and increased charges for services such as Meals on Wheels. But as NALGO members were preparing for action against these cuts, it was announced that a £1.7 million overspend on social services would lead to still more cuts.
The number of hospital social workers has been drastically cut and two new day centres have been 'put on ice'. Consultation is being kept to a minimum. NALGO members are now preparing to ballot for strike action.
Given that the council Labour Group are clearly prepared to do the Tories' dirty work, immediate strike action across the council is necessary to defend jobs and services.
cuts Teachers have forced Sandwell Labour council in Birmingham to retreat from threatened redundancies, following a strong vote for strike action.
Sandwell has long portrayed itself ac caring Labour authority, but this image was destroyed with the recent threat of ten redundancies among teachers, late in the term.
Fortunately, this was met with a strong response from the National Union of Teachers. A well attended general meeting voted unanimously for strike action. This was followed by an 82% majority for a three day strike in a ballot.
This produced a U-turn from the local education authority -all remaining redundancy notices were withdrawn. After years of poorly attended union meetings, such a rapid and decisive move in defence of all teachers is a positive sign. The role of the hard left Socialist Teachers Alliance in the local union leadership was a key factor in the campaign.
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No. 5 Words and * Layout * Typesetting July 6, 1991
socialist