Industrial Workers of the World

Greece General strike called + Spain CNT vs RyanAir + anti-transport strike Laws in Italy

Greek unions call 24 hour general strike Greece's main labour body said Thursday it is calling a 24-hour general strike to protest more than 4,000 lay-offs that have swept the country in February. Workers should not "pay the price of the financial crisis," the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) said in a statement. GSEE - which did not specify the date for the strike - said February's figure followed significant job losses between November and January when nearly 8,000 people lost their jobs.

The body, representing around 600,000 workers, urged a general strike to demand job security, as well as improved union and salary rights for workers. Wednesday, a thousand demonstrators marched in central Athens after a smaller union collective, Adedy, called a strike in protest of the country's conservative government.

http://libcom.org/news/greek-unions-call-24-hour-general-strike-01032009

Note, GSEE is the umbrella union for workers of the private sector, while ADEDY its equivalent for the public sector. GSEE's decision to call this general strike must not be seen as some incredible step of class warfare. It is common practice to call such strikes, and within the given situation in the country GSEE's decision is being widely laughed at as a ritual token of a syndicalist body who has lost any credibility amongst workers. It is common practice for the gen. secs of the union to become MPs and Cabinet Ministers after serving some terms, and GSEE is considered as the epitome of what in common parlance translates as worker's fathers [ergatopateres] referring to the uncompromising paternalism of its professional syndicalists who are as removed from labour as any other boss.

The occupation of the GSEE HQs in Athens during the December uprising marked the union as an enemy formation to the working class and the revolution.

A brief statement from the CNT, Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, about a conflict with Ryanair.

The CNT declares a Conflict at Ryanair-Zaragoza TUE, 24/02/2009 - 15:59 – CNT-AIT

After fruitless contacts with the company, begun by the Union Section of the CNT in Ryanair, in order to solve the problems of the workers in the fastest and calmest form possible, this Section declares itself in conflict with Ryanair-Zaragoza, supported by the SOV of the CNT in Saragossa.

The causes of the Conflict are the following:

- A reduction of the daily hours imposed by the company at the beginning of the present year, which has supposed a wage decrease in pays of in case rickety. We want to make clear that this reduction of day is a maneuver of the company to scrimp expenses at the cost of its employees, since it does not correspond with an equivalent reduction in the service load. Rather, which has made the company is to reorganize the schedules of the flights so that the work to be done is practically the same, with the same employees, but in less time. Said in another way, major service load in less hours.

- Fraudulent Hiring, by which the majority of the employees was contracted part-time realising a schedule of complete day until the moment of the reduction.

- Labor Instability, being the majority of the engaged workers of temporary form although in repeated occasions it has been clear they are well able to do the job. From all this, the Union Section of the CNT demands:

- That the reduction of days is lifted immediately, returning to work (and to receive itself) to complete day, as it happened until January.

- Indefinite Hiring full-time for all the workers who at the time were engaged part-time in spite of realising complete day, thus solving also the problem of the instability. Before this situation, the SOV of Zaragoza, along with the Union Section will use a battery of measures and mobilizations, to press to the company and to cause that it takes care of the requirement of its employees.

WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE THE WORKERS WHO PAY FOR THE BROKEN PLATES OF A CRISIS WHICH WE HAVE NOT GENERATED. RYANAIR, COME DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS AND LISTEN YOUR WORKERS! Original in Spanish: http://www.cnt.es/node/812

anti-strike laws in Italy Transport sector move to combat wildcat actions (ANSA) - Rome, February 27 -

The Italian cabinet on Friday unanimously approved a draft law to put a stop to wildcat transport sector strikes that frequently paralyse the country, greenlighting the notion of 'virtual' strikes. This would involve workers in some transport sectors declaring a strike, but still turning up to do the day's work - without pay - so that citizens' mobility would not be affected.

The workers' pay packets for the day would be deposited into a solidarity fund into which their employers would be required to deposit an equal sum, and the fund would either be used for charitable donations or for taking out newspaper ads to publicise the workers' grievances.

Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi said the draft law also makes it harder for smaller transport unions representing less than 50% of workers to call strikes, requiring them to first hold a vote and obtain ''at least 30% of the consensus''.

In another measure hotly contested by trade unions, many of whom have otherwise backed the reforms, individual workers would be required to state ahead of time whether or not they will be taking part in strikes, making them easier to manage. In addition, the draft law introduces sanctions for protests that block streets, motorways and airports as well as for unions who announce strikes only to call them off at the last minute.

Raffaele Bonanni, leader of the CISL trade union, said he was ''reassured'' by the draft law, which he described as ''very broad and balanced'', and welcomed a provision that will require virtual strikes and worker adhesion to be governed contractually. But Italy's biggest, left-leaning CGIL union continued to oppose the draft law and said trade unions should work out reforms together before these were discussed in parliament.

''(Premier Silvio) Berlusconi is taking a wrong turn that is dangerous for the democratic system and for personal freedom,'' said CGIL leader Guglielmo Epifani. Government politicians meanwhile hailed the new reforms as having ''historic value''. ''They will prevent the right to strike being exercised in such a way that citizens are held hostage, as has happened so many times in recent years,'' said Forza Italia spokesman Daniele Capezzone.

The largest opposition party, the centre-left Democratic Party, has remained largely silent on the reforms, but other opposition politicians have hit out at the measures. ''This is a dictatorial choice that favours the bosses. If it's passed for the transport sector, it will then be passed for the entire world of work. Unfortunately many political and union powers on the Left are not speaking up when they should be fighting this,'' said the PDCI's Marco Rizzo. Italy of Values House whip Massimo Donadi said a virtual strike ''sounds about right given that we're in a virtual democracy''.

''The government is planning to cancel citizens' basic rights, dismantling yet another piece of our democracy. At any other time the notion of a virtual strike would have simply been considered ridiculous''. According to the watchdog strike commission, in 2007 there were a total of 86 days of strikes across all transport sectors, involving 67,000 workers.

http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-02-27_127324256.html