The Socialist 5 June 2013

Food bank Britain

Food bank Britain: Con-Dems turn the clock back

NSSN conference : Unite to fight all the cuts

Legal aid cuts: Justice in the balance

Continued deterioration of the Labour Party

Them & Us

Mass joblessness wrecks lives! Youth must fight for a future

A day in the life of a Primark employee

NHS crisis: Turn anger into action

Turkey: Mass movement challenges Erdogan's authoritarian government

PCS rolling strike programme

97% vote for strike action at Carling brewery

Thera Trust: the campaign moves up a gear

Unison and Labour: Welsh government cuts are still cuts

Lecturers' union UCU members vote to fight austerity

Workplace news in brief

1983: A political voice for the working class

Campaigning against the bedroom tax

Stopping the BNP in London

EDL blocked by counter demo

Standing for TUSC in Woolston, Southampton

Save the Independent Living Fund

Needed: new social housing NOT unaffordable rents

Support the Fighting Fund collectathon!

Socialist Party national organisers' school

Stop drone attacks!

Crackdown on democratic rights

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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/768/16842

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Workplace news in brief

Equinox strike

Strikers on a noisy and well supported picket line at the New Cross office of Equinox Care were wearing stickers saying 'Equinox don't care', on 29 May.

Nobody there had gone into work on the first of two days of strike action at this drug and alcohol services charity.

The workers were furious that top management aimed to cut their pay by up to a quarter - by between £4,000 and £6,000 a year. "Top management are putting pressure on staff, saying striking would harm vulnerable, poor people," pickets told us. "But their cuts could push workers here into poverty - that's why we had a 98% backing in our ballot for this industrial action."

Striking Equinox staff from west London joined their fellow workers on picket lines in south London then moved to the company's main office in Southwark.

Equinox chief executive Bill Puddicombe is not subject to these cuts, in fact, for the first time in the company's history he was offered "a small amount of performance related pay".

The pickets made it clear that, if Puddicombe and Co's 'performance' in resolving this dispute does not improve very quickly, there will be a second strike on Wednesday 12 June.

Roger Shrives

One Housing

Workers at One Housing Group (OHG) have voted to strike over wage cuts. OHG's chief executive has just had a £31,000 a year increase in pay and bonuses, while he expects frontline support staff to accept pay cuts of up to £8,000 a year, £2,000 on average. This follows a three-year pay freeze.

83% of the Unite members have voted to strike, probably in mid-June.

O2

The Communication Workers Union is balloting its members in Telefonica O2 call centres for strike action in a battle over outsourcing.

This affects call centres in Bury, Glasgow, Leeds and Preston Brook. The company wants to outsource 3,500 jobs to Capita and there are reports that it wants to close the centres in Bury and Glasgow.

The ballot closes on 18 June.

In this issue

Socialist Party news and analysis

Food bank Britain: Con-Dems turn the clock back