Over the last week, the companies in the BESNA agreement pulled out one by one. Unite are still in negotiations so the long term outlook is unclear, but in the short term the BESNA agreement* has collapsed.
On Saturday 4th February for an hour over lunchtime members of Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World, Glasgow Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation gave out 500 leaflets explaining the demands of the IWW Pizza Hut Workers Union in Sheffield. We asked members of the public to refuse to eat at the prime site Argyle Street Pizza Hut until management negotiates with the collective demands of organised workers in Sheffield.
Red and black flags waved as a dozen people from the Anarchist Federation, Industrial Workers of the World, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Solidarity Federation and other individuals took part in a picket of the Glasgow premises of Adecco for one hour between 4 and 5pm on Friday 20th January.
In solidarity with the sacked workers of EULEN-ABB in Spain, London locals of SolFed like our comrades in Brighton, took the streets today with a picket in front of Adecco’s London Bridge office. After a strike going on since last November, the Spanish employment agency EULEN fired all of the workers in the local strike committee, for the benefit of its contractor ABB. A global agency firm Adecco, a majority owner of numerous other brands in the industry, moved in supplying temp workers to scab the site -An attack against workers rights and an initiation rite for ABBs new program of union busting and a contract with Adecco’s local branch, EUROCEN.
There was a great turnout for the short-notice picket of employment agency Adecco in Brighton today. Around 20 people stopped by, with picket numbers averaging 10-15 for the two hour picket. A division of Adecco has been hiring strike-breakers for the multinational corporation ABB and their contractor EULEN in Cordoba, Spain, where workers have been on indefiniate strike since November 28th. Around 400 copies of this leaflet were handed out. There were also pickets in Glasgow and London.
Today saw two members of the North London Solidarity Federation join striking gallery assistants and members of the public at a picket line rally at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The strike, over budget cuts and staffing levels, was scheduled to last only two hours and was planned to cause disruption during the Gallery's busiest time.
SolFed members in particular made an effort to flier potential patrons, explain the issues behind the strike, and request they refrain from entering the museum for the duration of the strike. After spending some time at the Gallery itself, the strikers led a short march to the to the Da Vinci exhibition which was taking place next door.
ADECCO: Stop Supplying Strikebreakers to Asea Brown Boveri factory in Cordoba, Spain.
Employment agencies have long been criticised for profiting from casualisation, precarious emploment and for creating an increasing insecure job market. However, ADECCO, the largest employment agency in the world, has now taken this to a whole new level. Not content to simply lower wages and job security through inferior short term contracts, ADECCO has now gotten into the business of strikebreaking.
Today, PCS members in HM Revenue & Customs took strike action over the threat of privatisation. In Bootle, a member of Liverpool Solidarity Federation and PCS activist put the following statement - calling for a national week of action against privatisation - to an assembly of striking workers, where it was approved unanimously.
HM Revenue & Customs are engaging in a 12 month pilot with two private contractors, Sitel and Teleperformance, to handle calls alongside existing staff at contact centres in Bathgate and Lilyhall. The department claims that this is merely to look at ways they can address call backlogs during peak times. However, this is a transparent attack on the jobs, terms and conditions of PCS members.
Outsourcing of workers at the ABB factory in Cordoba is currently being used as the pretext to get rid of militant workers, leading to 34 workers being fired.
The strikers claim that the redundancies are not valid and considered them a clear retaliation for the strike. They demand to be reinstated by ABB or outsourced by ADECCO - EUROCEN.
On Wednesday EULEN fired all the workers on strike since November 28.
EULEN has claimed that it fired the workers because of the loss of its contract with ABB, where it was replaced by ADECCO - EUROCEN.
Among those dismissed is the entire Strike Committee. Nine of it 12 members already had been dismissed on 31 December.
For the strikers and their unions, this nothing more than the culmination of ABB's strategy to get rid of the workers on strike, with the collaboration of EULEN and ADECCO - EUROCEN.
The first picket I went to was at the Western Infirmary, as I knew a couple of people on the picket there. The picket was big enough, but largely symbolic as the RCN nurses were going in. I was told lots of the nurses are planning to join Unison. Later I was told one of the consultants donated £40 to the picket.
Red and black flags waved as a dozen people from the Anarchist Federation, Industrial Workers of the World, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Solidarity Federation and other individuals took part in a picket of the Glasgow premises of Adecco for one hour between 4 and 5pm on Friday 20th January.
