#strike action

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

Every time I see a meme about a stupid UFO I’m going to post about the ecological disaster happening in the US right now because of a corrupt capitalist government

[damnesdelamer]

On the picket line the other day, I saw a former lecturer of mine, and we got talking. Part of the whole dispute we in UCU are involved in is around the fact that Higher Education as a sector has over £40 billion in reserves nationwide, and many universities have chosen to dump that into vanity projects like shiny new buildings (many of which are both exorbitantly expensive and also not fit-for-purpose), rather than invest in staff during the biggest cost of living crisis in living memory.

My former lecturer, a staunch liberal, intimated that £40 billion seems like a lot, so who knows if that money even exists. So I told him, here’s what I do know: three years ago, my managers, who were responsible for allocating a £5 million bid of government funding, ignored the advice of me and another expert on practical teaching equipment, and chose instead to spend more on products from existing contracts. This could be seen as corruption, but technically I think it’s just laziness. But it also amounts to a mutual agreement among university management and external contractors and suppliers to continue to profit off government funds, rather than invest in staff.

Over the last ten years, workers across Higher Education are being paid 25% less in real terms, due to stagnating wages, due to inflation, due to increased cost of living. This is to say nothing of the fallout from covid, or the arguably substantial decline in education standards new students receive (in spite of all the money dumped into new buildings and equipment).

Meanwhile, my institution’s student intake has nearly doubled in the past five years, which both means greater workload and, in theory, greater revenue. But who sees that money? Not me, nor even the lecturers who make twice as much as me, but you can bet that money is going somewhere.

Initially we had no offer of increased pay, then we went on strike and got an offer of 3% (again, in the face of a loss of 25% over the last decade in real terms), and then 5%. These ‘offers’ have been overwhelmingly rejected by UCU members, in part because they prove that that money does exist, and is available for our employers to give us our due. But more importantly, this is not just about pay, and the problems of workloads, pensions, mismanagement, and discrimination, which sparked the current strikes, won’t be solved by throwing money at them.

Nevertheless, slowly but surely, we are making advances. Industrial action works. Support the Unions and support the strikes!

Solidarity forever.

[ihateflying]

Royal mail are out on strike today for better pay that reflects an actual, inflation adjusted living wage. Please spread the message and show your support for postal workers across the UK.

We want a living wage and to protect the universal postal service! We will not be made into a gig economy or into amazon with different branding!

Stand with the CWU!

-Edit-

An update for everyone to see

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

General strike?

What are we saying the threshold for a general strike is? The famous general strike in 1926 was 1.7 million workers (yes, smaller population, etc etc).

So when can we call it a general strike?

[mariemariemaria]

"The only time working-class people are allowed to become heroes is when they are trapped, dying or dead [...] If there is a pit disaster [the miners are heroes], if there is a wage claim, they are militants" – Tony Benn, 1989

[scavengedluxury]

Auntie Beeb “forgetting” to use quotation marks again? It’s more likely than you’d think.

[tweetingukpolitics]

[queen-mabs-revenge]

The Kellogg’s workers’ demands will be familiar to millions of workers across the country: the reversal of attacks on pay and benefits, as well as an end to a divisive two-tier wage structure and the brutal overtime regime which the company has imposed during the pandemic. Brian Leche, an electrician at the Battle Creek plant, told local news: “Some people at the plant don’t have a scheduled day for the entire year. We aren’t willing to accept that anymore.”

...

Particularly sinister is the BCTGM’s promotion of anti-Mexican chauvinism, blaming workers in Mexico for conditions in US plants. “A lot of Americans probably don’t have too much issue with the Nike or Under Armor hats being made elsewhere or even our vehicles, but when they start manufacturing our food down where they are out of the FDA control and OSHA control, I have a huge problem with that,” Daniel Osborne, the local president in Omaha, told the press. The union is also campaigning for a boycott of “made-in-Mexico Nabisco products.”

Kellogg’s is a multinational corporation, with 21 cereal factories in 18 countries outside of the United States, spread across every continent except Antarctica. Moreover, it has long carried out cuts to jobs and wages on a world scale. In 1995, the company fired 140 workers in Australia at the same time it announced over 1,000 job cuts in the United States. In 2014, it closed its plant in London, Ontario, putting 500 workers out of a job. The BCTGM’s promotion of American nationalism allows the company to isolate workers in the United States from their brothers and sisters in other countries, in a decades-long divide-and-conquer strategy.

The way forward for Kellogg’s workers is through the development of the broadest possible unity and collaboration with workers across the world, who share the same interests and the same common enemy. This requires the development of their independent initiative and organizations, outside and against the union, through the formation of rank-and-file strike committees. Such committees, democratically controlled by workers, will enable information to be shared across the plants, circumventing the blackout of the BCTGM. They will also allow Kellogg’s workers to link up with workers at Nabisco and Frito-Lay, in the meatpacking, auto and other industries, and elsewhere, in a common struggle against low pay and intolerable working conditions.

[damnesdelamer]

Massive win, comrades!

And we're only just starting...

[ihateflying]

Please please share this!

Royal mail ceo Simon Thompson has decided to go ahead with his plans to de-recognise the communication workers union by ignoring legally binding agreements and unilaterally deciding to forge ahead with changes that benefit the company, the shareholders and managers. They have recently been attempting to delay any further strike action and even trying to declare further industrial action illegal.

He has the tories on his side but we'll keep fighting until we're done. Fuck Simon Thompson. Fuck royal mail. Fuck the rich. Fuck the company. Fuck the tories backing these cunts.

Personally I think we need to more direct with methods of "communicating our intent" but we'll see about that.

If you have twitter let royal mail know they they can go fuck themselves.

-Edit-

Royal mail have once again brought nothing to the table with talks and think they can break us.

There are more strikes happening and I myself shall be at my mail centre from 6am onwards.

Postal workers work day and night, we worked through the lockdown and recieved fuck all from Royal Mail bar a slap in the face. Once again I'm asking people to share this and to let Royal mail know they fucked up.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Not sure this is the poll result they were looking for.

Anyway, don't meekly lie down and accept your poverty.

[scavengedluxury]

Sugár Shopping Centre walkway, Örs vezér square, Budapest, 1990, during the taxi strike. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive. 

[allthecanadianpolitics]

"It's another day without a deal for the City of Yellowknife and its striking employees, and the unions for those workers say they don't plan on heading back to the bargaining table unless the city changes its tune on wages.

Just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Union of Northern Workers and Public Service Alliance of Canada North released a joint statement that they had once again failed to reach an agreement with the city.

The unions said their bargaining team presented the city with two more proposals in the past week, but the city refused to move on its offered wage increase.

Until that increase is on the table for discussion, "coming back to the table is pointless," the unions said.

"Hearing that the City is unwilling to move on wages, we did not think it would be fair to sit in a warm room knowing that it was all pointless. Today we will be out walking the picket line with our co-workers in the freezing cold," stated Reilly Hinchey, the president of UNW Local 345, in the statement.

This comes after the City of Yellowknife released its own statement Monday evening claiming the union walked away from negotiations at 6 p.m. that day without responding to the city's latest offer.

The city said that offer included base wage increases of two per cent for each of 2022 and 2023, as well as a one-time inflation adjustment and payment of $1,500 for full-time employees, $750 for part-time and seasonal employees and $250 for casual employees, among other benefits.

The strike affects about 205 employees, according to the city. Last week, CBC reported the unions were asking for a five per cent wage increase for 2022 and three per cent for 2023."

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[tweetingukpolitics]

[amiedelabaisse]

[spockvarietyhour]

Solid Wall of police cruisers and more than 50 constables block entrance to dock at Niagara-on-the-Lake after it was reported Saturday 150 C.S.U. strikers and sympathizers planned to picket the C.S.L. ship Cayuga. 1948 (TPL Archives)