Solidarity 059, 7 October 2004

Chinese police attack factory occupation

More than 1,000 military and other police sent by the Chongqing municipal government stormed a factory occupation on 30 August. The factory was formerly owned by the Chinese army. A young worker was reportedly beaten in the police action and then disappeared. According to the China Labour Bulletin, the workers occupied the factory on 18 August when the local government sold it to a private company for 22 million yuan, although it was worth 10 times that amount. The factory owed many workers unpaid wages prior to its restructuring, claimed it would repay them afterwards, but reneged on the...

Strike against “Wal-Martisation”

Hotel workers across the United States and Canada have launched a campaign of industrial action to secure recognition and collective bargaining rights in the industry. Workers at 14 hotels in San Francisco alone are now out on strike, backed by the union UNITE HERE. More strikes are planned in Washington and Los Angeles. The hotel workers say they want “to prevent the Wal-Martisation” of their industry — it is a response to the rapid consolidation and expansion of the international hotel corporations in recent decades. See the hotel workers’ website for more information.

Eat yourself sick

Pat Longman reviews Super Size Me McDonald’s is having a bad time. UK profits are down by £61 million and have been steadily declining since 2000. The company brand — the famous arches — is in danger of collapsing. McDonald’s directors must be cursing Morgan Spurlock, the man behind the box office hit movie Super Size Me. Morgan got the idea for his movie when he heard that two girls in the USA were suing McDonald’s for their ill health. They lost their case because they couldn’t prove McDonald’s, and not other factors, had led to their plight. Spurred on by the court decision, Morgan Spurlock...

Liverpool social workers

Striking Liverpool social workers are appealing for messages of support and practical solidarity in their struggle against a council which is refusing even to talk to them. The 163 members of UNISON's Liverpool City branch have been on indefinite strike since 24 August in a dispute over workloads and case allocation. The dispute arose late last year. The lack of a caseload allocation system and what the union saw as inappropriate use of procedures led to staff being over worked. This in turn saw a high staff turnover rate, high levels of stress and difficulties in staff finding the time to...

Review article: Neither “liberal” armies nor terror

Paul Berman’s book Terror and Liberalism is a New York Times bestseller. It is an argument from within — broadly speaking — the left in favour of the war on terror, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, etc. Clive Bradley critically examines that argument. Berman makes many qualifications in his book. He is sympathetic to the concerns of others on the left regarding civil liberties, American imperialism, and so on; he is sharply critical of how the Bush administration has handled the war on terror (“… the great, frightening truth of all modern history [is] the chance occurrence that, at a moment...

Radiographers reject Agenda for Change

By a UNISON healthworker The 16,000-strong Society of Radiographers has rejected in a ballot the proposed new pay deal for the NHS, Agenda for Change (AfC). 83% voted no on a 67% turnout. As Solidarity went to press delegates from UNISON health branches were due to meet on 7 October to decide a recommendation for their union’s ballot on the issue. Amicus was also preparing to consult members on the deal. Officials of all three unions want to see the deal accepted, but the membership is not convinced, and rightly so. A year ago, the SoR was the only union to reject AfC. The other unions voted...

Stop redundancies at Hackney College

Lecturers at Hackney Communisty College have voted to take two days of strike action — a one day strike on Tuesday 12 October, followed by another at the beginning of November. College management have announced cuts of up to 71 jobs, affecting both lecturers and support staff. Ten of the proposed redundancies are in Adult and Continuing Learning provision and are directly attributable to the Hackney Learning Trust insisting on offering the college a reduced budget. The college has gained awards for excellence and students have achieved above average academic and vocational results due to...

Amsterdam: monster march against cuts

On Saturday 2 October, more than two hundred fifty thousand people marched through Amsterdam against plans of the Dutch government to slash social services and pension rights, as well as its support for the US in Iraq. It was the largest trade union demonstration in Dutch history. Besides the three Dutch trade union federations FNV, CNV (Christian), and MHP (higher and middle level employees), about 500 big and smaller organisations also participated (political parties, refugees rights organisations etc). The Keer het Tij (Turn the Tide) platform includes these 500 organisations. According to...

Swansea council workers to strike

The two month long dispute in Swansea Council with Information Technology workers is now set to escalate as UNISON members in the council staff have voted to take strike action over privatisation and redundancies. On a 41% turnout 63% voted yes. 102 IT workers have been on indefinite strike since 16 August over the council’s decision to privatise IT within the council. The ICT dispute arose after the Lib-Dem council began restructuring all its services under a £100 million Services@Swansea initiative. Two private IT companies are bidding to install a new IT system in the council and UNISON...

Letter: A concocted threat

With the benefit of hindsight Rick Grogan’s statement (Solidarity 3/58) that “If the dispute had continued [over privatisation], those workers would have been transferred with no agreements…” does not make sense. The first group of track and maintenance workers were privatised in December 2002, eighteen months after the strikes in question were called off and the dispute settled. Who knows what we could have achieved in those intervening 18 months? So the question needs to be asked: where did the idea that “…track workers and maintenance workers were facing privatisation within weeks.” come...

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