Scotland
Not a life story, just a leaf from it - Robert Lynn
A short account by a participant of the UK's largest working class anarchist movement (with the possible exception of the better known movement among London's East End Jews); in Glasgow during the first half of the 20th century.
Source; Workers City, ed. Farquhar McLay; Clydeside Press, Glasgow 1988.
The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behaviour: we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently... One day it will be realised that Socialism is not the invention of anything new but the discovery of something that was always present, of something that has grown.
Gustav Landauer
Energy wildcats continue to spread across the UK
The wave of wildcat strike action that has swept across the UK escalated today as hundreds more workers walked out in the protest at the exclusion of British workers from jobs.
Contract workers from the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, the Heysham nuclear power station in Lancashire and a site at Staythorpe, in Nottinghamshire, joined the unofficial action over the hiring of Italian and Portuguese workers, which local unemployed British workers were unable to apply for on a Lincolnshire power station project.
Long lost wildcat strikes in the UK, 1960s - 1990s
Interesting article with snippets of analysis and often personal anecdotes about a number of unofficial strikes in the UK since the 1960s.
An introduction…
Scottish Water workers vote on industrial action
Scottish Water workers are being balloted on industrial action after the employer imposed a below inflation pay rise which had not been agreed.
The imposition of a 3% rise over 15 months – worth 2.4% over a year – ended six years of partnership working between the company and staff.
"This pay cut is simply not acceptable when inflation is rising – recently reaching 5.2% - energy prices are rising by anything up to 30% and food by 11%," said branch secretary Steve Scott.
Scottish council workers vote on new pay offer
150,000 local government workers in Scotland are being balloted to see if they accept an improved pay offer of 3% following two one-day strikes.
Members of UNISON, Unite and the GMB are being consulted on the new offer which was made after their previous "final" offer of 2.5% following the well observed industrial action.
UNISON, the largest union is recommending members reject the offer.
Civil servants back industrial action over pay
A prolonged programme of industrial action, hitting civil and public services across the UK moved a step closer today, as PCS members backed strike action in a dispute over the government's 2% public sector pay cap.
80% of those balloted supported action short of strike, and 54% of those taking part in the ballot backed union plans for industrial action, which includes national civil service wide strikes, targeted strike action and overtime bans.
Scottish councils back on strike alone
Local authority staff in Scotland are set to return to picket lines for another day after the employers refused to up their pay offer.
The strike will take place across Scotland on Wednesday 24 September. The move follows the earlier action on 20 August, which came after 150,000 members rejected an offer of 2.5%.
Two-thirds of Glasgow Housing Association will remain in a "rump GHA"
It now appears some two-thirds of Glasgow tenants - in 46,272 of its current 69,395 houses - will remain in a "rump GHA".
The details are:
* 3% (=2,097) of Glasgow Housing Association houses are up for ballot (November 2008) on second stage transfer to a community based housing association.
* 30% (=20,985) of GHA houses are in Local Housing Organisations that are still progressing (at a snails pace) through the various stages of the GHA's processes towards potential second stage transfer someday.
Scottish council workers plan further strike action
Scotland faces more council strikes after local government employers refused to increase a 2.5% pay offer.
Union members had hoped local council body Cosla would offer a new one year deal taking inflation into account. However, Cosla said increasing the pay offer in the current economic climate would result in service and job cuts. Meanwhile, hundreds of other civil and public servants voted for strike action which could cause serious disruption to the justice system.
Council workers and civil servants strike in Scotland
Tens of thousands of striking council workers disrupted public services across Scotland today while Scottish civil servants also struck for their own pay dispute.
Schools were closed, rubbish went uncollected, ferry services were disrupted, and services like libraries were closed. Union leaders said an estimated 150,000 workers took part in the one-day strike over pay. The pay row is over an offer of 2.5% for each of the next three years, an offer made "derisory" by the rising cost of living.
