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From The Socialist newspaper, 19 January 2022
Scunthorpe scaffs resume indefinite strike action over pay
83% of workers voted to resume strikes. Photo: Alistair Tice (Click to enlarge)
Socialist Party reporters
The 61 scaffolders employed by contractor Actavo, working on the British Steel works at Scunthorpe, will resume indefinite strike action on 26 January. After 12 weeks on strike before Christmas, the Unite union members voted by 83% in their reballot to hit the gate again.
They are striking to be paid the national industry (NAECI) rate for the job which is 10-15% more than they get now. Since Unite general secretary Sharon Graham supported the picket line on 1 December, there have been barricades on the picket line, a 14,000-signature online petition taken to Actavo HQ, an exchange of solidarity visits with Danish scaffs, and an intensification of the leverage campaign, reaching as far as Ireland.
Unite is demanding talks with Actavo and the client, British Steel (who employ hundreds of other workers on-site at below NAECI rates). But if they continue to refuse to pay the rate, then the pickets and leverage campaign will be stepped up. Unite has called protests at four Actavo sites in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland on 24 January even before the strike resumes.
There is huge support among engineering construction workers for the scaffs, as the bosses have been trying to undermine the national agreement for years. That needs to be mobilised through solidarity pickets and more pressure put on Unite reps and members inside the British Steel plant to stand with the striking scaffs.
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In The Socialist 19 January 2022:
What we think
News
No trust in Tories to keep us safe
Tories hand cash to private health profiteers
Tory vaccine sacking threat set to deepen NHS staffing crisis
Employers use vaccine excuse to attack sick pay
International news
Murder of Ashling Murphy sends shocks waves across Ireland and beyond
Northern Ireland: Workers fight threatened closure of women's hostel
US: Independent Socialist Group launches new paper
Eyewitness account of workers' uprising in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Public services
Mutual aid, the welfare state and the fight for a new mass workers' party
Marxist classics
Why are things the way they are?
Rob Windsor
Rob Windsor - remembering a tireless fighter for socialism
Theatre
Workplace news
Sheffield Just Eat couriers speak about strike
S Yorks Stagecoach strike results in "huge pay win"
Scunthorpe scaffs resume indefinite strike action
Bus driver Tracey Scholes reinstated at Go North West
Royal Mail: Unofficial walkouts precede bigger battle to come on pay and workload
Newham college strike solid against bully privatisers
Somers Forge workers continue pay strike
Campaigns
NUS walkout: Organise to fight for free education on 2 March
Demonstrating against the Tory anti-protest bill
Waltham Forest: Campaign unites families facing eviction
Newham council rejects using 0.03% of reserves to fund arts
Birmingham: Cuts consultations replaced by computer game
Southampton uni ignores staff and students in exam farce
Oliver Campbell - 31 years fighting for justice
Bournemouth - angry people not represented by capitalist parties
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