On March 31, 2012, the ZSP-IWA will organize a demonstration in Warsaw against social cuts in areas such as day care, refunds for prescription drugs, social benefits to families, public health care, higher education, public housing and transport.
Towards the end of the year, the government announced plans to introduce even more drastic austerity measures, on the recommendation of international institutions such asthe IMF. Working people have already been massively hit by all sorts of cuts and the commercialization and privatization of many social services. This has all cut financing from the public sector, adding additional costs for the use of basic services such as health care and education, making them unaccessible for large portions of society.
We would like to inform you that on the 8th February 2012, there will be a renewed trial against four members of the Serbian Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative (ASI) as well as two unaffiliated Belgrade anarchists, as part of the fabricated legal case of the Belgrade Six (BG6).
The six Belgrade libertarians have been accused of inciting, assisting in and executing an attack on the Greek Embassy in Belgrade at the end of August 2009, in solidarity with a hunger-striking Greek political prisoner. Soon after the attack on the embassy, BG6 (Tadej Kurepa, Ratibor Trivunac, Ivan Savic, Ivan Vulovic, Nikola Mitrovic and Sanja Dojkic) were arrested and held in custody for the next six months charged with ‘international terrorism’. Thanks to a mass mobilisation of support, both globally and locally, they were released early before their trial date. In June 2010, they were finally fully acquitted at a High Court in Belgrade, which decided that there is no basis for a guilty verdict on any of the charges.
On Thursday 19th January members of Manchester SF travelled to Warrington and organized at protest outside the British head of office of ABB. A letter of protest was handed to ABB from the Solidarity Federation. The letter demanded that all the sacked workers at the ABB factory in Cordoba be immediately reinstated and that ABB enter into talks with striking workers.
On Friday 20th January, Solidarity Federation local groups organized pickets outside Adecco offices in London, Brighton, Bristol and Glasgow.
Firenze: This morning at dawn the police cleared the squat of via Conciatori n.4, seat of Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI-AIT), of the Circolo Anarchico Fiorentino and of the "Progetto Conciatori"
Some comrades opposed to this clearing climbing the roof, trying to resist as long as possible, while in the street there were other comrades demonstrating against the clearing. The Unione Sindacale Italiana condemns the police attack to the seat of a worker union and remarks the high level of repression that this kind of action reveal, above all because it has been required by a politician whose party state to be on the workers side.
On December 19, Roche Poland (the pharmaceuticals company) dismissed an activist of the ZSP without any reason. The orders came directly from corporate headquarters and he was asked to leave immediately. The company refused to give any reason in writing or any other documents.
The dismissal came on the first day after a large article with the comrade appeared in the main newspaper. Although no real reason was given, it is largely felt that this decision was related to his work in the union.
The strikers claim that the redundancies are not valid and considered them a clear retaliation for the strike. They demand to be reinstated by ABB or outsourced by ADECCO - EUROCEN.
On Wednesday EULEN fired all the workers on strike since November 28.
EULEN has claimed that it fired the workers because of the loss of its contract with ABB, where it was replaced by ADECCO - EUROCEN.
Among those dismissed is the entire Strike Committee. Nine of it 12 members already had been dismissed on 31 December.
EULEN dismisses most of the Strike Committee members in an attempt to break the strike.
Today ABB has forbidden the Strike Committee to access to its premises, adducing contract breach with EULEN and hiring ADECCO – EUROCEN services to cover the tasks of the striking workers.
On its side, EULEN fired on December 31st to 9 of the 12 members in the Strike Committee, in an attempt to break the strike, a clear action of union repression. The workers also denounce that the rest of workers are being held hostage in the game of interests between EULEN, ABB and ADECCO thus trying to split the workers and aggravating the situation of uncertainty about their future.
Following complaints of FAU Berlin, the UN workers' organisation, the ILO reinforces the rights of minority unions.
In its report from November 2011, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) demands the German government to ensure that the Freie Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter-Union (FAU) could represent the interests of their members, in accordance with Conventions 87 and 98. The Committee on Freedom of Organization of this UN organisation in particular defends the right of free speech for FAU Berlin, the right to access premises in any companies they have members in and the right to participate in workers' councils, if the number of members is representative on the company level.
December 16, 2011 Kazakhstan authorities shot down in the Zhanaozen (a West Kazakhstan city) the rally of striking oil workers. The strike of about 1,500 workers with the requirements of higher wages and better working conditions began in May, but was banned. Oilfield of Karazhanbas, where conflict broke out, is being developed by the company, which belongs to the Chinese concern China International Trust Investment Company and the Kazakh company "KazMunayGaz".*
This website wrote last year about the conflict that the CNT-AIT has with the company EULEN. It started after the constitution of the union section of CNT, specially in the workplace under the multinational ABB.SA. This two years long conflict is now reactivated and an indefinite strike started on November 28th 2011!
The CNT-AIT of Cordoba explains the background of the conflict: "In these two years there has been three causes of conflict with the company: the struggle for job security and against dismissals and reprisals, the struggle for the application of a fair collective agreement and the struggle for the compliance with the rules of risk prevention.
