In short: Floplast, casualisation, Scottish Power, cheap labour, women's strike, equal pay

Floplast bosses show their true colours

Management at Floplast in Bobbing, Kent responded to moves by the workforce to get recognition under the 50% rule by promptly sacking 6 people. Since the new legislation came into force, employers in Britain have been employing law firms to get advice on union busting and intimidating workers. If Floplast get away with it, other bosses will follow suit.

So, send support/solidarity and get action details;
Floplast Workers C/O GPMU Kent Branch, 155 London Rd, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 1PA
Telephone: 01795 423 993 Fax: 01795 471 791
Email: dannym@gpmukent.demon.co.uk
Also, let Floplast Operations manager Derek Bartrip know what you think - Fax him on 01795 431 188

Casualisation Kills

It's Official; poor means skint

A recent government report into poverty paints a depressing picture of inequality in Britain.

The Acheson Report on Health Inequality, set up by New Labour, found that working class people die younger, and suffer more from lung cancer, coronary heart disease, strokes, and suicides than the rich. They also suffer more house vandalism, and their children are less well-fed, despite the fact that their mothers often go without. Children are less likely to have any form of pre-school education, and have less access to child care. Not surprisingly, after this start in life, they do less well at school. The list goes on…

Royal Mail: Unofficial action gets results

Over one hundred postmen and postwomen at Runcorn Delivery Office decided to celebrate Bastille Day in style and hold a 24-hour unofficial strike against working conditions.

Postal workers have now been promised a five day, forty hour week, but must find it themselves by increasing their workload. Deliveries have been over-loaded at Runcorn for years and repeated requests to management and the union have fallen on deaf ears. Even when proposals were put forward, management refused to implement them.

New Labour Focus Group Leak Latest: Working Class abolished!

The inane race for the next US president is getting the usual widespread coverage here in Britain, Uncle Sam's unofficial 51st state. Hardly surprising, since all the main political parties (and most of the media) in Britain look to America for their economic and political direction.

New Labour have their policies overseen by Clintonite focus groupies. In Britain, as in America, the working class no longer matters. Both political parties are now exclusively fighting over the 'middle ground' and for the 'middle' votes. The trendy political scientists have decided that the working class no longer exists. The media are only too happy to ignore working class lifestyles and the problems we face. The working class is not news and doesn't sell papers.

Events, actions, campaigns . . .

March 2001: Global Women's Strike

On 8 March 2000, women in 64 countries went on strike! Prepare for 8th March 2001 - strike for a world which values all women's work & all women's lives, an end to no pay, low pay & too much work.
Called & co-ordinated by the International Wages for Housework Campaign, Crossroads Women's Centre, 230a Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2AB. Tel: 020 7482 2496 Fax: 020 7209 4761 E-mail: womenstrike8m@server101.com Website: http://womenstrike8m.server101.com

Justice for Mark Barnsley

Failing the doorstep challenge

Election time is once again upon us. Time for the politicians to polish up their ideas and parade before us in an attempt to convince us that they, and they alone, are best suited to rule over us for the next five years or so. This time around, the Marxist left in its many shades are united in their opposition to Labour. Last time, they were almost united in arguing that the Labour Party, as the mass party of the working class, should get our vote. Now, the all embracing Socialist Alliance has taken its place alongside the SLP and the Socialist Party, urging us to vote for them and kick out the Thacherite ex-mass party of the working class.

Shorts

General pimps

The GMB has a new deal with the Bank of Scotland to create a new improved credit card. The union blurb to members boast that the GMB used its power to “negotiate a great deal”. This at a time when debt in Britain is at an all time high and debt counsellors report that the number of people contacting them with debt problems has trebled since last year. Not so long ago, unions sought to improve workers lives - some even sought to overthrow capitalism. Now it seems, they have been reduced to pimping business on behalf of capitalism.
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Problems at work No.2: Asbestos - the undiscriminating killer

Asbestos now kills a staggering 3,000 people a year in Britain – worldwide, the death toll can only be guessed at. The first clear case of death due to asbestos appeared in the medical literature in 1924. Since then, capitalism has done all it can to hide the truth from workers. First we were told asbestos was safe, then that only blue asbestos posed a danger, then that while all asbestos is dangerous, it is only when you are exposed to large amounts. Only recently, have they finally admitted that asbestos kills and that there is no safe level of asbestos dust in the atmosphere.

Support the CSL3! The CSL3 - Sacked for defending our services

Three CSL workers were sacked before xmas, for whistle-blowing. They had the cheek to expose their employer's inefficiency and poor level of service in its privatised housing benefits operations.

the background

CSL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu - the privatised housing benefits company. London Borough of Newham contracted out most of its Housing Benefit (HB) service to CSL in June 1999.