unions

Lessons from a social service worker’s strike

This piece was written in 2004-2005 in the wake of a strike at a behavioral health facility. Through the immediate eyes of those experiences it grapples with a number of forces in working life we find ourselves up against today.

On union scabbing

Some quick thoughts on the need to respect picket lines and the challenge of the anti-strike laws and multi-union workplaces.

Business unionism vs revolutionary unionism - Dave Neal

Organize cartoon

A piece on the decline of business unions and the opportunities this has opened up for a resurgent Revolutionary Union movement.

Solidarity motor bulletin #02: UAW scab union

Issue of Solidarity's car industry bulletin from March 22, 1974, looking at the behaviour of the US auto workers' industrial union the UAW and how it was sabotaging and scabbing on struggles of its members at the time.

Italian unions sign up to the repression of trade union rights

It should have been just the implementation decree for the 31 May agreement but it has turned into a new agreement, with an even harsher level of repression against workers’ struggles.

Anarchists and the trade unions - Paul Delesalle

The text of a pamphlet first published in 1900 encouraging anarchists to get involved in the trade unions, which the author claims are the “embryos of the groups of free producers of the future”.

Reviving the strike - Joe Burns

If the American labor movement is to rise again, it will not be as a result of electing different politicians, the passage of legislation, or improved methods of union organizing. Rather, workers will need to rediscover the power of the strike. Not the ineffectual strike of today, where employees meekly sit on picket lines waiting for scabs to take their jobs, but the type of strike capable of grinding industries to a halt - the kind employed up until the 1960s, argues Joe Burns.

An account of the universities strike, 31 October 2013

An account by Demogorgon, a left communist clerical worker and member of the International Communist Current, of the run-up to an day of the joint union strike action in UK universities, including a leaflet she/he distributed beforehand. We do not necessarily agree with all of bit but reproduce it for reference and discussion.

Kyiv conference demands justice for Kazakh oil workers

Zhanaozen demo

A campaign to free imprisoned activists, and get the truth about a police massacre, is going international.

Has PCS been outflanked to the left by a bosses’ union?

A look at two of many attacks faced by workers in HM Revenue & Customs. The contrasting responses from clerical grade union PCS and senior grade union ARC are worth noting, but not for the reason you might guess.