Fighting Back

Unite members at Arriva London North have won a huge victory following strike action to protest the appalling temperatures on buses.

What a brilliant, enthusiastic bunch of young workers, striking for the modest demands of a real living wage — and water! This is joint action by PCS and Prospect unions, fighting for pay that keeps pace with the cost of living,

Members of Southeast London Socialist Party went down to Greenwich upon hearing about Prospect union members at the museums entering industrial action.

Strikers at London Metropolitan University held a rally on 31 July as part of the continuing action against cuts and redundancies by members of the University and College Union (UCU).

On 7 August, Unite strikers at the Institute of Cancer Research launched all-out indefinite strike action with a rallly. The streets of quiet plush South Kensington echoed to the chant of “We fight cancer every day, we can’t do it on low pay!”

120 staff, Unison members at Housing Association East End Homes, have been on strike since 1 July against plans to transfer staff from their current pension scheme to an inferior one.

Privatised NHS staff, working for ISS, are taking six days of strike action over two weeks. The workers accuse managers of bullying, including racism, failing to properly pay bank holiday overtime, and unmanageable workload.

On Thursday 7 May, teachers and support staff in the National Education Union at Highgate Wood School in Haringey will begin a series of strikes against a package of cuts

Bus drivers at Bow garage in east London were on strike on Friday 17 April. This followed four strike days in March, and one-day strikes on 24 April and 15 May are planned.

I went to support the lively University and College Union (UCU) picket line at London Metropolitan University (aka London Met). There were impassioned speeches from teachers and one student defending what should be London Met’s fundamental role of giving working-class students opportunities.