Industrial news in brief

Submitted by Matthew on 5 March, 2014 - 1:40

Campaigners presented online retail giant Amazon with a 56,000-strong petition demanding it pay living wages.

The hand-in, which took place on Friday 28 February, was the latest action in an ongoing media campaign to expose exploitation in Amazon warehouses.

Campaigners have now set up a blog where Amazon workers can share and discuss experiences of working life.

Yorkshire care workers' seven-day strike

Workers at Care UK in Doncaster, South Yorkshire struck for a week from Thursday 27 February.

Care UK, which won the contract tendered by Doncaster council to provid its supported-living service for adults with learning disabilities, has flagrantly disregarded TUPE agreements and plans to axe unsociable hours payments. Due to the nature of the work, which requires a large amount of unsociable-hours working, some workers could lose up to £7,000 per year if the cuts go through. For some staff, this amounts to a 50% pay cut.

Care UK is threatening to sack and re-engage staff if they don’t agree to the new terms by 21 March.

The workers, who are members of Unison, voted by a 90% majority to strike.

Their seven-day strike saw them picket Care UK’s offices, as well as holding demonstrations and rallies in Doncaster town centre.

Teamster Rebellion

Workers’ Liberty activists in London have been running a reading group studying Teamster Rebellion, American Trotskyist Farrell Dobbs’s classic account of his participation in the 1934 Minneapolis teamsters’ (truck drivers’) strike.

The story describes how a core of revolutionary workers turned a previously moribund and bureaucratic union branch into a democratic fighting force that took on company bosses and local police to win huge gains for workers.

Sessions continue on Wednesday evenings at the University of London Union at 6.30pm.

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