Sweatshops

No Sweat plans action

Over 100 anti-sweatshop and workers’ rights activists gathered in London on the weekend of 1-2 December for this year’s No Sweat conference. The theme chosen for this year’s conference by the campaign — which works within the anti-capitalist movement to argue for solidarity with workers’ movements at home and abroad — was “Beating Big Brand Exploitation”. Activists from across the UK discussed the campaigns they had been involved in through the past year, and furthermore how our activity might find expression in new arenas and link up with other campaigns. For example, the question of water...

My life as a “precarious worker”

I’m a second year university student working part-time in a service-sector job (a nightclub). Having the job means I never have to choose between buying books or buying lunch. Although elements of the job are enjoyable and positive (interaction with customers is sometimes very rewarding, and benefits such as free tickets to events held in the club are worth having as a student) the amount of casual and not-so-casual exploitation that takes place is outrageous. It’s nothing unique, though; it’s endemic right across the service-sector and particularly in workplaces employing high numbers of...

Women workers get wage cut

As of 1 October 2007, the national minimum wage for over 21 year olds will go up 17p, to £5.52 an hour. Working an average of 35 hours a week, this would leave you with £9,063.77 take home pay a year. This 3% rise is less than inflation, meaning the minimum wage change is actually a decrease in real terms. This should come as no surprise to any following the exploits (and we really mean that word) of the Low Pay Commission, who basically represent bosses’ interests, and wouldn’t give a genuine increase. Public sector workers are also being palmed off with below inflation pay deals. It is...

Organising Tube Cleaners

London Underground cleaners in the RMT continue to organise. About three weeks ago, cleaning staff at Morden Underground depot succeeded in fighting their management's imposition of a new 7-day a week roster, which would have allowed them no days off! The RMT cleaner rep came up with an alternative roster, where the same trains would get cleaned, but over five days rather than seven. The cleaners in the depot were solidly organised, and at a branch meeting, the day before the rosters were due to be implemented, cleaners started to organise to walk out. RMT activists from London Underground...

Organising fast food workers

Mike Kyriazopolous interviews Jared Phillips, a Unite Fast Food Organiser and Workers Party activist in New Zealand. MK: How did Unite plan its organising in fast food? JP: The background is that Unite went from being an unemployed or community union to being a low paid workers’ union. Inroads started in the hotels, Sky City Casino, etc. There were plans to unionise the café industry but the real companies dominant in the service sector are the large brands or chains in the fast food and café industry. The first real campaign here was the Burger King campaign in Auckland which kicked off...

Organising Starbucks

Over the summer anti-sweatshop group No Sweat will be running a campaign highlighting the highly exploitative conditions for workers at Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee chain, particularly their anti-union record. On Saturday 18 August there will be a national day of action — get in touch with admin@nosweat.org.uk for details of how to get involved. Here, Harriet Parker gives some background. Starbucks was founded in the early 1970s. Last year its annual global turnover was $7.8bn (£3.9bn). Starbucks announced in October 2006 its long-term expansion target of 40,000 outlets around the...

Defending Labor Rights in Haiti

By Ben Terrall - HaitiAnalysis.com New legislation in Washington D.C., under the acronym H.O.P.E. – short for “ the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act,” has the goal of promoting the garment industry in Haiti. But the legislation falls noticeably short in protecting labor rights or promoting long-term sustainable economic development that will benefit the poor as well as the rich. The Washington Post editorialized about the bill: “After 15 years of political turmoil, violent unrest and economic mismanagement, this looks like a rare opportunity to consolidate...

Hazel Blears and Sweatshops

The freebie Metro newspaper today informs us that beloved-of-this-blog Hazel Blears has been caught out being dodgy again. And here is the story in the Manchester Evening News.
This time, she has allegedly been commissioning her campaign material (she's standing for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party...

Women's TUC: Sweatshop Labour policy

The TUC has still not deemed to post on its website the resolutions passed at Women's Conference over a month ago. Instead, we get a decidedly unhelpful "no documents available".

I'm not going to do their job for them and post the whole lot, but I am posting the resolution on sweatshop labour, that...

JJB Sports workers fight “first world sweatshop"

STOP PRESS: THE JJB STRIKERS HAVE SUSPENDED STRIKE ACTION PENDING NEGOTIATIONS ABOUT A NEW OFFER FROM THEIR BOSSES. MORE INFORMATION AS WE HAVE IT. 280 GMB members at the Wigan warehouse which supplies all 430 JJB Sports shops in the UK are striking against a millionaire boss who describes their demand for all workers to receive an equal wage of at least £6.50 an hour as “the communist way — cuckoo land!” Wages in the Martland Park depot vary between the minimum wage of £5.35 and £6.90 an hour, and targets for bonuses are increasingly difficult to achieve, leaving most workers with about £200...

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