Women in the cleaning sector and hotel-restaurant industry: syndicalist conversations
The purpose of these interviews is to provide an insight into the situation and the struggles of female workers in the cleaning sector and the hotel-restaurant industry. To this end, we have met cleaning and catering trade union members of the CNT-Solidarité Ouvrière in the Paris region.
More generally, we hope to encourage readers to think about the relationships between women's struggles and labour unions, from the perspective of emancipatory social transformation. Of course, this article does not claim to exhaust the subject, but rather elicit contributions.
Down and out in Paris and London - George Orwell
Tramping memoirs from Orwell, where he worked in Paris as a dishwasher and then travelled around London, going from one bedsit to another.
O scathful harm, condition of poverte! - Chauser
I
The Rue du Coq d’Or, Paris, seven in the morning. A succession of furious, choking yells from the street. Madame Monce, who kept the little hotel opposite mine, had come out on to the pavement to address a lodger on the third floor. Her bare feet were stuck into sabots and her grey hair was streaming down.
Second spring of syndicalism - trade union re-organisation within the SAC
An article by Mattias Wåg, first published in 2008 in From Thoughts to Action, summarising the Swedish syndicalist union SAC's re-organisation.
Lilla Karachi is hardly regarded as one of Stockholm’s more up-market restaurants. However, it has a good location at the centre of the tourist district of the Old Town and not very far from the Parliament once now and then, the MP’s stop by to eat.
PAMSU website goes live as union announces living wage campaign
Submitted by Chilli Sauce on Nov 24 2012 16:51
The Pret a Manger Staff Union, formed in London when a group of workers got sick of management mistreatment, has been standing up for Pret employees for a number of months now. As part of the increasing momentum enjoyed by the campaign, the PAMSU website is now live. And on it is the announcement that PAMSU will be fighting for a living wage for all Pret workers.
Check it out and, more importantly, send it along to any Pret workers you know.
Pret worker wanting to know more about the union? Supporter wanting to get involved in the campaign?
PAMSU: pret.staff.union (a) gmail.com
North London Solidarity Federation: http://solfed.org.uk/?q=local/north-london
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From cyber vigilantes to corporate thugs: Hackers back up employers in union conflict
Submitted by ronan on Jul 24 2012 21:58
The owners of Restaurant Vejlegaarden in Vejle in Denmark have received support from an unlikely quarter as hackers from across the world have organised to attack the restaurant's opponents in a union conflict. Anonymous have issued a statement distancing themselves from the hack (see comments below).
3F, a Danish trade union confederation have been in conflict with the restaurant since the restaurant decided to cancel their agreement with 3F late last year. Instead the restaurant have made an agreement with Krifa (Christian Trade Union), a so called yellow union, that has lower membership dues, but refuses to take part in industrial action.
The Corporation (Documentary)
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 23 2012 23:16
The Corporation is a 2003 Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary is critical of the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary.
Provoking, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis.
McLibel (Documentary)
Submitted by working class s... on Jan 21 2012 18:09
Filmed over ten years by no-budget Director Franny Armstrong, McLibel is the David and Goliath story of two people who refused to say sorry. And in doing so, changed the world.
McDonald's loved using the UK libel laws to suppress criticism. Major media organisations like the BBC and The Guardian crumbled and apologised. But then they sued gardener Helen Steel and postman Dave Morris.
Being the bigger person
Submitted by Liberté Locke on Dec 29 2011 00:56
Union organizer with the IWW Starbucks Workers Union dispels the sentiment that 'being the better person' must entail living as a doormat.
I’m so sick of being told to be the bigger person. I get all the scrutiny. I should forgive the unforgivable. I should move on with my life, let it go, drop it, stop being confrontational, stop rocking the boat, stop holding grudges, and be the bigger person. When did “being the bigger person” mean just accepting being treated like shit?
Diary of an anarchist hospo worker
An article by a member of the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement looking at life in the hospitality industry.
I have spent the bulk of my working life doing various hospitality work, everything from washing dishes to bartending to delivering pizzas. At the moment I’m working at a small restaurant in Central Wellington which basically makes glorified fast food for pretentious rich people; those members of the upper-echelons of the public service who ask for trim-soya milk in their decaffeinated lattes.
Enjoy your tip, honey.
Tipping, or the pleasure of patronizing strangers.
Quote:
[i]Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said ‘Señor’ or ‘Don’ or even ‘Usted’; everyone called everyone else ‘Comrade’, and said ‘Salud!’ instead of ‘Buenos dias’.
Tipping was forbidden by law; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy.
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