Socialist Appeal Number 176 (August 2009) is now out. Click here to order now

IRELAND: The
Thomas Cook  workers who occupied their shop for four days have now been
released by the High Court having “purged their contempt”. But it’s
going to take more than that to purge the contempt that many workers
will feel for bosses who were prepared to use the law courts and, 80
heavy handed gards who turned up at 5am – when they thought there
wouldn’t be an audience, to manhandle the 27 workers down to the
courts. If ever anyone needed convincing of the way that the state
apparatus acts in the interests of the bosses then this is a perfect
example.

As the economic
crisis deepens more and more workers are facing the prospect of unemployment as
factories continue to be closed by bosses attempting to hang onto some their
precious profit and of course their own obscenely massive wage packets. 700 Workers
at the Diageo whisky bottling plant in Kilmarnock
(200 other jobs will be cut elsewhere, including 140 jobs out of 220 at Port
Dundas distillery) are, at this very moment, facing this plight

Tam Burke reports on the struggle of the Edinburgh cleansing workers who are fighting attempts by the Liberal-SNP run council to cuts jobs.

After a short break in service caused by your webmaster having a back problem preventing computer work (and everybody else being away), socialist.net is ‘back’ in operation.

Cleansing workers in Edinbugh are locked in a bitter dispute over modernisation proposals to remove
bonuses, a move that would cost them thousands of pounds a year in
lost earnings. Socialist Appeal recieved this article and a letter from a cleansing worker.

At 7.45pm on the 20th July around 25 workers at the Vestas wind-turbine
blades plant in Newport, Isle of Wight moved to occupy offices in
protest at the planned closure of the site and the loss of 625 jobs –
525 on the Island and 100 in Southampton. Since the occupation began
Vestas workers, trade unionists, climate campaigners and the general
public have been outside the site to show their solidarity with the
occupying workers and demonstrate against the closure.

The
bosses are trying to use the current economic crisis in Ireland to
reduce wages and living standards. That is not a secret, but they claim
that it is in the interest of the workers. The story goes like this;
Irish companies must become more competitive than companies in other
countries. In that way there will be more exports and more jobs will be
created. If workers don’t accept cutbacks jobs will be lost. To
challenge those ideas the labour movement need to return to Marx

Workers are
digging their heels in and continuing to occupy the Vestas site based in the
normally sedate Isle of Wight.
Vestas
Blades UK is set to close its Newport site  with the immediate loss of 600
jobs. Despite all the talk about renewable turbine energy from the government,
it seems incredible that the only wind turbine blade manufacturer in the
UK is set to shut up shop
and transfer its business to the US in the interests of profit.

Postal
workers and their unions are under attack. About six weeks ago, Royal
Mail management took executive action – meaning cuts – 40 duties
from the Mount Pleasant office and 100 from the West End delivery
centre, without any union negotiation. This was in breach of the 2007
phase four pay and modernization agreement and is just one of the
many grievances behind the recent strike action taken by Royal Mail
postal workers.