Monthly Archives: February 2016
HUNDREDS of British Airways workers are demonstrating outside the airline’s Heathrow HQ today against the outsourcing and offshoring of their jobs to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India. The GMB members are marching from BA’s Heathrow HQ at Waterside to a rally and public meeting at 12.30pm in the nearby...
MERVYN KING, the head of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013, has added his name to the number of the capitalist world’s heavyweight banking fraternity who are openly acknowledging that the entire capitalist system is on the verge of one gigantic crash. In his new book, ‘The End...
‘WELFARE not warfare’ chanted protesters from all over the UK on a 60,000-strong Stop Trident march from Marble Arch to a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. The national demonstration was organised by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was dominated by CND placards and banners with the occasional Unison banner...
THE number of people forced to live and sleep on the streets has more than doubled since 2010, the year the Tory-led coalition came to power, and has increased by a massive 30% in the past year alone. The government’s annual figures on ‘rough sleeping’ estimated that 3,569 people were...
JOB stability is the key issue in the negotiation stalemate between City of Toronto and inside workers, CUPE Local 79 President Tim Maguire says. Addressing the talks between the city and his members on Wednesday, he said that one of the concerns for city employees is protecting ‘good’, stable jobs....
‘STRIKE action is the only way forward. How can we drive our buses safely if there is no A&E at Ealing hospital?’ bus driver and Unite member Vikas Kumar said yesterday. He was speaking on the mass picket of over 50 local residents and supporters at Ealing Hospital yesterday morning...
TWO desperate refugees tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves in central Athens’ Victoria Square on Thursday. With the EU states bordering Greece razor wiring their borders to keep refugees out, hundreds of thousands of refugees are stranded in Greece, which is being turned into one big...
GREECE has recalled its ambassador to Austria amid sharp divisions among EU states over the migrant crisis. The move came after Austria hosted a meeting with Balkan states on the migrant issue, to which Greece was not invited. Greece called the move an ‘unfriendly act’. It said its ambassador was...
THE knives are out for one-time Tory Party hero Michael Gove, the self-styled ‘hammer of the teaching trade unions’, who has had the temerity to suggest that since the European Court rules over the EU, Cameron’s assurances that the agreement he has made with a group of EU leaders...
GMB British Airways workers will hold a public meeting and rally from 12.30pm on Monday 29th February at the Thistle Hotel, Heathrow, against proposals to outsource the company’s IT end user computing jobs to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India. Members will make the short walk from BA HQ at Waterside...
THE Unite trade union leadership specialises in doubletalk. One example is the way that it is verbally 100% opposed to the anti-trade union legislation that is being brought in, at the same time as it is limiting the opposition to it by forming a bloc with LibDem and Tory peers...
AUSTRALIAN unions have applauded the community #LetThemStay alliance that forced the Turnbull government to back down on Sunday from sending baby Asha and her family back into detention on Nauru. An alliance of health care professionals, unions, community organisations and ordinary Brisbane residents maintained a 24-hour vigil outside Lady Cilento...
LECTURERS, librarians, technicians, cleaners and caretakers in Unison and the UCU union walked out on strike in Sixth Form Colleges around the country yesterday, in a one-day strike against a proposed pay freeze. Over 30 UCU and Unison strikers at the College of North East London (CoNEL) demonstrated loudly yesterday...
STRIKE action is looming for the Cape Peninsula University of Technology after talks with workers over salary and service conditions deadlocked last weekend. The declaration of deadlock was formally conveyed to CPUT Vice-Chancellor Dr Prins Nevhutalu on Friday in a notice from the joint unions task team. The declaration was...
THOUSANDS of furious staff walked out of Further Education colleges across England from 7.00am this morning in a one-day strike to oppose a proposed pay freeze. Lecturers, librarians, technicians, cleaners and caretakers who belong to Unison and the University and College Union (UCU) are among those taking part in...
THE Cameron-led debate in the House of Commons on Monday disclosed a Tory Party split down the middle, with Boris Johnson leading a revolt and Cameron enjoying the cheers of a Labour Party MPs’ support group. Right at the start, Cameron put paid to the notion that he is concerned...
JUNIOR doctors in England have confirmed three further strike dates. In a BMA ballot of junior doctors last November, 98 per cent of those who voted supported taking industrial action, demonstrating the strength of opposition amongst the profession to government plans. The dates of the strikes are: • 48-hour emergency care...
A CASE brought before the Supreme Court yesterday spotlights the extent to which British capitalism inflicts not just indignity but the denial of the most basic human rights on the poor and low paid. The case involves a law brought in by the previous Tory-led coalition government in 2012 which...
‘THE Junior Doctors Committee has made clear the decision that further industrial action is inevitable and that we will consider escalating any action to achieve our aim to end the imposition,’ Dr Johann Malawana, chairman of the committee said in an email to BMA members. The email was sent after...
MORE than 60 Montreal municipal employees will be tried together on charges related to a 2014 protest that saw hundreds of union members storm City Hall. Some 54 firefighters and 11 blue collar workers are accused of unlawful assembly and mischief for allegedly taking part in the August 18, 2014,...
PRIME Minister Cameron yesterday defended his renegotiation of Britain’s terms of EU membership, as a number of his cabinet ministers lined up to call for an EU exit in the just-announced June 23 referendum. The Tory prime minister told the Andrew Marr Show that after two days of intense wrangling...
THE Tory government is now split over its EU referendum, with six cabinet ministers, and over 100 MPs advocating a vote to leave the European Union. So deep is the split in the Tory ruling class party, that Cameron will be relying on the Labour leaders Corbyn and McDonnell,...
THOUSANDS of refugees living in the southern part of the camp in the French port of Calais known as the Jungle have been ordered to leave or face eviction. They have until 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday to leave the southern part of the sprawling camp. Anyone remaining...
MANY http://www.wrp.org.uk/admin.php?op=adminStorypatients who had been waiting seven-hours in the A&E department at Edmonton’s North Middlesex Hospital were told on Friday night to go home and come back the next day. The trust announced over the A&E Tannoy: ‘We would ask anyone who doesn’t have a life-threatening illness to go home...
THE head of Eurotunnel is demanding that Britain forks out £4.6 million to finance a massive wall enclosing 600 metres of track at the French end of the tunnel. The idea is that this 6 metre high wall would then be roofed over providing a barrier against any attempt by...
470 CANCER doctors have signed a joint statement warning Health Secretary Hunt that the new imposed junior doctors contract ‘will lead to worse outcomes for our cancer patients’ and widen the gap that already exists in cancer survival between the UK and other countries. The letter, signed by consultants and...
US WARPLANES launched a major airstrike in Libya early on Friday morning killing, 40 people in one hit. The terror raid was launched from the US base at Lakenheath, Suffolk, England. A US official said that the planes hit an ‘Islamic State camp’ and that the 40 killed were terrorists. The official...
PALESTINIAN prisoners and journalists held separate rallies on Thursday in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qiq. In Israel’s Eshel prison, Palestinian prisoners held a ‘day of disobedience’ in Section 10 of the jail, banging on jail doors and screaming in solidarity with al-Qiq, who has been on an open-ended...
IN THE British Medical Journal today, a leading doctor is calling on the Australian government to stop constraining doctors in the care of asylum seekers and refugees, and to adopt a humane stance to people seeking asylum. David Berger, a doctor at Broome Hospital in Western Australia and a committee...
JUDGES have misdirected juries in murder trials for thirty years, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that ‘joint enterprise,’ which allows people to be convicted of murder even if they did not strike the fatal blow, had been misinterpreted. Hundreds of young people who...
MEMBERS of the PLO Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat on Wednesday slammed the United Kingdom’s decision to ban the boycott of Israeli products by public bodies, local councils and even some university students. In a joint statement Wednesday, Ashrawi and Erekat said the UK’s decision represents a ‘serious...
THE Palestine Liberation Organisation has condemned the new Tory ‘guidance’ banning councils, NHS trusts and all publicly funded organisations from boycotting goods and services from Israel and Israeli settlements. On February 16th and 17th, PLO Executive Committee members Dr Hanan Ashrawi and Dr Saeb Erekat (Secretary General), met with the...
BOMBARDIER announced the sack for over 1,000 Belfast workers yesterday, as a portion of 7,000 sackings they are planning worldwide over the next two years. The Canadian manufacturer has a Northern Ireland (NI) aerospace workforce of 6,000, and accounts for 10% of NI’s manufacturing exports. It said it is...
THE BMA has warned that the Tory government’s recommendations on new visa rules from the Migrations Advisory Committee could lead to UK-trained doctors leaving the NHS. This comes at a time, when one in three GPs are considering retiring in the next five years, hundreds of GP trainee posts...
THE BMA warned yesterday that ‘Politically driven mismanagement is undermining patient care in England. It was responding to a report from the King’s Fund which shows rising NHS Trust deficits amounting to £2.3 billion with a knock-on effect on patient care. Dr Mark Porter, BMA Council Chair, warned: ‘It is...
AN asbestos-removal company is in court in Canada in a case which started on Monday facing accusations that it repeatedly exposed its workers to the deadly construction material. Labour organisations in British Columbia are calling for jail time against Seattle Environmental Consulting Ltd. director Mike Singh and his son Shawn...
WORKERS manufacturing clothes for Marks & Spencer (M&S) employed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India continue to be underpaid, a report by Labour Behind the Label has revealed. The workers’ rights group states that wages being paid by M&S supplier factories are far less than is required to maintain a...
MASSIVE Tory cuts are undermining the NHS and threatening the lives of many thousands. There is already an investigation taking place after whistleblower Sarah Hayes, a former senior call adviser for the NHS 111 helpline in the South West, said she had to speak out as there were ‘frequently’ no on-call...
ONE in five GP surgeries in London is threatened with closure within three years because of lack of staff, funding and pay, the Local Medical Committees (LMCs) warned yesterday. An LMC survey of GP practices in the capital has shown that, as a result, almost one million people in London...
The Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qiq is close to death according to independent doctors who have visited him in the hospital where he is being kept by the Israeli authorities who are quite prepared to let him die. Al-Qiq is from the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, where he...
ISRAELI soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager at Mazmoria checkpoint, east of Bethlehem, on Sunday afternoon – only a few hours after two Palestinian teenagers were fatally shot by Israeli troops near Jenin, according to medics. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoint opened...
A PETITION calling for a vote of no confidence in Tory Health Minister Jeremy Hunt reached 284,244 signatures by yesterday afternoon, after his decision to impose an unsafe contract on the junior doctors. Hunt announced his decision to impose the new contract the day after the second nationwide strike of...
TRADE union leaders behind the formation of an alternative federation say they will formally launch the new structure on 1st May this year after provincial workers summit meetings across the country. Former Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) senior leader, Zwelinzima Vavi, is spearheading the formation of the federation...
PRESIDENT Assad’s recent statement to the AFP news agency reflects the huge change in the internal Syrian situation thanks to the successful alliance between the Syrian people and army and Russia, formed after the latter clearly understood that if the Islamists are allowed to take power in Damascus, the...