Farmers to March on Downing Street

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

Farmers to March on Downing Street

Fujitsu to Axe 16,400 Jobs World-wide

CBI Says 29,000 Jobs Will Go in Manufacturing

Women Still Paid Less than Men

Miners March to Keep Pit Open

Tube Unions Demand Consultation on Safety

Workers' Movement News In Brief
DEFRA Staff to Strike over Pay
Tube Unions Could Strike over Toilets
Bin Workers Vote to Strike

UNHCR Expresses Concern Over Attacks on Asylum-Seekers in Britain

British Government Rejects Call to Ban Arms to Israel

Up to 2,000 farmers are due to march to Downing Street today to demand a public inquiry into the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Led by the head of Farmers for Action, David Handley, who was also at the forefront of the protests against fuel prices, the farmers are meeting at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park at midday.

At Downing Street they will hand over a model farm for Tony Blair's children – one which does not contain any animals. Marilyn Handley, David's wife, said: "It symbolises what they have been doing to us."

The farmers, from all over Britain, have joined together under the name of the Foot and Mouth Alliance.

David Handley is a Monmouthshire dairy farmer. He told BBC Wales: "We are calling for a full public inquiry. If it takes three years – there are a lot of questions that need answering." He said some of the farmers would be calling for livestock to be vaccinated against the disease.

The demand of the farmers for a public inquiry is just. Having pursued a programme which has facilitated the destruction of the manufacturing base of society, the New Labour government has followed a path in dealing with foot-and-mouth disease which has resulted in wiping out many small farmers. Every aspect of the government's policy in connection with the outbreak has been questioned by the farmers, resulting as it has in the devastation of the agriculture industry leaving the large concerns, such as Northern Foods, in an even more dominant position.

Today, also, some 3,000 civil servants who work for the Whitehall department dealing with foot-and-mouth are on a one-day strike over pay.

The computer giant Fujitsu is to cut 16,400 jobs worldwide to cope with a slump in demand for technology. Around 5,000 jobs are expected to go in Japan and 11,400 overseas in the "restructuring" move. The Japanese electronics multinational has a global workforce of about 180,000.

Fujitsu has operations in Manchester, and Hayes in Middlesex. It also owns British computer company ICL. ICL, which is due to come under the Fujitsu brand name next year, employs half of its 19,000 workforce in Britain, including sites at Edinburgh, Manchester and Warrington. Fujitsu has not given a breakdown of job losses by country, but it says nearly 3,000 jobs will be cut in North America. It is suggested that about 220 workers are likely to lose their jobs at the British base of Fujitsu Telecommunications, though it could well be more. The division employs some 1,470 people, with headquarters in Birmingham, offices in Cambridge and two further operations in Belfast.

Like its Japanese competitors, Fujitsu has been hard hit by the global downturn in sales of memory chips and other electronics components. Its competitor NEC plans to axe 4,000 jobs by next March in a similar costcutting move. Last month, Fujitsu posted a first-quarter group loss of 55.4 billion yen (£318.8 million), more than four times the 13.3 billion yen (£76.5 million) it lost a year ago. Fujitsu has warned it will make a loss during its current financial year, and revealed that it plans to take a £1.73 billion hit from its latest "restructuring" programme.

This news has come on the heels of the collapse of the bubble of the "dot.com" and the telecoms industries. It also comes in the wake of the collapse of the Asian tiger economies, not to speak of the Celtic tiger of Ireland, where the decision of Gateway Computers to close its European Headquarters, which is based in Dublin, will have a devastating impact not only on the immediate 850 workers and their families, but also on the Irish economy as a whole. The policy of ploughing millions of pounds into attracting multinational high-tech companies at the expense of indigenous business, which is being pursued by the governments of both Britain and Ireland – the policy of "inward investment" – has again been shown to guarantee neither the health of the economy nor a secure livelihood for the workers. It is now being exposed more than ever as the recession of manufacturing industry globally is beginning to bite.

It is being said that there are "two economies" – the manufacturing economy and the service sector economy. The first is said to be in trouble while the latter is buoyant. But the fact is that what is not produced by manufacturing industry or by the agricultural sector can neither be distributed nor consumed. Of course, the multinationals and conglomerates aim to move their capital and their investment wherever the maximum capitalist profit is to be made. As the rate of profit falls and the recession deepens, so these multinationals also need to step up their programme of imperialist globalisation. In this they are using national governments as their tools and the economic and political programmes of these governments are being geared to this end. With the world-wide movement against such neo-liberal globalisation, the people are attempting to wrest back the initiative from those forces implementing neo-liberal programmes which are blocking the door to the progress of society.

The announcement of the global "restructuring" plans of such monopolies as Fujitsu which are gathering apace emphasises more than anything else the necessity for the workers to capture the initiative, beginning with constituting themselves the opposition to the economic and political system which is geared to maximising the profits of the rich.

The Confederation of British Industry has said that around 29,000 manufacturing jobs will be lost in manufacturing between July and September.

The latest quarterly regional trends survey of the CBI, which came a day after the Office for National Statistics revealed on August 6 that manufacturing had officially entered into recession, says that British manufacturers fear exports will plummet to their worst level for almost three years. Manufacturers have reported substantial job losses in the North and East Midlands. Now workers are also being made redundant in the South East, the West Midlands and the East of England.

The job losses are expected to be spread throughout Britain, with the South West the only likely exception. More than a third of manufacturers questioned by the CBI took a negative view of job prospects. Overall business confidence also fell, with 22% of firms less optimistic about general business conditions.

Sudhir Junankar, CBI associate director, said: "The global slowdown is now hitting UK manufacturing hard, with firms in virtually all UK regions experiencing falling orders, output and employment, with severe pressure in profit margins." The CBI associate director argued that with underlying inflation set to remain at the 2.5% official target, further rate cuts might be necessary if consumer demand comes off the boil and growth in the service sector eases.

Official employment figures released on August 15 back the CBI predictions. On the basis of the figures, unemployment is set to rise for the first time since October, 2000, as companies cut back in response to the growing economic gloom.

The figures show only a marginal fall in the number of people claiming benefit as redundancies mount. In June, the number of people claiming benefit fell by 12,000 to 963,700, a jobless rate of 3.2%, the best figures since 1975. But, according to agency reports, economists believe the tide may be turning as the number of job losses increases. For example, industrial gases group BOC cut 200 jobs in Britain, following Marconi's recent decision to axe 1,500 British workers and the loss of 600 jobs at NEC in Scotland.

Thirty years after the Equal Pay Act came into force, women are still getting paid less than men, resulting in a financial deficit that could add up to as much as £250,000 over a lifetime. On average, for every £1.00 a man earns, a woman gets only 82p across both the public and private sectors.

In this situation, the government has appointed Denise Kingsmill, the deputy chairman of the Competition Commission, to lead an inquiry into equal pay and suggest practical solutions to the pay gap. Her initial findings have suggested that there are few environments where women feel they cannot compete equally, but when it comes to pay the odds are still weighed against them. In the banking and insurance sector, for example, male pay averages approximately £18 per hour, whereas women receive just under £10.50.

The Transport & General Workers Union is pressing all companies where they represent members to review pay structures thoroughly to stop any wage inequality. "If you have a system whereby people are all quite clear about the grading structure and what you need to do to be able to move up grades, etc., then there is a transparency about that which enables people to see exactly where they stand within the structure, " Margaret Prosser, T&G deputy general secretary, said.

The pay gap between men and women is a symptom of a society in which women are exploited both as workers and as women. In this situation, women have to affirm their rights both as workers and as women. Women are in the forefront of the struggle for a society which is fit for all human beings, in which workers are granted the dignity which is their right and in which all conditions are realised for women to end their status as "fair game" and second class citizens in a society which reflects a new socialised humanity.

Miners made redundant at Hatfield Colliery, near Doncaster, south Yorkshire, marched on the pit last week to demand that it be kept open.

The coal mine had been closed by its owners the Hatfield Coal Company Limited on August 9 with the loss of 223 jobs, despite the existence of 20 years of coal underground. The company has said it could not guarantee funding to continue trading, despite having agreed terms for long-term supply to the Drax power station. About 15 maintenance workers have been given four weeks’ notice and redundancy terms for the miners are being prepared. The miners were informed less than two hours into their morning shift and lost their jobs on the spot.

Dave Douglas, the company's National Union of Mineworkers representative, said the workforce was in shock and blamed a lack of support from the government. The miners work as "face-cutters", described as the most dangerous job in mining. "There's only 10 men on each shift who know how to do face-cutting. They're frontline men. All that experience will be gone," said Dave Douglas. "They mined 900 tonnes of coal last night and there's another 900 million tonnes down there," he said. "Management has got all the facts and figures to prove the mine would be profitable. In another two or three years when this country's buying in coal for two or three times the amount we can produce it for, they'll say the miners were right."

Dave Douglas was to meet lawyers and said, "We'll try to enforce the 90 days consultation period required by law, during which time the fabric of the mine cannot be damaged." "We'd like the workers to buy it and run it as a co-operative, like the miners at the Tower pit in south Wales," he said. "But these men are still owed wages and holiday pay." Local councillors have agreed to join the campaign and meetings are planned with local MPs and the Energy Minister, Brian Wilson.

The directors of the Hatfield colliery said they decided they had no alternative but to place the company into liquidation after advice from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Coal Authority. A spokesman said they had lost the backing of a major funder. "Unfortunately, negotiations broke down last week. It became clear that the finance required would not be available within a timescale which would enable the colliery to continue trading."

Eddie Dixon, one of the directors, told BBC News Online that management were unable to address the miners' demonstration as the company has not yet completed the process of going into receivership. "We're always prepared to meet with a group of our workers but at this juncture in the legal process it would not be appropriate to address the men."

Unions representing 16,000 London Underground workers are continuing their campaign against the government’s privatisation by stealth campaign and warn that they will use strike action and legal measures if safety issues are not resolved.

Workers’ representatives have called for an independent public inquiry, rather than intervention by the Health and Safety Executive, to come to a decision on safety issues. The unions maintain that the Public Private Partnership [PPP] scheme has not addressed issues of workers’ and passenger safety or carried out sufficient consultation with workers representatives. The PPP scheme includes splitting the Tube into four separate entities with no unified management structure with maintenance responsibility being transferred to three private consortiums with London Underground keeping responsibility for operating the network. This split is seen as an underground version of the privatisation of the national rail network.

Bob Crow, RMT assistant general secretary, charged that the HSE and London Underground may be overlooking major safety issues and that there seemed to be a "political imperative to force through PPP at any price". Bob Crow said, "Industrial action would be the last resort but we will use every avenue if needs be to make sure the system is safe, including an injunction. If our safety representatives say to us that the risks are the same under PPP as now or no less than now then that's the time that we will go for an injunction. We would have no hesitation in then balloting our members for industrial action."

A spokeswoman for the HSE said it had tried to make the assessment of PPP's safety "open and transparent". "All the relevant unions have been involved throughout the process and their concerns have been considered very carefully by the HSE assessment team," she said. The final decision will be taken by HSE experts who have not been involved in the safety case.

A LU spokesman said: "The safety case will cover not only the operational part of London Underground but all the three infrastructure companies. The safety case is being made with the participation of, and full, active consultation with the unions."

This development in the PPP controversy came after LU's annual report said the Tube had failed all seven performance targets – including one on customer satisfaction about safety and security.

Civil servants represented by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are striking over pay.

Three hundred and fifty people work for DEFRA at Eden Bridge House in Carlisle. About 650 more are employed on sites at Workington, Penrith and Kendal. They are responsible for ensuring subsidy payments to farmers affected by the foot-and-mouth crisis. The workers oppose differences in their salaries that see them receiving less pay than colleagues from other government departments do. The civil servants were transferred to DEFRA from the now defunct Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). PCS also represents about 3,000 former MAFF employees.

Caroline Watson, the Carlisle branch secretary of the PCS, said, "People came into DEFRA from other departments on June 8 when MAFF was re-organised. Staff who have worked for the same length of time as their new colleagues, and are doing a job on the same grade, are paid £3,500 less. We have a large number of staff here who are on the national minimum wage and who have to supplement their salaries with second jobs or with benefits. People have a vision that civil servants are very well paid and they are not."

Caroline Watson stressed that farmers' subsidies will not be affected by the action. She said, "We are not targeting foot-and-mouth control centres at all. Obviously we have members there who are former MAFF employees... and if they wish to take action then they are free to do so, but we will not be picketing the foot-and-mouth control centres. Some members... are saying they will write to the minister instead as they don't want to let the farmers down."

Tube Unions Could Strike over Toilets

London Underground workers may take strike action against their management’s failure to provide adequate facilities for staff. RMT and the train drivers' union ASLEF have been in talks with London Underground at the conciliation service ACAS. The unions intend to ballot their members next month over industrial action if a satisfactory conclusion to the complaints is not reached. RMT assistant general secretary Bob Crow said, "LU agreed there would be adequate facilities for drivers when they book on and off. The women are being told to go to the pub to use the toilet," he said. "There are no proper facilities for washing their hands. It is prehistoric. We do not think that in today's age men and women should have to share the same toilet and that there are no proper facilities for women."

Bin Workers Vote to Strike

Refuse collectors in Bristol have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action over pay. Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) regional organiser Ian Crawford said: "A ballot showed around 90% in favour of industrial action." The workers employed by SITA, private contractors who carry out the service for Bristol City Council, intend to stop collecting rubbish on Fridays and Mondays.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on August 10 expressed deep concern at the attacks on asylum-seekers in Britain, urging politicians and the media to deal responsibly with the issue.

The UNHCR was reacting to the murder of 22-year-old Turkish Kurd asylum-seeker in Glasgow on August 5 and the stabbing of an Iranian asylum-seeker on the same housing estate on August 7, as well as the stabbing in the throat of another asylum-seeker in Hull.

"Three such attacks in the space of three days is a very alarming development, but in UNHCR's view was sadly predictable given the climate of vilification of asylum-seekers that has taken hold in the UK in recent years," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva. "In some mass circulation newspapers, asylum-seekers are continually branded a problem, statistics are being twisted and negative stories are being endlessly highlighted. This often deliberate attempt to tarnish the name of an entire group has been so successful that the words 'asylum-seeker' and 'refugee' have even become a term of abuse in school playgrounds."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, recently wrote in an editorial, "Asylum-seekers can't answer back. 'Illegal', 'bogus', 'flood', 'fraudulent', 'criminal', 'scrounger', 'trafficking' – all are words commonly paired with the term 'asylum-seeker'." He warned that abusive language had dangerous consequences. "Such words drip into the public consciousness until they become self-fulfilling – the 'public opinion' they help shape stimulates the formulation of increasingly restrictive and harsher policies."

The British government on August 16 rejected calls from arms campaigners for a ban on weapons exports to Israel, arguing there was no evidence that British-made equipment was being used for internal repression.

The BBC reported that equipment including armoured Land Rovers and components for military aircraft and tanks was being used in the occupied territories.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade said the worsening violence should prompt an embargo. Government ministers have argued in previous years that arms exports could continue on the grounds of optimism about the peace process.

Ben Bradshaw, Foreign Office minister, said the government had no evidence that British equipment was being used in the occupied territories. British arms exports to Israel were "completely insignificant", he said.

The arms exports are consistent with the policy of "no war, no peace" pursued by the British and US governments, and their refusal to condemn Israel for its violence against the Palestinian people and instead maintaining that both sides should exercise restraint and end extremism. WDIE condemns the British government’s policy which is aimed to perpetuate violence and injustice in the Middle East.