Fujitsu striker, photo Becci Heagney

Fujitsu striker, photo Becci Heagney   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Fujitsu fight

Fujitsu workers are continuing their ongoing battle against offshoring, job cuts, attacks on pensions and unequal pay with further strike action. This has included protests outside of events Fujitsu Services Ltd has had a high profile at.

Strikers are angry given that these cutbacks come at the same time as Fujitsu’s latest accounts show it made £85.6 million profits in the UK but paid 0% tax on this with one director alone receiving £1.5 million.

The series of strikes so far was added to on 11-12 May when workers across the country held protests outside Marks and Spencers stores, one of the major clients of Fujitsu.

In Leeds, strikers were joined by activists from Unite Community, the Socialist Party and others to leaflet customers. Managers and security staff were spotted reading the leaflets and then on the phone – presumably ringing those higher up about the issue, showing that the action was having its intended effect.

The dispute is still ongoing. More information can be found at socialistparty.org.uk as well as the strikers’ website: ouruniontest.wordpress.com

Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party

Blacklisted

Frank Morris, a member of Unite’s executive council, is holding a one-man protest picket outside missile manufacturer MBDA in Stevenage. Frank spoke to the Socialist:

“It’s been very good so far. People have been supporting me.

“After being out of work for four months, I got a start with W Portsmouth. Then after they found out I was a union activist, I was escorted off site and dismissed.

I was working in Enfield at Chase Farm Hospital but MBDA are the main customer of the company so I decided to stage my protest here in Stevenage.

“The MBDA management have called the police many times, I’ve had every rank of officer from PC to inspector. After the inspector came along and said what I was doing was perfectly legal, and went in to tell the management that, I’ve not had any trouble.

“I just want a job, I am not after money and I want to work. I am here for the long haul and will continue my protest until I get some justice.

Other trade unionists should support me, they could be affected by blacklisting. If these companies in the supply chain can get away with it, it won’t be long before the main customer companies start using blacklisting as well.”

Steve Glennon, Stevenage Socialist Party

RCN result

Members of the RCN nursing union have given a clear message to the government about pay. It was announced at the RCN conference that 52,000 members working in the NHS had taken part in an indicative poll which measured members’ appetite for industrial action. The results of the three-week poll revealed 91% of members would take industrial action short of strike, with 78% saying they were prepared to strike. The unprecedented results show a real appetite for industrial action from RCN members for the first time ever.

Conference passed an emergency resolution calling for a summer of planned protest activity, followed by an industrial action ballot, should the next UK government fail to end the policy of pay restraint.