Glasgow Diary Date.

A reminder from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014: 
Hi all,

    Our next group meeting is on Monday 3rd March, 7-9pm, Unite the Union offices, John Smith House, 145/165 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 4RZ. Meeting Dates:

http://gamesmonitor2014.org/meetings/Contact: gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com 

      Also, giving advance notice that we will be holding a joint HOUSING CRISIS meeting with Unite the Community Union at the Bridgeton Community Learning Campus, on Tuesday March 18th, 7-9pm: http://www.bclc.org.uk/ We will be examining the promises of housing made for the Games and Clyde Gateway and more generally drawing attention to the annihilation of social housing in Glasgow, Scotland and the UK more generally. More details to follow soon, please add to your diaries and let others know if interested. Cheers,http://gamesmonitor2014.org/

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Leader Has Spoken.

     So the fire breathing dragon Len McCluskey, turned out to be a pantomime version. This is the man who bellowed fire about united strike action, general strike, a determined fight against the attack on wages and conditions, and when the first real battle looms, we find that his flame is really a hand held sparkler. So the workers of Grangmouth are handed on a plate to the greed driven, ruthless corporate entity Ineos. We all know there were alternatives, but the careerist McCluskey, didn't want to rock the boat too much, he is part of that club that puts "the economy" first and believes the workers must be lead and controlled.

This from A World To Win:

SNP claims that a capitalist Scotland would be in some way better for Scottish workers have been exploded. Ineos, like all Scotland's key industries from oil to whisky, is not "Scottish". They are run by freebooting global capitalist transnationals with no care for local conditions, except where they impact on profits.
The adjacent oil refinery, whose waste product is processed at the threatened plant, is owned by Petroineos, a refining and trading joint venture between Ineos and the Chinese government-owned PetroChina. Its other refinery is at Lavera, near Marseilles.
As the recession continues and fracking throws more cheap US coal and gas on to the world market, who knows what will happen to the offshore oil refining business. There is no such thing as security for workers, whatever the status of their country's governance.
- See more at: http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/grangemouth-workers-hung-out-to-dry.html#sthash.YBtw0dTe.dpuf

 

      SNP claims that a capitalist Scotland would be in some way better for Scottish workers have been exploded. Ineos, like all Scotland's key industries from oil to whisky, is not "Scottish". They are run by freebooting global capitalist transnationals with no care for local conditions, except where they impact on profits.

      The adjacent oil refinery, whose waste product is processed at the threatened plant, is owned by Petroineos, a refining and trading joint venture between Ineos and the Chinese government-owned PetroChina. Its other refinery is at Lavera, near Marseilles.

     As the recession continues and fracking throws more cheap US coal and gas on to the world market, who knows what will happen to the offshore oil refining business. There is no such thing as security for workers, whatever the status of their country's governance.

Read the full article here:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

SNP claims that a capitalist Scotland would be in some way better for Scottish workers have been exploded. Ineos, like all Scotland's key industries from oil to whisky, is not "Scottish". They are run by freebooting global capitalist transnationals with no care for local conditions, except where they impact on profits.
The adjacent oil refinery, whose waste product is processed at the threatened plant, is owned by Petroineos, a refining and trading joint venture between Ineos and the Chinese government-owned PetroChina. Its other refinery is at Lavera, near Marseilles.
As the recession continues and fracking throws more cheap US coal and gas on to the world market, who knows what will happen to the offshore oil refining business. There is no such thing as security for workers, whatever the status of their country's governance.
- See more at: http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/grangemouth-workers-hung-out-to-dry.html#sthash.YBtw0dTe.dpuf

An Appeal from LabourStart.

     Solidarity is how we can change the world and create that better world for all. An appeal from LabourStart:

 

      Crown Holdings is a company you probably never heard of. But it's huge -- producing metal containers in 149 countries. And it's highly profitable -- doubling its profits in 2012.
      But Crown is also attacking its own workers in Toronto, Canada, eliminating their cost of living allowance, creating a two-tier wage system, and continuing a nine-year freeze on pensions.
     Crown workers, members of the United Steelworkers, have had enough, and are walking the picket line, forced to strike by an employer that refuses to negotiate seriously.

Their slogan is "Take-Backs No More" and they've gotten the support of unions around the world including Unite (UK), the International Association of Machinists, and IndustriALL Global Union.
     Now they have a LabourStart campaign and they're asking all of us to send off messages to the company CEO with a simple message: "get back to the table to negotiate a fair agreement now".

Please support them by sending off your message today.  And please spread the word.

Thank you.

Eric Lee

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Brews That Screw.

     Carling, Coors, Cobra, Corona, Crap, Capitalism. More and more of the business world are using the "difficult times" as an excuse to rip-up employment agreements won over years of struggle and negotiation, and replace them with a take it or leave it crap new employment agreement. One that sees the workers' rights shredded and their wages cut, Molson Coors UK, is just the latest to indulge in this "screw-the-worker" campaign.  This is an appeal from Labour Start for solidarity.

Carling.  Coors.  Cobra.  Corona. 

 

     Famous brews all made by Molson Coors UK -- and that's just the "C"s. Molson Coors UK claims to make great beers and be a great place to work. One of those statements may not be true.

      Recently, the company has told its employees that half of them will face pay cuts of up to £9,000 per year, they'll need to work excessive shift hours and that the employer has decided to tear up an agreement with the union. Workers who don't accept the company proposals stand to be dismissed by 14 June. Workers at Molson Coors UK, represented by Unite the Union, are now balloting for industrial action.

     They are asking for all of us to support the online campaign launched by the IUF - the International Union of Food workers.

 

Please sign up to the campaign and spread the word to your friends, family and fellow union members.

 

You can learn more about this struggle from the IUF and Unite.

 

Want to know more about the IUF and global unions generally?  Order our brand-new 100 page book -- The Global Labour Movement: An Introduction -- for only £3.99.

 

Thank you!

 

Eric Lee

 

ann arky's home.

 

NOT A LIVING WAGE IN SIGHT.

     Here we are in the UK, one of the richest countries in the world, with our lords and masters spouting how we are not like Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. We are told that we are managing our affairs much better than those so called "PIIGS". However, in spite of our "good management" recent figures from KPMG tell us that 1 in 5 people in work in the UK don't receive a living wage, that equates to 4.82 million working people not getting enough to meet a decent standard of living.

     It varies from occupation to occupation, with bar staff having a staggering 90% not receiving a living wage and waitresses and waiters not far behind with 4 out 5 trying to get by, receiving less than the living wage. Outside London the living wage is set at £7:20 an hour and our parasitical employers can't even match that. The KPMG survey also found that 4 out 10 surveyed, stated that they were financially worse off than a month ago. The union Unite research shows that on average, people are being force to borrow £325 a month to pay for essentials such as food and housing.

     That is the state of affairs at the moment and there are more "austerity" measures coming down the line to hit the poorest and most vulnerable. We are not a poor country, we can afford to fight 11 year wars costing billions of pounds, support and upgrade a nuclear fleet costing more billions of pounds. Our parasitical "chiefs" of industry can afford to pay themselves millions in bonuses and pensions, we can afford to throw billions of pounds at the corrupt banking system, whose bosses continue to pay themselves millions in bonuses, salaries and pensions. 

    We can afford a decent life for everybody in this country, it is just that system is set up to siphon the wealth up to that small army of leeches that sit with their sweaty little hands on the control levers. Until we sort that out we will continue to be screwed, we will continue to see ever increasing numbers of ordinary people slip into ever increasing deprivation. It is not the lack of wealth and resources that is the problem, it is the stinking exploitive unjust greed driven system that is the problem.

ann arky's home.

DIRECT ACTION, - THE ONLY ROUTE.

        It should be obvious by now that if the workers play by the bosses rules, we will always lose. Two recent disputes highlight this, showing once again that direct action by the workers gets results. This from The Commune

          The wildly different trajectories of two recent industrial disputes provides us with an almost perfect lesson in both how they can be won and how they are generally lost. In both cases, the workers were members of the Unite union, as are around three million others in the UK, and in both cases the industry concerned was what might be called a ‘blue collar’ one. But one won, and is winning, while another lost badly.

         The ‘threat’ of a one day stoppage by oil haulage drivers gripped the ruling class just over two months ago, when Unite announced that 69% of respondents had voted for strike action over worsening working conditions and pensions raids. The media went into a frenzy of contrived scaremongering, and the government – sensing what a Tory memo called a “Thatcher moment” – went on the attack. Infamously, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude told motorists to store “a little bit in the garage as well in a jerrycan”, even though Unite had not named a strike date, and they had to give seven days of notice under the anti-union laws.
Continue READING: 

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