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   Vol. 70/No. 46           December 4, 2006  
 
 
On the Picket Line
 
Bus drivers in London hold
one-day strike for pay raise
LONDON—Some 2,500 members of the Transport and General Workers’ Union at eight depots here went on strike Tuesday, November 14. They are demanding a wage increase of £0.57 per hour, to bring their hourly rate to £11 (£1=US$1.89). “It’s about time we had a strike,” Koray Alpergin, shop steward at the Kings Cross depot, told the Militant. “There hasn’t been one on Metroline for seven years or more. They keep promising things and we get very little. If they don’t give us a better deal we’ll strike again next Monday.” The union has given notice of another strike on November 20.

— Jonathan Silberman and Celia Pugh  
 
Unionists in south Korea
join four-hour ‘warning’ strike
Some 138,000 workers from 193 local unions affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) in south Korea conducted a four-hour “warning” strike November 15, union officials reported. Among the demands the workers are raising is to stop repression against the trade unions, repeal new labor regulations that threaten job security, and halt the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

The unionists rallied in major cities across south Korea, including a demonstration in front of the National Assembly in Seoul. Auto workers organized by the Korean Metal Workers Federation joined the protest, halting production at Hyundai, Kia, and Ssangyong plants that day. Thousands of other government employees, teachers, taxi drivers, transportation, and social service workers joined the rallies and work-site protests. The KCTU has announced that unless its demands are met a broader indefinite strike will be launched November 22.

—Brian Williams
 
 
Related articles:
Workers walk out at N. Carolina meat plant
1,000 protest 'no-match' letters, firing threats
 Day laborers win victory in Freehold, New Jersey
Oppose 'no-match' letters!
5,300 Houston janitors win a union contract  
 
 
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