A couple of thousand of people joined the COP26 demonstration in Leeds on 6th November to coincide with the major protest outside the conference in Glasgow, after a week in which the incapability of the capitalist powers around the globe to act to tackle the looming threat of climate change has become ever clearer, many…
Around 50 trade union activists gathered for a rally on Woodhouse Moor on Friday 15th October for a protest organised by Unite the Union against fire and rehire and in support of a forthcoming bill being moved in parliament to ban the practice. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party It’s welcome that rather than leave this…
Socialist Party members joined Unite taxi & private hire drivers, disabled taxi users and Unite Community activists in a protest outside Leeds Civic Hall in opposition to plans by the council and Network Rail to move the taxi rank outside the station as part of redevelopment plans. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party As Wasim, one…
In the first protest so far in Yorkshire, around 15 construction electricians, protested outside the training centre of construction giant NG Bailey, in South Leeds. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party As well as support from Leeds TUC, we brought solidarity to the protest from candidates standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in the…
Unite members at Optare in Yorkshire returned to the picket lines on 16 November for the first day of their now escalated four-days-a-week strike at the bus manufacturers. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party Threats from the police to fine strikers if they continued to picket, citing the new Covid restrictions, had prevented picketing, until the…
On the very first day of the new national lockdown, police issued dispersal orders to a picket line of striking workers, on the grounds of breaching the new rules. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party Unite members at Optare in Sherburn-in-Elmet have been social distancing and wearing masks, in contrast to contractors the company employs, who…
At a meeting held on the picket line on Friday 30th October, Optare workers voted to escalate their ongoing strike action in their long-running pay dispute from two days a week, to four days a week starting from Monday 16th November. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party Two weeks into the strike, many of the deliveries…
Unite members at bus manufacturer Optare, in Sherburn-in-Elmet, on the outskirts of Leeds, took the first strike in a series of discontinous 48 hour strikes starting on 15th October, alongsideside a continuous overtime ban. Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party During pay negotiations in 2019, workers had been given a promise of a decent pay rise,…
Campaigners had a big reason to be cheerful at the events marking 70th anniversary of the NHS in Leeds, as the Trust at Leeds Teaching Hospitals had announced that they “will not be transferring any staff into a Wholly-owned Subsidiary during the financial year to March 2019.” Iain Dalton, Leeds Socialist Party This is now…
Leeds City Council has made the decision to withdraw escorted transport funding for young people aged 16+ with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Parents (organised through ‘Disability Empowerment Action Links’ (DEAL) and students, alongside Unite Community members, gathered on the steps of Leeds Town Hall to protest against the withdrawal of this service, which…
