100 posts
UK Labour and the EU
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In Britain, Labour is in a curious spot. After it allied with Eurosceptic Tory rebels to defeat the government on a non-binding motion on the EU budget, Labour Leader Ed Miliband tried to outline a sort of pro-European realism (interview with The Tel...
New Judgment on Trade Union Freedom of Expression
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This post is written by Dirk Voorhoof* The European Court of Human Rights delivered a new and remarkable judgment on trade union freedom of expression. In Szima v. Hungary the European Court concluded that a criminal conviction of a leader of a polic...
14 November: European unions to strike together
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Instead of the Tories’ little-Englandism and Miliband’s shameful opportunism, let’s have a working class response to the present European crisis: 14 November: European inions to strike together (from Workers Liberty) By Ruben Lomas...
EU Staff Calls Strike Over Budget
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The main unions representing EU employees have called a strike for Nov. 8 to protest a push from several member states to cut staff and administrative costs during the bloc’s next budget period.
Intimidation of Marikana witnesses
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Here is a press release [from Wednesday 24th October] from the Marikana Support Campaign on the intimidation of commission of inquiry witnesses: Above: the Farlam Commission The Marikana Support Campaign is deeply shocked by this evening’s vi...
After 20 October, organise!
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By Maria Exall (CWU, TUC General Council, Chair of TUC LGBT Committee), in a personal capacity: Click on the above for the official demo site The TUC has called its second mass demonstration in two years against the Coalition Government’s cuts agen...
Against the theft of wages and pensions!
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‘Everyone in Lisbon against the theft of wages, pensions and the reforms!” This is the slogan of major protests to be held today in the Portuguese capital that have been organised by the CGTP union. Together with the country’s larg...
Labour rights in Colombia in the perspective of a Free Trade Agreement with the EU
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The EU’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia and Peru, on which the European Parliament is expected to vote in the coming months, is the subject of deep controversy. NGOs from both sides of the Atlantic question whether such an agreement s...
"DG Internal Market and Worker Involvement: Where’s the Beef?" by Sigurt Vitols
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With the halftime of the “new” European Commission rapidly approaching, more and more observers are asking “where’s the beef?” with regard to DG Internal Market’s approach to worker involvement. The expression “where’s the beef?” fi...
300 Pakistani workers burned and suffocated to death
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From Eric Lee of LabourStart: We honour their memories by fighting for justice. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The horror of it all is almost unimaginable. Over 300 workers burned and suffocated to death in the...
The great transformation in the global labour market
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“The global expansion of higher education allows work traditionally reserved for the West to be done more cheaply and just as well in emerging nations, write Phillip Brown and Hugh Lauder. The result is that the wages and working conditions of west...
Don’t play around with the General Strike slogan
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“On the same ground of abstract, unhistorical methods of observation stand those today who would, in the manner of a board of directors, put the mass strike in Germany on the calendar on an appointed day, and those who…would be a prohibit...
Socialist Unity: Cesspit of the Left
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Many readers will be aware that the so-called Socialist Unity blog (which we are prevented from linking to) has recently published two posts and discussion threads defending George Galloway’s views on rape, in the light of the Assange case. The...
Book Review: New Urbanism: Life, Work and Space in the New Downtown
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This edited collection examines innovative urban redevelopment projects around Europe and North America which are at the forefront of new urbanism and which are termed New Downtowns. The book addresses major questions such as: What does a sustained u...
Spanish, German unions call for ‘new start’ for Europe
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The chairman of Germany’s DGB trade union central Michael Sommer, and his counterparts from Spain’s Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) and UGT, Candido Mendez and Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, gathered in Madrid Thursday, as Germany Chancellor A...
Moral Hazard: Labour Market & Insurance
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“Moral Hazard” is a very fashionable concept that has been thrown around a lot since 2007/08 as a result of bad practices by bankers. It is also a common place in discussions of central Bank’s intervention, the Debt Monetisation ris...
For the true masters of Europe, the EU and the euro are successful…
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IN THE RADICAL PRESS / MEMOIRE DES LUTTES By Bernard Cassen For supporters, neo-liberalism is not an ideology. This project is a natural and obvious fulfillment of freedom. But there is a hierarchy of freedoms. Some – those relating to economic...
Working hours | Cometh the hour, cometh the (same) man | Blog
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Recently published EU research says that full-time workers are pulling longer shifts in the face of ongoing economic slump, but hours worked do not equal productivity, says Jason Walsh. A study performed by Eurofound, the European Union's labour rese...
EU employment law 'stupidity' holding back growth
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Most committees in Brussels are crammed with the flotsam and jetsam of political losers, frustrated housewives, wealthy landowners, bored grandmas and superannuated trade unionists – claims Godfrey Bloom MEP...
The Marikana Mine Workers Massacre – the War on the Poor
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An article by abahlali baseMjondolo: http://abahlali.org/node/9035 Shiraz Socialist is not in a position to judge whether this article is fair and/or accurate, but we publish it in the interest information and debate: After the brutal, heartless an...
Would Wage Reform Have Helped?
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Why centralized wage bargaining might not have been the euro's problem.
Bulgaria: Don't Dismantle the Train Services!
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Bulgarian blog “Работнически глас” (Worker's Voice) publishes [bg] a few photographs of a protest on Sofia's Central Railway Station. Held on August 9, this flashmob gathered around 100 people who chained a “...
Five campaigns from LabourStart
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Picket line at the Olympics. London Transport cleaners have just started a 48 hour strike and are picketing at the Olympic tube station in Stratford as I write these words. If you can’t join them on the picket line, you can make sure you’...
Turkish Airlines: Brutally Yours…
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From LabourStart and the International Transport Workers Federation: We need your help to pile on more pressure on Turkish Airlines (THY) and the Turkish government to reinstate the 305 dismissed aviation workers and end the strike ban in the industr...
Sex worker union organising: an important new book
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An Agency of their Own: sex worker union organising by Professor Gregor Gall of the University of Hartfordshire. The term ‘sex workers’ is a generic one covering all those who sell sexual services and comprises prostitutes, exotic dancers, porn a...
The Pentonville Five: a victory to remember
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Above: two of the dockers, Vic Turner and Bernie Steer carried in triumph from jail by supporters On Friday 21 July 1972 five dockworkers, picketing a container depot in a dispute over job security, were jailed in Pentonville Prison, London, under th...
Sackings expose the harsh reality of Poland's junk jobs | Peggy Watson
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The dismissal of 25 workers from the Chung Hong factory for a legal strike highlights the price workers pay for Polish 'success'Twenty-five workers were sacked from Chung Hong Electronics – a Chinese company producing TV motherboards for LG in Pola...
First female to head TUC
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A significant milestone was reached yesterday in UK trade union affairs - the Trade Union Congress (TUC), elected its first ever female general secretary. Frances O’ Grady will replace the current TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, who h...
Recent developments in the EU single market suggest an increasing hostility towards labour market regulation
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Can workers still fight for wage increases and the protection of their rights during times of economic crisis? The current mood of austerity in Europe means that this is becoming much more difficult. Yet, Anneliese Dodds argues that just as … C...
Fear and anxiety in the workplace
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Guest post from Pink Prosecco. To read some papers or blogs you would think that trade unionists were as evil and all powerful as Bond villains, particularly in the public sector. However the reality may seem different from the worker’s perspecti...
Sofia: youth education and employment within the Europe 2020 strategy
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Today I am attending a conference in Sofia organised jointly by the Various Interests Group of the European Economic and Social Committee, the Bulgarian Economic and Social Council, the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the European...
A striking coincidence for Monday’s EU summit
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Monday’s meeting of EU leaders is meant to focus on growth and jobs, which makes it all the more ironic that it will likely be heavily disrupted by a general strike called by Belgian unions on the same day. The …Continue reading: "A striking...
Is it any wonder that the people of Europe hold Eurocrats in contempt
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This self serving rubbish is what gets up people's noses.Letter to the College from the Commission Staff.Subject: The new Staff RegulationsWe, the co-workers of the European Commission, are deeply worried by the risk of reducing the dynamic of the Eu...
"What wage policy can and cannot do for EMU" by Andrew Watt
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I have a piece out on the OpenDemocracy website – which is running an interesting series entitled ‘Can Europe make it?‘ – on whether wage policy can ‘save monetary...
"The Euro Crisis and the European Trade Union Movement" by Vasco Pedrina
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After successfully bailing out banks and adopting a first wave of economic recovery measures, the authorities of the European Union (EU) and its member states began to impose draconian, anti-social...
A crisis of capitalism | Riccardo Bellofiore
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The financial problems plaguing Europe and Italy are not home-grown. They are part of a global attack on labourHistory repeats itself, Marx wrote, first as tragedy, then as farce. If you wonder how it might repeat itself the third time, look at...
The EU’s Dysfunctional Adjustment
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The euro zone's sticky wages make adjustment to the crisis harder.
"Rebuilding Political Parties – Lessons from Labour" by Peter Hain
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I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for over 30 years. I have seen some of the best our Party has to offer – a clear vision for a better, fairer world and a commitment to work hard to...
Some Final Comments from the ETUC in Athens
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The newly-elected General Secretary, Bernadette Segol, the first ever woman to hold this position in the history of the ETUC, took the floor this morning with a strong message for delegates. The "Athens Manifesto" adopted by Congress not only pointe...
Labor-Management Relations: Starving Workers as a Childish Tactic
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Before the industrialization in the nineteenth century, nothing "intrinsic or permanent separated those who hired from those who hired out" because "many laborers could hope to ear and saven enough to become their own employers." (1) That is to...
Finland: Labour legislation in English
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From the web page Labour legislation of the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy, you can access several pages with further information on issues such as employment contract and employment relationships; working hours; annual holiday; sabba...
Jobseekers in Finland: Ministry of Employment and the Economy resources
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If you are looking for work in Finland and want information in English, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy (in Finnish: Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö TEM) offers you an introductory web page Work, with subpages and links to further informatio...
Guide to working in Finland
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The Guide to working in Finland offers you basic information about the world of work. The web portal explains your rights and duties as an employee. The website has been created jointly by the employers’ organisations and labour unions: the Confede...
Arbetsmarknadsnyckeln: Information om arbetslivet i Finland
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Arbetsmarknadsnyckeln är en webbportal som erbjuder grundläggande information om spelrgelerna i arbetslivet i Finland. Arbetstagarens rättigheter och skyldigheter beskrivs kort och begripligt. Webbsidorna har skapats av de centrala arbetsmarknadso...
Perustietoa työelämästä: Työmarkkina-avain
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Työmarkkina-avain on keskeisten työmarkkinajärjestöjen tuottama portaali, joka tarjoaa tietoa työelämän säännöksistä ja sopimuksista sekä oikeuksista ja velvollisuuksista. Verkkosivuston takana ovat: Akava, Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliitto...
The General Strike In France (?)
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. Olivier is a white-collar worker and a contact in France who spoke to us about the planned general strike there on Tuesday 12 October. We are in the last moments before the big strike on Tuesday; either we succeed in getting a move toward a general...
Honoring the working class heroes of 9/11
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Home > About Us > This Is the AFL-CIO > Executive Council Statements Honoring the Heroes of 9/11 Pittsburgh, Pa. AFL-CIO Executive Council statement Today we meet on the anniversary of September 11, 2001 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,...
News from Ireland 2020: Michael O’Leary led for-profit trades union declares results.
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WorkRights, the private for-profit trades union founded by former Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has posted a post-tax profit of €1.2m after its first year of operation. O’Leary, addressing the company’s first AGM, welcomed the profi...
Labour Friends of Italy
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I am delighted to hear that two London Labour activists Lazzaro Pietragnoli from my own Camden who was a keen supporter of Labour’s last European campaign, and Susanna Bellino who is one of Labour biggest activists in Kingston have organised a...
The Polish System of Collective Bargaining
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The Polish Labour Code (Chapter XI of Act of 26 June 1974) provides legal regulations for collective bargaining in Poland at two levels. The company agreements are negotiated between an employer or one or more regional trade union organisations at co...
