http://themilitant.com/2016/8025/802532.html
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Vol. 80/No. 25 July 11, 2016
—ON THE PICKET LINE—
Maggie Trowe, Editor
Militant/Anne Howie
Members of Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union block gate of RF
Brookes food plant in Newport, South Wales, June 2 during two-day strike
against concession contract.
Help the Militant cover labor struggles around the world!
This column gives a voice to those engaged in battle and building
solidarity today — including unionists striking US Foods, workers locked
out by Honeywell, construction workers demanding safe conditions and
workers fighting for $15 an hour and a union. I invite those involved in
workers’ battles to contact me at 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York,
NY 10018; or (212) 244-4899; or themilitant@xxxxxxx. We’ll work together
to ensure your story is told.
— Maggie Trowe
New Zealand call center workers strike for pay and against abuse
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Some 50 call center workers, members of the E tu
union, carried out a three-hour strike here June 7 for higher pay and
against abusive treatment. Most work for insurance giant IAG through the
Sitel job agency. E tu means “stand tall” in Maori.
Negotiations began last November but the company has not offered any pay
increase, union organizer Anita Rosentreter told the Militant.
Workers are angry that Sitel times toilet breaks and bullies sick
employees to get them back to work. “This company takes invasions of
employees’ privacy to new levels,” Rosentreter said in a union press
release.
“Managers say things to workers like, ‘You should go on a diet and start
exercising more to avoid getting sick again,’” she told the Militant.
“We are out here to make management come back to the table with a pay
raise and rules around how the company conducts itself when people take
sick leave.”
— Baskaran Appu
Food workers in South Wales strike against new contracts
NEWPORT, South Wales — “We’re fighting for the minimum wage plus shift
allowance,” said Jinny Baker, who has worked at the RF Brookes food
plant here over 30 years. “We are just more and more exploited.” Around
80 workers picketed the plant June 2-3. Members of the Bakers, Food and
Allied Workers Union, which represents half of the 800 shop floor
workers, are refusing to sign Brookes’ contract proposal.
In the name of introducing the most recent national minimum wage
increase — to £7.20 per hour ($10) for workers over 25 — the company
would eliminate the night shift allowance; require work on more
holidays, including Christmas and New Year’s Day; and lower overtime
rates. Young workers’ pay would remain at £6.70. “Some workers are going
to lose 20 to 25 percent of their wages,” said John James, union
regional organizer.
Despite efforts by bosses and security guards to stop pickets talking
with drivers, several trucks and a few workers turned around at the gate.
“It’s been brilliant, the young people, everyone’s been brilliant,” said
Dai Mort, union branch secretary at the plant. He said there has been an
increase in union members in the run-up to the strike, and that while
some union members had crossed the picket line, some nonunion members
had joined it.
Several pickets, including Mort, said immigrant workers, many of them
Polish, had been bullied by bosses to sign the new contract. In
response, the union has issued material in Polish as well as English.
RF Brookes is owned by the 2 Sisters Food Group, which is also facing
union action at two other sites – Pennine Foods in Sheffield and Pizza
Factory in Nottingham.
— Anne Howie
French unionists rally against anti-labor bill, defeat protest ban
PARIS — Longshoremen from Le Havre in northern France joined a march
here June 14 to protest an anti-labor bill promoted by the government of
French President François Hollande, leader of the Socialist Party. It
was the 10th national action since late March. Tens of thousands of
workers demonstrated again throughout France June 23. The proposed
changes to the labor code make it easier for bosses to lay off workers,
reduce pay and alter the 35-hour workweek.
The day before the June 23 action — called by several union federations
including the CGT, the largest — the government announced the protest
would be banned, claiming likely violence. This would have been the
first banning of a labor demonstration since 1962 at the end of the
Algerian war for independence from France.
A widespread outcry, including from the CFDT union federation, which
backs the proposed law, forced the government to back down and authorize
a one-mile march from the Bastille and back. Some 20,000 participated,
watched by 2,000 riot police.
A final vote on the legislation will take place in the National Assembly
in mid-July.
— Derek Jeffers
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