Against victimisation

Defending victimised workers and trade unionists

Glasgow CCA expels Saramago

The five-week-long dispute between the Industrial Workers of the World trade union and the Saramago café (located on the premises of Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts) is over. The dispute began when Saramago sacked six IWW members, in two tranches, for a brief work stoppage over working conditions, as part of the union’s organising campaign. Since then there have been daily protests in front of the CCA (targeting Saramago, not the CCA). Last Friday (21 April) the CCA issued a statement announcing that it was “discontinuing its relationship with business tenant Saramago” and that Saramago...

Solidarity for café unionists

Daily protests in front of the Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts are supporting workers sacked by Saramago, which runs the café-bar on the CCA premises. Three workers, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), were sacked on Friday 17 March. No disciplinary hearings, no right to union representation – just sacked in the café in front of customers. Another three IWW members were sacked by e-mail during the protests – again without a disciplinary hearing or right of appeal. More dismissals are probably in the pipeline. In the course of organising in the café IWW members had won a...

“We’ve come this far, we have to see it through”

A Royal Mail worker and CWU rep spoke to Solidarity about their ongoing dispute. Royal Mail and the CWU have issued a joint statement, with a longer appendix. Royal Mail has paused its “executive action”, the unilateral imposition of its planned cuts and restructure, and the joint statement effectively devolves negotiation over these issues down to local level. It sets a 10 March deadline for local resolution, but this seems ridiculous to me – I can't see how this will happen. Given what Royal Mail has already imposed so far, in many larger workplaces you have well over 100 people displaced...

Over 20 days of Abellio bus strikes

Bus drivers working for Abellio in London have had over 20 days of strikes and continue to be in dispute. Abellio are notorious for being one of the lowest paying bus companies in London. Forensic accountants from the drivers' union, Unite, showed that the parent company Abellio Transport Holdings BV Netherlands had systematically removed £20 million from the London bus operation over 20 years and had held down wages to reduce staff costs from 65% of sales in 2010 to 50% of sales in 2020. Unite balloted members three times in 2022. The first two ballots failed to reach the anti-union law...

The fight for labour unions: Myanmar Pou Chen workers

Myanmar Pou Chen workers demand a wage rise, October 2022 Under Taiwanese ownership, the Myanmar Pou Chen facility makes more than 38,000 pairs of Adidas shoes every day. However, the company didn’t pay enough for its workers to withstand the rising cost of essentials amidst the bad economic conditions. The workers requested a raise in the daily wage from 4,800 kyats to 8,000 kyats due to the economic situation and the rising cost of essentials. With a three-day strike in October, the workers demanded answers to 21 problems, including low pay and workplace discrimination. More than 2,000...

Defend Radeck, defend the union

Unite members at London United’s Fulwell bus garage are being balloted for industrial action over the sacking of their shop steward, Radeck. Radeck was suspended and then sacked just for the crime of answering a simple question on a union WhatsApp group about who had gone into work on strike days. Management say that giving the names of the few who broke the strike he has committed an act of gross misconduct. Radeck has over 15 years of a clean disciplinary record as a driver, so this is an act of revenge against a recently elected and highly effective trade unionist. In the summer London...

Tenth anniversary of mass murder of mineworkers in South Africa

Miners' leader Mgcineni Noki, one of the 34 workers killed on 16 August 2012 On 16 August 2022, I went to a protest in London marking the 10th anniversary of the massacre of organised mineworkers in Marikana, South Africa - gunned down by police just for organizing strike action against oppressive work conditions. About 40 people were there, including campaigns about other countries and issues like Colombia Solidarity Campaign, and black activists from the Caribbean, and black trade unionists like Glenroy Watson from the RMT (UK transport workers’ union). Different people of different races...

Workers defy immigration raid in East London

Police raid in Ashwin Street, Dalston, 14 May The importance and power of workers’ organisation was shown dramatically on Saturday (14 May) in Dalston, London. When a group of police officers started conducting immigration checks against couriers, passers-by started to gather, and local union organisers quickly got the message out via social media to call people in. The harassment is suspected in response to militant workers organising there against parking fines unfairly given to drivers, who work in notoriously tough conditions. Protestors faced malicious violence from police officers...

Free couriers' leader Kirill Ukraintsev!

Michael Baker: Kirill Ukraintsev, leader of the Courier trade union, has been put in pre-trial detention until 25 June with a charge of "calling or participating in an unauthorised gathering on more than two occasions in the space of 180 days". He faces a sentence of up to five years — all this because he is the head of the only trade union organising delivery drivers across Russia, at a time when the majority migrant workforce is being squeezed tighter than ever by the bosses. We publish below a translation of the union's May Day demands on Delivery Club and the Russian government. Dale...

Free Russian couriers' leader Kirill Ukraintsev!

Please tweet for Kirill Ukraintsev's release, with the hashtag #ПрофсоюзНеПреступление [a union is not a crime] Kirill Ukraintsev, co-chair of the independent Russian trade union ‘Courier’ , has been arrested on spurious charges five days into a strike organised by the union. On 26 April - Ukraintsev’s birthday, no less - police broke down his door and announced a search of his flat, during which time he was detained and no lawyers or journalists were allowed access to the flat until the search was complete. Ukraintsev was then taken to a pre-detention centre, where he has now been sentenced...

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