manufacturing and materials
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Account of a well-prepared wildcat strike
Nick, an assembly line worker, recounts sabotage and a walkout at his factory when the workers contract expired.
I worked for a year in a typical World War II-style plant with a saw tooth tin roof and smoke stacks billowing oily gray smoke. There were 1,000 of us poor bastards working there, doing mind less arm and wrist repetitions thousands of times per day, producing a basic industrial product.
Class conflicts in the transformation of China
Aufheben's excellent account of the development and transformation of China and the Chinese working class from the time of Mao until today.
In PDF format. Plaintext version coming soon.
Timex strike, 1993 - European Counter Network
1993 strike at an electronics factory in Dundee against layoffs and a wage-freeze.
Support is growing for the strike at the Timex electronics plant in Dundee, Scotland. On Monday 22 March, 16 people were arrested on a mass picket of 400 people outside the plant. Pickets blocked the road outside the factory, preventing scab workers entering for two hours. Two days before (on 20/3/93) 6,000 people took part in a demonstration in the city in support of the Timex strikers.
SNECMA aerospace workers strike 1988 - The Red Menace
Report on strikes at three French aeronautics plants in 1988, which quickly spread beyond union control.
‘Change the bosses’ smugness into fear!’ – SNECMA Strikers 1988
‘The SNECMA strikers are coming to talk to you… because we believe that in the factory where you work, you have the same problems of pay’
1892: The Homestead Strike
Extracts from Louis Adamic, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman describing the Homestead Strike in 1892, and the circumstances of Berkman’s shooting of Henry Clay Frick, the head of the Carnegie Steel Company’s strike-breaking operation.
Document One: from Dynamite: a century of class violence in America 1830–1930, Louis Adamic, 1934 (reprinted by Rebel Press, London, 1984)
Wind turbine manufacturing workers occupy company offices
Workers from the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight who are set to lose their jobs are staging a sit-in protest at the firm's offices.
Danish company Vestas Windsystems is laying off 625 workers at the end of July, despite rising profits. It said the Newport factory was being closed due to reduced demand for wind turbines in northern Europe.
About 20 people inside the offices in Cowes have vowed to remain there until "somebody listens to us". They began their protest at about 1930 BST.
Workers threaten to blow up another factory
Workers at Nortel France join the gas cylinder gang but their threats may be empty.
Workers at the French arm of telecommunications manufacturer Nortel placed gas cylinders in front of the plant in Yvelines, near Paris, where 467 out of 683 jobs will be lost following bankruptcy proceedings started in North America,
The cylinders turned out to be empty but it's unknown whether they will stay that way.
Vietnamese workers stage walkout over management bullying
Over 300 workers at a Taiwanese company, Hwata Vina, in Ho Chi Minh City went on strike July 3 after complaining about managers’ draconian rules.
They said that the company, which produces water tanks and Inox appliances for kitchens, had made unreasonable stipulations. For example, workers were permitted to go to the toilet just three times a day for five minutes each. Workers would not get paid for periods when electricity was cut.
Wildcat strike in the Philippines: Searching for Solidarity
Class solidarity: Powerful weapon against capitalist attacks
Crackdown in South Korea as President Lee emphasises need for "labour market flexibility"
Nineteen former workers at the Kor-Tek guitar and bass factory in Dungchon, Seoul, have been indicted on serious charges relating to the occupation of the plant late last year. The charges, alongside similar cases, have led to protests from unions which describe them as “excessive” and “preposterous”.
The original dispute at the plant related to management plans to close the factory and move production to China. Workers quickly staged a sit-in strike, but this was broken up by police after only four hours. The strikers were rounded up, and two local union leaders were given one year sentences, which were later commuted to suspended sentences.
