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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Energy-filled pickets at EDF

A Unite member

Unite members employed as meter operatives in London began five days of strike action on 11 January. Pickets at EDF headquarters in Bexleyheath, Kent formed a determined barrier to block vehicles entering the building, leading to massive traffic congestion.

Angry managers pleaded with pickets to move. When this failed, the company called the police. When they arrived the police entered into debate about the merits of trade union membership and complained that they were not allowed to strike - saying they hoped this changed soon!

Tracker devices

The strike is in protest at extended weekend and evening working, performance management, failure to stick to agreements, on the spot drug and alcohol checks, increased CRB checks and tracker devices on vehicles. Where these issues are covered by agreements, the employer has said it will rip them up!

Recent talks at Acas broke up when the employer constantly added new controversial items each time an agreement was near - frustrating not just the Unite negotiators but Acas too. One striker said: "We were prepared to talk but instead of talking the employer came back with ridiculous demands!"

Spirits on the picket line were kept very high by playing cat and mouse with the employer who had assigned managers to follow the pickets - presumably to act as the most obvious bugging devices in the history of espionage.

Once the pickets realised they were being followed, they simply walked around and around the depot - with the manager following!

Despite the antics of the employer this is a very important dispute. The employer is out to break the union at EDF - which is why Unite will be escalating strike action and campaign activity to ensure a workers victory.

In this issue

What we think

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