Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/473/2049
From The Socialist newspaper, 7 February 2007
Welsh strikers close down Assembly
FOR THE first time in British history, a parliament was closed by industrial action when the Welsh Assembly was shut down and its plenary session cancelled by PCS members' strike action.
In Cardiff Katrine Williams, chair of the PCS in Wales told Dave Reid: "We had a marvellous turnout on the picket lines with very few members going into work. Gus O'Donnell's (Head of Civil Service) second letter to civil servants angered so many people that some of them joined the union so they could go on strike.
"In the Department for Work and Pensions we had an even better turnout than previously on picket lines. The cutbacks are biting now and members can see the effects. The government talk about 10,000 jobs going in Wales. This government's decimation of civil service jobs is like the Tories' jobs cuts in Welsh industry in the 1980s."
PCS picket lines were everywhere throughout Swansea. In the DVLA 200 new members joined PCS in recent weeks. At Land Registry, Liz Evans, PCS branch secretary said: "270 jobs would be lost if they close the High Street office. They say there will be no compulsory redundancies but no-one believes it".
At a lively lunchtime rally two Socialist Party members spoke on the platform. PCS NEC member John McInally and Rob Williams from Visteon shop stewards committee both got a rousing response to speeches showing that militant union action can win victories and that PCS members have to build on this successful strike.
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In The Socialist 7 February 2007:
Merseyside Campaign for a new workers' party
Website of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party
Civil servants' strike
Interview with Mark Serwotka: "This is just the beginning of the campaign"
Welsh strikers close down Assembly
Socialist Party NHS campaign
Anger at union leaders' timidity
Manchester nurses strike against health cuts
Environment
Change the system not the climate!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Has Manchester struck it lucky?
Socialist Party campaigns
Camden council blames cuts on 'spending gap'
Don't privatise social housing!
Tenants pay when things go wrong
Coventry - a victory for determination
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Rising anger and discontent in Europe
International socialist news and analysis
Darfur - another failure of Western 'conflict resolution'
Sri Lanka: Keep up the protests
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
The writing on the Chinese wall
Workplace news
Stop the Valentine's Day pay massacre !
Striking back at the privateers
Corus deal threatens new cost-cutting
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