retail and food
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in retail and the food industry around the world.
More strikes at the Post Office and Royal Mail
Crown post offices are to go on strike this week against plans to transfer services to WH Smith, while Royal Mail workers begin their third week of rolling strikes.
The Post Office Ltd. wants to shut 85 post offices and shift services over to the much lower-paid workers at WH Smith, as part of its overall plan to close around 1,000 post offices. Post Office Ltd.
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.
Post office staff on strike in Coventry
Workers at the Post Office in Coventry were on strike Thursday over moves to shift services to WH Smith.
The decision to move Coventry's Hertford Street branch into WH Smith has led to four strikes within three weeks. The strike from 8.30am until mid-day was supposed to be the end of industrial action, however a decision was made to continue if there was no response.
Neil Robinson, branch secretary of the CWU, said: "We will keep going - we will continue the fight."
Virgin rail catering workers on strike
Manchester: 100 catering workers at Virgin Trains are on strike in support of a sacked colleague.
Rachel Tombling sustained injuries when her head hit a computer screen in an on-board shop when her train experienced rough riding - but was sacked for wilfully damaging it. The sacking was upheld at an appeal, and now workers from Virgin West Coast’s Manchester Piccadilly depot are on strike, having been out for three days so far.
Heinz workers defy union and walk out
Over 1,000 staff at food manufacturer Heinz's Wigan plant walked out Wednesday night over a sub-inflation pay offer, and sickness and disciplinary procedures.
The wildcat strike brought permanent and casual staff together, as bosses plan to cut temps' pay by 20%.
Wigan Today reported that almost the entire workforce of one of the borough's largest employers downed tools for 24 hours – against union advice – after a show of hands at two mass meetings.
Mozambique sugar plantation wildcat continues
Around 4,000 workers in Sofala province having rejected government calls to return to work and a divisive offer aimed only at cane cutters and not the other plantation workers, insisting their demands will be met collectively or they will remain on strike.
allAfrica.com reports:
One dead in Mozambique wildcat strike
One person died and three others were injured, two of them seriously, when violent clashes broke out on Monday at the Mafambisse sugar plantation, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, after about 4,000 seasonal workers went on strike.
allAfrica.com reports:
‘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).
France: Migrant workers' occupation wins
Sacked workers occupying the Buffalo Grill restaurant for one month have beaten their employers and been re-instated with their employment status regularised.
The one-month occupation of the restaurant and parking lot of the Buffalo Grill in Viry-Chatillon outside Paris has resulted in an important victory for 20 undocumented migrant workers fired at the fast food chain.
Precarious and pissed off: Lessons from the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union, 2003-2005
An account and analysis of the Vermont Workers' Center's innovative but ultimately failed attempt to set up a geographically-based union in the state's capital.
By Sean West
Beginnings and Endings
