buses
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in transport and distribution around the world.
Day of action for Iranian bus drivers: 15th Feb
A demonstration will be held tomorrow evening in support of the arrested Iranian bus drivers who've been striking since the end of last month.
The protest will be outside the Iranian Embassy, 16 Princes Gate, London SW7 on Wednesday 15 February at 11.00am. It was called by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions:
Transportation workers resist global attack
The latest attack on workers' rights around the world is now hitting the people who make public transportation possible in many of the world's metro areas.
Tehran and New York City are both in states that are bitterly opposed to one another but share the similarity of not allowing public transportation workers to organize and fight back against the attacks by local transportation companies.
Planka - freeriding in Sweden and Finland
In Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsinki, commuters are taking the initiative in the fight for decent, free public transportation.
Buses, trams, commuter trains and underground trains are necessary for workers to get around - a direct action campaign in Sweden and Finland is demanding that it be free.
Oisin Mac Giollamoir interviews Anna from the planka.nu campaign.
How did planka.nu start?
Tehran: 200 workers released
200 imprisoned union bus workers released; all were denied the right to return to their jobs. Hundreds more are still in prison.
According to the reports by Mr. Gholamreza Mirzaei, the current spokesperson of the Syndicate of workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, about 200 workers have thus far been released following the mass arrests on January 28th. Mr. Mirzaei reported that none of the 200 released workers have been able to return to their jobs and hundreds others are still in prison.
'No Contract, No Work' - The 2005 New York City transit strike
Harry Harrington, a New York city MTA Train Operator writes his account and analysis of the strike that shut down New York.
In December 2005, 34,000 New York City transport workers walked out against cuts in benefits and the creation of a two-tier workforce. Their union was fined millions of dollars, and the strike was called off, having won important concessions. So what were the lessons of the action?
In Industrial Worker, February 2006 he wrote:
Tehran bus workers under attack - update
Hundreds of striking bus workers of the state-owned Vahed bus company are still in detention in Tehran today following the vicious attack by thousands of members of the security forces on their strike on Saturday 28th January.
Reports are coming in of more arrests last night and today, in particular in transport districts 4, 5 and 6. A gathering of workers in district 6 last night to press for the release of their jailed colleagues was attacked by the security forces, resulting in more arrests. Workers are being intimidated into signing pledges to give up strike and protest actions or risk being fired.
Tehran - mass arrests of striking bus drivers
Iranian bus drivers in Tehran are on strike again, in the face of mass arrests and repression, including the families of the four main union leaders.
Iran focus reported that agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Iran’s notorious secret police, raided the homes of bus drivers in Tehran in the early hours of the morning, arresting hundreds of bus union activists and in some cases their relatives as well, according to one resident.
Those arrested have been taken to unknown locations.
South Korea: General strike
Unions in South Korea launched a general strike today after the passage of a temporary workers bill by the National Assembly.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions began a full nationwide strike at 1 p.m., protesting parliament’s approval of the non-regular workers bill that unionists claim will increase the number of temporary laborers.
It said that a total of 150,000 unionists at over 150 workplaces, including 40,000 workers at Hyundai/Kia Motors, took part in strikes across the country.
New York transit strikers reject offer
New York City transit workers rejected bosses' offer after their illegal three-day strike last month.
A tiny margin of just seven votes scuppered the deal, leaving the New York Times to report that angry workers may turn to other forms of direct action, such as wildcat stoppages and slowdowns.
From NYtimes.com on January 22, 2006:
Iranian bus drivers arrested after no fares action
Fourteen leaders of Tehran’s transport workers’ union were arrested last month after staging a no-ticket action (when bus drivers refused to collect fares) against Sherkate Vahed, a state owned bus company, to demand higher wages.
By an Iranian socialist, Thursday 5 January 2006.
