manufacturing and materials
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
UK: Coca-Cola workers strike over pay
Workers at a Coca-Cola plant have begun a 48-hour strike, followed by an overtime ban, after rejecting a below-inflation pay rise.
Staff voted to strike in a ballot last month, and join a wave of public and private sector disputes this year over below-inflation pay rises.
1886: The Bay View Massacre
The little known history of the massacre that occurred in Milwaukee, when 7,000 building workers and 5,000 Polish workers demanded the eight-hour work day.
The deadly stand-off between workers and the National Guard was the culmination of events that began on Saturday May 1, 1886.
A historical marker, pictured above, is located at Russel and Superior on Jones Island in Bay View. It commemorates the Bay View Massacre.
Like a Summer with a Thousand Julys …and Other Seasons…
An overview of the early 1980s strikes and riots in the UK.
This text has been reproduced without most of the original pictures and their captions due to space. Some captions which were thought to be useful additions to the main text have been included in boxes.
Like a Summer with a Thousand Julys …and Other Seasons…
INFANT SORROW
1962: The Novocherkassk Tragedy
An account of the workers uprising in Novocherkassk, USSR, which lasted from June 1-3 and ended in a massacre and mass arrests.
The Novocherkassk Tragedy, June 1-3 1962
by Piotr Suda
1911-1970s: Unions and workers: limitations and possibilities, by Martin Glaberman
Detroit auto-worker Martin Glaberman analyses the bureaucratisation and decline of the US trade union movement. An interesting article interspersed with historical information and personal reminiscences
Consider these two units of time: 36 seconds, the rest of your life. The job that takes 36 seconds to do that you're going to do for the rest of your life. I don't know a better definition of alienation than that...
‘General strike’ spreads across Peru
As an indefinite teachers strike continues into its 12th day, farmers, miners and construction workers joined the protests, with one farmer shot dead by police.
The latest death brings the reported death toll to 4 over the last week in what has been described by some media as a general strike. The strike began when the teachers union struck against a new law requiring all teachers to sit regular competency exams (libcom.org coverge here).
The Winter of Discontent - An Introduction
An overview of the Winter of Discontent, from the Revolt Against an Age of Plenty site.
THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT: AN INTRODUCTION
HISTORY & CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE U.K.
(Written around 2002)
NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT
1932: The Vichuga uprising
In April 1932 at Vichuga, Ivanovo Industrial Region (IPO), USSR, 16,000 textile workers struck at several factories and temporarily took control of the town until the uprising was crushed by both heavy repression and promises of reform from central Soviet command.
Part of a wave of unrest which hit the USSR in the IPO, Lower Volga region, the Urals, Western Siberia, Ukraine and Belorussia, the strike was one of the most significant of the 1930s, winning reforms nationally as a result of the threat it posed to the Soviet authority.
Zambia: Mine workers wildcat strike
Workers at the First Quantum Kansanshi copper mine have been refusing to work since Wednesday when they noticed that an agreed pay rise had not been properly implemented.
Operations at the Canadian-owned plant have been paralysed.
Allafrica.com reported that the strike started around 05:30 hours when morning shift miners refused to enter the mining premises, claiming they had been underpaid.
A Times reporter found the more than 100 miners gathered at about 100 metres from the main gate around 07:00 hours.
South Africa: 260,000 workers on strike
Striking workers in the metal and engineering industries said yesterday it was time they got a slice of the profits that they worked so hard to create.
More than 9000 metal and engineering companies were affected by industrial action as 260000 workers took to the streets yesterday demanding a 10% increase for lower grade workers and 9percent for higher grade workers. Employers are offering between 7.3% and 7.8%.
