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Mankato student resistance to the downsizing of education

Last week members of the Mankato Area Activist Collective, an anti-authoritarian organization, took action against the $7 million budget cut facing Minnesota State University, Mankato over the next two years. Last spring the university cut 79 ½ positions, one out of every ten faculty members. With tuition predicted to increase as much as 15 percent students are being forced to pay more for less.

Last week members of the Mankato Area Activist Collective, an anti-authoritarian organization, took action against the $7 million budget cut facing Minnesota State University, Mankato over the next two years. Last spring the university cut 79 ½ positions, one out of every ten faculty members.

BBC staff vote for strike action

BBC staff members have voted in favour of strike action in a dispute over pensions.

Bectu and the National Union of Journalists said more than 90% of members had voted for a walk out.

But the unions said the decision on whether to strike would be postponed for two weeks while it discussed alternative proposals with the BBC.

In June, the BBC announced plans to overhaul its pension scheme to try and tackle a £2bn deficit.

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: "This is an unprecedented result in favour of strike action and a clear rejection of the BBC's proposals.

"We have agreed to give the BBC two weeks to come back with an improved offer or face a concerted campaign of industrial action."

UK workplace news roundup, August 2010

Recent industrial news from the UK, including transport strikes in Liverpool, walkouts at West Lothian Council and Southampton libraries, and strike ballots for London firefighters, ambulance drivers, and tube staff.

Bin workers strike at West Lothian council

Refuse workers at West Lothian Council have taken strike action over a pay cut being imposed as part of the downgrading of their jobs.

All refuse workers face a job downgrade which will amount to a cut of at least £2,800 a year. The first 24-hour strike took place on Friday the 27th of August, and was sanctioned by the GMB union.

Miners to join South African public sector strike

Miners in South Africa plan to join the massive public sector strike that has already crippled the the government in recent weeks.

The National Union of Mineworkers said Friday it will join the public sector strike next week if the government does not meet the demands of strikers who want more money.

Garment and construction workers strikes in Cambodia

Striking employees of the Sun Lu Fong garment factory in Meanchey district.

In the past few days, a garment workers' strike has found itself in conflict with bosses, local authorities and union officials while last week, construction workers struck in solidarity with sacked workmates.

Around 160 garment workers continued to strike on Monday (22nd August) outside the gates of a factory in Meanchey district, where they have camped out day and night since Thursday to agitate for improved working conditions.

Is this farewell, welfare?

The government’s answer to the problem of unemployment during the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s is not to create any new jobs, but to launch a massive attack on our living standards.

In the emergency budget, one group of people who will be hit the hardest is welfare claimants.

Academy schools programme expanded

A new Education Bill is set to massively extend Labour’s controversial Academies programme.

The Education Secretary Michael Gove has now added Ofsted-graded “outstanding” schools to the hit-list. His plans promise even more Academies; over 150 schools have already applied for Academy status, with hundreds more enquiring for further information or registering an interest.

Strikes off, cuts on at universities

The academics’ union UCU at the University of Sussex cancelled industrial action planned for late June after university bosses declared they were “hopeful” they could avoid any compulsory redundancies.

It soon emerged however that compulsory redundancies had been transformed into ‘voluntary’ ones and the number of job losses remained at over 100, with a similarly severe impact on many courses and workloads expected.

NOT all in this together

The Government’s “tough but fair” budget will hit the poorest the hardest, as well as having a disproportionate impact on women, two reports have found.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) describes the budget as signalling the “longest, deepest, sustained period of cuts to public services spending at least since WWII”. Chancellor George Osborne claims austerity is “unavoidable” in order to reduce Britain’s deficit, and business leaders have sounded their approval for the plans.

China: trouble in the world's sweatshop

China is experiencing a rising wave of industrial unrest, as workers increasingly turn to collective action to fight against their exploitation.

Rapid industrialisation over the past few decades has created massive internal migration from the countryside to the cities on an unprecedented scale, dwarfing Britain’s industrial revolution two centuries ago. Now, this new urban working class has begun to flex its muscles, disrupting production in order to assert their demands.

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