The Prison Officers Association (POA) have sent a notice to Merseycare Trust informing them that a 24-hour strike will take place from 7am on 13 November to 7am on 14 November after members in the trust voted overwhelmingly for strike action. This follows the dismissals of workers Kevin Gregson and Peter Hilton following the restraint of a violent patient. POA general secretary Steve Gillan has said: "This issue will not go away, management have a duty of care towards their employees and in the case of Mr Gregson and Mr Hilton it was sadly lacking."

Barnet walkout

Hundreds of council workers in Barnet, North London, took strike action for the seventh time on 3 November against another wave of privatisation by the Tory council. Social workers, school escorts, refuse workers, librarians and school catering staff were among those on strike who voted by almost 90% to walkout. The council plans to make £90 million of cuts with proposals to also outsource jobs including in adult services, school meals and children's services, which will be decided on later this month.

University dispute

UCU members at the University of Manchester are balloting for strike action after the union accused managers of ignoring agreed procedures and pushing staff into redundancy. The ballot will open on 2 November and closes on 20 November. The row was originally sparked in April when the university said all staff who had been on its redeployment register for a period of three months or more would face redundancy. UCU has accused university managers of riding roughshod over agreed procedures, because the redeployment policy was in the process of being revised. Instead of waiting for that process to be completed, university managers simply went ahead and issued 37 at risk of redundancy notices.

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