unions
Articles about unions and the nature and function of labor or trade unionism.
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
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.
Notes on working at a sixth form college library, London 2005-2007
Between 2005-2007 a member of the libcom group worked term-time in the library at a Sixth Form College in London. This article/interview documents his attempts to organise his workplace and touches on some wider issues around working in education in the UK.
So where did you work? What was it like?
Since some of my friends are still working there, and I hope there is still some organising going on, I won't identify the college directly, but some background information would be useful.
Local government unions break ranks over latest offer
Trade unions GMB and Unite have split from Unison over their response to the increased offer from local government employers for English, Welsh and Northern Irish staff.
Both unions will hold a consultative ballot of members on whether they will accept the 2.475% offer, announced last month after six months of negotiation, an increase on employers’ initial bid of 2%.
They would only ballot for industrial action if GMB’s 250,000 local government members and Unite’s almost 100,000 council staff reject the offer.
Belgian airport union signs minimum service agreement
The airport security union representing workers at Brussels South Charleroi Airport signed an agreement with the Wallonian regional government which guarantees a minimum level of service in the event of future strikes, according to Belgian weekend press reports.
The agreement guarantees that, in the event of a grievance, all other avenues of dialogue will be exploited before a strike is called, according to Belgian financial daily L'Echo.
According to La Libre Belgique, the text states its aim as 'guaranteeing social harmony' at the airport.
