News and Analysis

The 100% anti-cuts, socialist alternative presented by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has been welcomed on the doorstep by people who are desperate to see an end to austerity. But some figures on the Labour right are less enthusiastic that we’re standing in the Welsh council elections. We’ve been accused of splitting the ‘left-wing’ vote; even of sexism ...

Bridgend Ford workers have sent a huge statement of intent to Ford by not being available for overtime. They are telling Ford: come to the table and commit to sourcing that makes the plant viable for all those who want to work in it, or there will be action. It is absolutely correct to tell Ford and the politicians in ...

The warnings of the run down of the Bridgend plant by Ford workers have unfortunately proved correct. Ford has leaked documents indicating the run down of the plant over the next four years. By linking the closure to overtime payments the company is clearly trying to use the threat of closure to force through cuts in pay and conditions at ...

Tata steelworkers have reluctantly accepted a ‘gun to the head’ pension deal which will end their final salary pension scheme and see it being replaced by an inferior defined contribution pension scheme. Union leaders, Tata management, MPs, AMs and the Welsh government all repeated endlessly to the workforce: accept this deal or see the plant close. Union leaders have attempted ...

A flood of support from Labour Party members and trade unionists has greeted the appeal of the Cardiff No-Cuts Three against their expulsion from the Labour Party. John Williams, Joao Felix and Rich Edwards were expelled at the end of January shortly after proposing a motion calling on councillors to refuse to make more cuts to jobs and services. Judith ...

By Alec Thraves (Swansea Socialist Party) Hospital Sterilisation and Disinfection Unit (HSDU) workers at ABMU Health Board, covering Swansea, Neath/Port Talbot and Bridgend have been forced into taking strike action in an effort to bring their pay banding up to the equivalent of other HSDU workers in Health Boards across Wales. As the lengthy name of their unit suggests, we ...

Over 70 people packed into a meeting comprised mainly workers from the Llanelli benefits office called by the Labour Party to discuss how to oppose the possible loss of 157 jobs due to the proposed closure of the above office. These job losses if they came about would have an horrendous impact on the workers and their families and on ...

By Ross Saunders (Cardiff Socialist Party) Cardiff’s Labour-run Council stands at a crossroads this year: it can carry on down the road of slashing jobs and services, or take notice of the growing anti-austerity and anti-establishment mood that pushed Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party and decide to fight Tory cuts instead of helping to make them. Millions ...

Ben Golightly, Swansea University Socialist Students The Welsh Government commissioned the Diamond Review in 2013 to look at higher education funding and student finance for Welsh students (a student ordinarily resident in Wales). The recommendations will mean Welsh students being charged full £9,000 tuition fees for the first time, receiving less funding overall, and paying more for their education. The ...

By Alec Thraves The announcement that Tata Steel and the leaders of the steel unions have potentially reached an agreement to stop the closure of the Port Talbot works and the other Welsh and UK plants has understandably been greeted with enormous relief by the local community. It has been politically impossible for governments in Westminster and Cardiff to stand ...