Liverpool Workers' Movements Feature Archive

“Until the lions have their own story-tellers, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.” - Nigerian proverb Read more >>

The Community Action Party, Respect and the Socialist Party were all represented at today's Protest at Vestas' UK HQ in Warrington which coincided with the company's quarterly profits announcement.

€43million profit for the 2nd Quarter, €90 for the half year made on the back of 1567 job cuts. Read more >>

£300 was raised on Merseyside this May Day weekend, in solidarity with sacked Visteon car parts makers who have now been blockading three UK sites for more than a month. Read more >>

John Moores Vice Chancellor Michael Brown fled a group of 150 angry students and their supporters in his BMW (complete with JMU 1 numberplate) this afternoon. In doing so, he postponed a showdown over his plans to cut thirty-four courses from September. Read more >>

Merseyside Job Centre queues grew by the largest amount in eighteen years last month, bringing back memories of traumatic times before the 'regeneration' gold rush and the credit boom. Read more >>

1972 was a year of successful industrial action in Britain. The miners had won over pay, the Tory Government had been forced to release five imprisoned dockers. 1972 also saw Britain's first National Building Workers' strike. The strike committees of North Wales building workers would go on to be the victims of one of the worst miscarriages of justice since the days of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. They would be vilified and hounded by parts of the press, convicted by a court as a deterrent to strikers, and abandoned by their own union leaders and the TUC. Six of them would go to prison and one of these would die later as a result of the treatment he received while there. See  http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve10/shrewsbury_pickets.php

37 years later, an Early Day Motion (EDM) has been tabled demanding a public inquiry into the gross miscarriages of justice and disclosure of all Government and security papers relating to the case. Read more >>

When Wirral Council finally voted to go ahead with the Cabinet's proposed slashing of local services on 9th February, it caused anguish to the hundreds of people who have been campaigning for the last few months. Council employees are now set to lose their jobs at the worst possible time, as a global recession bites. Service users have lost access to libraries, leisure centres, and cultural venues. This terrible attack on ordinary people has shown the limitations of protests, letter-writing campaigns, and pinning hopes on politicians. The need for a new strategy has been highlighted. Read more >>

As hundreds of thousands in London, Edinburgh and around the world demonstrated against Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza, a much smaller protest took place in Wallasey, Merseyside. While it would be inappropriate to draw many parallels between the two, it can be said the struggle for life and freedom in Palestine and for decent public services in this country have one thing in common: they represent squares in the global chess match between the profit system and the rest of humanity. Read more >>

As Liverpool hands the Capital of Culture baton over to Vilnius and Linz, the city’s economy is in for an extremely tough year. Top council leaders claim Liverpool is in particularly good shape to ride out the global economic collapse, but statistics and analysis show they could not be further from the truth. Read more >>

A crowd of two hundred or more Wirral residents gathered at Wallasey Town Hall last night, to show their anger at the council's planned cuts to vital services. Read more >>

The latest edition of Nerve - Liverpool's social issues and culture magazine - is out now. This time the focus is on definitions and experiences of work. Read more >>

This week, people on Merseyside and around the world celebrated International Workers' Day - or May Day - an event that has been held every year since 1890. It was originally established as a strike day, commemorating the 'Haymarket martyrs', who were framed and then killed by the state of Illinois for their part in the struggle for the eight hour working day. Read more >>

Nerve magazine introduces Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year with a Merseyside Resistance Calendar 2008.

The calendar records and celebrates the region’s rich tradition of radicalism and dissent. History is for the most part written by and for the rich and powerful and ‘official’ histories of Liverpool are no exception. But an essential part of our history are those people and groups who put themselves on the line for their communities and what they believed in and who ‘had a go’ without waiting for society’s approval.

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This summer and autumn, Merseyside postal workers have been on the front line of action against Royal Mail's proposed new contracts, which threaten jobs, pensions and working conditions, whilst opening the door to a sell-off of the postal service. Now they've seen the mixed results of the ballot on the Communication Workers Union's sell-out agreement, and are pondering their next move. Read more >>

Following failed talks with Royal Mail management, postal workers on Merseyside and across the country are taking industrial action against Royal Mail's cost-cutting plans, which are based on the European Union Postal Services Directive. A campaign of walkouts has been planned by the Communication Workers Union leadership, spread over various sites at different times. Liverpool hosted a regional march and rally in support of the posties on Saturday, 21st July.

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Unless you make money off other people's hard work, 1st May each year is YOUR day! Yes, it is a day to celebrate YOU, and all YOUR struggles against the profit system! It also helps us remember our predecessors, many of whom died so that we could live better lives. Read more >>

Though there has been more than one outbreak of industrial action on Merseyside over the summer months, the firefighters' dispute looks like being the most significant.

Merseyside firefighters have ended their strike against £3.5 million worth of cuts to essential services. The region was without much of its fire cover, since the Territorial Army were in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, supporting Blair's oil wars. However, this was not the firefighters' fault, and they were only striking to prevent cuts that would leave Liverpool city centre with less fire engines than we currently have, and at least one hundred less firefighters. If the government pulled out of any Middle Eastern country, they could invest the money in more fire engines, and lots of other positive things!

Liverpool Indymedia reports: Mersey Firefighters to Fight Service Cuts | Ex-Firefighters To Stand With Bosses On Cuts Agenda? | Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Mersey Fire Authority | Firefighters to Strike Over Cuts | Area Commander Dan Stephens Betrays Merseysiders | Fire Scab Scandal | Eight Day Strike For Liverpool Lives | Day 1 of Mersey Fire Strike: Great Show of Solidarity | Day 2 of Mersey Fire Strike: Authority Calls On "Fantasy firefighters" | Day 3 of Mersey Fire Strike: FBU's Skarratts Blinks First | Day 4 of Mersey Fire Strike: More 'Negotiating' Amid Allegations | Day 5 of Mersey Fire Strike: Talks Break Down | Day 6 of Mersey Fire Strike: "We are not getting anywhere." | Day 7 of Mersey Fire Strike: More Delaying Tactics By Authority | Day 8 of Mersey Fire Strike: Scale of Cuts Confirmed | Day 9 of Mersey Fire Strike: FBU publish alternative cuts plan | Day 10 of Mersey Fire Strike: Yet More Strike Dates Promised | Day 11 of Mersey Fire Strike: Desperate Authority Makes False Accusations | Day 12 of Mersey Fire Strike: Massive March and Rally in Liverpool | Day 13 of Mersey Fire Strike: Negotiations Continue Following Rally | Day 16 of Mersey Fire Strike: Authority Claims "positive and constructive" Talks | Day 18 of Mersey Fire Strike: Compromise Seems Likely | Day 23 of Mersey Fire Strike: Authority Considers FBU Demands | Day 25 of Mersey Fire Strike: End in Sight Following 'Cordial' Talks? | Day 26 of Mersey Fire Strike: Back To Work As Union Agrees £3.5m 'Savings' | Details Of Merseyside Firefighters' Agreement

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With another climate chaos summer very much upon us, what better time to air your genuine grievances and take strike action or protest against the bosses?

Many workers on Merseyside are making the most of the weather and getting out into the streets. Their causes are varied, but in each case they are fighting back against attempts to get more work out of people for less money. This is a battle that is being fought in every single workplace, so every wage slave should be organising amongst their colleagues for better pay and conditions. Together we are stronger than the bosses. United, the workers will never be defeated! Divided, we fall!

Liverpool Indymedia reports: Wildcat Walkout in Ellesmere Port! | Shit Treatment for Bootle Civil Servants | Mersey Firefighters to Fight Service Cuts | Mersey Ambulance Strike More Likely | Ambulance Staff Strike Back | Angry hospital staff protest in Southport | 48 Hour Ambulance Strike This Weekend! | Ex-Firefighters To Stand With Bosses On Cuts Agenda? | Taxing Times for Inland Revenue Strikers | Solidarity with Prison Guards! Solidarity with Class War Prisoners! | Fifth Strike for Mersey Ambulance Workers | Bosses Adopt Bullying Tactics Against Striking Ambulance Workers | Three Day Strike For Merseyside Ambulance Workers | Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Mersey Fire Authority | Firefighters to Strike Over Cuts | Eight Day Strike For Liverpool Lives | The NHS? We'll Take It From Here! | Day 12 of Mersey Fire Strike: Massive March and Rally in Liverpool

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The long weekend beginning 29th April was a very active one for Merseyside activists. On the Saturday, a number of different groups gathered in Liverpool city centre and set out various stalls in an attempt to 'Make Our Streets Political'. Sunday evening saw Liverpool Social Forum host the first 'Free Screen' film night. And of course Monday the 1st was May Day itself, when hundreds made their way to Princes Park in Toxteth for a rally and family fun day.

May Day Report Mersey May Day 2006

Sunday 30th April 'Free Screen' hosted by Liverpool Social Forum

Click here for a round up of Mayday events UK wide.

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UPDATE - Sacked workers are still on the picket line outside Gate Gourmet after the Transport and General Workers Union struck a deal with the management on 27th September. According to the deal, 144 strikers were forcibly made redundant and 7 were to remain sacked with no compensation. At the same time 3 baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport who had taken part in a 1000-strong one-day sympathy strike are still suspended. According to the Gate Gourmet workers 'it is not over yet!'

Solidarity meetings this week:

• Nottingham 5th October
• London 6th October
• Liverpool 6th October

Sacked Gate Gourmet Workers Website including:
Latest news | Events | Donate to the Hardship Fund

On Indymedia: Liverpool Blue Arrow demo | Manchester Blue Arrow demo | The secret casualisation plan | GG no stranger to industrial dispute | Angry Gate Gourmet workers lobby TUC

Also:Schnews report | Corporate Watch: A view from inside the Gate Gourmet dispute

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