Solidarity 085, 8 December 2005

This month Civil Partnership legislation came into force. Lesbian, gay and bisexual people can now register their partnership. Good, argues Maria Exall, but socialists need to fight for much more. In Solidarity 3/84 David Broder bemoans the introduction of benefit restrictions on lesbian gay and bisexual (LGB) people in the wake of the Civil Partnership legislation. He has half a point (as I explain below). However he is wrong to attack the Civil Partnership legislation as a whole. The right for LGB people to register partnerships, is a reformist gain. Couples in lesbian and gay relationships...

Irish Ferries workers are fighting back against the “race to the bottom” as their bosses are trying to mount a major attack on workers’ rights, replacing them with cheap foreign labour. Two of the company’s flagship ferries, the Isle of Inishmore and Ulysses, have been occupied by workers in protest — they remain stranded in Welsh ports — while dock workers refuse to let the MV Normandy leave Dublin. The trigger for the occupation of the ships was Irish Ferries’ attempt to forcibly remove the workers with armed security staff who had boarded the ships dressed as passengers. The Irish...

By Tom Haslam GMB shop stewards representing 6,000 British Gas engineers have called a number of one-day strikes in the battle to defend their pension rights and the rights of future workers. Twenty-four hours strikes are due to take place on 12, 19, 21 December plus 6 and 9 January. In addition there will be a ban on out of hours cover from and including 12-23 December and 4-10 January. Stewards were also keen to put in place emergency cover arrangements to provide a service to the elderly and those with young children. The engineers are responsible for domestic work, but not the mains, so...

With health, teachers and civil servants having agreed a deal over pensions with the government, local government workers have been left to battle on alone. The government has now said they will scrap the “Rule of 85” under which some council workers can retire on a full pension at 60. If the “Rule of 85” ends, all two million local government workers will work until the age of 65 by 2013. The government say the rule is “age discriminatory” and therefore illegal. That’s hogwash — the move to scrap it is part of the what the government wants to claw back from local government workers and their...

UNISON and NUJ members in the Press and Publicity department of Tower Hamlets Council took strike action on Monday 28 November in defence of Eileen Short, who has been threatened with losing her job as a result of restructuring. She has worked for the council for 14 years. The department has been “restructured” five times in the last five years. The latest restructuring is just an excuse for the council to get rid of a thorn in their side. Eileen has been an ardent campaigner against the selling-off of council homes in the borough as well as being a UNISON steward. Restructuring in Eileen’s...

The Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) representative at Peckham bus garage, Andy Beadle, was reinstated last week after an appeal against his victimisation. Andy was dismissed for allegedly “bringing the company in to disrepute”. In reality he was sacked for representing his members. Andy’s crime was to distribute a leaflet calling for a “no” vote in the second round of their pay ballot. In the first round of the ballot Peckham garage had voted overwhelmingly 126-5 against the deal. Their huge majority had decisively tipped the balance of those garages balloted, against the deal. This...

Workers for ipsl, a financial services company based in Bootle are threatening strike action. The dispute is about divisive treatment on redundancy terms and pensions enhancements and the introduction of new productivity targets. There is due to be job losses in the future and there are differential terms for ex Alliance and Leicester and HSBC staff. The disputed terms are part of an overall package on pay that was rejected in a consultative ballot (run by the unions but demanded by the management) by 483 to 3. The unions concerned, CWU, PCS and AMICUS expect 24 hour stoppages in the coming...

By a Tube worker Finally, RMT and London Underground are officially in dispute over LUL’s attempt to cut station staff under cover of re-rostering for the shorter working week agreement. The whole year has been spent going through a process of drafting and re-drafting rosters, with management’s drafts attacking staffing levels at many locations. Of course, the union had to go through this process — the members had voted overwhelmingly for a deal which included it. But it has been obvious for some time now that the company has not been consulting in good faith, and that the consequences of...

“The consequence of this cavalier approach to human rights, as witnessed from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib and beyond,” comments the Observer (4 December) on new revelations that the CIA regularly flies prisoners to foreign countries where they can be tortured with impunity, “is to undermine the very values that the War against Terror was supposed to encourage.” If the Observer was written by honest, clear-headed, consistent democrats, and not by liberal apologists for capitalism, it might have drawn a different conclusion: that the governments fighting the “War on Terror” were not serious...

On 15 November, Wandsworth Stop the War Coalition, in South West London, held a public meeting on civil liberties in Tooting Islamic Centre. An email advertising the meeting made the following request: “We have been asked to dress modestly and that women cover their heads. Also, we are asked to respect the men/women seating arrangements... Considerable discussion took place within the Muslim community before agreement was reached that a political meeting could take place in a holy building.” The meeting went ahead as planned, with segregated seating and head coverings passed out to women on...