Scotland
Scotland: DHL drivers may strike
Several hundred drivers for DHL are to be balloted for strike action in Scotland by the GMB union.
DHL is planning major restructuring which could lead to 3,000 permanent staff being replaced with around 2,500 casual workers. Around 700 of the jobs under threat are expected to go in Scotland. The strike would include delivery centres in Paisley, Kilmarnock, Bellshill and Mossend.
Ryder Cup clothing workers to strike
Workers making clothes for the European Ryder Cup golf team, will begin a work-to-rule and overtime ban on Friday.
The action at Mackinnon of Scotland, a subsidiary of Edinburgh Wool Mill, will begin on the same day as the tournament begins, with a series of strikes to follow if the dispute is not resolved.
Workers voted 85% in favour of the action, after Edinburgh Wool Mill refused to make a pay offer, according to the Community trade union.
1916-1932: The fight for freedom of speech on Glasgow Green
The history of the successful struggle to restore freedom of speech and assembly in one of Britain's oldest parks after it was banned in 1922.
Glasgow Green lies in the centre of the City, it is the oldest of Glasgow’s parks. Its origin lies in the Common Lands of the Burgh. Since the 1100s the area of the Green has been used for all manner of purposes from peat cutting, pasturing, slaughtering cattle, executions, walking, talking and playing.
1915-1920: Red Clydeside and the shop stewards' movement
An account of the powerful workers' movement in Scotland and the strike of 100,000 for a 40-hour week in 1919 which was savagely attacked by the government on what became known as Bloody Friday.
Although unemployment decreased slightly in the few years immediately preceding the beginning of hostilities, inflation rose dramatically, increasing the prices of foodstuffs, rents and fuel, but decreasing workers’ wages by 15%. While conditions at work were fairly miserable, workers had to return to bad housing where overcrowding was not uncommon and disease rampant.
1937: The Clydeside apprentices’ strike
The strong Scottish strike of apprentices which help turn them from isolated individuals with no employment rights into organised, unionised workers.
Apprentices for some time had felt that they were drastically under paid and no more than a form of cheap labour. Apprentices’ wages ranged from 8/- to 19/- a week. In his first year he would be paid from 8/- to 12/- per week, a last year boy would receive 16/- to 19/-. Apprentices of 23 years of age would be paid 20/- per week.
1919: The 40-hours strike
The 40 Hours strike led by the Clyde Workers' Committee was the most radical strike seen on Clydeside in terms of both its tactics and its demands.
The objectives of the strike were overtly political; they were to secure a reduction of weekly working hours to 40 in order that discharged soldiers could find employment, and to stop the re-emergence of an unemployed reserve, thereby maintaining the strength of labour against capital.
1915: The Glasgow rent strike
The history of a months-long rent strike of 30,000 Glasgow residents against profiteering landlords, forcing the government to freeze rents for the duration of World War I.
During the First World War, rent increases across Glasgow provoked massive working class opposition, mainly from women organised in tenants’ groups. Their struggle against profiteering landlords during extremely difficult circumstances is a valuable example of how collective action really gets results.
Scottish teachers threaten strike action
Teachers have threatened to go on strike unless the Scottish Executive does more to cut class sizes, it emerged last night.
Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country's largest teaching union, will debate calls for a ballot on industrial action at their annual conference in Dundee next week.
Thousands protest against hospital closure
Around 5000 people marched in Ayr yesterday to protest against the closure of a casualty unit.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran want to close the A&E unit at Ayr Hospital and transfer it to Crosshouse Hospital - 18 miles away on the outskirts of Kilmarnock.
However protesters brought Ayr High Street to a standstill during the protest, and a petition against the changes has had 55,000 signatures.
Second strike for Dundee posties
More than 100 staff from the Royal Mail's Dundee East depot are set to strike.
This will be the second walkout over the measures, although the Dundee depot is the only one in Scotland to be striking over the introduction of a new policy to replace full-time positions with part-time workers. It comes as part of a widespread move to replace 40 hour sorting and delivery posts with 30 hour part-time delivery-only posts when they become vacant.
