"This gave more workers a lot more power vis-a-vis management, " he says, adding that while people were desperate to have jobs in the '90s, today they may walk out of a factory if they don't like their job or the working conditions.

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And a 24-hour strike was held on the network from the evening of 1 November - the third walk-out this year in a row over threatened job losses.

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Members of the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are planning to walk out of K College on the same day and protest at the Tonbridge campus, outside the governors meeting where the job cuts will also be discussed.

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