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UK government ministers met trade union leaders on Monday but fell short of ending a wave of strikes that has hobbled the rail network and strained the overburdened health system. There were small signs of progress but no breakthrough after a meeting between Health Secretary Steve Barclay and health care unions. Other ministers met with railway unions that have staged months of strikes, and teaching unions considering classroom walkouts. Barclay said the talks had made progress and the government wanted "to work constructively with the trade unions. There was definitely a change of tone today," said Sarah Gorton of UNISON, which represents some health workers. However Onay Kasab, negotiator for the Unite union, said the talks had been a missed opportunity. Unions said strikes by nurses and ambulance staff planned for this month would go ahead. Nurses are due to walk out on Wednesday, and ambulance workers next week, while junior doctors are voting on whether to strike later this ..
A traders' body in Pune city of Maharashtra has decided to extend support to the December 13 'bandh' called given by the opposition parties as a mark of protest against Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's remarks on Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Sambhaji Brigade and some other outfits have given the bandh call. Fatehchand Ranka, president of the Federation of Traders Associations of Pune (FATP), said in a release on Thursday that the office-bearers of the three parties and Smabhaji Brigade had appealed to the traders' body to support the bandh called for condemning the governor's statements. "Following the appeal made by these parties, an internal meeting of all the members of the federation was organised and it was decided to support the bandh by keeping the shops closed till 3 pm on Tuesday," Ranka said. Last month, governor Koshyari kicked up a row as he termed Chhatrapati ..