chemicals
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Energy workers to ballot for strike action across Britain
Construction and maintenance staff at the giant petrochemical complex in Grangemouth are to be balloted for strike action. Members of the GMB and Unite unions will vote on the issue along with those at seven sites across the UK.
The unions said the action followed a loss of confidence in employer's body the Engineering Construction Industry Association (ECIA). Both sides are currently involved in negotiating changes to the so-called NAECI agreement.
The National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry or NAECI dictates issues including pay and conditions and the use of local labour within the industry.
Pharmaceutical workers struggle in Wembley
Workers at the Chemilines pharmaceuticals firm in Wembley, north west London, are stepping up their campaign for decent pay and dignity at work.
They walked out on their second one-day strike last week and have now voted unanimously for a three-day strike at the end of this month. The Chemilines workers, who are mostly Asian women, are hoping to hold a public meeting this Saturday to build support for their cause, followed by a march the Saturday after that.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
With a planetary ecological crisis on hand, it can no longer be denied that socialism will be incompatible with mass production and mass consumption. Indeed, even without returning to Malthusian catastrophe theories, we are forced to admit that the planet’s resources are not inexhaustible. These resources could provide for humanity’s needs, but only if they are used in a reasonable and rational way, i.e., in a manner directly opposed to capitalist logic, which in itself is a source of imbalance.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
by Alternative Libertaire
Vietnam: More wildcat strikes hit manufacturing
After 3,000 furniture workers struck on Monday, thousands more walked out over low wages.
Thanhniennews.com reported that over 4,000 workers walked out over low pay Monday at four foreign companies in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai and as of yesterday were continuing to strike work at three of the firms.
2000: Cellatex chemical plant occupation
An account of a group of 153 sacked Cellatex chemical workers in France who won a massively improved redundancy deal due to militant struggle, albeit one with some misguided tactics
Givet is a town of 8,000 on the Belgian border in northern France. The area was largely dominated by steel and textile until the plant closings and restructurings of the 1970s, when it became an ex-industrial wasteland. 22% of the local population was unemployed. The Cellatex plant, where the following struggle took place, was founded in 1903 and produced one the first synthetic fibres.
