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“Unite are trying to deny us our democratic right to peacefully protest.” – Gordon McNeill

The dispute between the sacked airport shop stewards and their union, Unite, was dramatically escalated on Tuesday afternoon.

His health is deteriorating rapidly and visibly. A healthy person might expect to live a week or so without food and water. Gordon suffers from a heart condition and has not recovered from the previous five day hunger and thirst strike at the start of April. He has already reached a critical stage.

Gordon has made it clear that he will refuse medical treatment if he is hospitalised.

Norway's main international gateway airport at Oslo Gardermoen remained largely shielded from the labour walkout, but at least another 5,000 passengers trying to leave Oslo on flights to other Norwegian cities were stranded on Monday.

The five day hunger strike by three sacked airport shop stewards, Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer was suspended at 5.30 this afternoon after the workers received a letter from the union solicitors guaranteeing that their demands would be met.

Just hours after addressing a solidarity rally outside Transport House in Belfast hunger striker Gordon McNeill was rushed to City Hospital for treatment. An ambulance was called to the scene at Transport House due to a deterioration in his condition. Gordon is on his fourth day without food and his second day without water. Also on hunger strike are Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer.

The pension reform raises the retirement age for women to 65 and workers in hazardous industries will have to work an extra two years. Many accuse the conservative government of going back on pre-election promises not to cut pension rights.

No serious injuries were reported in the scuffles on Tuesday that took place as Alitalia negotiators met with unions to seek backing for the takeover. The deal, announced Sunday, requires the approval of parliament and all nine airline labor unions.

The government's reforms would mean the merging of pension funds and increasing the pension age for some workers. The government, however, has not made public any details on the size of savings that will accrue from the reforms. The trade unions have also argued that the current pension system could survive if bosses were made to pay their contributions.

Normally, passengers wishing to enter baggage in excess of a certain weight must make additional payments. Disgruntled workers bypassed this procedure by distributing the baggage among various passengers evenly, so that none of them had excess weight.

Air traffic controllers in Ireland have voted for 24-hour strikes this Thursday after several weeks of unofficial overtime ban. The strike, organised by the Balpa union, is likely to ground flights at all three airports.

Michelin - Workers at the factory in Toul (Meurthe et Moselle) began strike action after plans were announced to close it down. As well as occupying and blockading the plant with pickets of burning tyres the 826 workers also confined two managers to their offices during the four-day strike.

The strikes have virtually paralysed the country as workers nation-wide seek to defend their pensions and protest against a government that has broken its promises.

The strikes led to 50% of flight from Orly airport being cancelled with many others suffering delays of up to five hours. Marseille, Nice, Lyon and Toulouse airports were forced to cancel flights to Orly knowing that they would not be able to land. The Airport at Roissy was largely unaffected.

Workers have maintained an unofficial overtime ban this week, resulting in dozens of cancelled flights at Shannon airport this week which has now developed into a strike vote by the trade union IMPACT. It is unclear whether the vote will result in the overtime ban becoming official, or whether the union will call strike days - any official action will require two weeks notice.

The strike follows an unofficial overtime ban at Dublin airport last month. Ryanair claimed that flights from Dublin would also be affected by the strike.

Air traffic controllers said that no new employees have been hired since the 9-11 attacks over six years ago. Around a hundred workers work on a 24-hour roster.

Xinhuanet reported that travellers tossed computers in the air, shoved security guards and attacked ticketing counters at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza international airport Saturday after Aerolineas Argentinas suspended most of its flight there.

The strikes would have taken place for 24 hours on the 7th and 14th, then 48 hours on the 17th January, and were to involve clerical, security, firefighters and maintenance staff.

Launched by Greece's two largest unions, the strike has affected all public services, hospitals, banks, courts and airports. All flights out of Athens airport have been grounded after air traffic controllers, pilots and flight crews walked out, and ferry and metro systems across the country have been hit.