Solidarity 176, 24 June 2010

12 months ago, following a campaign by members of Workers’ Liberty and Workers’ Climate Action, workers at the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight occupied the plant against closure. The campaign became a focus for the left and the environmental movement, and showed how a working-class struggle for decent jobs could be combined with a perspective for environmentally-sustainable and socially-useful production. Former Vestas workers and their supporters on the island and elsewhere are still campaigning for jobs and justice. An AWL pamphlet telling the story of the dispute is...

If the Copenhagen climate gathering last year was an utter failure, then the talks in Bonn earlier this month were a complete irrelevance. After two weeks of parleying, no text was agreed for the negotiations due to take place in Cancun in December. After a fortnight of wrangling, involving 5,000 officials from 185 governments, a 22-page text was produced by the UN, but was dismissed, on the grounds that it favoured developing countries. The basic ambiguity remains from Copenhagen. The UN process, which involved at least the semblance of a commitment to reduce emissions, was sidelined by the...

On Monday 21 June students and staff at Hackney Community College joined others around the country in a protest against public sector cuts. University Colleges Union (UCU) and Unison had asked members to organise lunchtime protests. 70 colleges and universities according to the union took part in the protest against £1.2 billion cuts in University funding and the loss of up to 7,000 jobs in further education. At Hackney there was banner making, giant games, budget themed twister, tug of war, food and discussion from 12 pm to 1pm in the college grounds. In February over £1million in cuts were...

Unite is expected to launch a new waves of strikes against British Airways as it prepares to take a fresh ballot. Unite is serving notification of a ballot after further talks at ACAS floundered. The union is demanding the full reinstatement of the staff travel scheme for strikers as part of any agreement. BA has made almost no concessions on the issue of the concessionary travel ban and other victimisations of strikers. These victimisations are BA's tactics for punishing staff for exercising their right to strike. Unite's general secretaries Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson have referred to the...

Around 30 people attended a “Save Our Services” meeting in Oxford on the 20th of June to discuss how to resist cuts in local public services. Activists from green alter-globalisation activist network People and Planet had provided a lot of the footwork, postering Oxford and leafleting door-to-door. Trade unionists and local activists spoke. A further meeting is planned for 1st July, 6PM, Cheney Community Centre. More information: www.odtuc.org.uk

John McDonnell MP has won the ballot among MP for the chance to put a “private member’s Bill” and will propose one to stop employers being able to get strikes declared illegal for minor technical errors in the ballot. If successful, this would put an end to the ridiculous shenanigans that see strikes and ballots delayed and pantomimes such as Unite's BA cabin crew getting an injunction which was then lifted on appeal. It would reaffirm that it is legal for us to strike for our rights. So it is very important that we support this Bill — and not just by admiring from the sidelines but by...

Set up as an “arms length” company by Labour-controlled Glasgow City Council in 2006, City Building (Glasgow) LLP (formerly the council’s Building Services Department) has enjoyed a large amount of salacious press coverage in recent months. It began with the revelation that since 2006 City Building had awarded £10 millions worth of contracts to City Refrigeration Holdings Ltd whose founder and boss, Willie Haughey, has donated over £1 million to Labour since 2003 — the biggest donor to Labour in Scotland. In the same period City Refrigeration won just one other public contract — a slightly...

A striker at Dis-Chem Pharmacies tells of her life. Dis-Chem is a major company in South Africa, and the workers have been on strike since 27 May 2010. From the South Africa Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union. My name is Ethelina and I am fifty-eight years old. I work as a cleaner. I`ve been working for Dis-Chem since January 1996 and I still only earn R3600 per month. I live in a shack in Orange Farm [a very poor Johannesburg township]. Every morning I get out of bed at 3.30 am and leave the house before 4am, when my family is still asleep, to make sure I get to work on time at 7am...

Whilst the constant buzz of vuvuzelas and the chirpy pre-match commentary from Adrian Chiles and a rotating line-up of ex-footballers sound throughout the South African stadiums, a more important noise is resonating in the country. “We are struggling for our country!”came the chants of striking stewards demanding that contractors increase their tiny wages, and as we go to press the pay dispute is spreading to most of the stadiums hosting the World Cup. The stewards, working for Stallion Security, had started their struggle in Durban with a protest outside the company’s office. Strikers later...

David is a construction worker in Jersey. Tell us a bit about the work you do. I am a manual labourer who is currently working on a large roadwork project. The work involves mainly digging holes and doing the jobs that the tradesmen won’t. There are three types of people who work on this job. Those who work for the main contractor, whose name I will not mention, and those who are contracted through various agencies. What are your pay and conditions like? I am, unfortunately, an agency employee, meaning that instead of the £10.50 employees from the contractor enjoy I get only £8. This means...