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Council workers to ballot for strike action

UNISON members working in local government in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been given the green light for a ballot on industrial action after rejecting the pay offer from employers.

The offer is for a 2.45% increase, with an additional £100 flat rate increase on the very lowest three scale points.

Science museum in strike ballot

National Science Museum staff are being balloted on strike action after voting overwhelmingly to reject below inflation pay offers for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

The ballot for industrial action will open on Friday May 16 and close on June 2nd

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) working for the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI) are furious that a below inflation pay offer has been imposed on them at a successful time for the museum.

Ofsted workers latest to strike over pay

St John Bosco Primary School inspection

Ofsted inspections across England are halted today as 1000 staff walk out in a dispute over pay.

Inspections of nurseries, children's care homes, childminding services and boarding schools will all be hit. Ofsted has imposed a below inflation pay deal along with a new pay structure, which members of UNISON and the PCS have rejected.

This is the latest public sector stoppage over sub-inflationary pay rises - real pay cuts

South Africa: Gangster landlord continues campaign of intimidation with police support

The poor of Motala Heights, affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo since 2006, are fighting a bitter battle against eviction against a local gangster business man and the local state. There have recently been death threats and threats of arson and the local cops are acting as the gangsters' enforcers.

[i]London anarchist, Antonios Vradis lived in the community for a while in late 2006 from and it was here that the anarchist magazine Voices of Resistance from Occupied London was conceived.

Nepal; a nice little earner for the Maoist ruling class - in Lenin's footsteps

Nepal's Maoist Party has won around 220 seats in the recent Constituent Assembly (CA) election, about one-third of the total. Though the largest party, they don't have an overall majority; they have stated their wish to lead a coalition government.

But as the result became clear Maoist leader Prachanda told journalists “I will be declared the acting President of this country very soon…which will be followed by occupying the post of the all powerful President of New Nepal…this is the peoples’ mandate…no force on earth can disobey this mandate”.

Bus workers wildcat in Liverpool

More than 100 bus drivers staged an unofficial strike at Arriva’s Speke depot yesterday (May 7th) hitting hundreds of services.

At 6am when the wildcat strike was called, the entire 120-strong bus fleet at the Shaw Road depot was grounded. Drivers returned to work at 10.30am and normal services were resumed on all routes by lunchtime.

Further education unions reject pay offer

Further education unions have rejected a below-inflation pay offer proposed by employers at talks today (May 6th).

Six unions representing 250,000 members working in colleges across England in jobs such as cleaning, catering and admin as well as professional roles are seeking a pay rise of 6% or £1,500 - whichever is the greater - to guarantee the lowest-paid workers a minimum wage of £7.38. However, employers have come back with an offer of 2.5%.

Event to mark second anniversary of repression against San Salvador Atenco, Mexico

Report on the memorial of the victims of government repression in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico.

Atenco, 3rd of May 2008

From 10:00 a.m. there took place in Atenco an action in memory of those fallen on the 3rd of May 2006 as a result of the repression of the community meted out by Governor Peña Nieto and then-President Vicente Fox. The event began with an offering to Alexis Benhumea and Francisco Javier Cortes, on the Lechería -Texcoco Highway, the main entrance to Atenco.

Jamaican electricity workers wildcat strike

Wildcat industrial action by employees of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) yesterday led to power cuts affecting some 58,000 customers in seven parishes around the country.

The JPS reported last night that customers in sections of Clarendon, Manchester, St Ann, St Catherine, St Elizabeth, St James and St Thomas had lost their supply up to last night because of the action.

Something smells different in Cuba

Mayday statement of Cuban anarchists about the post-Fidel situation and the prospects for anarchism and workers' control in Cuba.

With respect to the situation in Cuba these past few weeks, the Cuban Libertarian Movement – MLC (affinity group of Cuban anarchists in exile) speaks up to answer the unknowns and the challenges facing Cuban society. Ours is the voice of uncompromising commitment to freedom, equality and solidarity that has always been the sound of the Cuban anarchists.

Mayday march attacked by police in Istanbul

The Turkish state cracked down heavily on an attempt to celebrate May Day in Istanbul. Here is a minute by minute report.

Fearing workers insistence on celebrating Labor Day, police started its attacks early in the morning. At 6:30AM, the police attacked workers gathering in front of DISK (Progressive Labor Union’s Confederation). Police used tanks and pepper gas against the workers waiting peacefully in front of their unions.

African health worker gap catastrophic

Rob Ray looks at claims that a brain drain to West is crippling healthcare across the African continent, for Freedom Press

It has been revealed that the global shortfall in healthcare professionals has reached four million people – with one million needed in Africa alone. The figures were voiced at the Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, which opened in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on March 3rd.

Damaging uranium mines restart

Promotional shots of the mining operations at Kayelekera. (From www. Paladinenergy.com)

The new nuclear boom will hit Africa as advocacy groups warn poorly regulated mining of radioactive materials risks poisoning land and water, finds Rob Ray.

With 349 new nuclear reactors now either under construction, on order or in the early planning stages around the world, the uranium mining industry has been kicking into high gear with a glut of new extractions underway.

Coca Cola plant goes up in flames

Three persons died and several others were injured when the multi-million naira Coca Cola plant at Eyean, near Benin City, Edo State, on Tuesday went up in flames during an explosion that causes extensive damage to the facility.

The development had prompted the management of the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) to suspend operations at the plant.

The dead workers were said to have been taken to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) morgue while the injured were reportedly receiving treatment.

Dockworkers strike against war in America and Iraq

25,000 dock workers in 29 ports across the US went on strike today, to protest the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, in Iraq, dockers stopped work for an hour in a show of international solidarity.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union declared the day as "a day for union business" for workers at all 29 ports on the west coast. This may be the beginning of a record setting anti-war action, since the vast majority of supplies and munitions for the American government's current wars are shipped from the 29 ports on the West Coast. All 29 were closed today.

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