Strikers step up action

The 600 members of UNISON at the Dudley Group of Hospitals who have been fighting private finance initiative (PFI) plans since August 2000, started a further three weeks of strike action on 12 March. The PFI proposals would involve their jobs being transferred to a private consortium.

The strikers held an anti-privatisation conference on 31 March backed by London bodies of the ASLEF and RMT rail unions and the Fire Brigades Union.

UNISON members at Knowsley council stepped up their action last month over plans by the council to increase their working week from 35 to 37 hours. Key workers in the finance department were to be brought out for at least two weeks from mid-March. The council has now accepted an offer by the UNISON branch to re-open talks.

In Hackney, east London, further strike action took place in March over spending cuts and the threat to jobs among the council workforce. Following three days on strike at the end of January members of UNISON were on strike again on 8 March.

Members of the NUT and NASUWT teaching unions took action last month over unfilled posts and not covering for those absent for more than three days. The action hit London, Kent, Reading, Doncaster Leicester, Middlesborough, Nottingham, Southampton, Portsmouth and Manchester.

In the private sector members of MSF and GMB/APEX at Rolls Royce Ansty took further action on 26 February and 2 March over the threat to their jobs.