FAU-IAA

On Sunday 10th August South London Solfed held a pre-Mass information picket at the Swedish Church in London. Members of FAU (our sister section in Germany) have been sacked at the Swedish school in Berlin, run by the Swedish Church. In May, after protesting against a salary decrease, all staff members were sacked. They were told to re-apply for their jobs on worse pay and conditions. 

The dispute is going to the court of appeal on October 17th, in the meantime it is unclear what will happen when term starts on August 18th. The school is not negotiating with FAU or the workers generally.

The CEO of the school is called Lena Brolin and is also the rector of the parish. You can write to her bosses and tell them what you think about these practices:

anders.bergkvist@svenskakyrkan.se + rebecca.kinnander@svenskakyrkan.se

Struggle blog: https://arbetsplatskonflikt.blogspot.com (Swedish/English/
German)

Talk by 2 members of the FAU, the sister organisation of the Solidarity Federation in Germany, in English, about why you should join an anarcho-syndicalist union. It includes first hand experience from a FAU member of two small, but successful teachers' struggles using direct action tactics.

Coming not long after an SF member made a visit to the Berlin section of the FAU (Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union – Free Workers' Union) in July, the Thames Valley Solidarity Federation hosted a member of FAU Freiburg for a talk and presentation on the struggle to organise workers at the Cinema Babylon in Oxford. This was a struggle that was to prove an important turning point for the FAU, and one which briefly saw them banned from being able to call themselves a union. Having been a member of FAU Berlin at the time, our German comrade was very closely involved in the struggle and wanted to share with us the difficulties, the victories and the lessons that had been learnt.

During time spent in Berlin visiting friends and relatives, I decided to contact the Freie ArbeiterInnen Union (FAU) – the German section of the International Workers Association (IWA), of which I am a member of its British section; the Solidarity Federation.

Statement by German anarcho-syndicalist group FAU on the situation of temporary employment in Germany and recent developments between unions and employers' organisations.

News from our comrades in Berlin, who had been dragged into the courts by the bosses of the Cinema Babylon.

About 50 people gathered in the biggest hall of Berlin’s Higher Court on the morning of June 10th. They were waiting for the decision on the FAU Berlin’s appeal on whether they could call themselves a union. Only 15 minutes into the trial, the judge delivered the verdict. The injunction is overturned; the ban is repealed; the crowd goes wild.

As of yesterday, December 11, 2009, FAU Berlin (FAU-B) has essentially been banned as a union. The decision was made by the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin) without a hearing. FAU-B was not even informed that the Neue Babylon GmbH – which is involved in a labor dispute with FAU-B – had started legal proceedings against them. The court’s decision goes beyond merely taking away FAU-B’s rights as a union within the Babylon cinema. From this point on they are no longer allowed to call themselves a union!

Background

FAU-B and its group within the Babylon cinema have been fighting for a labor contract since the beginning of June 2009. Although the Babylon cinema is government funded, pay has been miserable and workers rights have been ignored. A large portion of the cinema’s staff is organized within FAU-B. This is the first significant labor dispute of the relatively small FAU-B. It has caused an uproar not only in Berlin, but in all of Germany.