UK

I recently attended Unison's national delegate conference in Bournemouth as a delegate from a London local government branch. It was an eye opening experience with respect to the machinations of political groupings within the union.

In particular some of the ways in which the new Labour-linked bureaucracy maintained control over the supposedly lay lead organisation became clear.

The union is gathering evidence that cleaners have been bullied, harassed and threatened with the sack and with illegal punitive deductions from their wages if they take strike action.

Collections drivers at the York mail centre struck during the afternoon shift yesterday over disciplinary action being taken against a colleague. A Royal mail spokesman claimed that 30 workers walked out at 1.30 pm, leading to managers covering their duties, collecting mail from postboxes and businesses around the city.

One of the biggest outbreaks of industrial unrest for years will see tens of thousands of job centre workers, coastguards, driving examiners and other Government employees join a strike next month by council employees.

More than half a million local authority workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are staging a two-day walkout on July 16 and 17 after rejecting a 2.45% pay offer.

About 70 workers have downed tools amid claims their city council paymasters have gone back on an agreement to pay them thousands of pounds in back pay. They say they are owed compensation as a result of a salary restructure undergone by the authority and are refusing to go back to work until the outstanding wages are paid.

"The boys are refusing to work until it is sorted," said one binman.

Other highlights in a week of high-quality political programming are the classic film which depicts the events of the controversial 1925 American creationism v Darwinism courtroom debate, documentaries on the escalation of gang-related violence in Britain and an investigation into the despicable corporate practice of encouraging tobacco addiction in children in Africa.

UNISON balloted for strike action after rejecting a 2.45% pay offer. The government's 2% pay increase target for public sector pay has become increasingly stark against inflation - with sharp increases in the cost of fuel and basic necessities internationally.

The last minute offer was made to the drivers’ union, the ITF affiliated Unite, by Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport, who are contracted to distribute Shell supplies. It followed four days of peaceful industrial action in the UK, with more planned.

Other highlights concern the damaging effects of war on troops, the impact of West Indian immigration on Britain, the trangressing of class-based sexual taboos in Victorian Britain and teen violence aimed at members of harmless sub-cultures.

Saturday 21 June - 9pm - 12.30am - More4 - Warriors

At 1:30pm bus services in the town ground to a halt as about 35 drivers walked off the job today (14th June). One driver said: "It is about management stabbing us in the back. They have cut our conditions. We have lost a lot of money."

The drivers returned to their routes at around 2:15pm, saying the matter was now in the hands of the unions.

Other highlights are a political appraisal of the history of the western, an exploration on the effects of Islamic extremist indoctrination on Muslim prisoners, a study of the problems in breaking free from restrictive orthodox Jewish culture and a visual study of sexual hypocrisy in the Catholic Church.

Saturday 14 June - 9 - 10.30pm - BBC4 - How the West Was Lost

Not long after the rejection of a pay deal by NHS workers in the GMB, 94.8% of Unite's health sector workers - including health visitors, hospital pharmacists, health care chaplains and members in many other health care professions and support services voted to turn down the three year offer worth less than 8%.

John Hutton, business secretary, fears the strike could prompt much more widespread fuel shortages than those caused by the strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery in April, and has ordered officials to draw up contingency plans. Industry executives believe these fears are well founded.

Afghanistan also features in a documentary in which several members of the Grenadier Guards are interviewed.

The bus company provides Transport for London, school contracts and special need services, and just won a contract for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Action took place between 3.30am and 9.30am on June 2nd, and a second strike is planned for 13th June between 1.30pm and 7pm.

Except that’s actually a load of old bollocks. The good General and knight of the realm is being just a little misleading – I’m sure it’s unintentional, him being such a respected state figure and all - when he fails to point out that, unlike the average traffic warden, our boys in khaki also get a number of little perks.

For the first time ever, Queens University is attempting to introduce compulsory redundancies for staff. Normally, voluntary means are used to resolve staffing issues, but Queens senior-management were attempting to rush-through the compulsory redundancy plan tomorrow at Standing Committee meeting.

For those of you who aren’t up on what the Newcastle-based Projectile anarchist film festival does, it really provides the main northern answer to the London Anarchist Bookfair as the place for libertarians to get together (though Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow all have their own regular bookfairs, none are on quite the same scale).

If their decision is confirmed by the 450,000 NHS workers in Unison next week, the government may be forced to abandon its attempt to reach a long-term settlement.