Archives

For those with more money than sense… Manchester firm F. Duerr has produced the world’s most expensive pot of marmalade. It contains whisky, champagne and gold (what for?) in a crystal jar. It costs just £5,000.

The ‘Guardian’ (February 2nd 2008) did a survey, asking, “Do you trust your boss to give you a proper pay rise.” 71% said ‘No.’ Who are the 29% who said ‘Yes’?

The Tories claim that the decision to nationalise Northern Rock (after endless dithering) adds £3,000 in national debt for every family in Britain. We prefer the example of Tory hero Margaret Thatcher, who took over failed Johnson Matthey Bank for just £1.

The TUC reports that long hours’ working is on the up. More than one in eight of the workforce puts in more than 48 hours. In London it’s one in six.

In the richest country in the world, the USA, 28 million people depend on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families. In Michigan it’s one in eight households. Food stamps are just supposed to supplement the cost of groceries. But now food prices are soaring and the value of food stamps is not keeping up.

THE FIRST of three
24-hour strikes by more than 130 East Midlands Trains senior conductors
began at a minute after midnight on Saturday 7th June after talks at
conciliation service
Acas failed to resolve a breakdown in industrial relations with the
company.

UNISON’s
425,000 members in Health have voted to accept the Government’s 3 year pay
deal, which will deal a significant blow to the chances of a generalised
campaign on pay across the public sector this summer. The deal offers 8.1% over
three years, with more for some members.

Yesterday the GMB announced that their Local Government
members had voted 4:1 against strike action in the wake of management’s offer
of 2.45% with strings. The result is significant for a number of reasons, not
least that UNISON members have just commenced voting in a similar ballot that
began on June 2nd and finishes on June 20th.

Speaking to a gathering of
national leaders of the PSUV on May 30, President Chavez explained that he was
reading a book by Alan Woods, Bolshevism – the road to revolution, and
raised a copy for everyone to see. He referred to Alan as a friend and a
British Marxist theoretician. He then quoted a couple of passages from the book
on the role of the revolutionary party.

Headlines such as ‘Agency and temporary workers win rights
deal’ have publicised the agreement brokered by the government between the TUC
and the CBI. Though agency workers and temps have made some gains, the battle
for equal treatment is far from over. There are 1.4 million agency workers in
Britain. They have been getting a raw deal. They have no job security, no
holiday entitlement, no right to sick pay, no right to maternity provision and
no right to overtime rates.

The government claims inflation is ‘under 3%’ but, according to The Independent of Saturday 17th of May, food prices have gone up by 6.6 % but that basic food items have gone up by 20% in the twelve months to May 2008!  Sainsbury’s profits are up 28% to £488million.Tesco profits are up 11.8 % to £2.8 billion and Premier Foods up by 216% to £280 million.  British Gas prices are set to rise by 40% this year when profits have risen by 501% to £570 million. The article says that “the food business insist they are struggling to keep costs […]