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Assessment of the Consequences of the End of the Extended Validity of Collective Agreements for the Workers

Submitted by admin on

The labor reform of 2012 introduced a substanial modification of Article 86.3 of the Workers Statute related to the legal system for extending collective agreements in force until then.

The new wording states that when a statutory collective agreement is legally challenged (1), it will remain in effect for no more than one year, unless the agreement itself has a specific provision to the contrary, and the introduction of compulsory arbitration (2) for the settlement of conflicts once the negotiation process has been exhausted.

The preliminary agreement for the Monitoring Commission of the 2nd Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining on the extension of collective agreements, signed on May 21 by CEOE, CEPYME, CCOO and UGT, signalled the possibility of reaching specific agreements on extension, including during the negotiating stage of the new agreement. This would occur when one of the parties, the unions or the company, decides that the negotiation has been exhausted, resorting to arbitration, the decision of which would have the same legal effect as a collective agreement. That said, we can find agreements that were extended past July 7 but which finally were submitted to arbitration.

[Adra] CNT Calls an Indefinite Strike in the Street Cleaning and Waste Collection Services

Submitted by admin on

· The staff is tired by the uncertainty created in the current process of bargaining the contract with CESPA.
· The City Hall, which will manage the service, does not agree that all the work places, or the same salaries or other working conditions will be maintained.

The Public Services Union of the CNT Adra wants to inform the public of the current situation of uncertainty that the workers in the public service of street cleaning and garbage collection in the municipality of Adra are facing. Since all means of dialogue have been exhausted, the staff is left with no alternative but to call an indefinite strike starting July 29.

IWA External Bulletin 5

Submitted by Secretariat on

Here is the new issue of the IWA External Bulletin. The IWA Sections and Friends are active in the IWA's 90 Anniversary and you will find articles in this bulletin about the IWA's Days of Action against Job Cuts, Dismissals, and in Supportt of the Struggle of the Unemployed People. Also in this bulletin:

- No Dismissals at San Raffaele Hospital
- Actions against Dismissals at Alstom
- May Day and Days of Actions
- First Balkan Anarchosyndicalist Conference
- KRAS n Defense of Public Health Care
- One More Year for FORA
- and more

Download: https://iwa-ait.org/content/iwa-external-bulletin-5

Poland: No More Guarantees with Working Hours

Submitted by Secretariat on

On June 13, the Polish government ammended the Labor Code and essentially did away with the guaranteed 8-hour day. There are several changes that were made to accomplish this, through helping the bosses to impose ”flexible working hours”. Firstly, the accounting periods for overtime were changed. Overtime is now calculated on a yearly basis. What this means is that bosses can make you work a lot of extra hours some times, then cut your hours at other times. Secondly, in the past, your working hours were set and you were guaranteed sufficient hours between shifts. If there were not sufficient hours, you could claim overtime. Now the bosses can change your working hours “according to their need”. Finally, unions can agree or disagree to changes in working hours, only the government also gave the right to “workers' councils”, and to individual workers. Workers' councils in general are bosses'' tools and often the “workers' representative to this council was put without any election, just by the bosses. If a union does not agree, the workers' council can agree it. Also, any worker can “accept” the ''flexible hours'' regardless of any collective agreement of a union.

As one can understand, the last fact mean that bosses, when hiring new workers, can pressure them to agree to this, even if the unionized members of the workplace do not agree. So it is a serious blow to the unions' ability to control conditions in the workplace.

This does not mean that all workers will lose the 40-hour week, although working 40 hours in Poland has long since stop being the norm. This is because of the high use of civil contracts instead of employment contracts and forced overtime – two things that everybody knows about, which are against the labor code, but nobody does anything about. This is all ignored in order to keep the economy “competitive” and the capitalists happy.

However, some categories of workers will undoubtably be effected and will be forced into very hard and uncertain working conditions. This is especially true in areas like manufacturing.

From Monday June 17 to June 24: The IWA organizes International Days of Action!

Submitted by Secretariat on

The capitalist rule is “expand or die”, and the crisis is revealing a system that is more and more desperately directing its attacks against the working class: Around the world we see mass layoffs and measures against the unemployed and poor, flexibilization of the labour market, union busting and dismissals against union activist, etc

This can`t go on and direct actions, propaganda and solidarity that are based on our own strength are needed. It is because of this the IWA organizes International Days of Action against Job Cuts, Dismissals and in Support of the Struggle of Unemployed People will be held from Monday June 17 to June 24!

The Sections and Friends will focus on local issues and also Urgent Actions of Solidarity that are going on in multinational companies. We will mention that unions/union Sections of the Spanish CNT-AIT have made appeals to support the fights against the lay-offs at Alstom Wind, dismissals at the company Capgemini and a dismissal of a worker at Esymo Metal- Gestamp.

Contrary to the reformist unions, the International Workers Association (IWA) rejects integration into the capitalist system which is the root of misery of the working-class. The IWA was founded 90 years ago, and already at the founding Congress of the IWA in Berlin at the turn of 1922, it made resolutions against the unemployment which was dividing the working-class.

Report of the CNT-AIT´s Day of Solidarity with the Capgemini workers

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

As the result of the call by the Telecommunications and IT Services section of the CNT-AIT Madrid for a Day of Solidarity with the CNT-affiliated members and the workers of Capgemini, several trade unions and European sections of the IWA organized different actions to stop the redundancy plan that the management of this company presented against 370 workers.

This Day of Solidarity was called as part of the 24h strike that the subsidized unions organized as part of a program that will conclude, if Capgemini does not withdraw the redunancy plan, in an indefinite strike starting the 23rd of May.

The CNT members of this company participated in this 24h strike, as well as in yesterday´s partial strikes, but taking a critical position with the Legal Representation of the Workers (CC.OO, U.G.T. and CIS-F), whose agreements with the company´s management tolerated a previous redunancy plan the past year and the smaller scale firings that have been happening in 2012 and 2013.

In Madrid, SOV members established an informational picket at the company´s facilities in Alcobendas, giving out leaflets and informing the high number of strikebreakers that went to work. In the rain, the action did not have any incidents, starting at 8.00 a.m. and with the presence of the subsidized trade unions members. The SOV Madrid finished this action not feeling satisfied because of the large number of strikebreakers that are not just working against our interests but, also, against theirs.

IWA Sections Celebrate May Day and Days of Action

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

This year IWA Days of Action coincided with May Day. On May 1 and the days immediately preceding it, various actions were held by IWA sections around the globe. The following are a few of the reported actions.

Argentina

Members of FORA held May Day rallies in a few cities such as Buenos Aires, Neuquen, Rosario and in the Andes region. Members of FORA called on workers to create free unions which will not be part of any compromises and reminded of the tradition of the organization.

Brazil

Activists of COB-FORGS organized a May Day action in Porto Alegre. They demonstrated, handed out leaflets, had a rally with speakers and played music. COB also organized a rally in Araxa, calling for the reduction of the working week to 30 hours without any reduction in pay and for workers' organization outside of the collaborationist unions. After the rally they demonstrated through the city and then had a concert.

The 8 Hour Day, the Anarchists and the IWPA: Haymarket and the Radicalization of Labour Demands in the 1880s

Submitted by zsp on

May Day has long been a holiday where social democrats and establishment unions show themselves and remember the struggle for the 8-hour day. On this occasion, it is perhaps interesting to look back at some of the differences in the labor movement in the US in the 1880s. It can help us to understand that what the Haymarket anarchists had in mind was nothing like the social democracy that current labor leaders espouse.

Demands for an 8-hour day had been made since the beginning of the 19th century. In the United States, the 8-hour day became a regular demand after a general strike in Philadelphia in 1835, calling for 10 hours a day, minus 2 hours for meals. Different sectors of workers achieved the 8-hour day through strike action and agitation. Some legislation even passed for some states or categories of workers. It is interesting that the main battle for the 8-hour day became Chicago. The state of Illinois had passed legislation for the 8-hour day in 1867, but it had many loopholes and was ineffective.

The 8-hour day was a demand that was taken up by unions of different political leanings. The IWMA (First International) at its Congress in 1866, put forward this demand. The IWMA had influence amongst the German-speaking immigrant anarchist and socialist workers of Chicago, who later became a driving force in the labor movement. After the IWMA disbanded, the International Working People's Association was founded in 1881 by anarchists and a large and influential group appeared in Chicago

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