdated to August when negotiations were begun.
Yesterday's action passed off peacefully with only office staff and non-union shopfloor workers crossing the picket line.
Some delivery lorries were also turned away from the Stony Lane factory.
 http://www.thisisbournemouth.co.uk/dorset/christchurch/news/CHRISTCHURCH_NEWS_NEWS0.html

17/01/04
Tram drivers in Manchester on strike
More drivers' walkouts could take place in the coming weeks Tram services in Manchester were disrupted on Saturday after drivers went on 24-hour strike. Metrolink drivers walked out just after midnight on Friday in a dispute over union recognition.

19/01/04
Hours dispute halts trains
Pickets were on duty at some Metro stations
Travellers faced massive disruption after the Tyne and Wear Metro was shut
down by strike action. Trains stopped on Sunday night as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) and Amicus unions walked out. The dispute involves a long-running row over the length of the working week.

Threatened

12/01/04
Land Rover Amicus Members in 24 Hour Stoppage
Car workers represented by the Amicus trade union at Land Rover will be staging a 24 hour strike on the 26th January as part of their action to reject the Company's pay offer.
15/01/04
Land Rover warns of strike consequences
Land Rover has warned that investment in its Solihull plant could be called
into question if unions press ahead with a campaign of industrial action. A spokeswoman hinted the plant,which makes all four Land Rover models, could be dealt a serious blow if workers carry out their threat of strike action next Monday, 26 January.

14/01/04
Public services in Ulster to be hit by strike
Civil servants' pay dispute escalates
A STRING of Ulster public services will be hit by extended strike action withiin the next few weeks, it was announced today. Public sector union Nipsa today said the forthcoming action will impact on the work of industrial tribunals and fair employment tribunals, driver and vehicle testing centres, social security offices, driver and vehicle licensing, water service and meat inspectors. Staff are expected to strike for several days and serious disruption is being predicted. The union's 20,000 members across the civil service are being asked to leave work for protest rallies on January 23 and 30, followed by a full one-day strike on February 6.
20/01/04
Civil servants in England to strike over pay
Tens of thousands of civil servants will stage a two-day strike next week after voting for industrial action over pay, unions have confirmed. Workers, including staff at job centres and benefit offices, will walk out on 29 and 30 January. The strike will be the civil service's biggest for a decade and will be followed by other forms of action. Workers in the Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office, Prison Service, Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Treasury Solicitors voted in separate ballots to take industrial action, with majorities ranging from 54% to 63%. About 86,000 members at the Department for Work and Pensions, 4,500 Prisons Service staff and 150 at the Treasury Solicitors were balloted. Some 8,500 Home Office employees and 7,000 staff at the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) were also asked.
BBC
18/01/04
UK's pension department faces strike action
The 288,000-strong Public and Commercial Services Union has called for its members in several government departments to strike over what it termed a "derisory" pay offer - although the department has contested the union's figures.
23/01/04
Jobcentre pay strike may mean shutdown
JOBCENTRE staff will down tools for two days this week in a row over pay.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) voted strongly in favour of industrial action as a result of a 2.6 per cent pay offer from the Government.

19/01/04
BT staff in strike threat
BT workers are pressing their union to hold a ballot for industrial action amid a dispute over the London weighting allowance, it has emerged.
Communication Workers Union members are calling for an increase in the allowance from £2,600 to £4,000.

19/01/04
Bradford IT staff vote in favour of strike action
Unions have warned they will bring Bradford council "to its knees" after IT
staff voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action over the terms of a proposed £100m outsourcing deal.

12/01/04
Lecturers ballot on national strike over pay
University lecturers begin a month-long ballot for a national strike today, claiming that most of the public back their demand for higher salaries.
The Association of University Teachers is asking its 47,000 academics and support staff to vote for industrial action against a pay and conditions offer that it says would cost them thousands of pounds over the next decade. Wages in the sector have fallen by 40% compared with the rest of the workforce, according to the AUT, a further sign of the financial turmoil in higher education.

15/01/04
STRIKE THREAT ON Swansea CAMPUS PAY ROW
Academics and senior support staff at Swansea University and across Wales are being balloted for strike action over a proposed pay and modernisation package. The industrial action, which would start next month or March, would involve lecturers, researchers and senior support staff who belong to the Association of University Teachers, if a majority vote is secured. The AUT argues employers are proposing maassive reductions in long-term earnings for many staff.

15/01/04
Luton lecturers threaten strike after 64 redundancies
Lecturers at one of Britain's newest universities may be about to go on strike, amid a row over the manner in which 64 staff have been made redundant as part of a financial rescue plan for the University of Luton.

13/01/04
Staff vote to walk out over Aslef 'bullying'
Staff employed by the train drivers' union have voted overwhelmingly to walk out, claiming they have been bullied by their new leader. Employees of the rail union Aslef - who are members of the GMB general union
- have decided by 20 votes to five to take industrial action, alleging that the general secretary, Shaun Brady, has harassed them and tried to switch staff between departments in defiance of agreements.

15/01/04
CHAOS AHEAD AS NURSERY NURSES PREPARE TO STRIKE
THOUSANDS of families in the Paisley area are set for disruption as nursery nurses prepare to stage all-out strike action. Nursery schools throughout Renfrewshire have already been hit by a series of selective walkouts in recent months as staff fight for a better pay deal. Now, with no sign of the long-running dispute being solved, nursery nurses are preparing to stage an indefinite strike.

15/01/04
Driving examiners in strike vote
Driving examiners conduct 6,000 tests a day. Driving examiners are to be balloted on strike action that could see thousands of driving tests cancelled. They say their employer, the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), has refused to settle a six-month-old pay dispute.

18/01/04
Cabbies in strike threat over tests
A BURNLEY taxi drivers' leader has warned the borough could face "substantial and sustained" action by drivers after the council refused to relax testing rules. Councillors refused a request from the association, which represents local taxi operators, to reduce the number of MOTs required for private hire taxis.

21/01/04
Musicians hope to avert strike
The Musicians' Union and theatre boss Sir Cameron Mackintosh are in talks to avoid strike action in the West End in a row over "virtual musicians". Union members are unhappy with plans to replace part of the orchestra when
Les Miserables moves to a
smaller venue.

21/01/04
London Underground Workers to Consider Strike About Firings
London Underground Ltd. commuters face disruption to their journeys if union workers vote in favor of a strike to protest the firing of five maintenance workers. The workers were fired after empty beer cans were found in a work cabin. The union is objecting because drug and alcohol tests carried out on the men were negative, it said in an e-mailed statement.

22/01/04
Telegraph workers may strike amid Hollinger strife
Reporters at the Telegraph newspaper will decide whether to go on strike
next week, with their union furious about years of cost-cutting while owner
Conrad Black was receiving allegedly unauthorised payments.

22/01/04
Postal workers set to strike
Postal workers in Oxford are set to strike again in a clash with bosses over holidays. Members of the Communication Workers' Union claim managers have ignored a return to work agreement negotiated at the end of the last strike in November which gave staff the right to vote on how leave would
be delegated.

23/01/04
School workers in Croydon plan strike over cash crisis
THOUSANDS of school employees are contemplating industrial action in a bid to ease the education funding crisis. A half-day strike in the spring which could close dozens of the borough's schools is being lined up in an effort to prise more money out of the Government or Croydon Council.

Suspended

17/01/04
Brewery's first strike postponed
Workers at a famous brewery have postponed a strike which would have been the first in its 182-year history. Production staff at the Tetley's brewery in Leeds were set to start a week-long walkout on Monday over pay and proposed changes to conditions. But at a mass meeting on Friday, the 140 employees decided to vote again on strike action after management revised their proposals. The result of the fresh ballot will be known on Friday, the GMB union said. GMB regional organiser Bill Chard said the basic 3% pay offer remained on the table. But he said the dispute centred on other "underlying issues" which had caused resentment to build up among the workforce. Bosses at Carlsberg-Tetley want to give production staff extra training so thhey can become "technicians". "Workers who fail to win the new technician status face a £4,000 pay cut, even if they do not need the skills to do their normal jobs," said Mr Chard.
20/01/04
Carlsberg-Tetley strike suspended
The proposed strike action at the Carlsberg-Tetley (C-T) brewery has been
called off after a new deal was
put on the table. There was concern among union representatives about a new training system, which dictated that any employee who didn't pass the new training qualifications after six to seven attempts would face a pay decrease. C-T has now agreed to ring fence these payments until June 2005.

21/01/04
Strike averted at psychiatric unit
Plans for a strike by nursing staff at a psychiatric hospital in Cumbria
have been suspended. Earlier this month 150 members of Unison voted for a one-day walkout at the Carleton Clinic in Carlisle
over safety fears. Nurses voted three to one in favour of a one-day stoppage. But after "marvellous progress" during talks with officials from North Cumbria Mental Health NHS Trust, a strike was called off.

22/01/04
Bus drivers postpone strike action
BUS company First's Lothian drivers have agreed to postpone strike action in a dispute over working conditions and shift times.