Direct Action Gets the Goods For Greater Manchester Striking Bus Drivers

Unite has suspended today’s strike by First Manchester bus drivers after the company made an improved offer in the dispute over pay.

Action planned for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have also been suspended while Unite ballots its 300+ members on the new offer. If it is accepted the dispute will have ended. If members reject the offer then strikes already scheduled for February 15, 17, 18, 21 and 25 will go ahead as planned.

Strike action began last month in the dispute over low rates of pay. The strike action was highly effective causing considerable disruption to bus services across Greater Manchester.

 

Student SolFed Members Support the UCU strikes

Starting on Wednesday 1st December, 58 branches of UCU (University and College Union) went on strike for 3 days over issues surrounding pensions, pay, working conditions and pay gaps. A group of SolFed members who are students at Sussex University attended the picket line and took part in direct action in support of all staff who were on strike.

The strike began with a big demonstration and march around the campus, ending at Sussex House - the university’s management building. We attended and waved our red and black flag, asserting an anarcho-syndicalist presence among the students.

Support Striking Bus Drivers Boycott First Manchester Buses

Bus drivers employed by First Manchester have announced fresh strike action in their dispute over pay. The new dates for industrial action are a direct consequence of the company’s failure to make an improved offer to resolve the dispute. The new days for strike action are January 31, February 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18, 21, 23 and 25. In effect, the 300+ Unite members will be striking for three days a week next month.

The dispute is in regards to pay and First Manchester’s refusal to honour the anniversary date of August 1 (when the pay increase for 2021 was due to come into effect) and to backdate the pay increase from this date. Bus drivers are also unhappy about a new roster system the company is attempting to impose.

Fujitsu IT Workers Announce Further Strikes

Union members at Fujitsu have announced a series of strikes—as bosses dismissed victimised reps. The first walkout will begin on Wednesday 24 January. Management sacked two reps over the christmas with one of the reps being dismissed  while he was on compassionate leave to attend a family funeral.

These are just the latest attacks in a long running dispute over compulsory redundancies, victimisation of reps and breaches of a redundancy agreement. IT workers at Fujitsu in Manchester have already taken 27 days action in this long running campaign and plans further  strikes  on Wednesday 24 – Friday 26 January, Tuesday 30 January and Thursday 8 February – Wednesday 14 February. Union members are also taking part in action short of a strike and are working to rule.

Solidarity with striking Uber drivers!

Solfed locals have taken solidarity action to express our support of Uber drivers in Jakarta taking strike action today 11.9.2017. Similar actions have been taken by anarcho-syndicalists on 4 continents as a result of a call by the IWA-AIT. Solfed members in London held a picket outside Uber's UK headquarters in Aldgate. Brighton Solfed had previously expressed their solidarity while members in Liverpool and Manchester have been spreading the word about the struggle of Uber workers in Indonesia in a flyposting campaign.  Uber drivers, organising with the anarcho-syndicalist PPAS, are taking strike action, demanding higher pay and an end to highly casualised working conditions. These are the same problems faced by Uber drivers across the world - our solidarity is as international as their capital!

Call for Soldarity for the Woolwich Free Ferry Strikes

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.

Train strike: It’s Not Just About Pushing Buttons

The recent strikes by conductors and train drivers - members of the RMT and ASLEF unions - have been the biggest railway strikes in decades.

As a local, Brighton SolFed has been supporting the local striking members. Our support has been through the attendance of pickets, and organising a benefit gig; to raise money for the local strike fund, and, most importantly, to show solidarity and get workers across industries together.

If you only read media reports, this would seem to be a simple dispute regarding who merely pushes a button to open the train doors.

Really, this is about our safety.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is the company that owns the privatised Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, and Thameslink railway operators.

France on strike! Talk and discussion on June the 28th

Talk and public discussion on June the 28th (Tuesday) at 6pm at The Cowley Club

From Brighton-SolFed, we want to support the French workers in their struggle against the Hollande government´s law aimed at reforming worker´s rights. Especially to the people facing police brutality and repression.

Nowadays in Europe, it is not unusual for governments to attack working conditions with the excuse of “deficit control” or the “competitiveness of the economy”. What is unusual (and amazing) in France, is the worker´s firm opposition.

This struggle concerns all of us. Their victory or their defeat will be ours, so we invite all of Brighton´s working class to show solidarity and join this event for the diffusion of information about these events and a discussion on our French comrades strikes.

Thames Valley SolFed - Statement of Solidarity with Polish Workers

Solidarity to the Polish Strikers

Six million workers in Britain were born abroad. Increasingly, they
have been blamed for all the financial woes of neoliberal capitalism
and the suffering that the rich have inflicted on millions more. With
conditions in French migrant ghettos worsening, the racist rhetoric of
the British ruling class has become more shameless. By their own
economic measures the immigrants have contributed far more than they
have received, and so the ruling class are having to resort to hateful
and emotive attacks.

March 13th Strike Against the Stormont House Agreement

Friday 13th of March saw an estimated 50,000 public service workers on strike across Northern Ireland in opposition to the Stormont House Agreement. Between 6 - 8,000 striking workers and their supporters marched in Belfast, up to 2,000 marched in Derry and hundreds more took part in rallies in other towns across the north.

Friday's strike action showed the depth of opposition to attacks on working class people that are already being implemented, and those proposed, by the Stormont executive. If we are to defeat the cuts the action needs to be built upon and broadened to include workers in areas that have already been privatised and the private sector in general. Belfast Solidarity Federation support calls to declare May 1st the next strike date.

Attached is the copy of the Leveller that we produced for the strike.