workplace activity
Articles, interviews and accounts about organising at work, problems people have come up against and lessons they have learned.
Organising at work - some basic principles
The following is a list of what successful organisers say are the most important principles to remember:
Question Authority
Organising at work - the basics
A basic introduction on why we should organise at work, and a few tips on how to get started.
Almost everyone in this society is underpaid and over-worked. Many temps, contract and casual workers have very few rights, and permanent workers are still always under the threat of redundancy. Many people are massively exploited and ill-treated, and in Britain over 20,000 people are killed at or by their work each year*. Millions more suffer stress, depression, anxiety and are injured.
An interview with Tony Mcqade, former shop steward.
Tony Mcqade worked at British Leyland’s site 2 car plant in Speke from the late 1960s until its closure in 1978, as well being a shop steward at the plant for a number of years, and is now a full time official with the TGWU.
Why do you think that the motor industry was more prone to strike action than other areas of industry in the 1960s and 70s?
Over 100 Australian workers in court over walkout
107 workers and their families will face court today in Perth, facing prosecution for taking industrial action following the sacking of their union representative.
In the first test of the Howard Government’s new building and construction IR (Industial Relations) laws, 107 workers and their families will be in court today in Perth, facing prosecution for taking alleged industrial action following the sacking of their union representative. The workers face fines of up to AUS$28,600 (£11,500).
Sabotage and striking on the job - Louis Adamic, 1931
Louis Adamic immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia at age 14 and was naturalized in 1918. This essay describes his experiences as a casual labourer in a variety of jobs during the 1920s, including his meetings with fellow workers who were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the 'Wobblies'.
(This text is Chapter 32 of the Rebel Press reprint of Louis Adamic's classic book 'Dynamite! A Century of Class Violence In America 1830-1930'.)
A migrant worker joins the Wobblies - Henry Pfaff
A Wobbly - a member of the Industrial Workers of the World - tells his story and describes his outlook. "The vision we had was that everyone would have to do a necessary share of social production and everyone would receive all the necessities without the need for money. And we wouldn't have to work eight hours a day. We would eliminate all useless work and all work that is detrimental.
Unionisation drive at a UK local newspaper
A short account by one worker in a local UK newspaper of a successful NUJ unionisation drive he was involved in in 2006
DAM rank and filists! The Communication Workers Group
Article written by one of Subversion, a former member of the rank and file Communication Workers Group, in 1994 looking at his/her experiences with the group and making suggestions on future efforts of workplace organising - importantly rejecting the CWG's rank and filism.
1945-84: Class struggle on the shop floor, the Japanese case - Muto Ichiyo
Class struggle on the shop floor, the Japanese case 1945-84
Muto Ichiyo
Presented in PDF Format (3mb).
Rank and File or Broad Left? (Review)
A review of "Rank and File or Broad Left: Democracy versus Bureaucracy - A short history of the Building Worker Group" by Brian Higgins, from Black Flag magazine.
I feel old, I really do. In February 1986 I quit my job at the start of what turned out to be nine months on the dole, and walked straight onto a picket line. The "Laing's Lockout Committee" dispute remains one of the most significant of the post-Miners' Strike era, full of lessons about the possibility of resistance in the face of the most difficult of conditions and determined of opposition.
