Picket at Start People

ZSP again took part in the International Day of Actions at the Start People temporary work agency. The action is in solidarity with our comrade from CNT-AIT Zaragoza and with all workers struggling against precarious employment conditions.

Last November, Start People tried to change the contractual conditions of a group of people working in Qualytel. Our comrade who refused to accept worse conditions did not have her contract renewed. Although the court later ruled that she was essentially dismissed illegally, and although the court found an illegal transfer of workers, she was not reinstated in her job.

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Start People: Stop Exploitation!

 

They say we are in crisis time, but bankers, traders, CEOs and many others continue to receive incredible incomes.

Meanwhile, living conditions of workers and unemployed, etc.., are increasingly deteriorating. Precarious workers are particularly affected by the rising of unemployment. So temporary work agencies take advantage of an exploitable labor, that is forced to accept the conditions set by employers, to avoid the risk of no longer being proposed for new missions and fearing of being repressed by the JobAgency (which is closer to a police station than anything).

Some workers reject this logic. So it is precisely because she has refused her
inhuman conditions that a militant of the CNT-AIT Zaragoza (Spain) Union, who
was employee of STARTPEOPLE, has been fired illegally. Indeed, in November 2009, workers of the said temporary work agency received a letter challenging the previous labor contracts and degrading working conditions, under threat
of being fired or not renewed.

In STARTPEOPLE, fight against the degradation of working conditions is grounds for dismissal. Several sections of the IWA (International Workers Association ) were mobilized across Europe in April to show their support to the Zaragoza CNT-AIT struggle.

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Picket at H&M

18 June was a picket in the center of Warsaw at HM. The picket was related to two cases of violating workers' rights. The first was in relation to the horrible tragedy at the Garib garment factory in Bangladesh, On February 25, 22 workers were killed in a fire. The workers were locked in the factory and could not escape; on top of that, there were numerous safety violations. The National Garment Workers Federation is calling for compensation for the families of the victims and better safety standards at the factory.

More information:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/garib-fire-survivors-call-for-justice-and-a-safe-industry

The second has to do with the case of Diego, a worker in a Madrid shop who was forced to sign his own resignation against his will. The CNT is demanding he be reinstated to his job and will not tolerate such intimidation of workers. Several pickets have been held in Spain about this case and the CNT called for international actions.

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Protest Sept. 11

On Sept. 11, a group of people from ZSP Warsaw, Anarchist Solidarity and some non-alligned supporters visited the Serbian Embassy in Warsaw to demand the release of comrades arrested in Belgrade.

On Sept. 7, some people also visited the Embassy and delivered a protest letter. Apparently the presence of even such a modest protest unnerved the Embassy people. When we arrived on the 11th, there was a police van and cops waiting.
Members of ZSP made some speeches and delivered a new statement to the Embassy, but, as the Embassy people were hiding, it only went into their mailbox. The activists harshly criticized the actions of the Serbian government, the way the comrades were arrested, police methods used, the detention of the comrades without charges, etc. etc. There was also a long diatribe against state terrorism and the hypocrisy of the government.

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Protest at the Iranian Embassy

ZSP took part in the international day in solidarity with repressed unionists in Iran. We made an exhibition about the unionists and displayed it outside the embassy.

Amnesty International also decided to hold a picket at the same time, although more generally against repression - not particularly about the unionists. From the left side there were also members of Workers' Democracy.

For more information about what is going on with unionists in Iran, see:
www.justiceforiranianworkers.org Read more!

ZSP Picket at Nestle HQ

Today was picket organized by ZSP at Nestle headquarters in Poland. The protest was in solidarity with Jacek Kotula, dismissed unionist from Alima-Gerber company, owned by Nestle Corporation. Kotula was illegally dismissed because of his fight for protecting rights in the Rzeszow baby food factory and because of his opinion that Nestle should buy fruit from local farmers at decent price. Kotula is fighting for return to his job. Monday is court case. Picketers went to Nestle corporation today as people were leaving work. There was talks about worker rights in Nestle, leaflets for employees. Police tried to stop a couple of people from going near the building but they moved too fast and once in front of building, they didn't want to make scene. Many guards locked doors of buildings and protected that only employees can go out, nobody in.

This is not first protest made against Nestle in Warsaw. They have bad record, the broke promises to some workers in other companies, they made big reductions to increase the profits and they don't tolerate the unionists who speak out. They made a big problems a few years ago at Goplana factory. We remember about Goplana, we know about the struggles of the workers and unions in Nestle in other countries.

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Report on the picket of Lionbridge in Dublin

Anarchists, trade unionists and social justice activists placed a placed a lunchtime picket on the offices of Lionbride in Dun Laoghaire on Friday the 4th of July as part of an International Week of Solidarity with Jakub G, a longstanding Polish Lionbridge employe who was fired for encouraging fellow workers to join a union to protect their pay and conditions in Lionbridge's Warsaw office.

Despite the fact that workers had been warned not to speak to the 'dangerous anarchists' by Lionbridge management the picket in Dun Laoghaire was a good natured affair with about 20 activists distributing more than 100 leaflets to workers leaving or returning to work on their lunchbreak. Before we finished up Damian Moran of the Pitstop Ploughshares spoke about some of the labour and other struggles recently engaged in in Poland.

Meanwhile the case taken by Jakub against Lionbridge in the Polish Labour Court also started on Friday. Lionbridge claim to have dismissed Jakub for publishing an article online which leaked “confidential company information”. No proof of that allegation was given, and in fact another person has admitted to writing the article. The article in question was in fact based entirely on information publicly available on the internet. Lionbridge claim they can prove Jakub wrote the piece yet yesterday asked that the case be postponed until August so that they could prepare their evidence. (see here for a full account of what went on in court: )

We're confident that Jakub will win his case and he will continue to have our support to ensure that he does so.

The text of WSM leaflet distributed at Lionbridge in Dublin after sacking of worker in Poland can be found at http://www.wsm.ie/story/4143 . If you want to distribute copies of this leaflet the PDF file of it is at http://www.wsm.ie/attachments/jul2008/lionbridge_leafle...7.pdf

From WSM webpage. Read more!

Solidarity Action in Copenhagen

On July 4 there was a solidarity picket in Copenhagen in defense of the union in Lionbridge Poland and against repression. Participants handed out leaflets to Lionbridge and other workers in the building.

Thank you for the solidarity! Read more!

Solidarity Action in Paris

Activists from CNT-AIT in Paris visited the Lionbridge Office. They got past the guards, into the office where they distributed leaflets. They also had some words with the director of Lionbridge.

Thank you for the Solidarity! Read more!

Lionbridge Solidarity in Portugal

Members of Associação Internacional dos/as Trabalhadores/as, the Portuguese section of the IWA, made a solidarity action at the Lionbridge Lisbon office. They hung solidarity posters at the office of Lionbridge and sent protest letters to the firm.

Thanks for the Solidarity! Read more!

Action in Brussels

On July 1 our Belgian comrades visited Lionbridge offices in Brussels to protest against union busting practices in Poland. They gave out leaflets and spoke to the workers there.

Thank you for the Solidarity! Read more!

Priama akcia in Lionbridge, Žilina, Slovakia

As Priama akcia and other Sections of IWA-AIT informed in December 2007 a new grass-roots union was founded in the company Lionbridge, in its Warsaw branch in Poland. On 12th February, Jakub G. - member of the union - was dismissed. The dismissal came shortly after the announcement of union founding. Our Polish comrades from the ZSP call for solidarity actions for Jakub.

On 5th March 2008 during our More Than a Union speech tour we visited Slovak Lionbridge branch in Žilina, which has the same manager as the Polish one.

We entered the building with the Secretary of International Workers Association on Wednesday afternoon and discussed the issue with employees.

We spread leaflets about the situation of our friend Jakub and generally about practices of the company management. Another member of Priama akcia put some leaflets behind the windscreen-wipers of the nearby parked cars.

Meanwhile, Secretary of IWA had a meeting with a person from the management and told that IWA knows about the case and will follow it.

Employees of Lionbridge didn't know about Jakub and his dismissal but the team leader did. He expressed his opinion: according to him, Jakub shouldn´t have found a union, if he was not satisfied with the working conditions in Lionbridge – he rather should have found him a new job.

Person from the management was really shocked because of the visit of the Secretary of IWA from Serbia:) and said that he would inform his boss about it.

The aim of this action was to inform workers about the situation in Poland and to put pressure on the management – to tell them that we know about their practices against our comrade. We were also glad to express our solidarity with Jakub by this form of action.

Apart from the action we have started a money collection for Jakub, which is still in process.

Priama akcia - IWA Slovakia
www.priamaakcia.sk Read more!