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Post by dodger on Sept 24, 2013 16:17:39 GMT
A Day of Reckoning.........
........has Arrived.
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Post by dodger on Sept 26, 2013 17:16:11 GMT
RCTU on Victorious Coca Cola Strike: Take back the power of strikes! Amplify our fight for our economic and political rights!
Fortunato Magtanggol
Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions (Southern Tagalog)
September 24, 2013
The Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions-National Democratic Front-Southern Tagalog (RCTU-NDF-ST) salutes the workers under the Unyon ng Manggagawang Driver, Forklift Operator, at Picker (UMDFP-IND) of the Coca Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. – Sta. Rosa Plant for a victorious strike launched in May. The collective action that was directed at the heart of the capitalist’s interests has once again proven that workers are indeed the decisive force in production.
As the memorandum of agreement nears implementation this October, the RCTU-NDF-ST reminds and urges workers to fearlessly fight the worsening working conditions under the US-Aquino regime, take back the power of strikes, and track the revolutionary road that will bring them genuine victory in the fight for a society without capitalist oppression.
On May 20, 2013, workers under the UMDFP-IND decisively took to their anger to the streets outside the CCBPI-Sta. Rosa plant and declared a strike after months of trying to negotiate with transnational Coca Cola.
Members reached a resolution to launch the strike via strike voting after the Department of Labor and Employment Office of the Secretary blatantly reversed the previous decision released by DoLE-region 4A Med Arbiter Tongzon regarding the workers’ right to certification election abreast their regularization.
The strike that lasted for three days brought workers from other factories and other sectors together to call for the immediate recognition of the previously released decision from Tongzon.
Taking back what is rightfully theirs, the workers paralyzed the factory and ceased, for that particular moment, the capitalist’s seemingly endless acquiring of surplus value from the workers’ labor. For three days, the striking workers, with the support of workers from other factories and unions, have temporarily reversed their economic and social status— forcing the capitalist to bow down and heed the workers’ calls. For this particular moment, workers become the masters, and the capitalist becomes their slave.
Coca Cola lost more than an estimated cost of 100 million pesos during the three-day strike, which left them with no other choice but to face the workers and settle with a set of agreements including the regularization of the workers under UMDFP. Based on a series of talks during the past 4 months, the capitalist has promised to fully implement the decisions based on the memorandum of agreement on October 6.
In the whole region and even the whole country, the victorious strike of the UMDFP-IND truly sets a new development in the long been oppressed trade union sector. The fight for job security, which has become a crucial struggle for the working class, has now reached a new level, at which we can truly say that there is still hope through our unified ranks and determination.
While it is just right to acknowledge the power of strikes in giving workers economic and political power, there is great necessity in recognizing its momentary effect. Following their brief rise from oppression, workers return to their usual places in production and once again become modern day slaves who trade their labor for measly alms. At the end of the day, they have been able to lessen the capitalist’s rate of exploitation through better working conditions, but remain abused because of the latter’s natural interests in expanding their capital.
RCTU-NDF-ST calls on all Coca Cola workers, as well as other workers from other factories, to continue the fight for regularization and right to union, escalate their struggle from economic to politically motivated actions, and aim their strength at the heart of the capitalists’ interests not only by intensifying the strike movement, but most importantly, through leading the national democratic revolution that will end all forms of capitalist oppression.
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Post by dodger on Sept 29, 2013 9:58:28 GMT
October 2013
NUT/NAS strike rallies
Tuesday 1 October and Thursday 17 October
Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, London and SheffieldFor details see www.nut.org.uk/node/19146
Industrial action in schools in England starts this month as teachers fight for pay, pensions, working conditions and jobs...
Teachers rally as strike days loom
WORKERS, OCT 2013 ISSUE
HUNDREDS OF teacher trade unionists joined Rallies for Education across England in September in the lead up to industrial action this month. The teachers, members of the NUT and NASUWT, came together to protest about the unprecedented attacks waged by the government against the profession, schools and students.
In London on 14 September, speakers from the platform included a representative from each union, plus a classroom teacher, some students, a governor and a parent. Patrick Roach, NASUWT deputy general secretary, spoke about the decline in teacher numbers, dilapidated buildings, widespread closure of children’s centres, increasing class sizes, and the attempt to set teacher against teacher with performance-related pay. He pointed out that PRP will reduce teachers’ pay, as no extra money is available to fund the scheme.
A geography teacher from a Tower Hamlets school, with 15 years’ experience, pointed out that the massive endless changes introduced by successive governments were exhausting teachers, who are now called “the enemies of promise” by Secretary of State Gove. Schools are collaborative organisations or they are nothing, she said. Teachers work together to raise standards of education, not against each other in competitive salary systems that emphasise the work of individuals rather than teams.
Shocked
Teacher workload is relentless, she explained, and now Gove talks about lengthening the school day and shortening school holidays. At her school, teachers recently hosted a meeting between teachers and parents from three local schools – parents were shocked to hear about what was happening.
All this together with the trebling of tuition fees was a great concern to Soraya, a sixth form student from the same school, who spoke next. She wants to be a doctor, but will face debt of around £54,000 by the end of her medical training. Is university now to be only for the rich?
A parent from Hounslow pointed out that education needs to be a planned, organised system, not a free-for-all. Next, a governor from Hove in Sussex explained how local people including governors had fought off a government proposal to build a free school on a community playing field. A playing field banner now proclaims “Hove 1, Gove 0”.
Councillors from Barking and Dagenham spoke of the crisis in school places, felt acutely in that borough. Nationally 118,000 extra primary places are needed, with 42 per cent of the shortage in London alone. Barking and Dagenham has seen a 60 per cent increase in the birth rate in 10 years, as well as families moving out of central London unable to afford the rents. Under-18s now make up 31 per cent of the population. In their borough, they have families with children in schools in three different boroughs.
Running out of classrooms
Having expanded 70 per cent of existing schools – local authorities are no longer allowed to build new schools – the borough is running out of space. The council is now looking at empty shops and pubs as possible classrooms, as well as split shift schools, with 8am–2pm and 2pm–8pm sessions, and/or 8am–6pm on Saturdays plus three weekday shifts. In two years’ time, they said, the crisis will also swamp the secondary schools.
Michael Gove talks about millions of pounds being spent on new Free Schools but those new places are nowhere near enough to deal with the crisis, and many of them are in religious schools or in the wrong areas. He has no plan to deal with the crisis.
Gove’s departmental spending is out of control, explained Christine Blower of the NUT, as he creates an extra layer of central bureaucracy to replace local authorities. The Local Government Association has called for a halt to the Free School programme, to fund the extra school places needed now.
With loudly applauded excellent speeches from the platform, the mood in the London hall was animated. Now teachers have to go out and build the unions in their schools, to be ready for the fights ahead.
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Post by dodger on Oct 7, 2013 10:17:14 GMT
imarxman.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/learning-a-lesson/ Learning a Lesson?by imarxman
Over a thousand teachers, members of the NUT and the NASUWT united around a common cause, gathered in Ponds Forge Leisure Centre after a march through the centre of Sheffield. It was the latest teachers’ day of action.
At first glance all this looked reasonably impressive. Here were members of two unions known for rivalry rather than cooperation, working closely together in a cause linked to similar concerns in the wider union movement. However, a little reflection gives cause for concern.
A gathering of a thousand or so may seem a goodly number, but the rally was the focal point for all Yorkshire and Humberside. More impressive would have been a large crowd outside clamouring to get in, but excluded by sheer lack of capacity, rather than there being adequate space available for many more.
From the podium the first speaker declaimed verbal bullet points listing the various grievances shared throughout the room, punctuated with pithy declarations of mutual competence and commitment to education. She paused after each pronouncement for the assembly to clack their clackers and blow their whistles in appreciation.
She was followed to the microphone by a representative of the TUC who promised the unstinting support of all six million trade union members. He linked the teachers’ campaign with the generalised economic attacks on workers and their families. He repeatedly denounced the unfairness of government policy which he counter-posed with demands for fairness.
This, in essence, typifies the paucity of the political response to the economic crisis of finance capitalism. Appeals for fairness may sound superficially attractive, but they a fundamentally flawed as calls to political action.
What is fair? Who decides? How is its achievement to be marked? It proves to be an elusive concept, so much so it can be invoked by opponents for the same issue. The ConDem government appropriate fairness as being the reason behind what they are doing in education.
A plethora of educational provision is being fair to parents and their children through allowing choice. Performance related pay is fair in that it rewards excellent teachers and discourages the incompetent. Limited or no pay rises is a fair sharing of the burden of tackling debt through austerity. Pension reform fairly brings teachers into line with other workers. The government is being fair to everyone.
On the broader front similar claims can and are made by ministers over the whole range of changes, from the bedroom tax through removing benefits from the under 25s to claimants having to work for their benefits.
Politics descends into competing claims for fairness, playing to prejudices rather than encouraging political clarity. It can divide the working class into competing, self seeking sub-groups focusing on supposed advantages of some workers rather than the source of general immiseration, capitalism.
Teachers are to be applauded for their union consciousness in taking action despite a low return on their ballot. And a thousand or so gathered together is by no means a poor effort. However, where is all this leading?
A continuing series of days of action, regional and national, with assemblies to listen to what are essentially platitudes will eventually result in disillusion and a consequent falling away of support.
Nor do fringe calls by hard left groups for the teachers’ campaign to be linked with a general strike offer any realistic perspective. Ways are going to have to be found to generate effective, if often less spectacular, forms of action.
For this a political perspective has to develop. TUC calls for fairness will almost certainly culminate with calls to return a Labour government at the next election. If and when that happens the result will be more of the same, even if the rhetoric changes.
Unions working together is good, but only if it leads to a positive outcome. Fighting for pay, of which pensions are a part, should be the basis for action. This is what engages workers directly with a clear struggle against capitalism.
It’s not that other issues aren’t important, but trying to confront them all simultaneously diffuses the campaign. Workers do not have to justify a struggle for higher wages through moral appeals to fairness. It is their primary focus.
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Post by dodger on Oct 9, 2013 15:19:13 GMT
www.workers.org.uk/news/news_1012/wardens.htmlWardens at the crossroadsWORKERS, OCT 2012 ISSUE When is a dispute not a dispute? When is a dispute bordering on a rout? The Borough of Camden in London privatised and outsourced its traffic wardens in the 2000s. The contract is now with outsourcing specialist NSL Ltd. Unison trade union membership is around 80 per cent of the workforce. Most of these members were recruited to the union by regional organising staff after the outsourcing, not by the local branch, and union recognition was achieved without dispute.
The vast majority are workers originally from Africa, with ethnic and tribal differences. Union recruitment and organisation as workers has largely overcome these divisions. The workers are low paid (£8.09 an hour) and work extensive overtime to make up their wages. In February Camden Unison branch lodged a 30 per cent pay claim to try to establish parity with other NSL contracts in differing boroughs.
Strikes occurred in July and August, with an overtime ban in place since late August. In negotiations NSL offered a 3 per cent rise in year one, 4 per cent in year two and 3 per cent in year three. And this when local government workers are now in their third year of zero pay increases. This offer was rejected by the branch and then withdrawn by NSL, coming back with an offer of the London Living Wage of £8.30 without further negotiation.
The London Living Wage is announced annually in November, and employer subscribers to it are expected to up the new rate within six months. By rejecting the three-year offer the branch has now chained its members to an even lower hourly rate determined by people associated with Boris Johnson’s Mayoral office. Further it has to be noted that promises made by the branch to the workforce bore no resemblance to reality, or managing member expectations or even allowing the embryo collective bargaining structures to start functioning. Many of these members have no understanding or experience of trade unionism.
Chronic low pay, especially where dependent on excessive overtime, has previously been resolved industrially, for example in the history of textiles and sweatshop employment. The key is to break dependency on excessive overtime and incrementally drive up the hourly rate. That depends on the workers themselves refusing the overtime rate and not being undercut by fellow workers who will work the excessive hours. This is even more difficult due to the employment of extensive migrant labour desperate for work and divisions played upon both by the company and differing ethnic groups among the workforce.
So where is the dispute going? The company can probably absorb the fines imposed by Camden Council for not meeting key performance targets, the result of reduced overtime. The request by the branch for a union-wide financial appeal implies the dispute is going nowhere and that those who believe “the longer the dispute without resolution the better” are in charge (or that unsustainable promises have been made of full take-home strike pay).
To appeal to other NSL workers on differing contracts to help develop an all-London strategy for dealing with NSL is to lock the door after the horse has bolted. Asking Unison to research NSL accounts, contracts and management salaries is again a tokenistic gesture. And a real sign that the branch has no exit strategy is the plea to Unison’s Labour Link structures to approach Camden Labour group to resolve the dispute politically.
Much is being made of the fact that most of these members are black and on low hourly rates. But why wasn’t that addressed when they were direct employees of the Council theoretically a more sympathetic employer?
Nothing contributes more to demoralisation than a badly planned, deliberately misleading and directionless dispute. London has seen a similar disastrous dispute in recent years in Barnet among Freemantle workers employed in care homes. Led down the garden path, they were abandoned once the strike strategy failed and the company refused to negotiate. The NSL Unison members are going to have to do some hard thinking and discussion especially about those who have treated them like cannon fodder.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..................................................>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Agreement at Camden NSL
WORKERS, FEB 2013 ISSUE
Last year the NSL pay dispute involving Camden Traffic Wardens was teetering on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (as reported in Workers, October 2012). The members have now accepted an offer that had been on the table for months – 4 per cent from 1 September 2012, 3 per cent from 1 April 2013 and 3 per cent from 1 April 2014.
The settlement flies in the face of those in the local Unison branch who were trying to promote ever-escalating but undeliverable industrial action, while scurrying around desperately behind the scenes in search of someone to bail them out of their failed industrial action strategy. Such strategies implied pegging workers’ wage rates to the London Living Wage – which would have left members at the mercy of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s charity approach to wages. In fact, they would have delivered a wage cut compared with the position once the percentage increases start to lift the basic rate for the job.
The Camden Traffic Wardens dispute is another sad, repetitive, year-on-year example stretching back into the fog of history of wrong tactics, wrong strategy, manipulation and the cynical use of inexperienced, poorly organised groups of workers for others’ agendas and politics. NSL workers must now think hard about how to lift union density on the back of the successful pay increases in Camden but also across other London boroughs paying less – whether the national minimum wage or Johnson’s London one.
Another task is to build real union organisation in NSL, and not be linked to old council union structures that do not reflect the real world of outsourcing and privatisation. Struggle must be conducted by applying thought through strategy and tactics, and leave aside those obsessed with mindless mantras and chants or superficial explanations about low pay, migration and race. Organised workers as one can overcome all such divisions.
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Post by dodger on Oct 10, 2013 12:59:37 GMT
OCTOBER 8, 2013 On World Day for Decent Work, workers march
to Mendiola vs contractualization
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MANILA – On “World Day for Decent Work”, a workers’ alliance marched to Mendiola to call for the scrapping of contractual employment which they say embodies a serious attack on workers’ right to decent work.
For the seventh year now, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the biggest international confederation of labor groups, has been calling for workers’ mobilizations on the World Day for Decent Work as part of the struggle for social justice and decent work for all.
In Manila, the ACT2WIN! Alliance, or Action against Contractualization and Towards Significant Wage Increase Now!, held a protest action in Mendiola, near Malacañang, with its members holding placards demanding “Junk contractualization!”
From the experiences of members of the alliance, they say contractual employment has come to mean starvation wages, denial of benefits, vulnerability to being laid off, exposure to health and safety hazards, and violations of trade-union rights.
“Once more, we have to emphasize that labor is not a commodity for sale in exchange for low wages or contractual work. Labor deserves a living wage and is entitled to job security. These are rights guaranteed by our fundamental law,” said Sonny Matula, president of Federation of Free Workers, one of the founding members of ACT2Win.
But the implementing laws leave much to be desired, the workers’ alliance finds out. The Herrera Law of 1989, which amends the 1973 Labor Code, has granted the country’s Labor secretary the power to define permissible contractual employment. Under Aquino, the Labor secretary issued Department Order 18-A Series of 2011 defining and legalizing contractual employment, ACT2WIN said.
“Contractual employment has no benefit whatsoever for Filipino workers. The fact that it is being implemented shows that the government is favoring the big foreign and local capitalists over ordinary workers,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.
Errol Alonzo, president of the Young Christian Workers, said that it is the young workers who suffer from contractualization, and from “other labor flexibilization schemes being implemented by the government.”
“We vow to intensify our protests against contractual employment. We will continue to strengthen our unity to fight for regular employment and decent jobs for all,” Labog said.(Photo courtesy of Act2Win) (http://bulatlat.com) - See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/10/08/on-world-day-for-decent-work-workers-march-to-mendiola-vs-contractualization/#sthash.a8Zb6vYh.dpufmat |
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Post by dodger on Oct 31, 2013 16:01:57 GMT
RMT WARNS OF IMPACT OF £1.7 BILLION RAIL CUTS
RMT warns that £1.7 billion rail cuts will hammer jobs, maintenance and rail safety
Rail union RMT warned this morning that £1.7 billion of cuts to Network Rail budgets from 2014, announced by the Office of Rail Regulation this morning and dressed up as "efficiency savings" , would spark off further savage cuts to jobs and maintenance - compromising safety and reliability and making a nonsense of ORR's core objectives.
RMT says that if the profits and subsidies sucked out of the rail system by the private train operators were instead reinvested in capacity, staffing and infrastructure , delays and cancellations would be reduced, more trains could be run, the repairs and modernisation backlog could be tackled and level crossings phased out.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.
“Demanding £1.7 billion of cuts from Network Rail threatens jobs, maintenance and safety in the same week that the storm shutdown showed that the railways are already short of staff and paying the price for a backlog of maintenance that leaves services at constant threat of total breakdown."
"If the profits and subsidies sucked out of the railways by the private companies were instead retained within the central pot under one publicly owned rail
body there would be more than enough money to employ extra staff, tackle the shelved repairs and modernisation works, phase out the lethal level crossings and increase capacity and reliability.
"The government are flying in the face of all logic by retaining the shambolic and fragmented privatised rail model that was set up twenty years ago next week."
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Post by dodger on Nov 5, 2013 7:52:28 GMT
bettertogether.net/blog/entry/we-are-stronger-when-we-work-together-says-gmb-activistWe are stronger when we work together, says GMB activist By Anne Dean, a GMB Scotland Regional Committee member
I am proud that my trade union, GMB Scotland, supports Scotland remaining part of the UK.
The GMB has joined colleagues in ASLEF, Community, the NUM, USDAW and many other individual trades unionists in campaigning for a No vote in the referendum. Our series of members’ consultation meetings over a period of months showed overwhelming support for further devolution and opposition to separation and division.
We believe we are stronger when we work together, whether it’s the case for progressive wealth redistribution, or enhanced devolution which brings power closer to working people and their communities. By being part of the UK, we can have the best of both worlds for Scotland. Our Scottish Parliament takes key decisions on areas like schools and hospitals, but at the same time we benefit from the strength and security of being part of the larger UK. Devolution is good for Scotland. I want to see further powers devolved and believe that this will be delivered following a no vote next year.
Alex Salmond and his SNP Ministers like to give the impression that if we were independent life would be so much better. Workers would be paid more, our public services would be better funded and the sun will shine for longer. Yet take a look at Mr Salmond's only tax policies - a corporation tax cut for big companies like Amazon and Google and a veto for the big oil companies. Who is going to have to make up the shortfall? There is no doubt for me that it will be working people who will suffer in a race to the bottom.
As a Community Rehabilitation Team Manager in the public sector, I know things aren’t perfect. There are challenges facing our public services today. But I believe these challenges are best tackled by working people coming together across the UK, where we can make the most of the resources of over 60 million people rather than just five million. While the SNP promise one thing in public, they say another thing in private. We know that the Scottish Government’s own leaked cabinet paper questions the affordability of pensions and public spending. As a public sector worker I have real concerns about the impact upon public services, and in particular on NHS spending in an independent Scotland.
Many GMB members work in the private sector in manufacturing. Scotland currently exports more to the rest of the UK than the whole of the rest of the world combined. Why would be turn our biggest trading partner into to our biggest competitor? Our members are rightly concerned about what would this mean for their jobs.
Separation is contrary to the values of the trade union movement. By working together as one movement can we make progress toward reducing inequality and improving the lives of working people. There is no doubt that we are stronger and better together as part of the UK.
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Post by dodger on Nov 18, 2013 17:13:30 GMT
RMT EXPOSES £250 MILLION RAIL-ROBBERY ON NEW GREAT WESTERN DEAL
Rail union RMT today exposed the hidden truth that the 23 month contract extension on First Great Western, cobbled together by the Government in the wake of the franchising collapse sparked by the West Coast shambles, is set to cost the taxpayer a quarter of a billion pounds in lost premium payments.
A series of parliamentary answers and RMT research have dragged the core financial basis of the Great Western roll-over out of reluctant Government ministers.
The figures show that First will pay just £32.5 million in premiums for the 23 months of the new extension.
However, the premiums of the last two years of the previous contract amounted to £279 million, revealing an astonishing £247m loss of payments to the taxpayer over a similar period under the current deal.
RMT says that the figures back up the union’s claim that the franchising shambles is set to rob the British people of hundreds of millions of pounds which could have been invested in staffing, infrastructure and new fleet.
It also proves that with private train companies bullying themselves in to a monopoly provider position, and with the Government ideologically opposed to the public sector option, franchise extensions are being awarded at the last minute, on bag-of-an-envelope calculations with the companies able to fill their boots with outrageous financial demands.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:
“The news that the rail franchising shambles is set to cost the taxpayer another quarter of billion pounds on the Great Western route will come as a bitter blow to staff and passengers contending with attacks on pay and conditions and eye-watering fare increases to travel on notoriously overcrowded trains.
“First Group are laughing all the way to the bank, not only did they dodge £800 million in premium payments by ducking out of the old contract early but they’ve now ended up with a rollover dropping into their laps worth a cool quarter of a billion pounds in further lost returns to the taxpayer. This important inter-city route, starved of essential investment in capacity and staffing, has ended up as a billion pound bonanza for private company shareholders who cannot believe their luck.
“The Government, who have presided over this franchising shambles, should be called to account for their wilful financial negligence which is transferring cash needed for rail investment straight into the back pockets of the train operating companies with passengers and staff left to pick up the pieces. The case for the return of our railways to public ownership is reinforced yet again by this outrage on FGW.”
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Post by dodger on Dec 9, 2013 8:16:48 GMT
Probation officers strikeWORKERS, DEC 2013 ISSUE The National Association of Probation Officers, NAPO, struck on 5/6 November against government proposals to privatise probation and rehabilitation of offenders. Probation is seen as a business worth £820 million per year, with over 233,000 people on probation or parole. Electronic tagging of offenders is a £1 billion market despite G4S and Serco being embroiled in allegations of tagging the dead or overcharging.
Britain has 14 privately run prisons. It was in fact the first country in Europe to open a privatised prison, now followed by all EU states. More privatised prisons are to follow as 19th-century jails are closed and vast super-prisons are built, most of which will be run by the private sector – G4S, Serco, Sodexo. G4S operates in 125 countries, employing over 657,000 “security staff”. In Britain its sites range from prisons and immigration centres to secure training units. Elsewhere in the world it provides bodyguards and mercenaries.
The model is the USA prison system. The United States has 5 per cent of the world’s population but 25 per cent of the world’s prisoners. The US prison system costs the country $39 billion a year, the equivalent of two-thirds of the US state education budget. Around half of US prisoners are incarcerated for victimless crimes, with the three strikes rule ensuring there is no rehabilitation in many states.
The standard US state contract with the privatised prison system is that if the prison has an empty bunk, the US state faces a financial penalty. So the pressure on the individual US states is to maximise the prison population. It’s a spiral of madness guaranteeing an ever-expanding prison building programme, an ever-growing prison population and guaranteed profits for the companies. In terms of the proportion of prisoners to the population as a whole, the USA tops the prison population league, followed by Britain, South Korea, France, Germany, and Japan .
Two British police forces are seeking to privatise police services, crime investigation, public safety and so on. West Midlands and Surrey are looking at a £1.5 billion seven-year privatisation deal. The only police back-room services privatisation to date, Lincolnshire, was for a mere £200 million.
Criminality is to be a revenue stream worth billions as the dividing line between crime and legality disappears. No longer is it about tackling the causes of crime, which would be far too difficult for the pompously entitled Ministry of Justice and all the agencies which hang off it – courts, police, probation, and so on, as that would mean tackling the class divide. The causes of crime, the effects of crime, the victims of crime and those unfortunates to be caught are to be nothing more than building blocks in protecting business interests and profits, effectively “legalising” criminality.
www.workers.org.uk/news/news_1213/probation.html
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Post by dodger on Dec 12, 2013 9:25:48 GMT
DECEMBER 12, 2013 Progressive drivers demand justice
for 4 murdered transport leaders under Aquino gov’t
 By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA — Members of national public transport group PISTON joined yesterday’s commemoration of the 65th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights by joining the protest action in Mendiola and calling for justice for four of their leaders who were killed during Aquino’s first three years in Malacañang.
The drivers group expressed their disappointment with the Aquino government’s “bloody human rights record.” George San Mateo, national president of Piston, said President Benigno Aquino III has merely continued and added to the bloody record of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Similar to the time under Arroyo, San Mateo noted that progressive leaders and members of the transport sector are also falling prey to extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and detention and trumped up charges under Aquino.
In just three years of Aquino in power, four transport leaders have been murdered, San Mateo said.
Murdered transport leaders under Aquino:
1. Felix Cultura, local leader of PISTON in the Caraga Region, president of PISTON-affiliated Federation of Van Services in Caraga. Cultura was assassinated right in front of their terminal at Butuan City on March 2012;
2. Ernesto “Erning” Gulpo, president of Gasak-Divisoria Jeepney Drivers and Operators Association (GADIJODA-PISTON) was murdered in his home in Malabon on May 2012;
3. Estelito “Jing” Tebelin, Vice-President of Divisoria Baclaran Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (DIBAJODA-PISTON), was murdered in front of his home in Longos, Bacoor on June 2012;
4. Feliciano “Poncing” Infante, president of PISTON-Pampanga and PASADA Jeepney Federation in Angeles City, was killed in front of their informal jeepney terminal in Angeles City on September 2012.
The murders of these leaders have not yet been given justice until now, San Mateo said.
Meanwhile, another Piston leader is in jail due to trumped up charges. Virgilio “Gil” Corpuz, regional coordinator of PISTON in Cagayan Valley and member of Piston’s National Council, has been imprisoned at Ifugao District Jail in Kiangan since January 3 of this year.
Corpuz, according to San Mateo, was arrested in his home in Santiago City, Isabela and was charged with trumped up murder case. He was also being implicated in an ambush reportedly launched by the New Peoples Army in Tinoc, Ifugao on April 2012. The ambush resulted in 10 soldiers killed.
San Mateo insisted that the charges filed aganst Corpuz is a big lie, saying Corpuz is a respected and legitimate transport leader and organizer of Piston and Piston Partylist in Cagayan Valley since 2004.
Corpuz was also one of the legal researchers of a Provincial Board Member in Isabela at the time he was arrested.
Piston called for the immediate release of Corpuz and of other political prisoners whom President Aquino is charging with criminal cases. The transport group condemned the Aquino government’s filing of trumped up charges against activists including transport leaders whose only “crime”, according to San Mateo, was to criticize the Aquino government’s “anti-people economic policies.” (http://bulatlat.com)
- See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/12/12/progressive-drivers-demand-justice-for-4-murdered-transport-leaders-under-aquino-govt/#sthash.p6L7clGv.dpuf |
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Post by dodger on Dec 31, 2013 16:11:38 GMT
RMT's Bob Crow warns of tough battles ahead in 2014 in New Year message
RMT general secretary Bob Crow warns of hard year of campaigning and action ahead in New Year message.
"No one should be under any illusions. 2014 will be a tough year for Britain's workers as the Government ratchets up its attacks on workers rights and public services. Cuts are set to escalate and only militant and coordinated action across workplaces and communities can stop the bulldozer of austerity
"While boardroom pay continues to soar, and the rich get richer , the mantra of pay restraint will still be hammered out by the massed ranks of the bosses and the politicians while they line their own pockets. We have to tackle that scandal head on.
"But despite all the attacks that workers will face in the year ahead we have nothing to fear if we stand united. Bullying bosses and politicians can be beaten through strong and militant trade unionism. If we fight, we can win.
"On the political landscape RMT will be backing a slate of NO2EU - YES TO WORKERS' RIGHTS candidates in May offering a positive alternative to the bankers-led EU and the narrow, right wing opportunism of UKIP. We will offer the working class a real political alternative.
"We send New Year greetings of peace and solidarity to trade unionists around the world as we recharge our batteries for the battles that lie ahead in 2014."
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Post by dodger on Jan 3, 2014 10:53:35 GMT
www.workers.org.uk/features/feat_0114/arts.htmlAs in health and education, the steady erosion of the culture sector damages us all...
The fight for the arts
WORKERS, JAN 2014 ISSUE Like health and education for all, arts for all was not won easily. It took over a century of demands and class struggle, and the impetus of hopes for a better life following the second world war to establish a national health service and a free education system throughout Britain.
BBC musicians and a variety of choirs prepare for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Workers
What is often overlooked is the third pillar achieved in the late 1940s – the creation of a way to safeguard and fund the arts nationally, for all across the nation. It helped build morale and kept national unity in a bleak economic period. In contrast to today, demands for separatism were almost non-existent and the sense of “Britain” was enhanced by the extensive touring of theatre, music and exhibitions throughout the land.
Capitalism has never liked the way the arts are so non-commercial and contrary to “the market”, and it has sought to continually erode the system of national funding for the arts ever since. The growth of the European Union and its push to weaken nation states by regionalisation has been another factor weakening and fracturing a flourishing cultural movement.
Behind the development of national cultural projects invariably lay some superb talents with strong vision. The National Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, but its origins can be traced back to the immediate post war years.
Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier’s rebuilding of London’s Old Vic theatre in 1945-46 with world-beating productions of Shakespeare (the legendary Richard III for example) inspired the revival of British theatre. Joined by Vivien Leigh and others they formed a permanent touring company – eventually reborn as The National Theatre.
Their example inspired other theatres such as the Crucible in Sheffield, the Citizens in Glasgow and the Royal Shakespeare Company, to name but a few. Youth theatre and amateur drama benefited greatly from this revival.
Similarly, the revival of symphony orchestras (and their associated choirs) had its spin-off in the formation of youth orchestras and youth choirs. The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain was an example for the whole nation to follow.
Every city had an orchestra fed by junior orchestras and bands. For example the Youth Orchestra of Glasgow, founded in 1951, soon grew into three Glasgow Schools’ Orchestras. Alongside this, brass bands, large wind bands, pipe bands and youth choirs were founded, building on traditions of local areas. Competitive music and drama festivals such as the Brent Festival or Edinburgh Competitive Music Festival provided an incentive to keep standards high.
This system of youth music, a world-leading project at its height, has been allowed to run down for over three decades, depleted of care and funding. What should have been an example of excellence – an export to other countries – is now being forgotten and a project from another country imported (the Sistema or “Big Noise”, from Venezuela).
But one British institution, driven by the persistence and professionalism of its practitioners, has kept its integrity. The music examination system of Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music has steadily enhanced its worldwide reputation for high standards. Its examiners are in increasing demand in countries around the world, including China and Japan.
A wartime origin can also be pinpointed for the effort to fund arts properly for the nation. Cultural organisations were struggling to continue activities as war unfolded. So in 1940 the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts was founded.
Initially, improving morale was part of the vision with theatre, concert tours, visual art and film, utilising both professional and amateur companies. Peace brought an added emphasis on excellence and enabled many ambitious music and drama projects. Arts funding was found – despite postwar economic devastation.
The new postwar funding body, the Arts Council of Great Britain, had to be prepared to account for its funding decisions to government and the public. Major festivals encompassing all the art forms were funded, including the Edinburgh International Festival, as a stage for the best of British arts to share with guests from around the world.
There was also the one-off 1951 Festival of Britain to celebrate victory over Nazism, and the peace. Iain Sinclair, the British writer and filmmaker, visited it as an 8-year-old. Writing of its 60th anniversary, he notes that it is “remembered as an uplifting moment for a nation recovering from the trauma of war” and that it was designed to “celebrate Britain’s heritage, her industrial and scientific advances” – and its “get-it-done” attitude, a contrast with “our age of corporate sponsorship”.
Legacies from that period include the cultural hub of the Southbank Centre. It is still being developed to this day, and has just concluded its ambitious year-long music festival “The Rest is Noise”.
For the visual arts significant developments include the Hayward Gallery, Tate Modern and the renovation of galleries and museums in cities throughout Britain, and the resultant touring exhibitions.
Without proper funding major events like the Manchester International Festival and the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony – a celebration of British achievement in industry, health, education and the cultural field – could not have happened.
Decline and fracturing
Eating away at this potential was an ideological attack from capitalism. This was seen in its most overt form in the United States where the McCarthy inquisition against working class ideas drove out some of the best talent of stage and screen. Paul Robeson was exiled to Britain, with the upside that he established a lasting rapport with the Welsh miners and their male voice choirs.
In Europe including Britain a more underhand system was employed to counteract ideas that challenged capitalism. National characteristics or art that might rouse to revolt were downplayed in favour of a faceless and abrasive “modernism”. Writers and artists who followed the British and American government line were favoured.
An account of this period begins to be explored in Frances Stonor Saunders’ book Who Paid the Piper?, described as an investigation of the role of the CIA and other agencies in directing the ideology of culture in Europe in the “cold war” decades following World War 2. Whether by design or expediency, Europe and Britain were flooded with American commercial culture, much of it of a “junk” standard from the mid-1950s onwards. Despite this British voices in pop, jazz and classical music in several styles struggled to the surface.
National funding of “excellence” in art and music found itself in conflict with the pressures from this capitalist “market” ethos. Funding for the arts has been dispersed and has declined. Even in schools and art and music colleges this conflict still unfolds.
On top of this the vision for a “one nation” provision for the arts faltered. In 1967 funding was split up with the formation of Scottish and Welsh Arts Councils. In the 1980s the Thatcher government – as well as devastating industry – attacked the arts, cutting in half the number of organisations being funded and dividing up the arts into 10 regions.
1993 saw a supposed boost for culture – a reliance on gambling through National Lottery funding. But by 1997 the arts endured another major cut by amalgamation with media and sport nationally, coupled with intrusive questioning and paperwork. Accusations of dumbing down followed. By 2003 separation was well established, the national overview of culture lost and Arts Council England formed. This was one of the moves that seemed designed to make any mention of the concept of “Britain” taboo. Until now, that is, when the fight-back against separatism and fracturing – and reuniting our working class – has begun in earnest.
Arts unions fight back
To resist the degrading and cutting of our achievements in culture, workers have brought the unions that represent them into several well organised campaigns.
At the BBC, in its eighth year of cutbacks, several unions are arguing that cultural standards and the range of programmes have been so severely damaged that the corporation has laid itself open to privatisation by its enemies. Thousands of musicians, actors, writers, technical and production staff in the BBC are represented by BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union), Musicians’ Union, Equity, Writers’ Guild, NUJ and the IT & Communications sector of Unite. They are now campaigning jointly under the call “BBC Cuts: There is an Alternative”.
These unions – together with the Professional Footballers Association – form the Federation of Entertainment Unions. The campaign against continual cuts and closures in cultural life “Lost Arts” has brought together the Federation with members of the Prospect and PCS unions to fight this steady erosion.
The actors’ union Equity leads the “My Theatre Matters!” campaign to stop theatre decline and closures. Somerset has been the first to cut its entire arts budget. On top of Arts Council cuts, massive local authority cuts are being targeted at urban areas, where most of the funded theatres are.
Theatres and theatre companies threatened include Northern Stage and Theatre Royal in Newcastle, Sheffield’s Lyceum and Crucible theatres and the New Vic in Stoke-on-Trent. Reinforcing the Equity push are The Stage magazine and Theatre Managers Association.
A special Equity technique has been to get a leading actor to make a speech to the audience at the curtain call as the show or play comes to an end – thus mobilising the public to defend their theatres. Well known names actively backing this campaign include David Tennant, Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and playwright Alan Ayckbourn.
Choral singing in Perth Concert Hall.
Workers
The struggle to save libraries in Britain has been featured in Workers before and this campaign continues in its work under “Voices for the Library”. It is estimated that over 10 per cent of libraries (out of 4,500) are under threat of closure, yet councils have a legal obligation to provide them – without charging for book loans. So downgrading of professional standards and de-skilling has been ongoing. Many local campaigns have been organised.
The Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Teachers and the EIS in Scotland have collaborated in continual campaigns to save or upgrade music teaching in schools. Instrumental and voice training is often centred in music “hubs” sometimes outside normal school hours. Some counties have cut their provision for this, so a very uneven picture emerges, and in November Ofsted issued a damning verdict on Music Hubs in England.
Meanwhile, cuts are affecting jobs and pay for music teachers, who face redundancy, pay cuts and reduced work in over 35 music services. This is in the context of overall and ongoing arts funding cuts. For example the Arts Council of Wales’ budget was cut by over 3 per cent in November, while its Scottish equivalent was deemed in a music magazine to have become “mired in uncertainty”.
Also ongoing is the decades-long campaign to “Keep Music Live” promoted by the MU whose sticker to that effect is to be seen in most pubs, clubs and venues. A current MU effort is to survey and support those working in pubs and clubs. This comes after sorting out the problems that the restrictions by local authorities on live music venues had thrown up. The MU fought for events with audiences up to 200 to be free of the severe licensing restrictions.
We have been reminded in recent weeks of the hardships of this sector by the tragic crash of the helicopter into the Clutha pub in Glasgow where the “two-tone” nine-member ska band Esperanza were performing.
They had been inspired by an earlier generation of musicians who had broken through the commercial market jungle to establish a very British style. Their inspiration was the Coventry group The Specials, whose hit song Ghost Town summed up the urban and industrial devastation – and revolt against it – of the early Thatcher years. Recent years have proven that the pioneering creative spirit that led to the demands to fund arts for all nationwide has not died down. Just look out for the music, theatre and film from Britain in a host of styles that have found success on the world stage. ■
Campaigning websites include:
www.lost-arts.org
www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk
And on Twitter: @theatre_matters
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Post by dodger on Jan 10, 2014 17:27:28 GMT
NEWS RELEASE
January 10th 2014
Immediate
RMT confirms massive vote for action on London Underground over attacks on jobs and safety
Tube Union RMT confirmed today that a ballot of members across London Underground in a dispute over jobs, services and safety has recorded a massive vote for both strike action and action short of a strike.
In the “Every Job Matters” dispute, RMT members have voted by 77% for strike action and by an even bigger majority for action short of a strike. The results will now be considered by a meeting of the union’s executive.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:
“RMT members on London Underground have voted by a massive majority for both strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute which is wholly about cash-led cuts plans that would see the axing of nearly a thousand safety critical jobs and the closure of ticket offices at a time when the tube network is under growing pressure from customer demand and needs more staff and not less to ensure safe and efficient operation.
“Not only are a thousand posts on the line but staff remaining are going to be forced through the humiliating and degrading experience of re-applying for their own jobs – the same staff who have been hailed as heroes when the tube has faced emergency situations. That is a kick in the teeth for the loyal and experienced tube workforce who have kept services running safely and efficiently under constant pressure from weight of demand and a creaking and under-resourced infra-structure.
“These cuts would hit the vulnerable, the elderly, those with disabilities and women the hardest. De-staffing stations, with supervisors running operations three stops down the line on an IPad, would turn the tube system into a criminals paradise where those with violence and robbery on their minds are given a clear run. RMT will work with our sister unions and passenger groups to ensure that tube users understand just what’s at stake as Boris Johnson turns his opportunist election pledges on their head.
“Before the Tories start shouting the odds they should take note of the fact that the turn out in this ballot was higher than the last mayoral and GLA elections and the vote in favour massively outstrips anything that those same politicians can even dream of in terms of a popular mandate.
“This result will now be considered by the RMT executive and a further statement will be issued in due course.”
ENDS
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Post by dodger on Mar 13, 2014 11:59:42 GMT
www.workers.org.uk/features/feat_0314/chemical.html
Too often dismissed as irrelevant or denigrated as harmful, in fact the chemical industry is an essential part of British manufacturing...
Why Britain needs its chemical industry
WORKERS, MAR 2014 ISSUE Britain’s chemical industry, grouped with pharmaceuticals, represents an eighth of all manufacturing and is the fourth-largest after food, engineering and transport. Sales for the sector, amounted to £55 billion in 2011, generating £20 billion in added value for gross domestic product. It was the largest export earner last year after motor vehicles and parts, according to government data.
A strong chemical industry can underpin efforts to rebuild Britain as a manufacturing nation because chemicals and materials are an essential component on which manufacturing is built.
The products and services of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry can be found in every area of our lives such as vital medicines, food and clothing, housing and transport. The products are the raw materials for most other areas of manufacturing, including paper, textiles, aerospace and electronics.
An industrial landscape: East Yorkshire is one of the main centres
of chemicals production in Britain.
Photo: shutterstock.com/Jerome Whittingham
Adding value
Chemicals and pharmaceuticals are often compared with aerospace. The industry has an average “value-added” per employed worker of £92,000 which is nearly 25 per cent more than aerospace. Yet average pay is £42,000 per worker, only about 10 per cent more than aerospace. This is presented as a great advantage by employers – and it is, for them, since it really means that workers in chemicals and pharmaceuticals produce more surplus value.
For an industry which is clearly so important you might think that investment would be a priority – but all is not well in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. In recent years the industry has lost around 10 per cent of its workforce, as well as whole sites, and job losses are continuing.
Many of these job losses have come about as a result of “mergers and acquisitions” but many more are at risk because of Britain’s high energy costs. These high energy costs have been driven by EU and government policies ratcheting up energy prices.
Unite, a significant union in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, says: “The UK’s energy market arrangements, particularly for intensive users of energy, are undermining the sustainability of the UK’s chemical industry ... large-scale users of gas are paying more than their European competitors. We are concerned that the current energy prices will displace manufacturing in the UK ... The key issue for Unite and its members in the chemical industry is the relative competitiveness of energy prices compared both to European and global markets.”
A study by the British Geological Survey found fields in northern England’s Bowland Basin may have enough shale gas to meet demand for almost 50 years. The term “fracking” is often used; this is shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to release oil and gas from shale rock using high pressure water.
While reserves in the North Sea decline and imports rise, the British government is nominally encouraging shale drilling by fracking – through lower taxes – but drilling has barely started. Planning regulation has been allowed to delay the start of drilling.
The government’s recent announcement that it will allow councils that back fracking to keep more money in tax revenue as part of an "all-out" drive to promote drilling is a feeble attempt which would be more convincing if they hadn't cut council revenue in the first place.
The anti-industry environmentalists insist the only way forward is efficiency and “renewables”, which could only result in further decline of the chemical industry in Britain as well as other areas of manufacturing.
The chemical industry is losing sales to lower-cost competitors, previously far east countries such as China but now including the US, where new supplies from shale gas drilling have reduced prices for natural gas. The price of gas, also used to make electricity and steam, now averages about two-thirds less in the US than in Britain, the steepest discount in five years.
Foreign-owned
Chemical and pharmaceutical employers are represented in Britain by the CIA (Chemical Industries Association) and to some extent by the ABPI (Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry). The CIA seems inordinately proud of the fact that 70 per cent of its members are “overseas headquartered” (foreign-owned) but this picture has arisen over many years through mergers, acquisitions, closures and large job losses. But the CIA is also among those pushing the government to clear obstacles for drilling shale rock.
One example of the damage caused by “mergers and acquisitions” (known as M&A in business circles) is the dismemberment of British-based ICI, once a byword for British industry. The acquisition of part of the company by Akzo Nobel has turned part of a British owned company into a Dutch-owned company. Ineos also acquired half of ICI as well as BP’s former refining business, among others.
Originally based in Britain, Ineos moved headquarters to Switzerland in 2010 (as Ineos Group AG) to avoid taxes in Britain – having been given tens of millions of pounds in tax relief on its £6 billion debt for its acquisitions. Only a small part of ICI remains. Ineos was at the centre of a closure threat earlier in the year (and is still under threat of major job losses).
In the middle of 2013, British-based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) became embroiled in corruption allegations in China which are still not fully resolved. The company is a classic tale of M&A: in 1989 Beecham Pharmaceutical and SmithKline merged to form Smithkline Beecham. In 1995 Glaxo and Wellcome merged. Finally in 2000, Glaxo-Wellcome and SmithKline-Beecham merged to form GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). In a little over 10 years, four companies became one, with accompanying job losses.
2013 saw a raft of job losses. In some cases energy costs were linked both to closures and to decisions on future investment. An early blow came in March, when AstraZeneca announced the closure of its Alderley Park R&D centre in Cheshire just five months after receiving a £5 million grant to develop the site. The closure means the loss of 550 jobs with another 1,600 jobs to be moved to Cambridge. It also announced 150 jobs to go elsewhere in Britain. AstraZeneca has a history of job cuts: just over a year before, the company had announced 7,300 jobs to go (worldwide), in addition to 20,000 jobs over the previous five years.
In April, petrochemicals manufacturer SABIC UK (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) announced a “restructuring plan”. These always involve job losses, in this case 110 jobs at its Teesside operation which represents more than one in seven of the 700-strong workforce.
SABIC came to Teesside in 2006 after acquiring former petrochemicals business Huntsman for £350 million. The company’s base in Wilton produces chemicals which are used in plastic drinks bottles, CDs, car interiors and tyres. The production complex also features aromatic chemicals which are the building blocks for medicines, food packaging, sports equipment and computers.
SABIC has also announced that it is actively seeking a partner to form a chemicals venture in the US to benefit from low-cost shale gas supply.
In October, BASF announced the closure of its chemical site in Paisley, just west of Glasgow, with the loss of 141 jobs. This site had been producing pigments to colour paints, paper and plastics for almost 60 years. It had been run by Swiss firm Ciba before being acquired by BASF in 2008. In 2010 the company made 232 workers redundant “to safeguard its future”.
Also in October, Tata Chemicals Europe announced the closure of its soda ash factory at Winnington in Cheshire with the loss of 220 jobs, some at the nearby Lostock site (which will continue to produce soda ash). The Winnington site had produced the chemical since 1874. Tata Group is an Indian company which acquired the soda ash production from Brunner Mond in 2006.
In November, Polimeri Europa UK Ltd announced the closure of its factory in Hythe, Hampshire, with the loss of 120 jobs (and up to 300 jobs including contractors). The site, which had operated for more than 50 years, manufactured synthetic rubbers, mainly used to make tyres and moulded foams.
Also in November, pharmaceutical multinational Novartis announced the closure of its site for respiratory research at Horsham in Sussex with the loss of 371 jobs as well as up to 170 jobs at third party suppliers and contractors. The decision was part of a “restructure of operations” as a result of a global review of research operations and “realignment of its other global R&D sites”. Manufacturing at the site was stopped two years ago with job numbers reduced from 950 to 450 people.
In December, Dow Chemicals announced the closure of its Grangemouth-based site manufacturing its impact modifiers, a specialist product used in the packaging and construction industries.
Investing in the US
The US-owned company said the proposal to shut the facility had arisen out of a “comprehensive review” of the Dow Plastics Additives business. They are planning to invest heavily in the US as a result of low energy costs, mainly as a result of the development of shale gas.
Despite these job losses, workers in the British chemical and pharmaceutical industry are highly skilled and productive but are not always valued as such. Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe (who also moved to Switzerland) took the opportunity in an article for the Daily Telegraph in November 2013 to praise unions in German Ineos sites and non-unionised US Ineos sites.
While talking about the decline in manufacturing industry in Britain, he also managed to denigrate and (at least partly) blame British workers and their unions. Despite his claim that employers should not be seen as the enemy, he is still determined to push through major job losses at the Grangemouth site.
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