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From The Socialist newspaper, 19 January 2022
Somers Forge workers continue pay strike
Somers Forge strikers. Photo: Wolverhampton and black country socialist party (Click to enlarge)
Nick Hart, West Midlands Socialist Party
Workers at Somers Forge in Halesowen took their fourth day of strike action in their current dispute for a living pay increase - and also the fourth ever in the company's 155-year history!
Strikers told us about the Victorian working conditions at this Victorian company. It's not uncommon to see pools of water, with squirrels and ducks nesting in the workshop, which produces large metalwork for military and other specialist applications.
On top of this is a bullying culture from management that has seen over 50 staff come and go in one section in the space of three years. Far from the company taking necessary measures to minimise Covid during the pandemic, workers were not only being trooped into the plant, but reportedly threatened with the sack for not taking overtime!
GMB union members there have a further two days of strike action planned for late January, as part of their campaign to win a pay rise in line with inflation and backdated to last April's pay anniversary. Yet another group of workers not taking the cost of living crisis lying down!
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
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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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