unions
Articles about unions and the nature and function of labor or trade unionism.
The struggle against crisis: We can only rely on ourselves!
This leaflet by KPK contains also a sketch of balance of power between proletariat and capital in Czech both now and during years before the crisis. It was distributed at unionist demo in May.
The struggle against crisis:
We can only rely on ourselves!
Only a year ago, they wanted us to work Saturdays to satisfy demand – today, we're on forced vacations or sacked right away.
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.
'End crackdown on labor activists' in Vietnam, says human rights group
The Vietnamese government should immediately free activists who have been unlawfully imprisoned for peacefully campaigning for workers' rights, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
The 32-page report, "Not Yet a Workers' Paradise: Vietnam's Suppression of the Independent Workers' Movement," documents the Vietnamese government's crackdown on independent trade unions and profiles labor rights activists who have been detained, placed under house arrest, or imprisoned by the Vietnamese government in violation of international law.
Balance Sheet and Perspectives
The Bourse du travail at rue Charlot in Paris has been occupied since 2 May 2008.
Whereas the occupation of the Bourse du travail in Paris by the Sans-papiers workers is officially threatened by eviction by the highest authority of management of the Bourse, it really seems that the time has come to ask oneself one simple question: what is the balance sheet of this struggle?
On the frontline: anarchists at work
Workplace Strategy of the Anarchist Federation
The following text is the official workplace strategy of the Anarchist Federation, adopted nationally in April 2009. Drawing on the experiences of AF members at the workplace, it aims to lay out the possibilities for anarchists in the here and now and open debate in the movement on workplace organisation.
Preface
Model trade union motion in support of Visteon occupation
Model trade union motion for supporters of the Visteon occupation to take to branch meetings.
Unions head off transport workers' struggles in Ireland, airport wildcats planned
Members of SIPTU at the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) last week served notice of strike action on Thursday (1st April) at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, but a spokesman for the union said no official sanction had been given for any industrial action at the airports.
The threat came as SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) agreed to suspend industrial action due to begin tomorrow in protest at €31m in cutbacks. But no sooner had one industrial action been suspended when another kicked in.
Unite union negotiates pay cut for members at Toyota
The Unite union has negotiated a 10% wage cut for its members at Toyota plants in Derby and North Wales.
Responding to an announcement from car manufacturer Toyota that production at its UK plants would be cut by 10%, with an associated cut in wages of 10%, Peter Tsouvallaris, Unite representative at the plant said: "Our members are reminded daily of the tremendous insecurity this recession has brought to our industry.
Institutionalization from below: The unions and social movements - 1970s Italy
The chapter of Robert Lumley's excellent book on the mass struggles in Italy of the 60s and 70s detailing how the unions re-gained control of the social movements and channelled them into "representative" politics.
States of Emergency
Cultures of Revolt in Italy from 1968 to 1978
Robert Lumley
First published by Verso 1990
Chapter 17
Right to strike under threat in Italy
The Italian government is in the process of examining a new bill which will restrict the right to call a strike. The bill might become soon a law.
The bill will introduce a so-called “virtual strike” (you call the strike but you go to work) for the categories of workers considered “essential” and the possibility to call a strike for the workers within the public transport only for those unions which have 50 per cent of representation of the sector. These are only two examples of the novelties this bill will lead to.
