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From The Socialist newspaper, 4 October 2017
Monarch abdicates responsibility to workers
Monarch airlines, photo RHL Images/CC (Click to enlarge)
On its 50th anniversary, UK-based Monarch airline has nosedived into administration leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stuck abroad and many more losing future flights without compensation.
Some 2,100 workers will lose their jobs.
Bringing back stranded passengers - 'the biggest ever peacetime repatriation' - will cost £60 million, partly funded through a passenger levy.
Budget airline Ryanair (run by anti-union boss Michael O'Leary) - which spectacularly screwed up its pilot rosters and was slammed by the authorities for holding back compensation to passengers whose flights were cancelled - is eyeing up redundant Monarch pilots to plug its staffing gaps.
Struggling Monarch was taken over in 2014 by venture capital firm Greybull Capital which specializes in acquiring 'distressed companies'. The new owners demanded employees accept hundreds of job losses, a 30% pay cut and inferior working contracts to secure the airline's future - a promise which turned out to be false.
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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.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 4 October 2017:
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Solidarity with Catalonia - the people have the right to decide
Exemplary resistance by the people of Catalonia
Eyewitness: Irish socialist MP participates in events
What we think
Socialist Party workplace news
Royal Mail workers set for national strike action
Unison attacks Barts deal after failing to ballot their members for strike action
RMT strikes against removal of train guards spreads
University of Leeds workers walk out
ThyssenKrupp - Tata steel merger
Che Guevara
Revolutionary socialist Che Guevara 50 years on
Labour Party conference
Labour Party conference: Action against establishment sabotage still needed
Socialist Party news and analysis
Monarch abdicates responsibility to workers
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
£11,000 raised in three weeks for fighting fund
Why I joined: I wanted to change things
Chatsworth ward campaign replies to Tory MP's intervention
Surveying Labour councillors - will they fight cuts?
Leeds Socialist Students marks 'International Safe Abortion Day'
Protest outside Ukip conference against German far-right speaker
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