Lebanese socialist to speak at Queen’s

BT has offered workers a 2% pay rise with two one-off payments of £250 – one of which will be at the managers discretion. This pathetic offer is nothing in comparison to BT’s profits which were up 11% in the third quarter of 2009. BT rejected the CWU’s claim of 5% despite the fact that this would only equate to just 1.1% of the companies £5.7 billion projected annual profit. Meanwhile, BT’s profits look set to go up. The recent volcanic ash cloud and its lingering problems for air travel will mean a surge in conference calling – a definite unexpected increase in BT’s profits.

Once again, the High Court in London has ruled in favour of the bosses by placing an injunction against RMT railway workers in Britain taking strike action. This is the second high profile example of the anti-union laws being used by big business to deny workers their democratic right to withdraw their labour.

Assembly Executive must scrap fees
Student Unions' must call protest on 10th November

The Assembly Executive and Minster for Employment & Learning was today challenged to scrap fees. The Minister for Employment & Learning, Reg Empey, today decided to put out to public consultation the recommendations of the Browne Report which recommend unlimited fees for higher education courses.

An IPSOS/MRBI poll published in June in the Irish Tines showed Labour as themost popular party in the Irish Republic with 32% support. This had never happened before in the history of elections or opinion polling in this state.

This poll was merely the most dramatic of a series of polls showing a big increase in support for Labour since the 2007 General Election. This rise in support is particularly strong in Dublin here polls are consistently showing Labour with more than 30% support.