Stoke: Axiom workers in overtime ban

After ten weeks of strike action – two days each week – Axiom Rail workers in Stoke have decided to return to work and impose an overtime ban in their fight for a decent pay increase. Workers doing the same jobs at some other Axiom sites are paid £4 an hour more than workers at Stoke.

They have returned to work more united than when they first came out and the number of workers taking strike action has increased during this struggle. Support for their strike has come in from all over Britain and even from as far away as Chicago, Texas, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and Gaza!

Two ‘offers’ were rejected by workers because in effect they would have made their working conditions worse. Axiom bosses have been forced to use agency workers at great expense and intimidation of strikers to try to break their resistance.

The mood among the lads on strike is that by returning to work now and imposing an overtime ban they will be ‘keeping their powder dry’ for possible later action against attempts to drive wages down.

Andy Bentley