GMB

Blairites Block Labour Party Democracy in Leicester

Blairites Block Labour Party Democracy in Leicester

Like Newham’s mayor Sir Robin Wales, Leicester has its very own Blairite mayor – Sir Peter Soulsby. And like Newham council, Leicester is dominated by the Labour Party – with 52 out of 54 councillors. Since becoming Leicester’s mayor in 2011, Soulsby has been busy cutting services and attacking the pay and conditions of workers. […]

Leicester Doctors All-Out to Defend the NHS

Leicester Doctors All-Out to Defend the NHS

During the last round of the Junior Doctors strike action, I was proud to be able to stand on the picket outside Leicester Royal Infirmary in the rain. This time, however I couldn’t make it, but I was glad to hear that their ranks are swelling by the day, from a brilliant display of some […]

Two Days to Victory for Local Trelleborg Workers

Two Days to Victory for Local Trelleborg Workers

Trelleborg is a Swedish multi-national corporation which boasts of soaring profit margins, with record profits being attained over the past year. Yet in stark contrast to the rich rewards this dosh brings to Trelleborg’s well-heeled directors, their staff here in Leicester have been forced to take strike action in order to fight for a fair […]

Striking Changes for Leicester

Striking Changes for Leicester

Driving around for a parking place, you could sense that today was going to be different. There were picket lines everywhere! Changes are afoot in Leicester. Two ex Labour councillors, Wayne Naylor and Barbara Potter have joined TUSC and pledged to fight all cuts. In contrast to Labour mayor Pete Soulsby who is slashing services […]

Workers of Leicester Unite!

Workers of Leicester Unite!

Today was a proud day for Leicester as a thousand plus people came together in the centre of town to show their vocal opposition to the ongoing public sector pay freeze. Many thousands more workers from the region also took part in this industrial action, making a stellar contribution to today’s united effort that successfully […]

Profits NEXT to Housing

Profits NEXT to Housing

According the Leicester Mercury, Tory peer Simon Wolfson, who is the chief executive of the Enderby-based retail giant Next, is happy for two reasons. The first owes to the fact that Eleanor, his new wife (of 2012) — who happens to be George Osborne’s economic adviser — has recently given birth to the couple’s first heir […]

Zero Tolerance for Zero Hours

Zero Tolerance for Zero Hours

Burning with discontent, trade unionists and socialists joined in a national day of action on Saturday against corporate scroungers who are content with exploiting their workers with zero-hour contacts. Locally, more than fifty people gathered in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, to highlight the oppressive conditions at Sports Direct’s regional warehouse. This modern-day work house employs around 5,000 […]

Posted in: BFAWU, GMB
Rising Anger Directed at Cuts-Council

Rising Anger Directed at Cuts-Council

Around 200 noisy protesters gathered outside the Town Hall in Leicester yesterday (26 Feb) to oppose the cuts proposed by the city mayor Pete Soulsby and being approved by the council. Many of these were workers at the children’s centres being cut back- 133 jobs are likely to go. The council claims it will keep […]

Posted in: Cuts, GMB, PCS, Trade Unions, UCU, Unison, Unite

BAD LORD, Welfare Scrounger!

Emblazoned on the front-page of today’s Leicester Mercury is the somewhat inspiring headline “GOOD LORD! Next boss Lord Wolfson is due a £2.4m bonus — but hands it all to his employees.” Tory peer Simon Wolfson, we are told, is pleased to reward his staff for helping the Enderby business become a multi-billion-pound success — […]

Posted in: GMB

Trash Capitalism

Last week in Doncaster, after two days of strike action, bin-workers in Unite the union employed by Sita UK “voted 70-50 to accept a revised pay offer and return to work.” This is excellent news, and “will give confidence to a group of workers only recently unionised and still in the process of building a […]