#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #AUSTRALIA #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Australia, AC Meanjin: Notes from the Labour Movement - July 2022 By Sian O'Conner (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Summer of discontent rocks the UK ---- In the freezing winter of 1978-79, strikes

erupted across the UK against the Labour government's attempt to enforce limits
on pay rises to curb inflation. It was the largest labour stoppage since the 1926
General Strike. Now in the summer of 2022 the UK is set for a level of industrial
action unseen since that winter of discontent in 1978. ---- Workers across
multiple sectors have been voting for industrial action over below-inflation pay
offers - including transport workers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers,
postal workers, civil servants, lawyers, engineers and baristas. ---- Just one
example are the more than 115,000 Royal Mail workers, members of the
Communication Workers Union, overwhelmingly voting to go on strike in a dispute
over pay, with 97.6% of members from a 77% voter turnout backing industrial action.

Railway workers have pledged more strikes to secure better pay and conditions.
This follows the largest strike of a generation last month which saw 70% of rail
services shut down.

Following the announcement of further strikes, RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch
said: "The rail industry and the Government need to understand that this dispute
will not simply vanish. They need to get serious about providing an offer on pay
which helps deal with the cost-of-living crisis, job security for our members and
provides good conditions at work."

There is one word present in every press release promising industrial action -
inflation. UK inflation currently sits at 9.4% and is predicted to hit 11% by the
end of the year, making offers of anything less a pay cut in reality. With more
and more households suffering under the higher costs of living the usual tactic
of the ruling class: characterising unionists as greedy, selfish and pig-headed
is failing to find traction with the strikes being met with wider public sympathy.

The UK is currently seeing a crunch in the labour market. Vacant jobs outnumber
unemployed workers. This is a situation which will greatly displease the British
ruling class for two reasons. Firstly, such a situation puts their profits at
risk, as profits at the end of the day are nothing more than the stolen wages of
workers. Secondly, such a situation greatly increases the strength of organised
labour in its struggle against the bosses. As a result of this the ruling class
has utilised another weapon in its arsenal - the legal system.

Last week, outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government passed
a law permitting companies to replace striking workers with agency staff in a bid
to undermine the increasingly active unions. In other words - they legalised scabs.

Given the large amount of currently vacant jobs, alongside the fact that many of
the striking industries require high levels of training, chances are this won't
be the salve the government hopes and will probably only produce more workplace
accidents.

The bosses and government may also be forced to remember why they implemented
strike protections in the first place. It certainly wasn't from the kindness of
their hearts. Nobody wants to go on strike, nobody wants to spend weeks exposed
to the weather on a picket line without pay, nobody wants to fight scabs. But if
workers are left with no options in the face of worsening conditions, and if the
government is set on taking away any "gentler" options, they will have to fight.
The common sentiment on the picket line from workers in the UK is that they are
ready to fight, and they are looking to win.

rail protest

Landmark win for retail workers

After an unprecedented struggle, workers at Sydney's Better Read than Dead
bookstore have won what their union, the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, is
calling "the best enterprise agreement in retail and fast food."

The workers have been fighting management since 2020 over pay and conditions, and
have undertaken a level of industrial action not seen in the Australian retail
sector in years.

As a result they have now secured an agreement that the lowest pay offered to
adults on a non-casual basis is $22.38, one dollar over the national minimum
wage, rising to $24.22 after 12 months' service. Adult casuals can expect no less
than $27.96 an hour. Sunday penalty rates will be paid at 200% of full and
part-time wages, and 225% of casual wages. The agreement also includes a pathway
for casuals to convert to full and part-time work, and 26 weeks of paid parental
leave, and up to 20 days of paid leave for those experiencing family or domestic
violence.

Stella, a RAFFWU delegate at Better Read Than Dead, summed it up best: "It is a
win for young, casual workers in precarious employment. It shows that
collectively we can fight for better working conditions and win. It shows the
importance of having a fighting union focussed on grassroots organising."

Healthcare workers exhausted and underpaid

Long suffering healthcare workers around Australia and overseas have undertaken a
flurry of industrial activity this month.

It goes without saying that the last few years have been extremely tough on those
in the industry, particularly nurses. But we of course live under a system where
the labour of caring is severely devalued, so despite the risks they've taken, on
top of severe overwork, trauma and burnout, these workers are still not fairly
compensated or treated.

In NSW the Nurses and Midwives Union recently voted to reject the state
government's tiny 2.53% pay rise offer, saying they will not depend on the
Industrial Relations Commission and have instead voted to take action for a 7%
increase. NSW nurses and midwives have already gone on strike 3 times this year
and it's heartening to see them overwhelmingly pledging to fight for what is fair.

Thousands of members from both the United Workers Union and the Health Services
Union, which together represent many of the non-clinical staff who keep hospitals
running, have rallied in Western Australia at a stop work meeting.

The workers rallied against the current wage rise caps, which sit at either 2.75
per cent a year, or 2.5 per cent plus a $1,000 sign on bonus. Meanwhile WA
inflation sits at 7.6%

Carolyn Smith, WA State Secretary of the United Workers Union said, "More than 90
per cent of United Workers Union health workers rejected the current pay offer
because it simply does not give people what they need to live. Without a fair pay
increase, health workers are working two jobs, unable to pay for school uniforms
and unable to pay for petrol to get to work."

Transport issues are also being fought against in South Australia, where health
workers conducted a one hour stop work meeting to preserve free parking and
public transport for staff.

Parking and transport were made free in April 2020 in recognition of the burdens
the staff faced in the beginning of the pandemic. Despite case numbers now
actually being higher, the government is attempting to take this away. This would
be a significant blow for the already underpaid staff - $1200 per year for
parking is a ridiculous amount for a cleaner earning $27 per hour to pay.

professional pay

Freshfood Management workers locked out

Workers at Freshfood Management Services, which provides coffee for both Bushells
and The House of Robert Timms, have been locked out twice for multiple days
without pay over the past month.

The lockouts came during an EBA dispute after workers rightfully exercised
overtime bans to win a fair deal. Members of the three unions on site, the United
Workers Union, Electrical Trades Union and Australian Manufacturing Workers'
Union, responded to the lockouts with a snap 24 hour strike.

The workers are fighting for a fair wage increase and for respect from the
bosses. They are calling on the company to end the lockouts and come to the
negotiating table

Textile workers strike back in Myanmar

In the first major strike since last year's coup, around 2000 workers from a
Yangon textile factory have gone on strike over exploitative pay and conditions.

The Canadian-managed factories in Zaykabar Industrial Park manufacture clothing
for many international brands where staff work 12 hour shifts 6 days a week.

One factory worker said "We can barely make 45 pieces an hour but now they're
asking us to finish 62 pieces an hour. Injustice is widespread here. The workers
are not able to practise any of the rights we are entitled to."

She added that it had become difficult to take a 30-minute break to eat lunch or
to use the toilet during their shifts.

Many workers and union officials have commented that labour rights and conditions
have deteriorated since the coup, with the junta siding with employers,while
labour organisations are being outlawed and unionists charged with incitement.

https://www.acmeanjin.org/articles/notes-from-labour-movement-july-2022
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