communications
News and articles about work, policy and struggles in the communications sector, from telecoms to postal and delivery services around the world.
York postal workers wildcat strike to support colleague
Royal Mail workers walked out of the firm's York depot on Friday 15 December in support of a van driver who had been suspended.
Sam Southgate reported on thisisyork.co.uk that about 30 collection drivers and some other staff staged the wildcat strike at the firm's Leeman Road base, at about 3.10pm yesterday, to support their work-mate.
The three-hour stoppage caused disruption to parcel collections from post offices and Royal Mail's business customers.
Poland: Deal between post bosses and unions condemned
An analysis of the deal struck between Polish postal service bosses and unions following the strikes of last month, which saw workers drop many demands.
On Sunday, December 17 anarchists held a picket in front of the main post office in Warsaw in order to protest against the deal most trade unions made with the bosses and to show solidarity to those who had still not signed the daeal and who were deciding that day whether or not to renew strike action.
Update on Manchester Fujitsu strike
A report from the Amicus union on the recent strike of Fujitsu workers in Manchester, dated December 1st.
Dispute Update
Amicus Reps Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge and Sulayman Munir attended the talks with ACAS yesterday, where the company was represented by Richard Bull, Larry Upton and Howard Morgan.
Manchester Fujitsu workers on strike
Workers at a Fujitsu site in Manchester were on strike Monday, and have a further two-day strike planned to begin on Wednesday.
The action, organised by the Amicus union, is in response to several grievances - including unpaid overtime, pay rise delays and erosion of redunancy rights. The Fujitsu site at Central Park provides call centre and IT services to the public sector, workers at another site at West Gorton also participated in the action.
Cancerous computers
Following the clearing in 2004 of IBM in a lawsuit alleging they knew about carcinogens found in their computer chip factories, a new scientific study has been brought out confirming that workers in computer facilities have a high risk of developing cancer.
A new report published by online science journal Environmental Health (ehjournal.net) has found that US workers in the computer manufacturing centre have a significantly greater likelihood of contracting a wide range of cancers than the rest of the population.
Strikes in Poland, early 2005
Information about various workers' struggles in and around Poland, including strikes by seamen, railworkers, car and telecoms workers in 2005.
Here is an update on recent struggles in and around Poland. More information in English can be found on a website run by the base-unionist ‘workers’ initiative’ from Poland: http://paspartoo.w.interia.pl/index.htm
Polish seamen on strike for eleven days in the docklands of Travemünde/Germany
Poland postal strike: new developments
An update on the postal workers strike in Poland. As it has spread bosses have offered a pay increase, but way below workers' demands.
As of now, mail carriers in many cities have joined the strike, but not all of them. Most post offices are working and accepting mail, even if they are not delivering. The exceptions are in Warsaw in the Praga District where the 2nd PO in the city was shut down and in Szczecin where 23 POs have closed during the strike.
Poland: Postal workers strike
Mail carriers across Poland are strike for better pay and working conditions. Polish anarchists report on the stoppage and actions they have taken to support it.
On Nov. 13, a wildcat strike of mail carriers started in the Gdansk post office. Now the strike has been taken over by different unions, mostly Solidarity, and has spread to most major cities in Poland.
The mail carriers' demands include:
- an 8 hour work day for all workers of the Polish Post (most mail carriers work 10-12 hours daily)
Indian technology industry workers get organised
A short article from business magazine, Forbes, about the recent unionisation drive within the Indian technology industry.
India’s technology industry, which has been merrily soaking up jobs from higher-cost countries, got a little shock last week when it had its first brush with organized labor.
Postal worker facing sack for refusing to deliver homophobic pamphlet
A letter carrier in Canada who refused to deliver a homophobic pamphlet for Canada Post in late October is facing disciplinary action, as colleagues took a short wildcat strike in protest.
As reported previously on libcom.org, the conflict within Canada Post began on October 26 when the letter carrier refused to process a pamphlet, published by a Baptist Mission in Ontario, entitled, “The Prophetic Word: The Plague of this 21st Century: The Consequences of the sin of Homosexuality (AIDS).”
