Last Monday we reached an agreement with Alpha Care which satisfies the economic demands made by a former worker.

The media has recently been escalating the migrant bashing with the claims that health tourists are plunging the NHS into crisis by not paying their bills.

This distracting technique pulls our gaze away from the more obvious strains the NHS is facing. With flat lining NHS funding (although the government are putting “more” money in this is not inline with increasing inflation and demand), cuts in social care, along with crippling Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) with extortionate interest rates and massive management consultancy fees, there is no wonder health services are finding that there is not enough money.

Holiday pay is a common problem faced by workers in the hospitality industry - especially those on zero-hour contracts who are often unaware of of their legal right to holiday pay. Recently we supported a waitress from a cafe in the North Laine who was demanding holiday pay for herself and her workmates - and who managed to get the £600 she was owed.

GMB and UNITE members who work on the Woolwich Free Ferry are taking strike action every Friday. Against a background of long-running health and safety issues, they are coming out in solidarity with a female colleague who brought a complaint about persistent sexual harrassment by her offce boss. She was then left facing him every day at work for 3 weeks.

It is a credit to the ferry crew that they didn't hesitate to take action to support their colleague, who after being subjected to unwelcome personal comments and offensive behaviour for over a year, had the courage to record and report these events, only to find herself vulnerable to further harassment.

On 23rd November 2016, the Treasury announced in the Autumn Statement that they “will ban fees to tenants as soon as possible”. So, right now fees are still legal in England & Wales, and it is not very clear when they will be outlawed.

After a few years’ absence, SolFed is back in Liverpool. During recent months, we have been meeting with comrades in Manchester, supporting their activities and trying to find out how to restart things here. Now a few of us have decided to take the step to start the process of becoming a SolFed Local.

I worked a trial shift at the Ginger Dog pub. I was told that it would last for a 'couple' of hours. After three hours of working, I was told that it was going really well and that I had the job. In my experience, bosses in the hospitality sector will say this just to get people to work longer for free. I was asked to stay on and agreed to work for an extra three hours, meaning that I worked for six hours in total. I decided after this to not take the job and I contacted them the next day to tell them. I also requested payment for the full six hours worked. They did not respond to my email. I sent them another email and received no response again. I emailed them again and told them that if they didn't pay me, I would take action via Brighton SolFed, and I sent them some links to articles about previous cases.

Manchester Solidarity Federation carried out a successful picket outside Laibaz restaurant in Bolton on Saturday 24th September. The picket was part of the campaign Manchester SF is organising against the owner of the restaurant who owes ex-employees thousands of pounds in unpaid wages. The picket was a real success with a number of people who had planned to eat at the restaurant refusing to cross the picket line. Throughout the picket we had people stopping to offer support with several people sharing their experiences of being mistreated at work. We also collected details of one person who wanted to get involved in the campaign. The local newspaper took pictures of the picket and interviewed one of the ex-employees. Several members of Manchester IWW joined the picket to add their support to the campaign.