Workers' conditions and struggles

Balloting on Tentative Agreement at UPS: Workers' Mobilizations in the USA are Subordinated to the Exigencies of Crisis and Rearmament

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It has been a long time since the unions jettisoned the mass assembly, preferring to militate in the murky waters of the secret ballot. Via the latter, 340,000 workers will accept or reject the tentative agreement between August 3 and August 22. IBT local unions have endorsed it by a vote of 161-1. Our comments regarding the details of the agreement will be circumscribed, but it is apparent “the...

UPS Struggle: Strike While the Iron is Hot!

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The recent situation of the working class has been treacherous, to say the least. Inflation, war, and instability prevail, while wages stay down and things only get worse. · Naturally, benefits and wages are at the top of workers’ priorities, whereas UPS is only interested in profits. UPS makes this clear via PVDs, threats to drivers, and the tempo of work inside the warehouse, along the belts...

The Present Wave of Strikes and the Way Forward for the Working Class

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(A public meeting was held on this topic in London on 6 May 2023. The presentation, which we reproduce below, was generally well received. Interventions from the floor did not dispute the main points made, most significantly the role the trade unions and the left were playing in defeating the strikes, nor did they dispute the need for mass meetings and strike committees as the only way to extend...

Montreal: Why are the BAnQ Workers on Strike?

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(Leaflet distributed by NWBCW Montreal during the BAnQ and Owens Illinois strikes.) · The BAnQ workers are on strike because, even prior to the current inflationary period, their wages were suppressed, without any pay increase since 2018. With generalized inflation, workers across the board have seen their real pay slashed as food prices rise and real estate speculation causes skyrocketing rent...

Sweden: The Wildcat Strike on the Commuter Trains Shows the Way Forward

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On Monday, April 17, the train drivers on the commuter trains in Stockholm went on a wildcat strike. The strike was already announced on the Saturday before, where it was also announced that it would last until midnight on Wednesday 19 April. The goal of the strike was said to be to keep train guards on the trains, something that the company that runs the commuter trains, MTR, wants to abolish.

Pension Reform in France

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The balance sheet below is an initial reflection(1) on the wave of struggles against the pension reform introduced by the government. It may, on first reading, come across as pessimistic. However, while on the one hand only the truth is revolutionary, and that’s what we describe, on the other hand, given the movement’s size and the anger it has demonstrated against the current living conditions...

The Invisible Slaughter: Study on Work-Related Deaths in France

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(Review of Matthieu Lépine's book, L’Hécatombe invisible : Enquête sur les morts au travail, by a CWO sympathiser.) · It is often said by people disconnected from reality in the UK that ‘we are not in a Dickens novel’. The saying in France is that ‘we are not in Zola’s times anymore’.

Two Comments on Recent Bus Strikes in the UK

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A Week on the Buses... · British strikes are very much like British buses. You hang around for ages for one to turn up, then three arrive, you turn away for a minute to sort out your change but when you look up, they’ve all disappeared! · This scenario will have been extremely familiar to bus passengers in the West Midlands over the last week.

Inflation, Pensions, War Spiral: Only Open Mass Struggle Can Stop the Descent into Hell Promised by Capitalism

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(Leaflet distributed by Bilan et Perspectives during protests against pension reform in France.) · While for months, proletarians have seen their real wages decrease due to inflation, and after a reform of the unemployment insurance which considerably restricts access to it, reduces the amount and duration of compensation, the government is once again attacking our living and working conditions by...

Iranian Workers Need an Internationalist Class Programme

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On 14 February 2023, the "Charter of Minimum Demands of Independent Union and Civil Organisations of Iran" translated below was published with the signatures of 20 organisations and institutions. We don't know much about the background and history of how this Charter has come about, but we have previously reported on the struggles of three of the signatories – Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers’...

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