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Newfoundland : The wildcat strike in Long Harbor continues despite an injunction from the Supreme Court

translated libcom.org by the Collectif Emma Goldman

UPDATE 21 July
The strike would have ended on Monday 16 July evening

Discussion with the CBC president Labrador Federation of Labor on the use of the wildcat strike

UPDATE 16 July
The syndicate “Resource Development Trades Council” call the stop workers to strike, but they say that the union no longer represents their interests

The company Vale returns to court to enforce the injunction pursuing workers

The strike continues for 5th day.
The President of RDTC Union implies that the striking workers of the requirements are similar to those of young children.

The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has given an injunction to employers to help break a wildcat strike on a construction site in Long Harbor.

Near 2000 workers illegally stopped work Thursday, and subsequently carried blocking site entrances. Workers are angry against the level of payroll. Site workers earn on average 15$ Time less than comparable workers elsewhere in Canada.

Another issue is the manner in which employers interpret the collective agreement; on issues such as travel and subsistence allowances.

Furthermore, Workers are angry against their own union for not defending their interests. Of course, the union does not support the action. The bosses and the union have still not commented on the conflict.

Video reportage de NTV (mass-media)

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statement of solidarity with the Quebec student strike!


Members of the Industrial Union of Workers (SITT-IWW) across Canada stand in solidarity with all students and workers in Quebec who bravely oppose rising tuition fees, this capitalist offensive against the working class supported by the government in the age of austerity.

By blocking courses and going down often, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, in the streets, the people who are mobilizing in the fight alongside the members of our union who are actively involved show the rest of Canada that direct action can really bear fruit.

SITT claims at the same time that the police stop attacking the independent media in Quebec, particularly Concordia University TV (CUTV). Their work of live video transmission is essential to the democratic changes we encourage.

SITT also calls for provincial government to repeal special law 78 which suspends freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the right of those who struggle to defend their choices in relation to the future that education in Quebec should have. Government must hear, recognize and respond to the movement's claims, not legislate repressively to end the conflict and restore “social peace” by force.

The Canadian Committee for Regional Organization of SITT (CCOR) encourages members and local branches to donate to student associations, including the Association for Student Union Solidarity (ASSÉ), and independent media, dont CUTV. CORR also invites them to join as much as possible those who defend the picket lines and who mobilize in the streets in solidarity with this fight for the right to education and freedom.

Ultimately, students jointly with workers and professors are building a powerful movement of solidarity that will mark Quebec. This strong union allows us to hope that one day the education system can be controlled by those who work there., study and teach there with the aim of universally promoting social and human development rather than enslaving it to a sinister logic of monetary return which benefits insatiable banks and capitalists of all kinds.

If you are interested(e) by what you read, contact us. It doesn't commit you to anything, and be sure(e) that we don't talk about it or your colleagues, nor to your patron. If you decide to unionize, we will be there to help you.

To join a(e) delegate(e):

*Montréal
514-268-3394

*Sherbrooke
819-349-9914

*Everywhere in Quebec
[email protected]

* Ottawa-Outaouais
[email protected]

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1er May : five continents, one working class, the same struggle


Source: http://communismeouvrier.wordpress.com
28 april 2012

In Germany, May 1 falls on the eve of the first series of warning strikes in the metal industry for 6,5% wage increase and the end of discrimination against agency workers. Same thing in Morocco where workers will march for freedom of association and against attacks on the right to strike, or, two days after May 1st, there is talk of the start of a strike in the public service.

In Spain, le 1er Mai 2012 is part of the general strike of the 29 mars, against the new labor law which facilitates dismissals, unemployment and austerity measures. In Czech republic, more than 80.000 people demonstrated the 21 April in Prague against austerity measures. Struggles against budget cuts in Britain in fight to preserve the index in Belgium, without forgetting the revolts of the Greek population, it's the same slogan that crosses Europe and beyond the world : we refuse to pay the crisis and the debts of the capitalists.

Read more →

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The repression continues after the Spanish general strike

On the morning of April 26th, the Catalonian police arrested the Organization Secretary of the CGT-Barcelona, Laura Gómez, while she was on her way to work. They do not like the fact that every time there are more and more of us protesting against the negotiation of labour reform, against the “social pact” and not in favor of it.
taken from anarkismo.net

CGT statement on the arrest of Barcelona Organization Secretary, Laura Gómez

The repression continues after the general strike. This morning [Wednesday April 26th], while she was on her way to work, the Mossos d'Esquadra [Catalonian police] arrested the Organization Secretary of the CGT-Barcelona, Laura Gómez and took her to the police station in Les Corts. The charge by the police is arson and fire damage to the Barcelona Stock Exchange. This and other charges against her have no foundation and are an attempt to create an image of a violent person. Laura does not have a criminal record, and all that the police can cite are peaceful actions during the struggle for labour rights in Barcelona.

The truth – without exaggerating – is that already after the general strike we said, literally, “it is true that members of the CGT burned a couple of papers in a box in front of the Barcelona Stock Exchange, and threw a few eggs, actions that were fully symbolic and carried out openly. That is what the plainclothes police in the crowd must have thought too, given that they did not bother to identify anyone. It is by no means true that it was the first fire, in Mercabarna, in the Zona Franca, etc., there were several fires throughout the night, most of which were started by other unions’ pickets”.

What a coincidence that this arrest occurs on the same day that the famous site for posting photos of “violent” protestors was presented. What a coincidence that the various state establishments, both the Generalitat and the Barcelona Municipality have not stopped pointing at the CGT and have not stopped exaggerating with regard to the CGT. We know that we are not to your liking, nor do we want to be, but we will not apologize for our continued growth. We know you want to make an example of individuals and organizations that refuse to humour the system, but to go from that to persecuting and harassing our members is a big step. The abuse of power that those in authority often fall into against those who think differently is something that we are used to, though great care is taken to hide it.

The CGT believes that there is an attempt to hide the growing number of people attending events by organizations that are not to your liking. They do not like the fact that every time there are more and more of us, protesting against the negotiation of labour reform and against the “social pact”, not for it. The decline in work and social conditions, the increase in injustice, the enormous differences between the rich and poor, all this has without doubt led to greater conflict and now the politicians are looking for excuses to toughen crime laws. It is sickening to see how public money is given to banks, how de facto “tax amnesties” are announced to the benefit of major tax evaders, how permissive the system is in order to allow tax evasion by means of sly practices and economic bureaucracy, how SICAVs [1] which pay nothing are encouraged, while all the while they are seeking to criminalize anyone who disagrees.
Press Office
CGT Barcelona

Translation by FdCA-International Relations Office.

1. Open-ended investment schemes or mutual funds. In Spain they pay 1% corporate tax.

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At New York, Immigrant drivers demanding dignity and end the abuses of their new employer

The 7 mars 2012, drivers Tom Cat Bakery, Members of the Campaign Focus on the Food Chain, delivered a statement Dignity representatives of the company.

[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v = EEeNiHLqoNs&w=560&h=315]

See more photos of the event on
la page Facebook de la campagne Focus on the Food Chain

Like their Facebook group in here!

Written by Daniel Gross the 9 mars 2012
Published on 11 march on iww.org
Translated by “travailleurindustriel”

Members of Focus on the Food Chain working for the largest industrial bakery in New York City launched a campaign on Wednesday 7 mars. It aims to achieve respect for workers since the new owners of the plant aggressively trying to degrade working conditions. The drivers of the business Tom Cat Bakery, based in the borough of Queens, are forced to work under very abusive and suffer the threat of having their health insurance degrade significantly Directors. Tom Cat Bakery artisan bread is an important distributor for many restaurants and specialty food retailers in the New York metropolitan area.

Workers Tom Cat Bakery, mostly Latin American immigrants, gathered in Long Island City with other workers and students from support. These are all part and all groups that agree with the claims of workers of Tom Cat Bakery. These groups include the Working Committee “justice for immigrant workers” d’Occupy Wall Street, Alliance food chain workers-workers (Food Chain Workers Alliance), the United Daily Woodside (Journeymen States of Woodside), the Workers-Workers Center for Laundries (Laundry Workers Center), the employment opportunities Center in NewYork Restorations (the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York) Workers and Domestic Workers United, (Domestic Workers United).

Workers and their supporters marched together to the factory where several drivers have read and handed Dignity Declaration. This highlights the expectations that workers face administration in regard to the respectful treatment of employee-s, an affordable family health insurance and fair treatment for all workers-workers. The action was a departure incredibly inspiring for walking Tom Cat Bakery workers-workers towards justice and represents the latest effort of a growing movement to transform food processing plants and distribution warehouses.

At New York, the food processing industry and distribution provided a livelihood to more than 35 000 Workers and their families. This sector nevertheless remains increasingly characterized by a business model which is based on precarious work and abusive treatment with regard to the strength of working predominantly immigrant. Focus on the Food Chain is a campaign that works on the basis of individual membership of workers in this sector. Those latter are organized in order to promote good jobs and a sustainable local food system. The campaign is a joint project of fire Workers and IWW in the city of New York.

Tom Cat Drivers need your support in their struggle to defend their dignity, challenge the strategies of industry by private actions, and creating a food system based on human rights rather than exploitation. Please stay on the lookout for actions that will be needed in the future. To get involved and help, send email to Joseph Sanchez jsanchez [at] brandworkers.org.

Thank you to you all for what you do that can go in the direction of human rights and human dignity.

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McGill Students Occupy Office Against Administration’s Autocracy

The occupiers explain the circumstances for this action in a communiqué:

“In the summer of 2010, Dr. Morton Mendelson (Deputy Provost, Student Life & Learning who is mandated to represent the interests of students to the administration) shut down the beloved Architecture Cafe, taking away our biggest student-run cafe and giving Aramark – a company that provides food to most US prisons and the US military – a monopoly on food services on campus. Last year, he and the administration forced all clubs and services to remove “McGill” from their name,as if we, the students of this university, have no right to associate with the brand they wish to put forward. Then, this winter, Mendelson announced the administration would ignore and seek to invalidate the overwhelmingly clear results of the CKUT and QPIRG fall referendum question.

[…]

There is no doubt in our mind that this administration – and Dr. Mendelson in particular – need to understand the consequences of their actions towards students. We are here to hold them accountable. We have undertaken this action in full knowledge of its potential consequences, yet maintain that, given the current context of administrative disregard for student autonomy by the administration and the radical imbalance of power between students and administrators, this action is justified.”

Follow the occupiers’ updates on Twitter

Read the full “COMMUNICATED: Dear McGill”

Read Montreal Media Coop‘s article

[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v = WCuSTYFn shu&w=560&h=315]
VIDEO: Getting food to the students at McGill who are “occupying” the 6th floor of the McGill Administration building
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Story of a wildcat strike: Pop-Corn strike at NATAÏS

Here is the first episode of an autonomous workers' struggle waged mainly by women in a Pop-Corn company called Nataïs in a town in Gers, France.. Here's how it started a year ago.

Nataïs
Strike, it's like popcorn

if it gets too hot, it bursts

CNT-Toulouse

In the middle of the woods, the fields, and vines, in the peaceful and hilly landscape of the Gers, the Nataïs company, posed at the crossing of some sinuous departmental roads, made, by the ton, you pop-corn industrial. In such a bucolic context, we would expect peaceful working conditions… Read more →

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Third day of general strike in Nigeria

via communismeouvrier.wordpress.com

AFP, 11 January 2012 :

For the third consecutive day, Nigeria remains paralyzed Wednesday by general strike about to expand into key oil sector, with riots in the center of the country (…).

Two oil workers unions in Nigeria, Africa's leading crude producer, have threatened for the first time since the start of this social movement against the rise in fuel prices, to stop producing crude.

The president of the PENGASSAN union, whose leaders are gathered in Port Harcourt, the oil capital in the south of the country, asked “all production platforms to go into red alert in anticipation of a total production halt”.
Read more →

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London IWW Cleaners: Workplace Occupation Stoped by Police Threats

[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v = vtjsJSBeZ7c&w=560&h=315]

Cleaners at the Guildhall have been holding a sit in and stopping work since the 22nd of December because of mistreatment and intimidation. Early this morning [4th of January] management called the police, who came and intimidated and threatened the cleaners. The cleaners protested that they were holding a completely peaceful sit-in. They finally left due to police threats to drag them out physically.
Read more →

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