Pracujesz na umowie śmieciowej? Możemy pomóc!
Decision to use another service provider is clearly a union-busting tactic.
EULEN workers in the ABB factory in Cordoba, Spain started an indefinite strike on Nov. 28. Since then, the strikers have been camped out all day and night in front of the company. The strike was called by the CNT and CGT unions in the company in response to the illegal assignment of workers from EULEN who were contracted to work in ABB. EULEN provides services such as cleaning and maintenance to other companies and public administration.
ABB announced that as of January 1, it will not renew its contract with EULEN and instead will use the services of EUROCEN, which is part of the ADECCO multinational.
The CNT denounces the labour reform underway which will lead to unprecedented precarization: € 426 euros a month, with no unemployment benefits or vacations, no maximum working day, no insurance and no paid holidays.
This reform will produce the exchange of contracts with rights for new ones, cheaper for companies and without any protection for the workers.
A pub worker and South London SF have together won 6 weeks in stolen wages after a campaign of direct action and threatening pickets of a London pub. Laura was employed by ‘The Hartley’ pub in South London. She was let go after she refused to work because she hadn't been paid for 6 weeks - owed over £700 dating back to mid-September.
Laura got tired of waiting and spoke to South London Solidarity Federation (SLSF). The first step of the campaign was for Laura and members of SLSF to deliver a letter demanding her back-pay on Friday 19th. While waiting for action from the boss, Laura organized a mass phone-in of her employer with her friends and family. The boss was clearly rattled:
"Tell your people to stop calling me. I've got everyone's numbers, I'll report you, I'll report you to....to..... your networks!"
On November 18th, the Freie ArbeiterInnen-Union (FAU) organised several meetings in order to protest against the consequences of Bally Wulff's restructuring plan, which hits the only remaining screen printers in Berlin-Neukölln's gambling machine factory. The anarcho-syndicalist union federation FAU announced actions nearby 10 out of 12 subsidiaries; reports were available from 8 cities.
Workfare is a growing problem, as demonstrated by recent stories of a number of supermarkets had volunteered to be providers for the scheme and that young people were providing 30 hours a week of unpaid labour. This presents a problem both for the claimants trapped by this scheme, essentially as slave labour, and for the providers' workforce who are being undercut by those doing their job at practically no cost. Equally worrying is that, despite the growing anger over government attacks and emergence of anti-cuts groups across the country, nothing is being done to challenge this.
FAU Kiel and Flensburg did successfully agitate against temporary work at a job fair in Kiel. The Barlag job fair is touring Germany over the whole year. In Kiel, eleven temporary agencies among 70 exhibitors presented themselves. The fair was situated at the snobbish Mercedes-Benz Branch Baltic Sea (37,000 sqm.). Last year, 10,000 visitors came, according to the organizers.
Activists did not only distribute FAU's leaflet "Abolish Temporary Work!" but they did also prepare special flyers to warn visitors of temporary agencies at the job fair. Inside, visitors were indoctrinated on how to sell themselves best to the capitalists. And directly at the entrance, Germany's military forces welcomed people, allowing them to wear gas masks!
Last night, Liverpool Solidarity Federation members were amongst protesters gathered outside Liverpool Town Hall. They demonstrated as Liverpool City Council held a Budget Question Time in order to seek views on how they could save £50m in the coming year. Whilst the audience inside gave the councilors a hard time, those outside disrupted traffic by blocking off a road.
Read Liverpool members' individual reflections on the day on the Truth, Reason & Liberty and Working Class Self-Organisation blogs.
This morning FAU Berlin started industrial actions against the gambling machine manufacturer Bally Wulff. The company's screen printing section is going to be closed. So far, workers did only receive dismissals with the option of altered conditions of employment, leaving them with worse conditions than before. FAU Berlin, which acts for a colleague working at the screen printing section at Bally Wulff, offered negotiations but the management refused any talk. Please show your solidarity!
Flyer: Bally_Wulff_Auftaktkundgebung.pdf
FAU Berlin: www.fau.org/ortsgruppen/berlin/
Catalyst #28 is out now, read it online here.
In this issue:
With friends like these, who needs enemies? To beat the cuts, workers need to act independently of the trade union laws... and it's already happening.
Dispatches from the frontlines: Three London education workers speak about cuts, organising and casualisation in the sector.
Victory for the cleaners: unofficial action by Senate House and Guildhall cleaners gets results in London.
Sparks fly: electricians direct action over pay cuts.
Plus: your basic rights at work
"Better late than never" was the motto of a picket held by the Freie ArbeiterInnen Union (FAU) Berlin on October 18, in Berlin Friedrichshain, with 60 protesters participating. The base union called attention to the extremely precarious employment situation at late-night kiosks. The picket was inspired by a fired employee, who worked in a late-night kiosk named "Mumbai Corner". Daniel R. had been working there until the conflict begun.
"After an unpaid industrial placement, I was happy to make some additional money", the worker, who gets unemployment compensation, tells, "but enough is enough." Daniel R. went to court claiming unpaid wages. The picket thought to support Daniel beyond the trial because the shop owner has not only instructed his attorney to sue the worker but also some libertarian media which reported about it.
Interkomm, an urban district organisation and FAU Berlin endorse reflections about employments in your neighbourhood and reinforce solidarity with workers as Daniel. At the same time, FAU Berlin is looking at the whole picture: "It is not only some precarious employments we face, it is a economy of precarious jobs.“ Many shop holders have started their own late-night kiosks or snack bar to escape from a precarious situation, but they also run kiosks with precarious jobs, thereby the exploitation continues. Harsh competition results in self-exploitation and the exploitation of cheap labour force.
FAU Berlin
See:
FAU Berlin: www.fau.org/ortsgruppen/berlin
Court Hearing Details: www.labournet.de
Interkomm Report 05.10.2010 www.trend.infopartisan.net
