unions

Mexico: Corona bottle makers face redundancy for supporting independent union

Factory workers in San Luis Potosí in northern Mexico have been threatened by their bosses with the closure of their factory if they don't renounce their elected independent union in favour of the bosses' union.

The threat from Grupo Modelo in the Industrial Vidriera Potosí factory comes not long after the firing of over 250 workers for being involved with the activities of Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa IVP (SUTEIVP).

Politics Without Parties - The future of trade unionism?

The following report is from the National Union of Journalists Annual Delegate Conference fringe meeting 'Politics without parties - the future of trade unionism'.

The meeting took place on Thursday 3rd of April 2008 in the Ulster Peoples College in Belfast and was addressed by Donnacha DeLong (NUJ National Executive Council New Media Rep) Jason Brannigan (Organise!) and Chekov Feeney (WSM).

Airport workers suspend hunger strike

Airport workers suspend hunger strike after union gives guarantees that their demands will be met.

The five day hunger strike by three sacked airport shop stewards, Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer was suspended at 5.30 this afternoon after the workers received a letter from the union solicitors guaranteeing that their demands would be met.

Two hunger strikers now in hospital

Two of the three sacked airport workers on hunger-strike outside their union offices in Belfast are now in hospital. Earlier today Gordon McNeill was rushed to hospital only to be released, Gordon and 72 year old diabetic Madan Gupta are now both in hospital.

Just hours after addressing a solidarity rally outside Transport House in Belfast hunger striker Gordon McNeill was rushed to City Hospital for treatment. An ambulance was called to the scene at Transport House due to a deterioration in his condition. Gordon is on his fourth day without food and his second day without water. Also on hunger strike are Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer.

Mahmoud Salehi's message from prison for the March 6 Day of Solidarity

Imprisoned labor leader Mahmoud Salehi, one of the Saqqez 7 and member of Komiteye Hamahangi sends a statement in solidarity with workers and participants of the March 6 international day of solidarity with imprisoned Iranian labor activists.

Mahmoud Salehi’s Message to All Workers and concerned organizers and participants of the March 6th Global Day of Action.

Vallejo, California: Unions help city with lay-offs

The city of Vallejo in the San Francisco Bay Area may be the first city in California history to declare bankruptcy. However several unions are helping the city to cut jobs in an effort to ward off bankruptcy.

This cash-strapped city reached a tentative deal with its police and firefighters unions Thursday, just before city leaders convened to decide if the city would seek bankruptcy protection from a swell of economic uncertainty.

That question remains unresolved, however, as details of the deal will be made public today before the council revisits the issue Monday.

Mozambique: wildcats and sabotage on the sugar cane plantations

600 seasonal workers at the Xinavane sugar plantation in Maputo province of Mozambique have been on wildcat strike since last Friday (15th February).

The workers are demanding a wage increase of over 100%, from 1,100 to 2,500 meticais (from US$46 to US$104), as well as protective clothing, overtime for working on Sundays and the right to a day off in the event of the death of a family member.

Lionbridge: globalizing low wages

In December 2007, a trade-union called “Krajowa Federacja Pracownikow (KFP)” (Worker’s Federation) was formed in Lionbridge Poland, a subsidiary of Lionbridge Technologies, a US-based multinational with subsidiaries all over the world.

Lionbridge specializes in translations and adapting products to local markets (so called “globalization services”). Lionbridge is one of many US-based companies which move jobs from the US to countries with lower wages and working standards.

1998: Danish private sector strike

A short history of the massive private sector strike that gripped Denmark for 10 days in 1998. Although ending after negotiations between the government and union leaders left workers demands largely unmet, the strike, involving about 10% of the Danish population was nonetheless a spectacular show of workers' strength.

April of 1998 saw a series of talks between private sector unions and employers in Denmark. Initiated by the unions in response to a general economic upturn in the country, the talks represented for many Danish workers the chance for improvements to their working conditions.

The Korean working class: From mass strike to casualization and retreat, 1987-2007

Loren Goldner on the history of the Korean working class during the past 20 years.

The Korean Working Class: From Mass Strike to Casualization and Retreat, 1987-2007

Loren Goldner

ABSTRACT

Anarchist communists and the Italian base union movement

Article about the Italian base union movement written by anarchist communist group FdCA member Donato Romito.

"The unions were born, historically speaking, in the workplace as a result of precise material needs of the working masses who made up its membership and under whose control they operated."
- Anarchist Communists and the Mass Organization (UCAT, 1984)

First round of airport strikes called off

What Heathrow might've looked like this month

Strikes at seven UK airports have been called of by the Unite and PCSU unions.

The strikes would have taken place for 24 hours on the 7th and 14th, then 48 hours on the 17th January, and were to involve clerical, security, firefighters and maintenance staff.

Karen Reissman strike suspended

150 NHS mental health workers in Manchester who have been on strike since early November following the sacking of Karen Reissman are to return to work on Monday 17th December, without having secured her reinstatement.

The strike is now set to be replaced by a "national Unison campaign". In place of industrial action the union is supporting a claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal, an early day motion by Unison sponsored MPs and looking to organise a national lobby of parliament in the New Year.

Organized Labor versus "The Revolt Against Work" - John Zerzan

Article examining the role of unions in the exploitation of workers, focussing in particular on the US car manufacturing industry from the 1930s to 1970s.

Serious commentators on the labor upheavals of the Depression years seem to agree that disturbances of all kinds, including the wave of sit-down strikes of 1936 and 1937, were caused by the 'speed-up' above all.

Union suspends Northern Irish classroom strike

Members of the Nipsa union have voted to suspend their strike in the dispute over classroom assistants' pay.

Members will take part in industrial action today (Monday), which was voted on at the weekend, however the overall strike will cease from Tuesday.

Three other unions representing assistants have accepted a deal which added an extra £15m to compensate for changes in work conditions. Nipsa represents more than 3,300 classroom assistants in NI.

IWW Launches Second Phase of National Campaign

A press release from the IWW outining its plans to organise the UK's National Blood Service.

IWW launches second phase of fight against blood service centralisation plans.

The IWW is fighting the closure of 10 blood processing centres across England. This is the largest campaign yet attempted by the IWW in the UK (the BIROC), and has led to large scale regional mobilisations, and the distribution of 55,000 leaflets and 5000 targeted workplace bulletins.

Mexico: 50 workers lose their jobs in garment factory due to union organising drive

Mexican factory workers protest against their sackings

Over 50 employees of a garment factory in Tehaucán, Puebla have been sacked for their affiliation with rival trade unions and non-governmental organisations.

The workers had been organising against the interference of the Puebla state government by way of the FROC-CROC union’s presence in the Grupo Navarra factory, which makes clothes for Abercombie & Fitch, Gap, Levi and Calvin Klein, amongst others. FROC-CROC is affiliated to the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institutional) political party, which runs the state government.

UNISON back down despite vote for strike action

Despite zero concessions from employers and a vote in favour of strikes, public sector union UNISON have backed down from announcing strike action over an across the board pay cut (also known as a below inflation "pay rise").

Citing the low turnout and the close result of the ballot, the UNISON National joint council rejected industrial action by a large vote. The result stood at 51.6% in support of action, with a 24.4% turnout. However, many members did not recieve ballot papers in time - or indeed at all - as a result of the recent postal workers dispute.

From the Bourgeois to the Proletarian Revolution - Otto Ruhle

Written in 1924, this pamphlet charts the development of the Russian and German revolutions, and attempts to point forward from the failure of these two major events, analysing the role of the parties and the trade unions in their respective failures.

This online version taken from http://www.marxists.org

From the Bourgeois to the Proletarian Revolution

1 The Bourgeois Revolutions

The Workers' Committee: An Outline of its Principles and Structure

Pamphlet written by J.T.Murphy and published by the Sheffield Workers' Committee in 1917. It describes the structure of the workers' committees that developed during the first world war and proposes coordinating them into local and national committees in parallel with the trade unions.

“Where the men and women think lightly of the laws; . . . . where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of elected persons; . . . . where outside authority enters after the precedence of inside authority; where the citizen is always the head and ideal; where children are taught to be laws to themselves; . . . there the great city stands.” - Walt Whitman.