Tubeworkers ballot

As we reported last week nearly 10,000 RMT members are balloting for strike action over jobs and pay. 3,000 jobs are under threat across London Underground (LUL) and Transport for London, which is trying to implement a £2.4 billion cuts package. LUL has tabled a five-year pay freeze.

The ballot ends on 8 April.

Newham school strike

On 19 March members of the teaching unions NUT and NASUWT went on strike against the proposal to change the Royal Docks community school into an Ark academy.

The strike was successful and the strikers leafleted parents at seven feeder primary schools.

The academy proposal would threaten facilities for children with learning difficulties, reduce the number of pupils from the local community who could attend and undermine the local sixth-form college.

The battle will continue over the next four months.

Councillors want pay rise

Greenwich Unison reacted angrily to news that at the full council meeting on 25 March, councillors were voting themselves a 2.75% pay increase.

Unison branch secretary Onay Kasab told The Socialist: “As there is no local government pay settlement of 2.75% for 2009/10, the council need to explain themselves.

“If 2.75% is good enough for councillors then this is the minimum that homecarers, teaching assistants and street sweepers should also expect.

“Why is it that when the council cannot find the money to fill vacant posts, when workers face redundancy and schools face closure, that they can find the money to increase their own salaries?”

Airwave workers win jobs concession

After a well-supported strike, negotiations between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Airwave Solutions have resulted in an agreement to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Airwave Solutions provides communications for the emergency services in the UK and was intending to make redundancies before the workers took strike action.

After the negotiations, the CWU is now recommending that their members end the industrial action.

The trade unions will now be consulted if changes are made to shift patterns and other working conditions.

As The Socialist has pointed out already, Airwave Solutions should be in the public sector anyway and not allowed to maximise its profits at the expense of workers’ living standards and public safety.

CWU election victory

Socialist Party members Bernard Roome and Gary Jones have been re-elected to the CWU national executive unopposed.