Submitted by x344543 on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 2:04pm
As part of the Global Day of Action against Starbucks called by the
AIT/IWA and IWW Organise! and the WSM picketed Starbucks in Belfast
today (5th July) to demand the reinstatement of Monica, a member of the
anarcho-syndicalist member working in their central Seville outlet, and
Cole Dorsey, an IWW member who was fired by Starbucks for organising in
their Grand Rapids, Michican, shop.
Organise! and the WSM picketed Starbucks in Belfast city centre today
from 12 to 1 pm. Despite the miserable weather around 12 people joined
the picket and leafleted passers by and potential customers outside the
coffee shop. At the start of the picket 3 people had gone inside to
leaflet customers and staff. There was a very positive response to the
picket however one person was falsely accused of assaulting a
Starbuck's member of staff after leafleting staff and customers inside.
While Starbucks present themselves as a trendy, ethical corporation
when it comes to their own workers they are ruthless union-busters
determined to stop their employees organising. Monica was fired on the
24th of April without notice. She had worked in the central Seville
branch of Starbucks for a year and a half when her manager suddenly
claimed she "created problems with her workmates". She had resistged
management when they made people work public holidays without extra
pay. She refused to attend work meetings outside working hours where no
pay or time in lieu was offered. Her sacking came after she asked about
another worker who had ben fired. The store manager had told her on
several occasions that she must have nothing to do with unions.
Barely a month later, in Grand Rapids, Michican, USA, Starbucks fired
Cole Dorsey on June 6th. Cole had over two years of service and was
active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.
Originally posted here
Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 2:29pm
Finally on 17 March, staff receive an email from Head of Adult Skills and Learning, Chris Minter, who is “pleased to announce” certain details of the privatisation of Leicester Adult Education College.
Minter tells us that this is “an exciting new opportunity to diversify the use of the college's facilities and income streams and will provide an excellent resource that fits well with our strategic priorities around employability.” In this new multi-agency initiative, Highcross Development Employment Hub is IN, Art and Design is OUT! Art and Design staff will be moved to inappropriate accommodation, some of these workers may well lose their jobs. So, non-vocational education gets the boot, while the kind of jobs training and advice which can be placed literally anywhere in the city gets prime position at the college.
Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 2:22pm
You don’t need to be
Sherlock Holmes to figure out that something rotten is going on at Leicester Adult Education College.
With job losses; staff being re-located; skilled people disappearing;
restructuring, with staff having to do more than one job; people who’ve left not
being replaced� it all adds up to one thing - Leicester Adult Education College
is being set up to fail.
The Incredible Shrinking
College
We’ve seen courses being
streamlined, other courses disappearing.
We’ve already seen the closure and privatisation of the Creative Writing School.
The Art
Department is visibly
shrinking with the loss of one of its three rooms, and now the loss of yet
another.
Saatchi & Saatchi, it
isn’t!
Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 3:27pm
Originally published at UK Indymedia
The last year saw the
IWW and their allies launch a nation-wide campaign to prevent NBS
management from enacting dangerous cuts that will only serve to ease
their own workload. IWW members in the NBS’s recognised unions (Unison
and Unite) have also been at the forefront of the campaign to push the
big unions to act against the plans, rather than seemingly roll over
and let management do whatever they want.
NBS
bosses plan to centralise thirteen blood processing centres into three
‘supercentres’ in Colindale, Manchester and Bristol. This means 600
jobs will be slashed and local economies and labour markets are going
to be hit hard. What’s more, the transport of blood will be even more
reliant on our already-overcrowded and polluting road system, with many
hospitals more than 100 miles from the nearest centre. Put simply,
these plans are a danger to workers, communities and patients.
Submitted by x344543 on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 2:31pm
January 7th saw the return of MPs to the UK Parliament. It also saw the IWW co-ordinate an international phone blockade. Wobblies chose to celebrate the occasion by sending a message to the Health Minister -Alan Johnson - that cuts to the National Blood Service are notacceptable. Phones were tied up all day as campaigners and supporters from as far afield as Poland, Canada, and the United States, as well as hundreds from around the UK, took part. The IWW in the UK has an active and growing job branch in an NBS processing centre. The action took place ahead of the NHSBT Board meeting on the 10th, where bosses have met to take stock of the management review into their cuts plans.
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