Image: 

Catalyst #28 is out now, read it online here.

In this issue:

With friends like these, who needs enemies? To beat the cuts, workers need to act independently of the trade union laws... and it's already happening.

Dispatches from the frontlines: Three London education workers speak about cuts, organising and casualisation in the sector.

Victory for the cleaners: unofficial action by Senate House and Guildhall cleaners gets results in London.

Sparks fly: electricians direct action over pay cuts.

Plus: your basic rights at work

Image: 

"Better late than never" was the motto of a picket held by the Freie ArbeiterInnen Union (FAU) Berlin on October 18, in Berlin Friedrichshain, with 60 protesters participating. The base union called attention to the extremely precarious employment situation at late-night kiosks. The picket was inspired by a fired employee, who worked in a late-night kiosk named "Mumbai Corner". Daniel R. had been working there until the conflict begun.

"After an unpaid industrial placement, I was happy to make some additional money", the worker, who gets unemployment compensation, tells, "but enough is enough." Daniel R. went to court claiming unpaid wages. The picket thought to support Daniel beyond the trial because the shop owner has not only instructed his attorney to sue the worker but also some libertarian media which reported about it.
Interkomm, an urban district organisation and FAU Berlin endorse reflections about employments in your neighbourhood and reinforce solidarity with workers as Daniel. At the same time, FAU Berlin is looking at the whole picture: "It is not only some precarious employments we face, it is a economy of precarious jobs.“ Many shop holders have started their own late-night kiosks or snack bar to escape from a precarious situation, but they also run kiosks with precarious jobs, thereby the exploitation continues. Harsh competition results in self-exploitation and the exploitation of cheap labour force.

FAU Berlin

See:
FAU Berlin: www.fau.org/ortsgruppen/berlin
Court Hearing Details: www.labournet.de
Interkomm Report 05.10.2010 www.trend.infopartisan.net

• The document presented by the company is inconsistent and not objective.
• The CNT union in Visteon feels excluded from the negotiations of the information.

On Monday, October 10, the CNT union at Visteon filed a counter-report on the Redundancy Plan (ERE) presented by Visteon for reasons of production to the Cadiz provincial delegation of the Andalusian Employment Department.

With references to initiatives taken by the CNT union section at Cadiz Electrónica S.A. Ford-Visteon and the CNT of Jerez, there will be a new International Day of Struggle against Ford-Visteon on October 14.

As you see from other articles on this website, the company has announced that it will close the plant of 450 workers. On June 23 the management of Cadiz Electronica SA company, located in the TecnoBahía business park in El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz, Spain, announced the final closure of the workplace to the Works Council, through a displaced representative. The CNT workers says that the conflict, despite the days which have passed, remains open:

For the International Workers Association (IWA) class struggle is not a theoretical abstraction but a fact in the daily lives of workers. Our way of organizing is expressed through democratic federalist structures based on recallable delegates.

The IWA rejects class collaboration in all its forms. Works councils and other corporatist bodies based on social partnership are means of undermining class struggle. State funding is designed to undermine independent working class action and organization.

On Tuesday September 13, the CNT in Barcelona protested at La Pedrera against the dismissals of workers in the Infrastructure Management Division of the Department of Territory and Sustainaibility. The choice of location was due to the presence of the Councillor of the Department, Lluís Recoder, at the inauguration of a series of conferences. 6 months ago, the union section of the CNT filed a complaint about the illegal transfer of workers against the Department, supported by a campaign of publicly denouncing the terrible working conditions and degrading treatment of workers. The only answer the Union Section got to their demands was trade union repression and a series of reprisals that led to a strike last June. However, the workers were dismissed without even waiting for the end of the strike.

The CNT demands the immediate reinstatement of all dismissed workers and warns the politicians from the Department that the repression will not silence the struggle of our union branch and we will continue our actions until our colleagues return back to their jobs and their demands are accepted.

Section Blog Association: http://cnt-agites.blogspot.com/

The CNT union's legal team is reviewing the application to approve the closure of Visteon-Cadiz Electronica. The objective of the union is to file a counter-report with the labor authorities so they do not approve the redundancy plan. We put this task in the hands of lawyers and economists although you do not have to be an expert to see the fraud being committed by Visteon. The reports from the Provincial Labour Inspectorate made it clear that the company has caused losses by not delivering components. The production was deliberately decreased. Therefore the Employment Officer should not authorize the redundancy plan and Visteon should be taken to court for the crime it has committed. Because as we say these days, this is a clear case of corporate terrorism.

A successful international campaign took place on August 19th, in solidarity with the workers at the Ford Visteon plant in Cadiz (Spain). The workers are facing the threat of imminent closure of the factory, thus leaving more than 450 people unemployed. Meanwhile, once again, we are reminded how multinationals can do and undo at will and with full impunity, even if it means leaving many families without a livelihood, as well as greatly affecting both the region and the sector because of the direct and indirect jobs that will be lost.

On Friday August 19, the anarcho-syndicalist trade union group "General Syndicate Dresden" (ASD) (Member of the libertarian network of Dresden, FdA IFA and the FAU) took part in the international day of action against Ford / Visteon. This was called by the Spanish CNT union with the support of the International Workers Association. The ASD held a vigil in front of a Ford dealership in Dresden-Plauen held a vigil from ASD members and distributed leaflets to passerby. Unfortunately we did not have closer contact with car dealership employees inside. Due to the short notice of the mobilization and various other events this weekend, the participation was unfortunately less than expected. The local group can not be discouraged and is determined to follow up with further protests

On Thursday the 18th of August, about 10 members from the London Locals of the Solidarity Federation met outside a Ford dealership in south London to demonstrate in solidarity with Spanish auto workers who are fighting the closure of their factory.

The workers, members of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, are fighting against not only an insulting redundancy offer, but to keep the factory open. While capitalism does not and cannot function to serve the needs of the working class, the still profitable Visteon factory (a subsidiary of Ford) remains fully capable of sustaining its existing workforce. The CNT has called management's negotiations a “pantomime” and recognises this as just another example in Ford's illustrious history of outsourcing, union-busting, and enforced casualisation of their labour force. To put pressure on company management, the CNT called for an international day of action against against Ford and SolFed was more than happy to answer the call.