London
Refuse workers take to the streets
Bin men and women blockaded roads around Waltham Forest Town Hall earlier this week to protest at proposed pay cuts of up to £8,000 each.
The local Guardian reported that refuse workers fear they will not be able to pay their mortgages or look after their children if the cuts go ahead, and are threatening to strike.
Wess, Woolf, 1861-1946
A short biography of Jewish anarchist Woolf, aka William, Wess, active in the Socialist League in East London.
“He was the most modest of men” - Rudolf Rocker
Woolf Wess was born to a Jewish family in Vilkomar (or Ukmerge) near Kovno in Lithuania in 1861.
He was the son of a Hasidic master baker and at age of 12 was apprenticed to a shoemaker.
Reds On The Green - A Short Tour of Clerkenwell Radicalism
This text is a short sketch of the radical history of the Clerkenwell area, its characters and events.
There has been little easily available to read concentrating specifically on the long and rich history of the politics and struggles of the area. The following account charts the changing fortunes and developments of the communities, classes and individuals involved. It also offers some passing comments on the Clerkenwell of today.
London: Improvements for the homeless
A new campaign to improve the lot of homeless people in London has been gathering steam after it was launched by the London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP), finds Freedom newspaper.
LCAP, which was set up in August as a means of providing support to people who are not getting their legal rights through taking on ‘direct action casework’, identified homelessness as a growing problem in the capitol as resources are stripped away from shelter provision. Mat, a volunteer for LCAP, spoke to Freedom in a personal capacity about the group and campaign.
Tube cleaners claim massive pay victory
Tube cleaners working for contractors to Metronet are to receive substantial pay rises when Transport for London takes over the failed privateer’s contracts, marking a huge victory for a two-year campaign by London Underground’s biggest union.
RMT today revealed that Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has agreed that the London Living Wage of £7.20 an hour will become the minimum for some 900 cleaners on former Metronet contracts from the moment TfL take charge of them.
For some cleaners paid only the minimum legal wage of £5.85 it will mean an increase of at least £1.35 an hour - well over 20%.
London civil servants on strike
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union are going on strike today (November 1st) in Sheffield against the compulsory transfer of ten staff who worked for the former Department for Education and Skills (DfES) at Caxton House into the private sector.
Up to 1,800 members working for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), will be taking part in the action.
Members will be picketing outside Caxton House on Tothill St, London today from 12pm-2pm with members in Sheffield, Darlington and Runcorn also taking part in the strike.
Tube workers prepared to fight staff cuts
Passenger safety will be put at risk at Hampstead and Belsize Park Tube stations if London Underground proposals to cut staffing levels go ahead.
Trade unions have called a public meeting yesterday (Thursday) to fight the plans, which will see travellers unable to seek staff assistance at crucial times of the morning and night.
UK: Union claims victory as Metronet strike ends
The RMT has claimed victory over jobs and pensions defence following a solid strike of Metronet engineers.
Strike action by more than 2,300 Metronet maintenance workers was suspended late last night after more than eight hours of talks between RMT, the failed company, its administrator and TfL yielded progress on the issues involved in the dispute.
UK: Tube maintenance workers begin six days of strikes
The first of two 72 hour strikes by more than 2,300 workers at failed private maintenance firm Metronet is to go ahead from 6pm tonight.
The strikes were called after the company and its administrator failed to give the unequivocal guarantees on jobs, transfers and pensions that the union is seeking.
"The letter we have received from Metronet and the administrator falls way short of the guarantees our members need and deserve," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today
Metronet works vote 95% in favour of strike action
Workers at the Tube maintenance consortium Metronet voted 95% in favour of strike action this week, as station staff on the Bakerloo line begin a second 24 hour strike over health and safety.
Metronet collapsed into administration recently, four years into a controversial PPP costing £17 billion. Jobs are going to be transferred to Bombardier, one of the stakeholders in the Metronet consortium.
