The Socialist 17 February 2021

'If you want to stay healthy - you've got to fight back!'

Tory consultation on home-use abortion pills

Tory cladding money will not make us safe

Sham inquiry into 'progressive extremism' will not stop movements against capitalism

Cumbria mine: How can we fight for jobs and stop climate change?

Cryptocurrency bubble: Insanity of capitalism

News in brief

Online workers' rally: Taking fight to the bosses

SNP's independence referendum 2 'roadmap'

NHS white paper: no solution to failed Tory policies

Boot private companies out of our NHS

Covid workplace safety

Derby Toyota plant Covid crisis

Hackney teaching assistants strike against cruel and unnecessary job cuts

PCS: Reject the HMRC pay deal

Manchester Go North West bus drivers in all-out strike over fire and rehire dispute

London bus drivers set to strike over pay and conditions

Scaffolders' strike continues

Strike back for free education

Socialist Students conference - Sunday 28 February

Socialist Party Black and Asian caucus

Remembering Mohamud Hassan - continuing the fight against police brutality

How you can amplify the Socialist's voice - Help us build subscriptions to the Socialist

Swarming the London Mayor's question time

Southern new members meeting - a vivid illustration of the appetite for socialist ideas

Doing all we can to fund the anti-cuts stand at the ballot box

Film Review: Dear Comrades!

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Manchester Go North West bus drivers in all-out strike over fire and rehire dispute

Bus, photo Ad Meskens/CC (Click to enlarge)

Bus drivers employed by Go North West in Manchester will begin an all-out continuous strike from 28 February. The company is trying to fire and rehire its workers on vastly inferior contracts.

The 400 workers, who are members of Unite, returned an 82% 'yes' vote in favour of strike action.

If Go North West's fire-and-rehire proposals are implemented it will result in:

A 10% cut in bus drivers
Workers, who earn an average of £24,000 a year, forced to work longer for no additional pay, resulting in them being £2,500 a year worse off
Tearing up the existing sick pay policy, which will force workers to work when they are sick or should be self-isolating during the Covid-19 pandemic

Go North West's parent company, Go Ahead, is hugely profitable. Its most recent accounts reveal it earned £1 billion from its bus division, with an operating profit of £121 million. The company paid dividends to shareholders, worth 102.80p per share.

Unite regional secretary Ritchie James said: "Unite gave Go North West the opportunity to withdraw its fire-and-rehire plans following the overwhelming vote for strike action, sadly it spurned this opportunity.

"If Go Ahead were allowed to implement its fire-and-rehire policies it would result in our members, who have been in the frontline since the pandemic began, having to work longer for far less money.

In the run-up to the strike, in an attempt to bully and intimidate workers, Go North West managers delivered letters to drivers' homes informing them that they had just eight days to accept the new contracts or be dismissed on 8 May.

The Socialist Party calls for an end to fire and rehire, no pay cut for drivers and renationalisation of bus services.

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Tory consultation on home-use abortion pills