Oxford claimants back CPSA strike

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extra money to ship 18 two weeks in DHSS offices scabs into the area to set up against job cuts - the the emergency office in the Oxford staff joining two hope that the strike would other offices in Birmingham.

that claimants would be resolved to approach the deterred from going to the unions together with notorious school to claim NALGO and the Oxford Claimants in Oxford had salt rubbed in their wounds this week after last month's raid in which more than 280 people were arrested.

To claim emergency payment during the strike by supplementary benefit staff, claimants were forced to go back to the infamous South Oxford Middle School.

This is the former school where on September 2 claimants turning up to claim bed and breakfast money were incarcerated for up to 12 hours.

More than 110 were released without charge and about ten others have been acquitted in court. But more than 100 have so far been jailed.

Some of those who suffered considerable distress in last month's raid had this week to queue up and go in again to the same school. One man, still awaiting trial, who is denying deception, has had no money for five weeks and he was turned away again.

Once inside, the claimants were given a measly £22 each, regardless of their circumstances. People who had rent to pay were told to arrange with their landlords not to pay it!

All but a handful of the 145 staff at the Supplementary Benefit Office in Oxford have been on strike for a week in protest against job cuts. The DHSS have refused to provide permanent extra staff for the office, where claimants have had to wait for a week to get an interview even in an emergency. • Scabs But the same department has been happy to spend collapse, and in the hope their money.

One of the union members told Oxford Trades Council at the weekend that any decision to add staff to the Oxford office would in effect have to be taken in the Cabinet, because if Oxford could win the way would be laid clear to defeat plans to waste jobs in the Civil Service.

The strike is the third in The Claimants Defence Unemployed Workers and Claimants Union to form a joint committee during the dispute.

"The CDC sees it as a practical step to break down the barriers between the unemployed and the employed that. the government seeks to exploit.

Most of the claimants collecting emergency payments signed a petition outside the building, supporting the call for more staff.

Claimants' Defence Committee: 44b Princes St, Oxford