unions
Articles about unions and the nature and function of labor or trade unionism.
Workers struggle betrayed by State and union in Venezuela
This article was written by a revolutionary who has been working with the occupied factory in Venezuela.
Workers Control at Venezuela’s Sanitarios Maracay under Attack
By Megan Hise
As health workers prepare for ballot, Unison leaders back off
Unison national secretary has angered union activists by demanding that local branches take a position of neutrality on the issue of a below inflation pay offer.
With Unison also preparing to ballot members for strike action over pay on the 20th August, days after 95% Royal College of Nursing members asked to be balloted for strike action, Unison’s leadership have sent a message to all branches demanding that activists take no position on the government’s below inflation pay offer.
Palestinian union hit on all sides
An article from the Al-Jazeera website detailing the repression faced by trade unionists in Palestine not only from the Israeli state but also from the 'national liberation' militias of Hamas and Fatah.
Taken from Al-Jazeera English, by Omar Khalifa.
With 47 per cent of the potential Palestinian labour force unemployed and a per capita income 23 times less than that of Israel, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) has a difficult enough job.
1911-1970s: Unions and workers: limitations and possibilities, by Martin Glaberman
Detroit auto-worker Martin Glaberman analyses the bureaucratisation and decline of the US trade union movement. An interesting article interspersed with historical information and personal reminiscences
Consider these two units of time: 36 seconds, the rest of your life. The job that takes 36 seconds to do that you're going to do for the rest of your life. I don't know a better definition of alienation than that...
Iranian trade unionist kidnapped
Iranian bus union leader, Mansour Osanloo, was kidnapped on his way home from work yesterday.
The following report was received this evening from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) in London:
South African unions call off massive strike
Unions have agreed to a government pay offer just 0.5% above inflation, describing it as "fantastic."
Nearly four weeks ago, with inflation running at around 7% and following several years of declining real wages, an indefinite strike began across the South African public sector involving hundreds of thousands of workers (libcom.org coverage 1 [url=http://libcom.org/news/south-africa-zacf-statement-support-publ
Strike Across The Empire, 1925 - Baruch Hirson and Lorraine Vivian
A fascinating and detailed account of a little known international seamens' strike in 1925, lasting over 100 days and spreading from Britain to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The strikers confronted the shared hostility of governments, employers and union leaders alike. The text also deals with how the racism prevalent in the labour movement affected the conduct and outcome of the strike.
"THIS IS A STRIKE that has vanished from history. In August 1925, the seamen of Britain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand walked off their ships in protest against a ten per cent wage cut. It was one of the few genuinely international strikes, directed against a powerful international cartel. One would have expected it to be widely debated. Yet, newspaper coverage apart, history has largely been silent.
Morocco: Mayday solidarity protest attacked
Auxiliary forces using boots and truncheons attacked the peaceful sit-in outside the Moroccan Parliament building last Friday.
The protest was organised by the Moroccan association for human rights (AMDH) after a call by the National Solidarity group for the Mayday Detainees (INSAD), those arrested at May Day include workers, unionists, students and the unemployed.
Good old-fashioned trade unionism - Wildcat
Wildcat argue that unions have sabotaged working class struggle since their inception.
The year 1842 was a very significant one for the proletariat of the British Isles. On the positive side it was the occasion of a great struggle against wage cutting and on the negative side it marked the formation of the first modern national trade union.
Dividing and conquering the working class with drug testing: Hawaii teachers, coercion and a failure of working class solidarity
This is a piece written by an anonymous teacher in Hawaii in response to the teachers' union accepting a contract with mandatory drug testing in exchange for a raise.
In a historic blow to workers’ rights, and working class solidarity in Hawaii, the members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) have been coerced into voting to relinquish basic rights to gain a needed pay raise. The contract they agreed to provides for 4% raises over each of the next two years, with other supplements amounting to an 11% pay raise over two years.
