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From The Socialist newspaper, 13 January 2016
Energy-filled pickets at EDF
A Unite member
Unite members employed as meter operatives in London began five days of strike action on 11 January. Pickets at EDF headquarters in Bexleyheath, Kent formed a determined barrier to block vehicles entering the building, leading to massive traffic congestion.
Angry managers pleaded with pickets to move. When this failed, the company called the police. When they arrived the police entered into debate about the merits of trade union membership and complained that they were not allowed to strike - saying they hoped this changed soon!
Tracker devices
The strike is in protest at extended weekend and evening working, performance management, failure to stick to agreements, on the spot drug and alcohol checks, increased CRB checks and tracker devices on vehicles. Where these issues are covered by agreements, the employer has said it will rip them up!
Recent talks at Acas broke up when the employer constantly added new controversial items each time an agreement was near - frustrating not just the Unite negotiators but Acas too. One striker said: "We were prepared to talk but instead of talking the employer came back with ridiculous demands!"
Spirits on the picket line were kept very high by playing cat and mouse with the employer who had assigned managers to follow the pickets - presumably to act as the most obvious bugging devices in the history of espionage.
Once the pickets realised they were being followed, they simply walked around and around the depot - with the manager following!
Despite the antics of the employer this is a very important dispute. The employer is out to break the union at EDF - which is why Unite will be escalating strike action and campaign activity to ensure a workers victory.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
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In The Socialist 13 January 2016:
What we think
Corbyn must lead a fight against the right and for an anti-austerity programme
NHS
Junior doctors' strike: picket photos and reports
Doctors battle burnout as 100 full-up GP surgeries apply to shut their doors
"Shattered but proud", a day in the life of a student nurse
Student nurses march to oppose bursary cut
Socialist Party news and analysis
Bosses 'earn' year's pay in under a week
BBC planned live Labour resignation to damage Corbyn
EU probes power plant for wrongdoing over switch from coal to biomass
Housing crisis
Slums, speculation, sell-offs and sardines
Housing staff strike against cuts
Cameron's 10,000 new homes won't hide the problem
476,000 homes in England go unbuilt by speculators
Council cuts
A clear strategy to defeat the Tory cuts
Council uses reserves to stop cuts
Southampton people's budget meeting
Readers' comments and reviews
Victor Jara's revolutionary life, poetry and politics
International socialist news and analysis
Sexual assaults in Cologne exploited by racist establishment and far right
Honduras: Day of the endangered lawyer
Workplace news and analysis
West Dunbartonshire teachers strike
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
"We hope to inspire people to go out and spread their passion for the Socialist"
Report: Socialist Party national women's meeting
Eleanor Marx: a life of struggle, solidarity and socialism
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