AS WELL AS our local posties’ pickets, this month on StrikeWatch, we look back on a couple of firsts in industrial action, last month:
For the first time in 50 years, 500 Walmart workers in the U.S. carried out a 24-hour strike on 23rd November – the so-called ‘Black Friday’ shopping frenzy. Over 1,000 protests in 100 cities across 46 states, 1,000’s of supporters, with some of the strongest demos seen in Paramount, California, and Hannover in Maryland. The employee group leading the strike – ‘OUR Walmart’ – was formed 18 months before, to fight the low wages, decaying work benefits and Walmart’s infamous anti-union retaliation practices, which borders on the illegal (for what that’s worth). Strikers leafleted, Christmas carolled, put on lightshows and mic-check flashmobs, and – in Paramount – blocked the odd road. Walmart C.E.O. ‘Dollar’ Bill Simon laughingly claimed that less than 50 ‘associates’ took part nationally, but fooled no one. The workers, for their part, chanted in a Arnie-esque fashion: “We’ll be back.”
Back in the U.K., workers were out three days earlier, but this time at Amnesty International. Hundreds of picketers were out for the second time in two months, supported by the union Unite, up in arms about the human rights charity’s shift away from research and meaningful casework, and towards marketing-themed branding and flashy stunts. Of course, the management’s intended changes will also involve £2.5m in cuts, and losses of up to 40 jobs. A.I.U.K.’s internal divide has been bitterly widening over the last 20 years, with one senior director quitting in disgust over the treatment of their own staff (who agreed to a voluntary pay freeze, despite a steady 2% annual growth in income), with the workforce calling for director Kate Allen’s resignation, and issuing a vote of no-confidence in the rest of the leaders. A senior leadership that isn’t opposed to a bit of corruption, by the way – compared to the seven people earning more than £60,000 in 2007, this has swollen to 36 people netting big cash last year, and two former execs got a £800,000 golden handshake to see them off, back in 2009. Meanwhile, Amnesty local groups and members are calling for an extraordinary general meeting to set it all straight.
http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-international-workers-start-strike-105900938.html
http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/acpr/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/22/us-economy-walmart-workers-black-friday-strike
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/walmart-strike-black-friday_n_2177784.html
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171435/biggest-strike-against-biggest-employer-walmart-workers-make-history-again
