construction
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in building, construction and materials around the world.
Records of the strike in Egypt under Ramses III, c1155BC
A contemporary document recounting the first ever recorded labour strike, which occured in Deir el Medina, Ancient Egypt during the reign of Ramses III when workers did not receive their rations.
The stoppage occurred in the 12th century BC, on the 21st day of the second month in the 29th year of the reign of the pharaoh Ramses III, while Ramses was fighting a series of wars and engaging in an extensive building campaign.
Mouvement Communiste CPE leaflets for students and building workers
Two leaflets about the CPE employment law. The first from 27 March, by some students in Jussieu to the building workers directly employed by this university in Paris. The second one was distributed in a student General Assembly, a little after the end of the movement.
It is as workers that we are attacked and not as students!
UK building workers to prepare for 2012 Olympics
The Olympics will bring much new construction work to London, and some union activists look to the opportunity for a greater say both in the unions they are members of and in the industry itself.
Building workers met in London on Monday evening 27th Nov to discuss possibilities for union organising during the preparations for the 2012 Olympics.
Members of all four unions associated within the construction industry were present at the meeting called by the newly-formed Building Workers Rank and File Committee.
Construction: Struggle at Laing O’Rourke, Britain, 2004
The following article provides a short summary about a strike of building workers in London in Autumn 2004. Apart from the more or less self-organised character of the struggle, with workers assemblies in parks and blockage of the site entrances, we think that there were two main interesting aspects of the dispute.
1) The fact that eastern European workers got involved. So far capital has more or less managed to use the eastern European countries as a large pool of labour force which could be mobilised for short term projects like large construction projects or the seasonal work in the harvest.
300 workers protest in Abu Dhabi over expired labour cards
Migrant workers from a major engineering firm held a protest in Abu Dhabi City on Sunday, demanding their visas be renewed.
The workers, from the General Construction Engineering Company (GCE) gathered outside the Ministry of Labour, demanding their employers took action to renew their visas and labour cards.
1919: Winnipeg general strike
A short history of Canada's Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
Throughout the spring of 1919, Winnipeg had been buzzing with the fervour of militant unionism among the working class. The city had witnessed a general strike the year previously, which had ended with partial gains for workers. Unemployment was high, wages were low and conditions poor.
Turner, Pete, 1935-2004
An obituary for British builder, anarchist and asbestos campaigner Pete Turner.
Pete Turner was a South Londoner, who served an apprenticeship as a carpenter, toiled in the building industry for the whole of his working life and died from asbestosis during his retirement. He was a truly sweet man and it was typical, and fitting, that he should have attended Arthur's cremation even though he was wheelchair-bound and breathing via an oxygen cylinder.
1999: Dahl Jenson construction strike
Immigrants demonstrated their willingness, when asked, to support British workers in struggle in this victorious strike of 300 building workers employed by different firms.
The week before Mechanical Installers and Pipe Fitters working for Dahl Jenson found that cheques for the last three weeks work had bounced. With massive amounts of overtime being worked some workers had lost as much as £2,000, although these figures were the exception as the workers calculated that the £55,000 in total owed was split between almost 100 workers.
1972: The Quebec general strike
The story of one of the largest working class rebellions in American history. 300,000 workers participated in North America's largest general strike to that date, radio stations were seized, factories were occupied, and entire towns were brought under workers' control, and it won important gains
"Not since the days of the Industrial Workers of the World, since the days of Joe Hill and the battle for the eight-hour day, has a North American union movement been so dedicated to the tradition of revolutionary syndicalism."
1971-1974: Green bans by builders in Australia
A history of the massive campaign of industrial action by building workers which protected the environment and local communities by enacting green bans - refusals to work on harmful construction projects.
