Solidarity 330, 4 July 2014

Despite five days of strikes in June, the University of London has continued with its plan to close the Garden Halls of residence, with the loss of around 80 jobs. The halls closed on 30 June, and many of the former Garden Halls workers are now on temporary summer contracts at other university sites until mid-September. The University of London Independent Workers’ union of Great Britain (IWGB) branch is now considering its next steps. These include investigating the possibility of an industrial tribunal claim, following allegations that IWGB activists were discriminated against for their...

On 30 June the Greek civil service union ADEDY began a series of protests which will culminate in a strike on 9 July. The protests are against the public sector mobility scheme which has been in operation since September 2013. Under the scheme selected workers, predominantly the lowest paid, have their wages cuts by 25%, are put into a redeployment pool and are sacked if no alternative job is found. The scheme was a way for the tripartite government of PASOK-ND-DHMAR to immediately sack 4,000 civil servants, and a further 11,000 by the end of 2014. 595 cleaners at the Ministers of Finance and...

A police crackdown on a long-running peaceful protest in South Yorkshire led to the arrest of two protesters on Monday 23 June. The “Freedom Riders”, Tony Nuttall, 65, and George Arthur, 64, have since been charged with fare evasion and obstructing a police officer. The Freedom Ride protests started in April following the decision by South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE)’s decision to make cuts to concessionary travel to make up a £234,000 budget shortfall. Free train travel for pensioners and disabled people was axed completely, with bus concessionary fares pushed back to 9...