The Socialist 13 January 2016

NHS not safe in Tory hands

Corbyn must lead a fight against the right and for an anti-austerity programme

NHS not safe in Tory hands

Junior doctors' strike: picket photos and reports

Health workers under attack!

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

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

What We Saw

Them & Us

Slums, speculation, sell-offs and sardines

Cameron's housing con

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

A clear strategy to defeat the Tory cuts

Council uses reserves to stop cuts

Councillors must resist cuts

Southampton people's budget meeting

Victor Jara's revolutionary life, poetry and politics

Letters

Sexual assaults in Cologne exploited by racist establishment and far right

Saudi Arabia mass executions

Honduras: Day of the endangered lawyer

West Dunbartonshire teachers strike

Energy-filled pickets at EDF

Workplace news in brief

"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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Strike rally, Sheffield housing workers, 6.1.16, photo by Sheffield SP (Click to enlarge)

Sheffield housing staff strike against cuts

Sam Morecroft

On Wednesday 6th January Sheffield City Council housing workers took strike action against changes to their terms and conditions of employment, including pay cuts of up to £4,000 a year for staff.

The strike came following a work-to-rule which has been in place since mid-December against an imposed restructure which has not been agreed with the workers' union, the GMB. To add insult to injury, some area managers are set to receive pay rises of as much as £9,000 a year as a result of the restructure!

Socialist Party members and TUSC supporters came to support the workers at a lunchtime protest outside Sheffield town hall. Around 100 people attended, including members of the public who stopped by to show support.

We got an enthusiastic response to our petition for Sheffield City Council to adopt a 'No Cuts' budget in 2016, as well as interest in our ideas about how the Labour council could fight the Tory cutbacks instead of meekly carrying them out and forcing workers out on strike to defend their conditions.

There was particular interest in the No Cuts Budget conference we are organising jointly with Sheffield Trades Council and other anti-austerity groups on Saturday 13th February.

GMB regional political organiser Pete Davies pointed out in his speech to the rally that while GMB is affiliated to the Labour Party, the Labour council in Sheffield has refused to negotiate with the union in this dispute, and that this was also the case in other council service sectors.

He warned that by February, if the council is not prepared to seriously negotiate with GMB members it could have strikes on its hands in at least three or four different departments, including recycling and waste management.

Housing workers pledged to continue with strikes if their concerns are not addressed.

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 8 January 2016 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.

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What we think

Corbyn must lead a fight against the right and for an anti-austerity programme