Dear Postie, please don't deliver my letters...

Last years actions by the Postal Workers was supported by everyone I know, and not least because it gave us all extra leaway with our increasing bills! People in my block, a co-operative on the South Bank, discussed it every morning when we bump into each other at our mailboxes in the communal area. The feeling was definitely that we all need the posties to fight back.

A few days after the strike was called off I was asking a postie where the nearest mail box is. He looked really glum. I asked him what he thought about the strike being called off and I think he thought I was having a go at him because he just shrugged his shoulders. As soon as I said, well I think it's a bloody disgrace that your union has sold you out and that you should not let the bosses and the unions treat you like this, you should fight back, he grew a big smile on his face. He said thank you very much, it's good to know you support us. I told him the whole of the Oxo Tower does too.

So, I am very please to see this book that has been released by an anon Postie. You can read more at the blog Going Postal. This is what the author says about their book:

It is an exquisite, miniature jewel of a book, the summation of my life as a Royal Mail delivery officer, and a testament to the dedication and integrity of postal workers everywhere.

Hear hear Roy, we do appreciate your hard, often underappreciated, work-what with the tinternet and everything, some people take the snail mail for granted.

Good luck with the fightback. And please stop delivering me my bills. Ta.

TfL pay £2,700 per day for consultants - tube strike update

Don't believe the rubbish you read in the tabloids.

Tube strike: for justice and jobs

RMT members launched the first strike ballot in March this year  (Pic: » Guy Smallman)


by Matthew Cookson

Thousands of tube workers in the RMT transport union brought the London Underground system to a halt from 7pm on Tuesday with a 48-hour strike over pay, job cuts and management bullying.

Their dispute is crucial in the war to stop bosses and the government making ordinary people pay for the a crisis created by those at the top of society.

Everyone should back the tube workers’ fight. London Underground is cutting 1,000 jobs while Transport for London could slash 3,000 jobs. Neither company has ruled out compulsory redundancies, which would break an agreement with the RMT and Aslef unions.

Overwhelming

The London Underground and Transport for London workers voted overwhelmingly for strikes in a reballot triggered by management’s legal challenge to a successful strike ballot.

Read more HERE

© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.

Racist allegations at SOAS? SU will NOT be crossing the picket lines...

"In my role as Chair I was being asked to conclude whether two long serving and trusted managers were telling the truth, or whether Pablo Grisales had changed his recollection of events. On the balance of probabilities I concluded that I believed the two managers. I was satisfied that the evidence by (the complainant) and the SOAS managers was on balance far more credible than that of Jose Bermudez and Pablo Grisales."

Email from Students' Union

Dear students,

This Thursday 28th May SOAS UNISON will hold a 1 day strike in solidarity with Jose Stalin Bermudez, the SOAS Postroom worker who was sacked earlier this term. Your Students' Union thinks you will find the following information useful:

Why are UNISON going on strike?
UNISON believe that one of their members was sacked unfairly. The formal school disciplinary procedure has run its course and members are now showing their solidarity with Stalin by staging a one day strike calling for his re-instatement. We have included below a joint UNISON/UCU statement that we first sent to all students on 1st May explaining the reasons behind the strike.


How will this affect me and my exams?
The SU have been in dialogue with both UNISON and the School in order to minimise disruption to students during this critical exam time. Whilst we cannot say for sure, it is highly likely the library will remain open but with reduced staffing. It is likely the computer rooms will be open, but with minimal or no IT support. UNISON are aware of the exams taking place over this period. If you have any questions or concerns about the impact of the strike on your studies you can email suwelfare@soas.ac.uk

What is the position of the Students' Union?
The Union is mandated to support the UNISON campaign to re-instate Stalin. We circulated information from UNISON earlier in the month. We will be providing an empowering lunch to those on the picket lines on Thursday and the sabbaticals will not cross the picket. We encourage students who intend to come in on Thursday to engage with the issue and act accordingly.

Ben, NIzam, Marya
Here's the full statement from UCU and UNISON

Dear Colleagues

As we predicted, the School's hand-picked Star Chamber has rejected
Stalin's appeal against dismissal. Graham Furniss, Ian Brown and Matt
Craven, advised by Peter Mitchell the HR Director, would appear to
share the same perverted sense of justice as Sharon Page who sacked
Stalin in February.

SOAS UNISON, UCU, and the Student Union, along with several voices on Academic board, had called for a genuinely independent panel to hear the appeal. The School rejected that. Presumably they had no confidence in an independent panel to produce the result they wanted.

Stalin was absurdly accused by Sharon Page of a perceived "threat to kill" a colleague in September 2008. In fact, the original complaintcontains no such allegation. The perception explicitly relates to alleged "death threats" in 2007.

Those allegations had been found to be "unfounded and unsubstantiated" in an earlier grievance hearing. Never mind. The investigating managers and Sharon Page fell over themselves to use those unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations to support the complainant's perception. Sharon Page made her decision to dismiss Stalin on her perception of the complainant's perception. A more unsafe conclusion could not be imagined.

Read more HERE

Support the pigs in their fight for the right to strike...

...so we can kick the shit out of them on their picket lines.

Complaining that it will be 'now clearly impossible' to negotiate 'fair pay' in the future with people like Jacqui Smith and Gordon Brown in charge, either the chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Peter Smyth, has gone all left-wing on us or he has forgotten what it was like for striking miners under a Tory government.

Amidst their fight for the right to strike they have been told to 'work to rule' at the Labour Party Conference this weekend. They are advised not to feel obliged to do photoshoots or show goodwill; 'would you want to smile or pose with pickpockets who had a hand in your pocket?' said Chris Burrows, chair of the Police Federation.

However, i'm not quite sure how to react to the police going all union-friendly. At the Stop the War demo this Saturday do we salute them or give them extra agro to see if we can get them to go over and above the call of duty? I prefer the later...

Either way, I hope their next demonstration is not headed, once again, by the real fascists. On January 29^th, the BNP candidate for Mayor of London lead a 22,500 strong police demo. Unfortunately I was in Berlin otherwise I would have gone to harass them with our very own un-FIT team. I wonder how many copies of the Socialist Worker we sold on this demo?

?

Report back from Justice for cleaners mtg this Tuesday.

(I feel terrible that i havent written this before, but the meeting was so good and full of ideas and analysis that i am finding it hard to write elegantly enough to do the meeting justice. So, i will keep adding to it...)

'A victory for one is a victory for all'

I was so inspired by a meeting at SOAS this week.

25 cleaners and trade union reps and other activists from various cleaners campaigns attended a meeting at SOAS on Tuesday to discuss victories and strategy. Among us were people from RMT Eurostar, RMT Tubelines cleaners and RMT reps, SOAS Unison, SOAS UCU, SOAS SU, Queen Mary, Royal Mail, Birkbeck College and various other people.

All three speakers spoke about the confidence their campaigns have gained from having support from other groups and stressed the need to continue building links and extending solidarity. Contributions followed.

Stalin Vermudez, the SOAS Unison branch chair spoke first. Having worked for 7 cleaning companies he explained how all cleaning companies are cowboys, despite the fact that we had OCEAN managers in the room, he said that they all “exploit their workers and that's why they have managers-to do the dirty work”. After hearing about SOAS's success cleaners at Birkbeck have begun to join the union and a campaign has started to make some headway. Birkbeck management accused SOAS of 'opening a can of worms'.

In meeting to debate and decide which cleaning company to employ SOAS management said that 'we are known for going out on a limb-we should be leading the way on workers rights'. I doubt whether this was a sincere statement or just to appease me, as Student Union Governing Body member.

An engineer from Eurostar told us how 74 engineers refused to cross the picket line on the day of OCS cleaners strike action. The engineers are now facing disciplinary action. They now see this disgraceful and illegal move as an 'open door to join the dispute'. They thanked us for all our support on the picket lines and our People Before Profit stunt and leafletting sessions and said they would not have been brave enough to take solidarity action if we had not been there to support them. They said that 'if people can see you fighting others will fight with you'.

OCS think that cleaners are unorganised and wouldn't fight and have relied on this (assumption?) presumption to prevaricate over the terms and conditions of the contract. Their contract is up for renewal and therefore they have nothing to lose. More planned action is pending the outcome of further scheduled negotiations.

Tubelines cleaning rep, Philip Mambuliya (??) argued that 'nothing comes to us sitting in our armchair-we have to fight for it'. ... 'if you dont stand for something, you fall for anything.'

Although Tubelines are very happy with winning the London Living Wage, they are still in the process of negotiating better terms and conditions and of course having to fight against deportations. The TUC have spoken out against the use of immigration controls and have planned a meeting at SOAS on Sunday.

SOAS's Unison Black members rep reiterated the feeling of the meeting when she said that 'exploitation IS racist. Management bang on about their Equal Opps policies but these are no more than empty promises.'

Another speaker told how management at their workplace are taught 'how not to get caught discriminating'. After her succesfull campaign she assured us that it is not a mountain to bring the cleaners in-house and how united we could beat these bullies. She spoke about how the Home office raids 50 workplaces per week and that they have a target of 5,000. Many workplaces dont want to organise migrant workers because they are too high maintenance.

Further, a new law has been introduced, even landlords who dont chek papers are subject to fines of £10,000.

We all left the meeting feeling confident and ready to take the struggle to another level. We need to opush the campaigns across other campuses and other workplaces in London. and we discussed further action.

14 new people signed the People Before Profit charter, 10 of us went to the meeting on the Recession at Friends Meeting House and

Two weeks ago Socialist Worker, through the Freedom Of Information Act, uncovered the story of 2 tube cleaners being deported. Bosses had no issues with workers having no immigration papers

A victory for one is a victory for all BUT an injury to one is an injury to all

I found out after that 8 more cleaners from OCS and Birkbeck couldn't find the venue-what a shame, the mtg was great.

We were suprised but pleased that 2 of the cleaners managers also came. Most of our cleaners are South American, as are the managers, and have faced issues with immigration, non-payment of wages (for 3 months at Christmas), harrasment, victimisation and appaling treatment. 6 months ago, we did a community consultative ballot at which 9 out of 10 students and staff voted to bring the cleaning service in-house. At the ballot box, the said managers came to me and satrted discussing the problems the cleaners have faced and then showed me how they voted-they also voted to bring them in house.

People Before Profit Charter
Public Services Not Private Profit Campaign


ACTIONS DISCUSSED

SOAS Justice for Cleaners relaunch party.

Friday Oct 3rd
SOAS Junior Common Room
Music, food, dancing, discussion and activists forum,

ALL welcome-to invite people from all the campaigns

BBC Arabic service ballot results - 80.6% in favour of strike action

Today 80% of NUJ members at the BBC Arabic service in Broadcasting House at Oxford Circus voted for strike action.

Previous BBC strikes involving BBC staff have been confident, angry and vibrant. 'Long live the revolution and death to the management' were chanted in Urdu - 'Inklab Zindabad wa Management murbadad'

i look forward to the next pickets. Details of which will be posted here as soon as i know.

I am informed by my sources that this strike is even more significant because the Arabic service has only just been set up (in competetion with Al Jajeera) and a succesful campaign would be a major embarassment for the Beeb.


Even before th NUJ had time to circulate the results of the ballot, the BBC management panicked and sent a snivelling 2 1/2 page email, trying to explain what the strike action is about, to the ENTIRE workforce....

In this email management said that 'the reasons for the ballot are unclear'. They claim that they have offered a 'comprehensive package...including shorter night shifts, a 37.5 hour working week, more staff than originally planned and further training and development'.

They complain that changes to shift patterns would cost them an extra £1.5 million and threaten the closure of other World Service language services in order to pay for this.

Further, they state that 'BBC Arabic staff are not working longer hours than elsewhere in the BBC' and that 'extra staff would mean that BBC Arabic are better staffed than the other BBC news outlets'.

They acknowledge that there has been some 'frustration' due to the amount of change in the last 2 years but refute the necessity of strike action claiming that 'any strike action would be unjustifiable'...and would 'jeopordise the high level of esteem BBC Arabic atracts from audiences'.

Management worry that these demands would lead to hard questions from their funders about all their services.


In the statement from NUJ to memebers we read: "Ultimately, this dispute is about what's needed to produce quality broadcastig. To be a success, the extension of the BBC's Arabic services to a 24-hour operation must be fully funded..."

NUJ Broadcasting Organiser stresses that the Arabic Service members have not entered into this strike lightly. They rightly rejected managements calls for an undemocratic e-mail vote, fully aware that distance voting destroys an open and fair debate and ultimately would only produce a result that mangement could accuse of being undemocratic. No one in their right mind should believe that distance voting could provide a reasonable assessment of the rank and file mood.

NUJ insist that strike action is the only option available to 'ensure that management listen to their concerns'

Read the NUJ report here

Eurostar/OCS protest at Oval Cricket ground.

Last Friday RMT cleaners, activists and Trade Unionists leafletted Oval cricket ground telling OCS to Clean up their Act. OCS, the cleaning contractor for Eurostar, pay £5million corporate sponsorship yet they claim they can't afford to pay their cleaners a living wage.

No doubt we caused some embarrasment-although i dont usually like to use a moralistic argument today i was forced to. At £400 per ticket. most of those attending probably have no idea what it is like to live on £5-6 per hour. £400 is at least double what cleaners earn for a whole week. Whilst these rich fatcats can afford to take a day of for leisure - most weren't even there to watch the cricket, but to do business deals and rub each others bellies - OCS cleaners are not even entitled to take a day off if sick.

Most cricket grounds have areas for corporate hospitality of about 5%. At the Oval this is actually 45%. This was certainly reflected in the response we got from the audience. A great majority of the poncy ticket holders would not even acknowledge that we were there let alone take our leaflets. Sporting the middle/upper class uniform of khaki pants, blue & white shirts they looked down at us from under their Panama hats.

If they didnt take our protest leaflets in their hands, we forced it to go into their ears. We chanted relentlessly that OCS need to 'Clean up their act' and pay their cleaners a decent wage.

...more tmrw



TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Write to Eurostar to support cleaners strike for London Living Wage



RMT members working on the Eurostar service for cleaning contractor OCS took 24 hours of strike action on Bank Holiday Monday, 25 August. The RMT cleaners also demonstrated outside the Oval cricket ground on Friday 29 August where OCS sponsors the corporate hospitality stand during the England match.

The action was supported 100% by the cleaners, with many joining the union as the strike action approached. The vast majority of engineers working directly for Eurostar at the Temple Mills depot also refused to cross the cleaners picket line which left the depot like a ghost town.

The cleaners are demanding an increase from 6.37 per hour to the 7.45 rate set down as the London Living Wage by the London Mayor. They are also demanding shift and weekend rates, sick pay, a pension scheme and improved holidays.

The cleaners recognise that it is Eurostar UK Ltd as well as their own employer that is responsible for their poverty pay and poor conditions. So they also intend to supplement their strike action with a series of protests targeting Eurostars hypocrisy in marketing itself as an environmental organisation while enforcing pay misery through sub-contracts.

Eurostar has promoted a highly successful Tread Lightly environmental marketing campaign in partnership with Friends of the Earth, proclaiming its zero carbon emissions train service, in contrast to the airlines. This appeal to middle class guilt of course totally shrouds Eurostars rank hypocrisy of stamping all over its contract cleaners through poverty pay, a practice that is identical to most airlines.

Questions also ought to be asked of Friends of the Earths role in jumping into bed with such an exploitative organisation.

The union will be announcing more strike action next week and more protest actions. In the meantime, their RMT branch is asking supporters to protest direct to Eurostar through its Write to Richard campaign. People are encouraged to email the Eurostar Chief Executive Richard Brown demanding the London Living Wage for cleaners at: richard.brown@eurostar.co.uk using your own words or the model letter below.

Model letter to: 'richard.brown@eurostar.co.uk'


Subject: Industrial action by cleaners employed on Eurostar OCS Contract


Dear Mr Brown,


I am extremely disappointed to learn that the cleaners on the Eurostar service are currently paid more than 1 per hour below the London Living Wage. I hope that you agree that in order for Eurostar to maintain its image as a progressive and ethical organisation it must ensure that everybody working on the Eurostar service is at least paid at the hourly rate of the London Living Wage.


The image and reputation of Eurostar is damaged by the double standard of having a Tread Lightly campaign on the environment, while exploiting cleaners through low pay and poor conditions.


I do hope that your company will take the necessary steps to ensure that it looks after the people working on the service as well as those which have been taken in caring for the environment. I urge you to take the necessary measures to eliminate the poverty pay currently endured by the cleaners at Eurostar.


Yours sincerely,


YOUR NAME HERE

BBC Arabic service to ballot tmrw for strike action

A ballot will go to the members tommorrow over issues of outsourcing, unpaid overtime, compulsory 11.5 hour days and shift patterns.

More news once I speak to my contact in the NUJ (National Union of Journalists).

Support OCS cleaners at Oval station picket

After the brilliant, vibrant and angry picket line at Eurostar, St Pancras Monday Bank hoiliday just gone a further picket and demonstration is arranged for THIS Friday 29th August.

OCS are corporate sponsors for Oval cricket ground. How can they afford a massive sponsorship bill if they can't afford to pay their cleaners a Living Wage?

RMT will be picketing the international match against South Africa. Meet 9.15am outside Oval underground station. Please forward to all your contacts to ensure big turnout and maximum support for Eurostar cleaners fight for the Living Wage.

Call me on 07958 034 181 for more details or if you cant find us.

Read the report from Monday in Socialist Worker here.

Read about the Tubeline Cleaners here

A London wide organising meeting to discuss where next for ALL the cleaners will be held next week. Please contact me if you want to attend, have anyone who would like to speak or if you want more info.

Eurostar cleaners strike. "Pay London Living Wage-show us dignity"

I have never been up early enough to catch the sunrise unless i haven't been to sleep from the night before. But 5am yesterday morning I attended my first crack 'o' dawn picket line. Around 30 cleaners from OCS were on strike over pay and conditions.

"Good Pay, Good Cleaning" was the favourite chant of the morning.

At present the cleaners are paid a basic rate of £6.37 per hour. They get NO sick pay, no bank holiday pay not even extra pay for night shifts. They never get a pay rise either, no matter how long they have worked for the company.

OCS is the private cleaning contractor paid £6million to keep the London-Paris 400m long highspeed train clean. With no cleaners available the company will receive massive fines.

Being in the middle of the chants, whistles, banging, dancing and singing was a brilliant experience in itself. The cleaners, who come from all over the world, came together to fight for a single cause-fair pay, fair treatment, dignity and respect.

As we picketed we received news from the other depot in Leyton that the engineers had refused to cross the picket line.

We encountered all the usual arguments from toffy nosed prats who said stuff like 'i really don't care', or 'I dont get holiday pay either', not realising that being paid £100 per hour self-employed or as boss of a company is not the same as being paid £5.52 ph with no sick pay, bank holiday pay, night shift allounace or even getting a measley annual payrise no matter how long you have worked for the company.

The grandson of the owner of OCS, who is obviously a managers, was twitching with annoyance. He said the cleaners should have accepted the deal they offerd them on Friday of £6.50 per hour. No mention of all the other demands.

SOAS Justice for Cleaners campaign and Eurostar cleaners are now arranging a joint meeting to discuss the way forward. And in October SOAS will be hosting a party to bring together cleaners and activists for a night of music, food and dancing. Please contact me for more details.

On a side note, the British Transport Police who were drafted in to make sure we didnt overstep the mark were unusually supportive. One of them was telling me how after only 10 years in the 'service' (!) he hated being on his side of the picket. And cant wait to retire in a years time. He complained about how the police are now target driven so when, for example, he used to be able to let people off for minor offences such as 'pissing up a wall', now they have to have 5 arrests or bookings per day.

Lenin & the Party-Tony Cliff part 1

Excellent animated video recording of Tony Cliff, the founding member of SWP from notthe BBC

Why do we need a revolutionary party? Marx said "the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class". But, at the same time, there exists a contradiction. That is: the ruling ideas are in society are the ideas of the ruling class.

How do we overcome these contradictions? Who are strikers fighting against? What can and should revolutionaries do to intervene?

Migrant workers: why were two tube cleaners deported?

London Underground cleaners have been fighting for decent pay and conditions for many months. Now some have been targeted by immigration police and deported to their “home countries” - even where these are recognised as unsafe (Pic: » Guy Smallman)

by Matthew Cookson

Pic: Guy Smallman

Thursday 3 July was no ordinary day for the mainly migrant workers at the contractors that supply cleaning services to London Underground.

The workers’ RMT union had called a strike against the cleaners’ pitiful wages and poor conditions, and everyone knew that this would be an important battle.

But for three cleaners who reported to the offices of their GBM Services employer only to find a squad of immigration officers laying in wait for them, it was to be a day of humiliation, rather than protest.

The three men – from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Congo – did vital work to keep the capital running smoothly, but all have been treated like criminals whose very identities are being kept a closely guarded secret.

Each was interviewed then taken into custody.

Two of them have already been removed from Britain. The other is waiting to be deported.

Now campaigners are demanding to know what has happened to the three since their arrest, and whether the company had asked them to report to work at a specific time knowing that immigration officers were awaiting them.

London Underground cleaners have been fighting for decent pay and conditions for many months. Now some have been targeted by immigration police and deported to their “home countries” - even where these are recognised as unsafe

Read more

© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place

Justice for Tube Cleaners-Tell the Bosses to Clean Up Their Act

The work that our cleaners do is essential to London and we want to show that it is about time they saw some of the billions of pounds that are made in this city every day.

Public Rally with speakers from all the disputes

Thursday 21 August, 1pm
Southwark Cathedral Gardens
(if raining, under the arches at Railway Approach-London Bridge Station)

Bring props from home such as mops, scrubbing brushes, buckets, vacuum cleaners etc. Aim to be as visible as possible.

Make T-shirts and placards bearing the above slogans of the campaign


This week London is facing a wave of strikes by London underground workers. In addition to track and maintenance workers, RMT cleaners, who are employed on private contracts by multinationals like ISS and GBM are also fighting for justice. Since the introduction of the PPP scheme, and the privatising of cleaning services, these companies make MILLIONS of pounds profit while the cleaners, some of the lowest paid people on the tube, are even worse off than before. Some are paid just £5.50 per hour!

We want to show the bosses that the cleaners are not fighting alone

United we Stand: Divided we Fall.

As usual media coverage of these strikes has been one-sided: we need the public to know the real reasons why the cleaners are on strike and why we stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with them, along with staff employed by Tube Lines and Eurostar, victimised individuals, and all the other workers who are striking this week.

Support the cleaners’ demands for:

· Bank holiday and sick pay
· A Living wage of £7.45, promised by Boris Johnson to SOME cleaners, to be extended to ALL.
· An end to reduction in service hours
· and an end to racist immigration policies which are used to intimidate & victimise cleaners

Contact Clare Solomon on 07958 034 181 or Robin Sivapalan on 07974 331 053 for more details.

See also SOAS's successful Justice for Cleaners campaign - interview with Consuela

Eurostar stunt

Wildcat strikes in NZ/Aotearoa-report and pics here now

Cash from Chaos- Casino Crippled!

This weekend, Socialist Aotearoa activists in the Unite Union joined organisers and comrades walking the floor of Auckland's Skycity Casino, calling out random gambling tables on strike in a guerrilla campaign of chaos. Over one thousand Skycity workers are members of Unite, and a further 300 are with the SFWU. The casino at Auckland's heart makes millions of dollars profits every year, and for every winner, generates hundreds of losers, creating misery and poverty for thousands of working class gambling addicts. Its ruthless management cares little about this, and even less for its staff, who it offers the minimum wage.

The chips are down

The hypnotic lights and chimes of the main gambling floor were punctured by the bellow of Unite President, Matt McCarten, who called out random tables on strike, and gave management only minutes to close the table and secure their chips. The guerrilla strikes ensure maximum disruption to management schedules and planning- they never know which game or table will be disrupted, and thus have to hire more workers or keep tables in reserve. The actions are leading to a further campaign of disruption in surveillance, security, catering and entertainment- if there is no cash for workers, then there will be chaos for bosses. And union membership is increasing as a result!

The battle with Skycity management is now on-anyone who wants to volunteer their help or lend their solidarity to the picket lines, please contact Unite Organiser Tom Buckley at 029 4455 703

Posted by Joseph at 8:26 PM Aotearoa/NZ time

Copyright:http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.com/2008/08/cash-from-chaos-casino-crippled.html