Hundreds of workers protest against Italians/Foreigners 'taking jobs'...

[danny la rouge]

Do the latter. By going to the strikers and arguing that the strike's demands to favour local workers are clearly and publically repudiated and a new offensive - that makes serious fraternal overtures to the Italian workers - and gets everyone out to defend and extend jobs for all

Feel free.

 

[frogwoman]

aye i saw that dotcommie. what a fucking joke.

 

[ymu]

Danny just posted the link, but in case anyone missed it, Padraig Reidy in the Guardian today on the selective quoting from Nick Robinson:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/race-bbc

 

[danny la rouge]

Danny just posted the link, but in case anyone missed it, Padraig Reidy in the Guardian today on the selective quoting from Nick Robinson:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/race-bbc

And, lest it be missed, the salient quote is:

Constant emphasis was placed on objections to "foreign workers" per se, rather than fear of workers' wages being undercut, which would seem to be the real issue.

 

[Spion]

Yeah, keep convincing yourself that's 'the real issue' (evidence?????). And yet what the strike leader (?) interviewed by the BBC said would be the conditions for victory of the strike completely matches the strike's demand for employment of 'locally skilled' labour.

 

[sihhi]

Do the latter. By going to the strikers and arguing that the strike's demands to favour local workers are clearly and publically repudiated and a new offensive - that makes serious fraternal overtures to the Italian workers - and gets everyone out to defend and extend jobs for all

The Sicilian workers are bussed in and out, trapped in an effective prison ship, and charged bed and board for the privilege. IREM management no doubt will have told them that mobs of English want to attack them, if there are any rumblings of discontent.
It makes it very difficult to make those overtures but yes they are to be desired.

 

[Spion]

The Sicilian workers are bussed in and out, trapped in an effective prison ship, and charged bed and board for the privilege. IREM management no doubt will have told them that mobs of English want to attack them, if there are any rumblings of discontent.
It makes it very difficult to make those overtures but yes they are to be desired.

The strikers seem to have no problem producing placards. They could manage some in Italian saying "Strike with us brothers for jobs for all", if the will was there to do so

 

[danny la rouge]

Yeah, keep convincing yourself that's 'the real issue' (evidence?????).

So what is the "real issue"? We don't mind being undercut, but not by Dagoes?

 

[DotCommunist]

aye i saw that dotcommie. what a fucking joke.

It comes off as almost deliberate tbh, an attempt to play down the seriousness of this labor dispute.

 

[sihhi]

The strikers seem to have no problem producing placards. They could manage some in Italian saying "Strike with us brothers for jobs for all", if the will was there to do so

If you're anywhere at all near Lindsey try going along with a tray of cookies and that poster in Italian, Portuguese and English. I don't think those on strike/demonstrating (including those who have been without work for several months) would evict you- they would welcome your support. They have however evicted the BNP.

The BJFBW placards are trying to "skewer" Gordon Brown.

No placards are perfect. You could say a placard such as Unison's "I love the NHS" from last year supports a classist, managerial, hierarchical organisation that discriminates against those without NHS numbers and hence is classist, managerialist and racist - but from the people holding it and their aspirations you know that that would be bullshit.

It's the same here - of course racists and xenophobes exist, but they are not at all the majority of those in action including the placard holders - it's facile to think so.

 

[danny la rouge]

If you're anywhere at all near Lindsey try going along with a tray of cookies and that poster in Italian, Portuguese and English. I don't think those on strike/demonstrating (including those who have been without work for several months) would evict you- they would welcome your support. They have however evicted the BNP.

Spion, you'll need this: "Uniscali, i fratelli!"

 

[ymu]

The strikers seem to have no problem producing placards. They could manage some in Italian saying "Strike with us brothers for jobs for all", if the will was there to do so

I'd be surprised if placards of this type don't start appearing. Polish workers have just come out in support, which would suggest that they don't view it as a primarily racist or xenophobic campaign but rather one that they recognise as their own struggle. There have been attempts to communicate between the two groups of workers, and no doubt there will be more.

Why are you flogging this oh so dead horse quite so hard?

 

[tangentlama]

Some ministers and many MPs do understand what is at stake, and appreciate the real sense of injustice felt by many of the strikers, and would like to block off the loophole being exploited by some of the more notorious construction and engineering companies.

From one of the best articles I've seen yet: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/peter-mandelson-wildcat-strikes

 

[frogwoman]

i read an article in the telegraph (yeh i know) suggesting that this may develop into a general strike...

 

[sihhi]

Spion, you'll need this: "Uniscali, i fratelli!"

in Portuguese

Uniscalli i fratelli : Let's unite, brothers.

Perhaps the call for the Sicilians could be "Sciopero bianco!" : "a work to rule" to stretch the job out so that they get paid and those promised work but who were then denied at the last minute also get a look in.

 

[The39thStep]

If you're anywhere at all near Lindsey try going along with a tray of cookies and that poster in Italian, Portuguese and English. I don't think those on strike/demonstrating (including those who have been without work for several months) would evict you- they would welcome your support. They have however evicted the BNP.

The BJFBW placards are trying to "skewer" Gordon Brown.

No placards are perfect. You could say a placard such as Unison's "I love the NHS" from last year supports a classist, managerial, hierarchical organisation that discriminates against those without NHS numbers and hence is classist, managerialist and racist - but from the people holding it and their aspirations you know that that would be bullshit.

It's the same here - of course racists and xenophobes exist, but they are not at all the majority of those in action including the placard holders - it's facile to think so.

good post.

 

[ymu]

From one of the best articles I've seen yet: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/03/peter-mandelson-wildcat-strikes

Aye. Very good.

No dispute of this magnitude happens without very good reason and without a very real sense of grievance. Once the Lindsey workers heard that another company, Alstom were also refusing to hire local labour, instead bringing in Spanish and Portuguese workers at Staythorpe Power Station, the blue touch paper was lit. Striking workers and their unions claim that it is the employers who are "playing nationality off against nationality" in a bid to break the national agreement. For good measure, the GMB has tried to warn off far right groups hoping to milk the dispute for their own ends, saying: "The BNP should take heed, UK construction workers will not tolerate another racist attempt to sever fraternal relations with workers from other nations."

They're only saying that to get the liberals on board, obv. Really they're just dirty working-class racists who need educating out of their terrible ways.

 

[tangentlama]

Polish workers have just come out in support, which would suggest that they don't view it as a primarily racist or xenophobic campaign but rather one that they recognise as their own struggle.

Virtually all work on the site ground to a halt when more than 500 workers failed to turn up at 10am today.

A small group of foreign workers, mainly Polish, who had been bussed into the site were taken home by coach just before 11m when bosses decided it was unsafe for them to work with so little manpower available.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/new...er-Station/article-666037-detail/article.html

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/new...er-Station/article-666037-detail/article.html

Also some interesting comments underneath that linked article

 

[where to]

Deal hope in foreign workers row

A possible solution to the row over the use of foreign staff at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire will be put to union leaders later.

It follows talks aimed at settling the dispute which have been chaired by conciliation service Acas.

It said conclusions reached on Tuesday would be discussed with unions and a mass meeting of workers.

A GMB union source told the BBC that the proposed deal offered half of the disputed 200 jobs to UK workers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7868777.stm

 

[ymu]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/new...er-Station/article-666037-detail/article.html

Also some interesting comments underneath that linked article

OMGZ! Someone tell the Poles they've got it all wrong! This is not what the strike is about at all!

Mr Pickford said workers had walked out in “general sympathy with what’s happening in the construction industry,” where British workers were being excluded from applying for jobs by foreign subcontractors.

He said: “All the Polish workers have walked out as well, because this is not an issue against foreign workers.

“This is an issue against foreign employers using foreign workers to stop British workers getting jobs. Once they do that they will try and undermine the terms and conditions of employment in this country.”

He added that the union could not support the action, because sympathy strikes are illegal, but was powerless to stop its members joining in.

“It’s illegal to support it and it would even be illegal to hold a ballot,” he said.

Mr Pickford said that although the situation at Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire, where the current wave of wildcat strikes originated, had received all the media attention, foreign subcontractors excluding British workers was also an issue at two plants in Nottinghamshire and Kent where construction was overseen by Alstom, the company building Langage for power company Centrica.

Mr Pickford said British workers would probably be left out altogether from a probable jobs boom building a new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK.

He said in many areas affected, skilled British workers capable of doing the jobs were available and out of work.

 

[frogwoman]

one of the comments on the article:

To all the people on here who are talking total rubbish im one of the lads who walked out on wednesday.How anyone can call us lazy obvously is sat behind a nice desk in a heated office.I set off to lindsey at 5.30am get home at 6.30pm after a full day of been 50ft up coloums in the freezing cold wind and rain using a grinder to cut thick steel pipes all day and just general graft.. And when the work on the powerstations in the summer starts it 12hr 7days in red hot mucky boilers doing the same thing so lazy is very far from it.

When we went back to lor after xmas they took the weekends off although the italians would be working them.The thing whats happening now is that this is all been turned round to a race issue when that is not the case we were never apposed to working with italians if they won the contract fair then so be it .All we ask for foreign companyt is that if they need more men recruit local labour but irem have point blank refused. mandlson said weve not been discriminated againsed becouse no brit has been refused a job that is cos all advertisments have been in italy total arnt breaking the law we know this but it is the law thats the problem.

It says foreign employers can bring all there own labour but take alstom at staythorpe are they bringing 800 french men no poles and romanian. And to say it is a specialist team that the italians have on standby all the time is rubbish what employer could afford to keep all the men on the books all the time all they have done is advertised in italy and got the men they need which any employer anywhere does .Then when the job is done you get laid off this is why it is called contracting .

The employer im working for on lor are not british but they employ uk labour then if they need it look further afield all we ask is that the foreign firms take uk labour aswell as there own

 

[frogwoman]

.

 

[tangentlama]

Really they're just dirty working-class racists who need educating out of their terrible ways.

I don't believe that Spion is thinking that the strikers are "dirty working class racists". The rank and file did initially use a nationalist slogan BJFBW but they must have realised that that slogan could be misleading as to their aims and seem to have dropped that and their real concerns are brought to the fore.

I'm blaming Gordon Brown, who used an old National Front slogan which he must have forsaw as red rag to the BNP 'bull, who are desparate to capitalise on discord and see large strike action as a recruitment ground.
Also, because Brown knew already that large construction projects have mainly been awarded to non-UK-based firms that are well known to use contract labour from outside UK at different rates/conditions.

Alstom (French firm) are reknowned for this already.

But the strikers demands are still a tad contradictory and do need refining so there is no misunderstanding from other Trades Unions, yes?

“The current economic crisis,” say the two officials, “caused by a capitalist system devoted to financial speculation, lacking rules, and centred on debt, is producing one of the worst social evils: the poor against the poor, workers against workers.” Furthermore, while the economic crisis has led to the loss of thousands of jobs, for Nicolosi and Petrucci, “the solutions put forward at Davos are exactly the same as those which created the crisis. Even in Europe, unemployment is growing and fear is becoming a social phenomenon. There are cases of racial intolerance in Italy too: odious, unacceptable, to be condemned and fought with maximum energy.”

But the two union leaders also say that we should understand the ill-feeling underlying the events at Lindsey Oil. “We have a duty,” they say “to understand the workers’ unhappiness. The consequences of European judgements on the labour market, on the right to free movement of goods and people, are multiplying, opening the door to social dumping.” In this regard they cite the recent Viking Line and Laval judgements from the European Court “on the pre-eminence of employers’ rights over those of trade unions sanctioned by national contracts and laws, which have aroused justified concern from trade unions, lawyers and workers. In these cases ‘salary dumping’ becomes an opportunity for the firms to cut labour costs and creates unfair competition.”

In the case of the Lindsay refinery, in Lincolnshire, Nicolosi and Petrucci add, “the protest is taking on connotations that the nationalist right-wing is turning against the “foreigner”. The English workers claim that this contracted work should use the local labour force, already hit by the loss of 500 jobs in December alone. If it’s true that the contract includes a clause excluding local labour, we say that’s wrong and a source of discrimination. The firm, on these questions, has enormous responsibilities. What’s more, we want to make the point that this is a non-unionised firm. Which says a lot about its approach to industrial relations.”
http://www.bearfacts.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=278.0

I can't see much of a problem getting the French trade union federations on board, can you?

The French trade union federations’ call for mass participation on 29 January is urgent, and it is a legitimate “workers’ awakening” in the resistance of the neo-liberal agenda.
http://www.icem.org/en/22-Western-E...Electric-Sectors-for-Jobs-Training-Fair-Wages

Solidarity with other European Unionised and contract workers is a top priority.

CAMPAIGN ON CONTRACT AND AGENCY LABOUR
The substitution or limiting of permanent direct employment by the use of contract & agency labour has clearly become a priority issue for countless workers and their trade unions, in every region of the world and every sector.

Each year, more and more directly employed jobs are lost to sub-contracting companies or agencies, which usually employ workers with little or no job security, inferior benefits, and with substandard working conditions. This is leading to a two-tier workforce with less and less directly employed workers, and increasing numbers employed through contracts or agencies.

The use of contract and agency labour is now so widespread that it has become a top priority for a large number of ICEM affiliates, so much so that we have launched a determined and sustained international response: the ICEM Contract and Agency Labour Campaign. The ICEM CAL Campaign allows trade unions world-wide to share CAL tools and experiences.
http://cal.icem.org/

 

[frogwoman]

if anyone is up for getting involved in an uenmployed workers union, then i would be very willing to as well ...

 

[frogwoman]

some of the comments on the article are unbelievable tho.

strikers are the scourge of the nation apparently.

 

[tangentlama]

Europe-wide solidarity is going to be the only way forward, hence why it is so very important to make sure that these connections are made now.

Check the comments here from Black Tuesday, 2005 (France) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4305456.stm

 

[tangentlama]

With any luck, Brown will go, and his crazy plans for future power provision will go with him!

Meanwhile, back in Blighty, some kind of deal is being hatched?

Jobs shared
Talks involving the main parties in the dispute began on Monday at a hotel near Grimsby.

On Tuesday night, Acas released a statement saying: "Conclusions are to be discussed with a large group of local trade union officials first thing tomorrow morning.

"This will be followed by a mass meeting of the workforce."

Union sources told the BBC that the deal appeared to offer 50% of the jobs to British workers.

But the source added that "the devil will be in the detail", which union officials are yet to see.

Crowds of demonstrators gathered outside the Lindsey plant on Tuesday, where strike committee member Phil Whitehurst said he and his colleagues were convinced of their case.

He said they had nothing against the foreign workers at the centre of the dispute.

The CBI has backed the company at the centre of the dispute and both Labour MPs and union leaders have dismissed claims that striking workers are guilty of xenophobia.

Derek Simpson, the joint leader of Unite, said: "The unofficial action taking place across the UK is not about race or immigration, it's about class.

"It's about employers who exploit workers regardless of their nationality by undercutting their hard won pay and conditions."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7868777.stm

 

[tangentlama]

Yeah, keep convincing yourself that's 'the real issue' (evidence?????). And yet what the strike leader (?) interviewed by the BBC said would be the conditions for victory of the strike completely matches the strike's demand for employment of 'locally skilled' labour.

It's looking as though the guy interviewed by the BBC might not have been a 'strike leader'.
The three men seem to have been taken aside for the purpose of the interview.

There's a worried post about it here: http://www.bearfacts.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=275.0

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Any Irish posters might be a bit surprised by the SWP's line on this strike if they recall their fervent support of workers involved in a dispute in Dublin a little while ago. Have a look at the demands in leaflets and reports put out by the SWP and its electoral coalition, the People Before Profit Alliance.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74191
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74406

How things change.

 

[where to]

what we already knew, british wildcats blog confirmed as a BNP front:
http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2009/02/02/british-wildcats-exposed/