Department 600 - Public Service

The syndicalist SAC union in Sweden has been campaigning for fair wages for illegal immigrants in the last few months, resulting in thousands of pounds in unpaid wages being paid to migrant workers.

The increasing organisation of illegal immigrants within the syndicalist union SAC have lead to more and more blockades to force the payment of unpaid wages, mainly from employment agencies in the restaurant, cleaning, hotel and building industry. Millions Kronor in unpaid wages have been have been won by the SAC. That these companies and their customers don't want to attract attention to their exploitation of illegal immigrants, in most cases the mere threat of a union blockade has been enough to get the wages paid.

The weekend of March 16th was full of activity for the Bay Area IWW. On Friday there were two workplace intervention rallies, the first at 6:30 AM and the second twelve hours later.

It was still dark in the sky when FWs from the Bay Area GMB began gathering outside of the management office at Curbside Recycling. The reason for the visit was primarily to show visible support to the shop steward for repeated harassment (including unpaid suspension) on the part of management. Several of the shop workers were also there to show support, and the crowd was treated to invigorating speeches by several of the recyclers as well as other branch members.

The other reason for the rally was to demonstrate to management that the union can mobilize when it is needed to support the workers fighting for their interests. This is important because management is trying to drive out any workers who are accustomed to acting as a union, and because the workers may try to increase pressure for a good contract when the current one expires  jointly with the the Buyback Recyclers, an IWW shop on the same lot. Management was clearly uncomfortable when around 20 wobblies entered the office to discuss the bullying of the shop steward...