Liverpool

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.

The strike movement of Liverpool occurred during the great period of industrial unrest that was to grip Britain between 1910 and the outbreak of the First World War. Beginning with a walk-out of seamen, the strike soon snowballed and went on to reach epic proportions, involving up to 70,000 people.

If they go ahead with the walk-out it will shut down the airport. More than 80% of staff, including firefighters, engineers, airside safety and air traffic control staff, have backed a ballot calling for industrial action.

The dispute is over pay offer which staff describe as being at half the rate of inflation, and involves admin, conservation and other staff.

Staff at the National Gallery in London also staged strike action over pay in 2006.

Rolls Royce announced a review of the site in August and an internal memo confirmed that they have suggested switching production from Netherton to a US plant in Mount Vernon, Ohio. They claim fluctuating work volumes, high costs and the US dollar’s poor exchange rate have put the Sefton site in jeopardy.

Liverpool:
Managers drove mail into the building, which resulted in a wildcat at the Liverpool Mail Centre when workers refused to unload the lorry. The wildcat was supported by Polish agency workers who refused to cross the picket line, and instead went to the pub.

Newcastle:

AFA was originally set up in 1985 as a broad front anti-fascist organisation. The main fascist organisation at this time, following the demise of the National Front after Thatcher took power in 1979, was the British National Party (BNP), a more extreme split from the NF.

Update: the strike is now on

The Liverpool Echo, which investigated official records at both local and national level to obtain an overall view of how the socially deprived area has fared, said: “Toxteth is still being crushed under the weight of socio-economic inequality. When it comes to unemployment, deprivation, health and education the area is always towards the bottom of the pile.

MERSEY DOCKS DISPUTE (UK)

For two years in the middle of the 1990s, 500 dockworkers were locked out by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company of Liverpool.

In the course of those long months, their inspiring fight against the casualisation of working conditions has raised a wide range of questions about the changing balance of forces between workers and capital, the nature of unionism, and the practical meaning of internationalism.

Dave Graham was active in Liverpool supporting the dockers throughout their dispute. More than this, he has provided a blow-by-blow assessment of both the conflict itself, and its broader significance.