Picket line outside SPS Technologies, photo Leicester SP

Picket line outside SPS Technologies, photo Leicester SP   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Leicester Socialist Party members have consistently given their support to the picket lines at SPS Technologies in Leicester, and the Socialist had regular reports on their successful strike against ‘fire and rehire’. That solidarity was returned by their Unite branch sending May Day greetings to the paper (see issue 1131).

Since the strike ended we have regularly sold the Socialist at the factory gates: 15 copies have been bought over those three weeks. Some of the workers have the money ready to buy the paper when they drive in or out of the factory at shift changeover times.

We hope to continue the links with them by organising a local group of the National Shop Stewards Network, initially linking workers who have been in, or are going into, dispute locally. That could include the GMB British Gas engineers, who we also built links with through their strike action, and the UCU members at Leicester University. There are others potentially going into action soon, including Unite members at First Bus who also face fire and rehire.

Steve Score and Heather Rawling