English

The CNT in Alicante again went out on Friday July 16, in solidarity with comrade Alberto from ASM in Granada who was fired. The people picketed in from of ASM, distributing leaflets and talking to people about the situation. Alberto will have a court date on the 28th of July and the comrades hope he will be readmitted to work.

On July 24 there was a protest in a Carrefour supermarket in Warsaw against the humiliating treatment of workers imposed by tbe management. The protest was directly related to the introduction of the "red dot" system where employees have to stand on red dots in the middle of the crowded market to speak to their managers. It came out that workers even had to stand there if they wanted to take a toilet break.

Workers protested that this was ridiculous since sometimes that even had to wait 5-10 minutes for a supervisor to come and give them permission to leave their work station for a toilet break. This time to get permission is a lot longer than just going to the toilet, so it actually makes the break much longer. However, if an employee goes without permission, s/he could be fired. The workers feel this is done especially to discourage them from asking for breaks.

Many people responded to this news quite negatively. A Facebook group was formed calling for a boycott. Members of ZSP sabotaged the red dots and produced propaganda stickers and called on people to protest to Carrefour. Carrefour later tried to claim that the rule about standing on the dot to go to the toilet was just an "incorrect interpretation" of individual store managers,

The firm Aerobud from Kiev became the subcontractor at a building site in the Polish city of Leszno. The winner of the tender, Karmar SA decided to use this firm, which would bring workers from Ukraine. The people were offered 2500 zloties a month and started work in June. They were supposed to get paid at the beginning of July but didn't, so at the beginning of this week, 32 workers went on strike. Aerobud brought in new workers from Ukraine to replace them.

The workers went to the State Labour Inspectorate. They do not deal with these cases since the Ukrainians were employed on a civil contract. It turns out that they did not even receive written contracts, despite asking the employer for them. There was always some delay. In this case, the workers are receiving no advice accept that they should go back to Ukraine and try to get paid.

We are hoping that action will be taken against Aerobud at their headquarters in Kiev.

Landscaping for municipal spaces in Warsaw (parks, sidewalks, roadsides) is contracted out to several firms. Like most municipal contracts, low price is one of the main criteria for winning a public tender and firms tend to make savings at the cost of the workers.

Our comrade works at one of these companies. The workers all come from villages about an hour and a half from Warsaw. The people travel each day back and forth to work for miserable pay because there is huge unemployment in their area. Previously, people like them would have worked seasonally on very small farms, but that type of work is also growing more scarce. Many of the garden workers are also older people, in their 40s and 50s, who find it harder and harder to compete on the job market for higher-paid work.

The first thing that the workers rebelled against was the fact that the company wanted to charge them each month for the cost of transport into Warsaw. They managed to get the firm to provide the transport for free. Next, they were concerned about the conditions of their contracts. The workers were to be paid by the hectare; they said that they preferred to be paid by the hour. The first option, they felt, would be problematic and lead to disputes about measurement.

July 20, over 300 workers of Vegetable Production Kenya Limited (VEPRO) farm in the South Lake area in Naivasha (northwest of Nairobi) went on strike to protest against low wages and poor working conditions. They vowed not to return to work until their grievances were addressed by the management.

A demonstration was held outside the main gate of the farm and workers set up camp there. However riot police were brought in to quell the protest.

The workers accuse the company of reneging on a deal struck between management and the Central Organization Kenya Plantation Workers’ Union (KPWU) in June under which they should have received an 11 percent pay increase backdated to August last year.

They also protested that they are not given protective clothing and must work with harmful chemicals.

This is the third farmworkers protest in the Naivasha in this month. More than 1,500 workers employed at the Aquilla and Karuturi farms were involved in strike action over poor pay, working conditions and harassment by management.

The area is known for its many flower production facilities employing over 50,000 workers. The flowers are produced primarily for the European market. Workers have been complaining for a long time that there are poor safety standards in the greenhouses, in particular related to the use of chemicals.

Workers at PKS Gostynin went on strike to protest the proposed privatization of the bus company. They said that they preferred its communalization and local authorities announced that they were prepared to take over the company using municipal funds.

In the end, the State Treasury sold off PKS bus companies in several cities in Mazovia - but PKS Gostynin was not privatized. However, the local authorities then declared that they were "reconsidering" taking over the company.

The local politicians explained that the financial situation in the company had taken a turn for the worse - due to the strike.

The attitude and actions of the local authorities can only be understood as some sort of blackmail, leverage to be used against the workforce. It is unclear whether the local authorities will resign from their idea to take over the company or just will continue to play cat and mouse games and try to impose austerity measures on the workers.

In June, Viajes Marsans travel agency announced that it would slash up to two-thirds of its workforce; about 1500 people could lose their jobs. Marsans had been experiencing troubles; in 2008 Argentina seized Aerolineas Argentinas from Marsans, and the situation grew worse last December when Air Comet shut down due to massive debts, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The company lost its license with IATA to sell plane tickets in April and became insolvent. Viajes Marsans filed for bankruptcy after being sold by the president of Spain’s main CEOE business federation, Gerardo Diaz Ferran, to Posibilitum. The new owners announced restructuring.

Even before this announcement, workers had been organizing and protesting. CNT commissions were set up. A few large demonstrations were held already in the spring.

In June the workers did not receive wages. In July, the company paid some workers only 480 euros for June so it still owes back payments. The CNT is hoping that the company will regulate its debts to employees in August.

The CNT also accused the new owners of the company of wanting to use money from the Wage Guarantee Fund (Fogasa) as investment capital to improve the condition of the firm so that they may sell off their assets. After some more protests and a workers' occupation of the general headquarters of the company, negotiations about compensation for the workers were held. On July 21 there was a preliminary agreement concerning 947 dismissed employees who would receive 32 days compensation per year employed, up to a total of 30 months. Up to twelve months of this compensation would be paid for by the Fund (Fogasa), while the remaining eighteen are to be paid with money obtained from the sale of the company's assets. The compensation is limited to 70,000 euro per employee.

A court session in case of temporary arrest of Agu Chidi was finished on 14th of July. Agu was arrested after a murder of Maxwell Itoya on a day of 23th of May at the Warsaw market close to the Stadium. Three accusation were brought on him – assault for police, escape cooperation and trade of illegal trademark goods. None of them were supported by sufficient evidences, so there were no reason for this heavy arrest of Agu Chidi. According to Agu’s words, he was caught by police unexpectedly, fall on the ground and arrested. He was not a witness of Maxwell’s murder, he did not take part in the riots caused by his death and he did not sell illegal goods.

There is a huge supposition, that this arrest was not justified and keeping him in the prison for 51 days was a police’ manifestation of power and force which might have an aim to intimidate other foreigners in case they want to testify on police’ disadvantage.

Today the strike of Atsumitec workers in China came to an end.

The workers wlll get a raise of 47% - monthly salaries start at 1,070 yuan (122 euro). The strike started on July 12 and was triggered by changes in work regulations that would cut overtime pay.

They will also get additional payments totally 250 yuan a month and a bonus if the company makes a profit.

About 200 people are employed at the factory in Foshan which supplies Honda Motors.

The City Council of Madrid dismissed 111 educators from Municipal Social Service Centers this May, disrupting a multitude of programs and intervention work in general with families, young people, etc.

After the time of economic booms, our Pharaonic mayor, after putting the City Council into millions of euros of debt, does not hesitate for a moment to get out the scissors and cut everything related to social policies, leaving 111 unemployed workers - social education workers. Half of the intervention projects and programs for exluded people or those at risk of social exclusion have been affected and the participants in these programs, in addition to the workers, have had the few hopes they may have had to build a decent life eliminated. Apart from lowering the level of care for the indigent, battered women and children, grants will be cut for meals and other social services, with the expection of Samur SOCIAL* and benefits for seniors.

(* Translator's note: a program which deals with social emergency cases.)

The Social Intervention Workers of the CNT are totally against budget cuts to social services and their privatization, against the dismissal of workers - social educators and the suspension of social intervention programs for people at serious risk of exclusion. We support the struggle of workers and encourage them to organize around the CNT, a union whuch does not receive subsidies or have professional unionists*, maintaining its independence from state and political organizations.

(* Translator's note: the original refers to "liberados" - those unionists who are freed from their work obligations on the job)

On 14th July, at the Lisbon Criminal Court, the Judge read the final decision of the trial against the “Lisbon 11”, detained during the police repression of the anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism of 25th April 2007. All the defendants were acquitted of the charges against them as the Judge considered that there were no evidences to condemn them.

This was an expected decision, as the testimonies of the accusation witnesses – mainly anti-riot cops – were full with contradictions and sometimes almost anecdotic. Already on the 5th of July – during the final allegations of the Public Prosecutor and the defense lawyers - the Public Prosecutor had to recognize in his declarations that there were not enough evidences to incriminate any of the accused. He started his speech by stating that there was no political motivation behind this trial – obviously disturbed by the protests against it – but the punishing of common criminal offenses. He justified the police acting as “necessary” although “muscled”, as it created its own dynamics in which it became difficult to discover who did what.

Last year, Okna Rabien window factory near Lodz fired 249 local workers and replaced them with workers from the Phillipines and other less expensive employees. Currently there is more trouble in the workplace.

Okna Rabien recently announced that they would like to hire new workers. When workers saw the ad, they noticed that the salary for new workers was somewhat higher than what many of them were being paid.

People who decided to ask the boss about this and get a raise we fired. A few dozen people have already lost their jobs.

Workers at the warehouse working the nightshift were being underpaid anyway. When the problems began, it came out that they were not being paid the proper wage for work at night. After being dismissed from the warehouse, workers were told they could be rehired on the production line, but for less money.

The workers see that the firm is hiring new workers is replace the ones fired and they suspect that the firings have to do with getting cheaper workers and taking retribution on those who were cheap but asked for a raise.

The OBI construction hypermarket in Krakow at ul. Bora Komorowskiego fired a union activists without the consent of her union organization. The women was active in the Aug. 80 trade union. She was part of the 10 person founding committee of the union which was formed on May 16. When the union had more members, the union announced its existence to the bosses. Then the union-busting tactics began.

Besides the firing of this woman, another woman from the founding committee was threatened with dismissal on false charges.

A case has been filed in the labour court.

This is not the first union busting campaign in OBI. In 2001, when a union was formed in Warsaw, two union activists were immediately fired.

Besides union busting, we have written here about incidents of mobbing in Lodz.

A group of 20 workers from Sky Tower construction site in Wroclaw took action on Friday to demand their back pay. As it turns out, many people are working illegally at the site. There are also problems that rules concerning work in the heat are not being observed. Working hours are not cut and people receive only one bottle of water per day, in contradiction to health and safety measures which apply.

The workers were hired by Trans Bau, a subcontractor of a subcontractor. Some had already quit because of problems receiving pay. The chairman of Rondo Bau, the firm which hired Trans Bau, showed up and promised that people would be paid this week. The workers were hardly satisfied with this but decided to wait a few days more for their pay.

According to ANA-MPA, 170 migrants detained in the Samos detention camp started a collective hunger strike. trying to stop their deportation.
They demand an end to the transfers to detention centres close to the Greek-Bulgarian land border in the north.

Such transfers happen between two and three times a month in Samos, the last one happened last week, when 50 migrants were taken.