• Gewerkschaften gegen Aufrüstung und Krieg! Friedensfähigkeit statt Kriegstüchtigkeit!
    https://gewerkschaften-gegen-aufruestung.de


    Les syndicalistes allemands pour une politique de paix, pétition en ligne.

    Die Welt wird von immer neuen Kriegen erschüttert, Menschen werden getötet, Länder verwüstet. Das Risiko eines großen Krieges zwischen den Atommächten wächst und bedroht die Menschheit weltweit. Gigantische Finanzmittel und Ressourcen werden für Krieg und Militär verpulvert. Statt damit die großen Probleme von Armut und Unterentwicklung, maroder Infrastruktur und katastrophalen Mängeln in Bildung und Pflege, Klimawandel und Naturzerstörung zu bekämpfen.

    Die deutsche Regierung und Parlamentsmehrheiten beteiligen sich an dieser verheerenden Politik. Sie reden über „Kriegstüchtigkeit“ und sogar über „eigene“ Atombewaffnung, statt sich mit aller Kraft für ein Ende der Kriege, für Frieden und gemeinsame Problemlösungen einzusetzen. Die Ausgaben für Militär sollen 2024 auf zwei Prozent der Wirtschaftsleistung, über 85 Milliarden Euro, erhöht werden und in den kommenden Jahren weiter steigen. Während in den sozialen Bereichen, bei Bildung und Infrastruktur gravierend gekürzt wird und die Lasten der Klimapolitik auf die Masse der Bevölkerung abgewälzt werden.

    Die Gewerkschaften müssen sich unüberhörbar für Friedensfähigkeit statt „Kriegstüchtigkeit“ einsetzen, für Abrüstung und Rüstungskontrolle, Verhandlungen und friedliche Konfliktlösungen. Für Geld für Soziales und Bildung statt für Waffen. Das ergibt sich aus ihrer Tradition und ihren Beschlüssen. Auch und besonders in den aktuellen Auseinandersetzungen um die internationale Politik und um die Haushaltspolitik!

    Wir fordern unsere Gewerkschaften und ihre Vorstände auf, den Beschlüssen und ihrer Verantwortung gerecht zu werden! Die Gewerkschaften müssen sich laut und entschieden zu Wort melden und ihre Kraft wirksam machen: gegen Kriege und gegen Aufrüstung!

    #Allemagne #syndicalisme #mouvement_pour_la_paix #armement #guerre

  • « La société contre l’Etat »
    http://anarlivres.free.fr/pages/nouveau.html#philosophia

    « La société contre l’Etat ». Ce thème cher aux anarchistes sera le sujet de réflexion des Rencontres de Sophie, organisées par l’association Philosophia, du 15 au 17 mars, à partir de 14 h 30, à l’Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture (ENSA) de Nantes. Au programme (http://philosophia.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PROGRAMME-PDF-1.pdf), des conférences, des débats et un abécédaire. Nous avons été particulièrement alléchés par une intervention de Jean-Christophe Angault (spécialiste de Bakounine) sur « Etat, violence et légitimité », un débat avec Fabien Jobard et Agnès Naudin (une policière en délicatesse avec l’institution), un cours d’Edouard Jourdain sur « Etat et anarchisme », un autre débat sur « Une société sans Etat, ça marche ? », une conférence d’Elsa Dorlin sur « La plèbe en nous. Légitime défense et auto-défense » et un entretien avec la secrétaire générale de la CGT, Sophie Binet, pour « Entre la société et l’Etat, les syndicats »… Entrée libre. ENSA, 6, quai François-Mitterrand, Nantes.

    #Etat #philosophie #anarchisme #ENSA #syndicalisme

  • Votre vieux monde ? Dans nos syndicats, on n’en veut pas non plus !

    Resyfem salue la décision du 18 décembre 2023 rendue par le Tribunal correctionnel de Brest condamnant Marc Hébert pour harcèlement sexuel aggravé, par personne abusant de l’autorité que lui confère ses fonctions : c’est une victoire pour les victimes qui ont dû se battre seules face à une procédure très dure pendant 3 ans, sans soutien de leur syndicat.

    Resyfem salue la décision du 18 décembre 2023 rendue par le Tribunal correctionnel de Brest condamnant Marc Hébert pour harcèlement sexuel aggravé, par personne abusant de l’autorité que lui confère ses fonctions

    https://entreleslignesentrelesmots.wordpress.com/2024/01/22/votre-vieux-monde-dans-nos-syndicats-on-nen-ve

    #féminisme #violence #syndicat

    • Elles ont également dû faire face [au sein de FO] à une défense caractéristique des agresseurs sexuels dans un cadre militant ou politique : elles ont été taxées de menteuses, à la tête d’une « cabale syndicale » (la théorie du complot est quasiment une constante quand les victimes sont plusieurs) ; une d’entre elles a même été qualifiée de « lesbienne militante partisane de l’émasculation des mâles » ! [source : Résyfem – Réseau de Syndicalistes Féministes]

      #VSS #syndicalisme

  • Workers at a Boeing Supplier Raised Issues About Defects. The Company Didn’t Listen.
    https://jacobin.com/2024/01/alaska-airlines-boeing-parts-malfunction-workers-spirit-aerosystems

    La sous-traitance et le licenciement de techniciens expérimentés menace la sécurité des avions Boeing. Ces problèmes touchent toutee les entreprises et organisations qui sont gérées dans le but d’optimisation financière. Là c’est la vie des passagers qui est mise en danger, ailleurs on détruit des structures d’entraide et on oblige des millions d’employés à travailler pour un salair de misère. Les dégats se sentent partout, dans tous les pays capitalistes. Il n’y a que les symdicats et le mouvement ouvrier qui peuvent nous protéger contre.

    9.1.2024 by Katya Schwenk, David Sirota , Lucy Dean Stockton, Joel Warner - Less than a month before a catastrophic aircraft failure prompted the grounding of more than 150 of Boeing’s commercial aircraft, documents were filed in federal court alleging that former employees at the company’s subcontractor repeatedly warned corporate officials about safety problems and were told to falsify records.

    One of the employees at Spirit AeroSystems, which reportedly manufactured the door plug that blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight over Portland, Oregon, allegedly told company officials about an “excessive amount of defects,” according to the federal complaint and corresponding internal corporate documents reviewed by us.

    According to the court documents, the employee told a colleague that “he believed it was just a matter of time until a major defect escaped to a customer.”

    The allegations come from a federal securities lawsuit accusing Spirit of deliberately covering up systematic quality-control problems, encouraging workers to undercount defects, and retaliating against those who raised safety concerns. Read the full complaint here.

    Although the cause of the Boeing airplane’s failure is still unclear, some aviation experts say the allegations against Spirit are emblematic of how brand-name manufacturers’ practice of outsourcing aerospace construction has led to worrisome safety issues.

    They argue that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has failed to properly regulate companies like Spirit, which was given a $75 million public subsidy from Pete Buttigieg’s Transportation Department in 2021, reported more than $5 billion in revenues in 2022, and bills itself as “one of the world’s largest manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial airplanes.”

    “The FAA’s chronic, systemic, and longtime funding gap is a key problem in having the staffing, resources, and travel budgets to provide proper oversight,” said William McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, who has served on a panel advising the US Transportation Department. “Ultimately, the FAA has failed to provide adequate policing of outsourced work, both at aircraft manufacturing facilities and at airline maintenance facilities.”

    David Sidman, a spokesperson for Boeing, declined to comment on the allegations raised in the lawsuit. “We defer to Spirit for any comment,” he wrote in an email to us.

    Spirit AeroSystems did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the federal lawsuit’s allegations. The company has not yet filed a response to the complaint in court.

    “At Spirit AeroSystems, our primary focus is the quality and product integrity of the aircraft structures we deliver,” the company said in a written statement after the Alaska Airlines episode.

    The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its oversight of Spirit.
    “Business Depends Largely on Sales of Components for a Single Aircraft”

    Spirit was established in 2005 as a spin-off company from Boeing. The publicly traded firm remains heavily reliant on Boeing, which has lobbied to delay federal safety mandates. According to Spirit’s own Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the company’s “business depends largely on sales of components for a single aircraft program, the B737,” the latest version of which — the 737 Max 9 — has now been temporarily grounded, pending inspections by operators.

    Spirit and Boeing are closely intertwined. Spirit’s new CEO Patrick Shanahan was a Trump administration Pentagon official who previously worked at Boeing for more than thirty years, serving as the company’s vice president of various programs, including supply chain and operations, all while the company reported lobbying federal officials on airline safety issues. Spirit’s senior vice president Terry George, in charge of operations engineering, tooling, and facilities, also previously served as Boeing’s manager on the 737 program.

    Last week’s high-altitude debacle — which forced an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9’s emergency landing in Portland — came just a few years after Spirit was named in FAA actions against Boeing. In 2019 and 2020, the agency alleged that Spirit delivered parts to Boeing that did not comply with safety standards, then “proposed that Boeing accept the parts as delivered” — and “Boeing subsequently presented [the parts] as ready for airworthiness certification” on hundreds of aircraft.

    Then came the class-action lawsuit: In May 2023, a group of Spirit AeroSystems’ shareholders filed a complaint against the company, claiming it made misleading statements and withheld information about production troubles and quality-control issues before media reports of the problems led to a major drop in Spirit’s market value.

    An amended version of the complaint, filed on December 19, provides more expansive charges against the company, citing detailed accounts by former employees alleging extensive quality-control problems at Spirit.

    Company executives “concealed from investors that Spirit suffered from widespread and sustained quality failures,” the complaint alleges. “These failures included defects such as the routine presence of foreign object debris (‘FOD’) in Spirit products, missing fasteners, peeling paint, and poor skin quality. Such constant quality failures resulted in part from Spirit’s culture which prioritized production numbers and short-term financial outcomes over product quality, and Spirit’s related failure to hire sufficient personnel to deliver quality products at the rates demanded by Spirit and its customers including Boeing.”
    “We Are Being Asked to Purposely Record Inaccurate Information”

    The court documents allege that on Feruary 22, 2022, one Spirit inspection worker explicitly told company management that he was being instructed to misrepresent the number of defects he was working on.

    “You are asking us to record in a inaccurately [sic] way the number of defects,” he wrote in an email to a company official. “This make [sic] us and put us in a very uncomfortable situation.”

    The worker, who is unnamed in the federal court case, submitted an ethics complaint to the company detailing what had occurred, writing in it that the inspection team had “been put on [sic] a very unethical place,” and emphasizing the “excessive amount of defects” workers were encountering.

    “We are being asked to purposely record inaccurate information,” the inspection worker wrote in the ethics complaint.

    He then sent an email to Spirit’s then CEO, Tom Gentile, attaching the ethics complaint and detailing his concerns, saying it was his “last resort.”

    When the employee had first expressed concerns to his supervisor about the mandate, the supervisor responded “that if he refused to do as he was told, [the supervisor] would fire him on the spot,” the court documents allege.

    After the worker sent the first email, he was allegedly demoted from his position by management, and the rest of the inspection team was told to continue using the new system of logging defects.

    Ultimately, the worker’s complaint was sustained, and he was restored to his prior position with back pay, according to the complaint. He quit several months later, however, and claimed that other inspection team members he had worked with had been moved to new positions when, according to management, they documented “too many defects.”
    “Spirit Concealed the Defect”

    In August 2023, news broke that Boeing had discovered a defect in its MAX 737s, delaying rollout of the four hundred planes it had set to deliver this year. Spirit had incorrectly manufactured key equipment for the fuselage system, as the company acknowledged in a press statement.

    But these defects had been discovered by Spirit months before they became public, according to the December court filings.

    The court documents claim that a former quality auditor with Spirit, Joshua Dean, identified the manufacturing defects — bulkhead holes that were improperly drilled — in October 2022, nearly a year before Boeing first said that the defect had been discovered. Dean identified the issue and sent his findings to supervisors on multiple occasions, telling management at one point that it was “the worst finding” he had encountered during his time as an auditor.

    “The aft pressure bulkhead is a critical part of an airplane, which is necessary to maintain cabin pressure during flight,” the complaint says. “Dean reported this defect to multiple Spirit employees over a period of several months, including submitting formal written findings to his manager. However, Spirit concealed the defect.”

    In April 2023, after Dean continued to raise concerns about the defects, Spirit fired him, the complaint says.

    In October 2023, Boeing and Spirit announced they were expanding the scope of their inspections. The FAA has said it is monitoring the inspections, but said in October there was “no immediate safety concern” as a result of the bulkhead defects.
    “Emphasis on Pushing Out Product Over Quality”

    Workers cited in the federal complaint attributed the alleged problems at Spirit to a culture that prioritized moving products down the factory line as quickly as possible — at any cost. The company has been under pressure from Boeing to ramp up production, and in earnings calls, Spirit’s shareholders have pressed the company’s executives about its production rates.

    According to the Financial Times, after the extended grounding of Boeing’s entire fleet of 737 Max airlines following two major crashes in 2018 and 2019, “the plane maker has sought to increase its output rate and gain back market share it lost to Airbus,” its European rival.

    Spirit, which also produces airframe components for Airbus, has felt the pressure of that demand. As Shanahan noted in Spirit’s third-quarter earnings call on November 1, “When you look at the demand for commercial airplanes, having two of the biggest customers in the world and not being able to satisfy the demand, it should command our full attention.”

    According to the court records, workers believed Spirit placed an “emphasis on pushing out product over quality.” Inspection workers were allegedly told to overlook defects on final walkthroughs, as Spirit “just wanted to ship its completed products as quickly as possible.”

    Dean claimed to have noticed a significant deterioration in Spirit’s workforce after Spirit went through several rounds of mass layoffs in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the huge influx in government funding they received.

    According to court documents, Dean said that “Spirit laid off or voluntarily retired a large number of senior engineers and mechanics, leaving a disproportionate number of new and less experienced personnel.”
    “Over-Tightening or Under-Tightening That Could Threaten the Structural Integrity”

    After the Alaska Airlines plane was grounded, United Airlines launched an independent inspection of its planes. Initial reporting shows that inspectors found multiple loose bolts throughout several Boeing 737 Max 9 planes. Alaska Airlines is currently conducting an audit of its aircraft.

    Concerns about properly tightened equipment were detailed in the federal complaint.

    “Auditors repeatedly found torque wrenches in mechanics’ toolboxes that were not properly calibrated,” said the complaint, citing another former Spirit employee. “This was potentially a serious problem, as a torque wrench that is out of calibration may not torque fasteners to the correct levels, resulting in over-tightening or under-tightening that could threaten the structural integrity of the parts in question.”

    According to former employees cited in the court documents, in a company-wide “toolbox audit,” more than one hundred of up to 1,400 wrenches were found out of alignment.

    On Spirit’s November earnings call, after investors pressed the company’s new CEO about its quality-control problems, Shanahan promised that the company was working to fix the issues — and its reputation.

    “The mindset I have is that we can be zero defects,” he said. “We can eliminate all defects. . . . But every day, we have to put time and attention to that.”

    #USA #aviation #sécurité #syndicalisme #travail #sous-traitance #salaire

  • Tesla Has Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew by Picking a Fight With Swedish Unions
    https://jacobin.com/2023/12/tesla-swedish-unions-nordic-elon-musk-labor-green-transition

    Since the end of October, mechanics at Tesla workshops in Sweden have been striking in an attempt to pressure the firm to agree to collective bargaining with the Swedish Metalworkers’ Union.

    Tesla does not manufacture cars in Sweden, so the strike covers only 130 workers. Despite the small number of affected workers, this has become a very prominent strike in the region because it pits two powerful parties against one another.

    On one side is Tesla, by far the world’s most valued automaker, currently valued higher than the next nine car companies combined. It boasts 130,000 workers and the top two best-selling EV models. On the other side is the Swedish Metalworkers’ Union, a union with 230,000 members organizing 80 percent of all workers in its sectors. With a large membership that has not taken party in many strikes, the union has amassed a war chest of about $1 billion. It is able to pay the striking workers 130 percent of their salaries.

    #syndicalisme #Tesla #Elon_Musk #Suède

  • Streikrecht : Streik soll politisch werden
    https://taz.de/Streikrecht/!5976123

    L’Allemagne ne connaît pas le droit de grêve, il n’y a qu’un droit de coaltion abstrait pour tous. Les règles juridiques encadrant les grèves sont l’oeuvre d’un juge nationalsocialiste historique et sanctionnent toute grève sans soutien d’un syndicat officiel ou pour de revendications non tarifaires. Les grèves politiques sont explictement interdites.

    Une initiative politique autour de notre avocat Benedikt Hopmann est en train de porter une affaire devant la cour de justice européenne afin d’obtenir le droit de grève comme il existe en France et d’autres pays europeens

    13.12.2023 von Peter Nowak - Die Kampagne für ein umfassendes Streikrecht lädt zur Diskussion, um Arbeitskämpfe auszuweiten.

    Die Kampagne für ein umfassendes Streikrecht lädt zur Diskussion, um Arbeitskämpfe auszuweiten
    Streikende auf den Straßen setzen sich für ihre Recht ein

    Wenn es um die Verteidigung der Menschenrechte geht, denken viele nicht unbedingt an das Streikrecht der Lohnabhängigen in Deutschland. Zu Unrecht, findet Rechtsanwalt Benedikt Hopmann. „Streikrecht ist ein Menschenrecht und das ist in Deutschland noch längst nicht umfassend verwirklicht.“

    Das will der Jurist ändern. Gemeinsam mit der Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW), Stadtteilinitiativen und juristischen Gruppen hat er sich im vergangenen Jahr in der Kampagne für ein umfassendes Streikrecht zusammengeschlossen. An diesem Donnerstag lädt das Bündnis zu einer Diskussionsveranstaltung mit Theresa Tschenker ein, die zum politischen Streikrecht in der BRD nach 1945 promoviert hat. Denn in der Bundesrepublik gibt es im Vergleich zu anderen europäischen Ländern ein besonders restriktives Streikrecht.

    Das hat vor allem mit Hans Carl Nipperdey zu tun. Er war in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus einer der Kommentatoren des Gesetzes zur nationalen Arbeit und hat 1952 während eines Arbeitskampfes ein Gutachten erstellt, das bis heute das Streikrecht maßgeblich beeinflusst. Dazu gehört das Verbot politischer und verbandsfreier Streiks, also eines Arbeitskampfes ohne gewerkschaftliche Beteiligung.

    Das Bündnis will die Spuren des NS-Arbeitsrechtlers Nipperdey tilgen. Der Kampf um ein umfassendes Streikrecht gilt einigen der Ak­ti­vis­t*in­nen daher auch als ein Stück Antifaschismus. Das Besondere an der Kampagne ist aber vor allem, dass sie nicht in einem Gewerkschaftsbüro erdacht wurde. Vielmehr hat der Kampf für ein umfassendes Streikrecht in den vergangenen Jahren im Arbeitsalltag vieler prekär Beschäftigter ganz praktisch an Aktualität gewonnen.

    Besonders die Arbeitskämpfe der Lieferdienste werden durch das restriktive Streikrecht massiv behindert. Weil die Rider, wie sich die Ku­rier­fah­re­r*in­nen nennen, oft nicht in Gewerkschaften organisiert sind, wird ihnen das Streikrecht abgesprochen. Vor dem Arbeitsgericht haben die Rider in den vergangenen Monaten daher immer wieder ein umfassendes Streikrecht eingefordert. Und dieses etwa durch wilde Streiks auch ganz praktisch ausgeübt „Rechte müssen wir uns erkämpfen, in dem wir sie uns nehmen“, so ein Mitglied der Kampagne für ein umfassendes Streikrecht, der anonym bleiben möchte.

    #Allemagne #syndicalisme #travail #droit #justice #grève

  • Direct Elections for Labor Leaders Make for More Militant Unions
    https://jacobin.com/2023/12/elections-democracy-union-leadership-militancy
    Voilà comment rendre les syndicats plus démocratiques et efficaces

    12.5.2023 by Chris Bohner - From the UAW to the Writers Guild, this year’s biggest contract victories have been won by unions in which members directly elect their leaders. That’s a right denied to most US union members — but it may be the key to unleashing broader labor militancy.

    The labor movement is rightfully celebrating recent contract victories by the United Auto Workers, Teamsters, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, which together cover nearly 650,000 workers. An essential thread uniting the campaigns is that the top union officers were all directly elected by the members, a basic democratic right denied to many union members in the United States. As other unions seek to learn lessons from these historic contract fights, a key takeaway is that a vibrant democratic process — “one member, one vote” — is crucial to a revitalized labor movement.

    A robust democratic process certainly played a major role in the United Auto Workers (UAW) contract fight with the Big Three automakers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) campaign against UPS. Leading up to their contract expirations, both the UAW and Teamsters had highly competitive and contested elections for their top leadership positions, directly engaging the membership in debates about the union’s negotiation strategy with employers and concessionary contracts, improvements in strike benefits, and the removal of antidemocratic obstacles. For example, at the Teamsters’ convention, delegates removed a constitutional provision that previously allowed union officers to impose a contract even if a majority of members voted against it. Injected with the energy of a contested election, the recent UAW and Teamster conventions were marked by spirited debates about union strategy, engaging members for the upcoming contract fights.

    But a review of the constitutions of the twenty largest unions in the United States shows that “one member, one vote” is a right denied to most union members. Of the top twenty unions — representing approximately 13.3 million members and 83 percent of all US union workers — only six have direct elections. Only 20 percent of all union members, or 2.7 million, have the right to directly elect their top officers. In contrast, 80 percent of members, or 10.6 million workers, have no such right.

    Apart from the Teamsters and UAW, the only other large unions with a form of direct elections are the Steelworkers, Machinists, SAG-AFTRA, and the National Association of Letter Carriers. Some smaller unions, like the Writers Guild and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), also have direct elections.

    The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) used to have direct elections as part of a consent decree with the Department of Justice, but the union’s executive board eliminated the practice in 2010. The Operating Engineers (IUOE) and Carpenters also had direct elections, but they moved to a delegate system in the 1960s.

    Maybe it’s a fluke of the calendar, but the majority of strikes in 2023 (through October) were led by unions with “one member, one vote” policies, even though they represent a minority of unions. According to the Department of Labor, 448,000 workers have been on strike this year, and approximately 250,000 workers (by my count), or 56 percent of strikers, are affiliated with unions that have direct elections. Perhaps a more democratic union is a more militant union.
    “One Member, One Vote” vs. the Delegate Convention System

    As opposed to direct elections, most unions chose their top officers indirectly, electing delegates to a regularly scheduled convention at the local level through a membership vote. Those elected delegates then nominate and elect the top officers.

    While formally democratic, the flaws of the delegate convention system have been widely documented. Rather than promoting worker participation and vigorous democratic debate, the delegate system tends to entrench incumbents who can deploy the union’s vast legal, financial, political, and organizational resources to maintain power and stifle reform challenges. As a result, many unions are effectively run by a semipermanent officer and staff strata insulated from member control and accountability, leading to weakened organizations and a ground ripe for corruption.

    Under the delegate convention system, the rise of new leadership at a union is typically triggered by the retirement or death of a labor official rather than a challenger winning a contested election. Union conventions, a huge opportunity to involve the membership in organizing and contract campaigns, instead often resemble a choreographed beauty pageant thrown by the ruling party in a one-party state. With few substantive issues debated and without contested leadership fights, it’s not surprising that labor reporters don’t bother covering most union conventions.

    Despite the long-term decline in union membership and urgent debates about the strategic direction of labor, few of the top leaders of large unions even faced a challenger at their last convention, as the table below shows. Of the fourteen unions without direct elections, only five had a challenger for the top position. In contrast, of the six large unions with direct elections, four had contested elections.

    For over forty years, union reform movements — led by groups like Labor Notes and the Association for Union Democracy — have challenged this system, arguing for a broad array of democratic reforms to rebuild the labor movement. As Mike Parker and Martha Gruelle argue in their classic book Democracy Is Power:

    Some unions do, and many could, operate democratically with a convention system. But for most major U.S. unions, changing to a direct election for international officers would provide an opportunity to rebuild the union on the basis of member control.

    Opponents of direct elections argue that contested elections and direct democracy could promote unnecessary conflict and fuel internecine civil wars, weakening a union’s ability to challenge vastly more powerful corporations in contract and organizing fights.

    But the UAW’s recent history tells a different story. While the strike at the Big Three automakers has been hailed by many as one of the most consequential strikes in decades, it is also the direct result of a highly democratic process. Since 2021, the UAW has held multiple elections and membership votes, including approving a referendum for direct elections of officers; electing delegates to the convention; holding two general membership elections for top officers (including the runoff); approving a strike vote at the Big Three; and, most recently, holding ratification votes for the auto contracts. While many of these votes have been contentious and close-fought, the end result has been a more engaged membership and a revitalized union.
    Democracy, Finance Unionism, and Reform Caucuses

    One impact of labor’s flawed governance system is the perpetuation of “finance unionism,” a practice in which union leadership focuses on the continual accumulation of financial assets rather than using those resources for mass organizing and militant strike activity. According to Department of Labor data, since 2010, organized labor has lost nearly half a million members — yet labor’s net assets (assets minus debt) have increased from $14 billion to $33 billion in 2022, a 127 percent increase. A union leadership class insulated from real democratic control helps make finance unionism possible.

    However, as the UAW demonstrates, when a union moves to direct elections of leadership, it is more apt to use its financial assets for strikes and growth. For example, rather than continuing to invest the UAW’s massive strike fund in Wall Street hedge funds and private equity, the directly elected officers used those assets to fund a militant and successful strike, likely costing the union close to $100 million in strike benefits. And on the heels of the contract victory, the union has announced an ambitious campaign goal of organizing 150,000 nonunion autoworkers at thirteen companies.

    The lack of direct elections of officers also makes the task of internal union caucuses pushing for democratic reform — i.e., internal opposition parties like the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) or the UAW’s Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) — much more difficult to achieve.

    This was on vivid display this year at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) convention. Led by one of the largest UFCW locals, the Essential Workers For Democracy reform caucus proposed a raft of commonsense resolutions, including requiring only a majority vote to authorize strikes (scrapping the two-thirds requirement), strike benefits beginning on day one, capping salaries for international local staff and officers to $250,000, and devoting at least 20 percent of the union’s budget to organizing new workers.

    Yet these basic reforms were overwhelmingly defeated at the convention, with only a handful of locals supporting the resolutions. If the general membership of the UFCW had direct elections, these resolutions would have likely received widespread support (just as UAW and Teamster members supported similar measures at their conventions). Essential Workers For Democracy is building toward the 2028 UFCW convention for another crack at direct elections, but the labor movement needs these reforms now.
    Reform From the Right or the Left?

    No large union in the past forty years has voluntarily adopted “one member, one vote.” While reform caucuses at the Teamsters and UAW had pushed for direct elections for years, it did not become a reality until the Department of Justice (DoJ) filed criminal complaints at both unions and imposed democratic reforms as a remedy to rampant corruption and criminality facilitated by the delegate election system.

    In the case of the Teamsters, the union reached a settlement with George W. Bush’s administration to implement direct elections after the filing of a wide-ranging racketeering lawsuit by the DoJ (and lobbying by TDU). The UAW reached a settlement with the Donald Trump DoJ to hold a referendum on direct elections (64 percent of UAW members voted yes) after the filing of a broad criminal complaint.

    Ironically, anti-union Republican administrations were an important component of democratic reform at the UAW and Teamsters. But the history of labor reform is filled with strange bedfellows.

    For example, in 1959, Congress passed the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Broadly seen as an attack on unions by business groups seeking to roll back new organizing, the law tightened restrictions on secondary boycotts, restricted pickets for union recognition, and banned Communists from holding union office. But the law also provided crucial reforms, including a bill of rights for union members, secret ballot elections for union officers, the right of members to see their union contracts, and the public disclosure of union annual financial reports.

    Even the Trump administration’s Department of Labor proposed meaningful reforms, including requiring unions to disclose their totals spent on organizing versus collective bargaining (very difficult data for members to obtain from most unions), the size of strike funds, and whether union officers are receiving multiple salaries from different labor bodies (“double dipping”). In addition, the Department of Labor proposed requiring more public unions to file financial reports, as many are currently exempt from the LMRDA. These reforms were widely opposed by organized labor and were shelved after Joe Biden assumed power.

    Unfortunately, if labor continues its long resistance to democratic initiatives like direct elections and greater transparency, these reforms may be imposed by hostile political forces like the George H. W. Bush administration’s takeover of the Teamsters in 1989, or the 1959 LMRDA reforms that were paired with a rollback of important labor rights like secondary boycotts. No one in the labor movement should desire a scenario where the state steps in to control a free and autonomous labor movement. But with freedom comes the responsibility to engage in democratic self-reform.

    Such democratic reform — as the UAW and Teamster contract fights illustrate — strengthens the power of the labor movement by mobilizing the membership in big fights and developing consensus on labor strategies through open debate. While “one member, one vote” threatens the power of the semipermanent strata of labor leaders and staff, sometimes the greatest act of leadership is to voluntarily devolve that power.

    Rather than fighting democratic reform initiatives, it is high time for organized labor to let the members decide by holding referenda on direct elections for officers. While the delegate convention system can be democratic, it has too often been the ally of corruption and passivity. If this system is worth defending, then it should be put up to a vote by the membership. Ultimately, as Labor Notes pointed out twenty-five years ago, “Union democracy — defined as rank-and-file power — is the essential ingredient for restoring the power of the labor movement.”

    #USA #syndicalisme #démocratie

  • Extrême droite : un responsable national de Sud-Rail menacé par le GUD - Rapports de Force
    https://rapportsdeforce.fr/breves/extreme-droite-un-responsable-national-de-sud-rail-menace-par-le-gud

    Le local syndical de Sud-Rail Paris Nord a été ciblé par l’extrême droite dans la nuit du mercredi 6 au jeudi 7 décembre. Sur ces collages, apparaissait notamment le visage du syndicaliste Erik Meyer, secrétaire fédéral Sud-Rail. Un collage revendiqué par le “Groupe union défense Paris” (GUD), qui rappelle que l’extrême droite raciste et xénophobe n’hésite pas à s’en prendre aussi au syndicalisme à la lutte sociale.

    Si l’extrême droite à l’habitude de s’en prendre aux syndicats, le GUD a aussi ciblé directement le syndicaliste Erik Meyer, dont le portrait a été affublé d’un “wanted”, “avec le style des affiches de Western“, note Sud-Rail. “Le choix d’être venu coller cette affiche sur notre porte n’est pas anodin. C’est un message qui se veut également une intimidation et des menaces contre le syndicat régional SUD-Rail Paris Nord et leurs syndiqués“, explique SUD-Rail par voie de communiqué, qui rappelle aussi “à quel point l’idéologie d’extrême droite est du côté de ceux qui nous exploitent“.

    #syndicalisme #idéologies_réactionnaires #extrême-droite

    (source : https://piaille.fr/@Larchmutz@mamot.fr/111540463544058985)

    • Une offensive qui rappelle que l’extrême-droite s’en prend non seulement aux habitants des quartiers populaires mais également aux militants du mouvement ouvrier, qui luttent contre l’ensemble des attaques qui visent notre classe, y compris les attaques racistes. Le GUD rappelle de quel côté de la barricade il se situe : celui des patrons et de l’État.

      Des intimidations qui ne peuvent qu’évoquer celles que subit Anasse Kazib, militant de SUD Rail Paris Nord fréquemment visé par l’extrême-droite, qui avait également lancé une campagne d’affichage contre sa venue à la Sorbonne en 2022, ainsi que d’autres militants du syndicat. Les cheminots de SUD Rail Paris Nord appellent dans leur communiqué à s’organiser pour « nous protéger, pour protéger nos locaux, pour protéger nos grèves ».

      Un rappel important, à l’heure où l’extrême-droite tente de reprendre la rue dans différentes villes de France. Le mouvement ouvrier doit organiser la solidarité avec chaque militant attaqué, par l’extrême-droite comme par la répression, et faire front face à ces attaques. Solidarité avec Erik !

      https://revolutionpermanente.fr/Wanted-un-syndicaliste-de-SUD-Rail-menace-par-un-groupuscule-fa

  • Bataille des #Retraites : une lutte de perdue, dix de retrouvées
    https://www.frustrationmagazine.fr/juan-chingo-retraites

    Malgré une mobilisation d’une massivité inouïe, comme jamais vue en France depuis mai 1968, malgré un rejet ultra majoritaire de la population, la réforme des retraites de Macron a été adoptée. Que s’est-il passé ? Qu’avons-nous raté ? Comment faire mieux lors de la prochaine bataille sociale qui ne manquera pas d’arriver bientôt ? Ces questions, […]

    #Décrypter_-_Travail #On_a_vu,_lu,_joué #économie #luttes #stratégie #syndicalisme

  • Tesla may have picked an unwinnable fight with Sweden’s powerful unions
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/21/tesla-sweden-unions-us-strikes-blockade-carmaker

    21.11.2023 by Martin Gelin - The first ever strikes and a solidarity blockade against the US carmaker could force it to rethink its entire anti-union model

    For the first time anywhere in the world, workers for the US carmaker Tesla have gone on strike. It’s not a coincidence that this strike is happening in Sweden, which has one of the strongest labour movements in Europe. More than 90% of workers are protected by collective bargaining agreements, and the system has strong backing among employees and employers alike. With good reason: the Swedish labour relations model has sustained relative industrial peace between wage-earners and corporations for decades.

    By refusing to play ball, Elon Musk’s car giant may have picked an unwinnable fight. What started as a minor local disagreement has grown to the point that it could have global implications, with potential ripple effects for labour movements and auto workers across Europe and the US.

    Tesla doesn’t manufacture cars in Sweden, but it does operate workshops to service its cars. The dispute began when a group of 130 disgruntled mechanics had their request for a collective bargaining agreement rejected. As is customary in Sweden, unions in other sectors came out in solidarity. Dockworkers, mail and delivery workers, cleaners and car painters have so far all agreed to refuse to work with Tesla products. Stockholm’s largest taxi company has also stopped buying new Tesla cars for its fleet. Their fight against Tesla’s anti-union business model could now spread to Germany, where Tesla runs factories and has a significantly larger workforce. The powerful German union IG Metall has said that it is ready to launch collective bargaining negotiations if the workers demand it.

    Tesla and other US corporations have certainly misjudged the situation if they expect special treatment in Sweden. Much about Swedish society has changed in the past few decades, but strong support for collective bargaining agreements is still considered the backbone of the country’s economic model.

    Minimum wage rates and benefits are generally not regulated by law, but in negotiations between unions and employers in each sector. It has mostly worked well: Sweden has fewer strikes than its Nordic neighbours. This is because the unions are so strong they only need to call for industrial action as a last resort. Despite the rightwing government currently in power in Sweden, calls to change the employment model are rare.

    Foreign and domestic tech giants have tried to challenge the system, but these attempts are now more likely to backfire. The financial tech company Klarna recently had to give way after several years of attempting to resist collective bargaining agreements, and settled with employees in a victory for white-collar unions. There is increasing pressure on Spotify to do the same.

    Instead of importing the US’s lax labour standards to Sweden, Tesla may end up jeopardising its own business model. In the US, Tesla has been involved in a number of scandals over the past decade, with allegations relating to workplace safety, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, labour violations and unlawful practices to curb unionisation efforts.
    A United Auto Workers picket line in Wayne, Michigan, 26 September 2023
    A United Auto Workers picket line in Wayne, Michigan, 26 September 2023. Photograph: Matthew Hatcher/AFP/Getty Images

    Corporations used to get away with such behaviours, but increasingly successful strikes and labour organising this year suggest that the power balance is shifting. 2023 has been a year of high-profile strikes and labour union victories in the US. Despite decades of supreme court rulings that make it harder to form unions, and conservative state governments enacting so-called right-to-work laws (an Orwellian euphemism for suppressing labour organising), there now seems to be real momentum, with support for unions at record highs. Fewer than 10% of US private sector workers are unionised, but 67% now support unions, up from only 48% in 2009.

    The Hollywood actors’ strike organised by the Sag-Aftra union lasted 118 days, making it the longest strike in the guild’s history. It ended with significant victories including big increases in salaries, benefits and pensions, as well as a framework for AI guardrails for actors. More than 75,000 workers for the healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente also participated in a US-wide strike, resulting in pay rises of more than 21% for workers.

    When United Auto Workers organised strikes at the “big three” car companies – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – in Michigan this summer, three-quarters of Americans said they supported it. Joe Biden showed up, having called himself “the most pro-union president in American history”. Characteristic hyperbole perhaps, but Biden’s administration has accomplished quite a lot for labour unions in the past three years, especially compared to the dismal record of other recent presidents. (Donald Trump also showed up in Michigan, but gave a speech at a non-unionised car parts maker, which was equally characteristic of his signature working-class cosplay without policy substance.)
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    The United Auto Workers strike resulted in big concessions from the carmakers, who agreed to 20-30% pay increases for workers. For Musk, there are reasons to worry that his business model could be challenged, as the fight in Sweden reverberates with the strengthening power of labour organisers across American unions. The average worker for the big three US carmakers now makes significantly more money, and has better benefits, than a Tesla worker, which could make it easier for UAW to organise workers at Tesla factories across the US as well.

    In an interview, Susanna Gideonsson, who heads the Swedish trade union federation fighting Tesla, sounded remarkably confident. “This will end with the employees winning a collective bargaining agreement, one way or another,” she said. And if they don’t? “Then Tesla can leave the country.” If she is right, this could be a tremendous symbolic victory, which would strengthen the tailwinds for union movements on both sides of the Atlantic.

    In facing off with its Swedish mechanics, Tesla seems to have underestimated the sheer force of the union movement behind them. In classic David v Goliath fashion, the mechanics took on the world’s richest man, but the momentum is now with them.

    Martin Gelin writes for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter

    #Suède #industrie_automobile #travail #syndicalisme

  • Tesla workers in Germany join union as health and safety issues grow
    https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-workers-germany-join-union-health-safety-issues-grow-union-2023-10-09

    9.10.2023 von Victoria Waldersee, GRUENHEIDE - Tesla (TSLA.O) workers at the carmaker’s Brandenburg plant are joining the IG Metall union in rising numbers over concerns around health, safety and overwork, the union said on Monday.

    Lack of staff and inadequate safety provisions in the workplace were leading to a high number of accidents at work, and it was not rare that around 30% of workers were signed off sick, the union said in a statement.

    Reuters was not able to independently verify the union’s claims and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Union representatives met workers at the factory gates, on the platforms of nearby stations and inside the factory on Monday handing out stickers stating “Together for safe and fair work at Tesla”.

    On Sunday night, Tesla managers invited their teams to a meeting with “free food and a surprise” to discuss IG Metall’s presence on the site, stating: “We want to speak with you and your teams about the questionable methods and actual goals of IG Metall,” according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters.

    “The law gives all workers the right to organise in a union and stand openly for that at their workplace. That counts at Tesla in Brandenburg as well,” Dirk Schulze of IG Metall said.

    The union said it does not share specific membership numbers for companies as a matter of course, but that it has seen a steep rise in the number of new members at Tesla.

    Reuters spoke to twelve workers at the factory on Monday.

    While four said they were satisfied with working conditions, eight said pressure was too high, with some reporting high incidence of accidents and issues with receiving overtime pay.

    Two workers said they were not allowed to speak to the media.

    “Speed is not compatible with safety,” said one 56-year-old worker from Poland, who declined to be named, adding there were too few workers to meet targets and that he would seek a new job next year if conditions did not improve.

    Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Sharon Singleton

    Victoria Waldersee - Autos correspondent in Germany, covering the industry’s transition to electric vehicles. Previously reported on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the retail sector in South Asia, China and Europe, and wider general news. Formerly at YouGov and Economy, a charity working to produce accessible economics coverage.

    #Allemagne #industrie_automobile #travail #syndicalisme

  • Justice patronale : les syndicats de Tisséo condamnés à 15.000 euros d’amende pour faits de #grève
    https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/Justice-patronale-les-syndicats-de-Tisseo-condamnes-a-15-000-eu

    Lundi 18 septembre, les quatre organisations syndicales de Tisséo (CGT, CFDT, FNCR, Sud) étaient assignées par leur direction au tribunal. Cette dernière demandait 40.000€ d’amende par syndicat (!) pour « abus du droit grève » suite au mouvement historique qui avait secoué l’entreprise durant les derniers mois.

    Ce lundi 20 novembre, la décision de justice a été rendue : les quatre syndicats sont condamnés ensemble à payer 15 000 euros (dont 10 000 euros d’amende et 5 000 euros de frais de justice) pour le « blocage de deux entrepôts de bus et tramway les 30 et 31 mai 2023 ». Les syndicats de Tisséo ont rappelé avoir seulement filtré les entrées sans les bloquer, mais la justice a finalement donné raison à la direction, rappelant son caractère de classe, du côté des patrons.

  • Pourquoi des panneaux d’entrée de ville sont-ils retournés par centaines ? | Le Télégramme
    https://www.letelegramme.fr/bretagne/pourquoi-les-panneaux-dentree-de-ville-ont-ils-perdu-le-sens-6472110.ph

    Quel message veulent porter les agriculteurs qui retournent les panneaux ?

    L’action vise à dénoncer le manque de moyens octroyés pour accompagner la transition écologique agricole et le double discours du gouvernement. Baisse des rémunérations, hausse des charges, accumulation des contraintes (d’État et européennes) et des normes agro-environnementales… « On nous a promis des enveloppes financières si on adoptait certaines mesures. Les gars ont joué le jeu, les enveloppes ne sont plus disponibles », explique Johann Conan, président des Jeunes agriculteurs du Morbihan. « On nous impose le maintien de prairies permanentes, non labourées, une herbe dont on ne sait que faire puisqu’il y a de moins en moins d’élevage bovin », illustre Yann le Gac, secrétaire général des JA du Finistère. « L’État nous demande d’utiliser moins de produits phytosanitaires mais il augmente les taxes sur le gazole routier indispensable pour désherber mécaniquement », abonde les JA du Morbihan. Fabienne Garel, présidente de la FDSEA 22, s’agace aussi du recours grandissant à l’importation, annonciatrice d’une perte de souveraineté alimentaire.

    https://justpaste.it/cy0q0

    #agriculteur·rices #FDSEA #mobilier_urbain

    https://actu.fr/pays-de-la-loire/angers_49007/maine-et-loire-pourquoi-les-panneaux-d-agglomeration-sont-ils-retournes_6035785

    Les agriculteurs sont prêts » à relever les défis de l’agriculture française ! Mais pas sous cette asphyxie réglementaire permanente ni sans leviers financiers suffisants », estiment-ils.

    Ces éléments de langage du #syndicalisme_agricole, c’est d’un pénible.

    Pour relever les défis, il faut DÉ-RÉ-GU-LER ! (Bordayyyl)

  • Benoît Broutchoux (1879-1944)
    http://anarlivres.free.fr/pages/archives_nouv/pages_nouv/Nouv_Broutchoux.html

    Dans la presse libertaire, il était d’usage d’évoquer de temps en temps les anciens militants, de retracer en quelques lignes leurs parcours et leurs luttes. Pour ne pas les oublier... « Défense de l’homme », revue lancée en septembre 1949 par Louis Lecoin, n’échappa pas à cette tradition avec « Ceux d’hier ». Dans son n° 8, Georges Dumoulin évoquait une « figure majeure de l’anarchisme et du syndicalisme révolutionnaire dans le bassin minier du Pas-de-Calais avant 1914 », Benoît Broutchoux, décédé quelques années auparavant, peu de temps avant le débarquement des Alliés. Nous reproduisons cet article agrémenté d’illustrations et de notes (...)

    #anarchisme #libertaire #Broutchoux #Pas-de-Calais #mineurs #syndicalisme

  • Nintendo of America President: “Everyone Has the Right To Form a Union”
    https://www.inverse.com/gaming/doug-bowser-super-mario-bros-wonder-switch-2-nintendo-union

    Video game consoles come and go, but the Nintendo Switch is forever. At least, that’s how it sometimes seems. Six years after its launch, the beloved handheld hybrid is still going strong and on track to sell 15 million devices in 2023. But for Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, the reason behind the Switch’s lasting power is simple: It’s the games.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #nintendo #microsoft #rachat #acquisition #finance #rumeurs #nintendo_switch #console_switch #finance #ressources_humaines #crunch #syndicalisme #entrevue #interview #doug_bowser

  • Israël-Palestine : le secrétaire de la CGT dans le Nord en garde à vue pour « apologie du terrorisme »
    https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/nord-0/lille/israel-palestine-le-secretaire-de-la-cgt-dans-le-nord-e

    Publié le 20/10/2023 à 09h43 • Mis à jour le 20/10/2023 à 11h17
    Écrit par Martin Vanlaton
    Nord
    Hauts-de-France
    Lille
    Jean-Paul Delescaut, secrétaire de la CGT dans le Nord, a été interpellé à son domicile pour « apologie du terrorisme », affirme le syndicat. En cause selon ses camarades, un tract pro-palestinien édité le 10 octobre dernier. Un rassemblement est en cours devant le commissariat de Lille.

  • Bandcamp’s Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off
    https://www.404media.co/bandcamps-entire-union-bargaining-team-was-laid-off

    Bandcamp’s entire union bargaining team, the eight union members democratically elected by their peers to negotiate their first union contract, were laid off when Epic Games sold Bandcamp to music licensing company Songtradr on Monday.

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #musique #business #ressources_humaines #syndicalisme #epic_games #bandcamp #songtradr #licenciements

  • Completion of Microsoft/Activision Merger Will Transform the Video Game and Technology Labor Market | Communications Workers of America
    https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/completion-microsoftactivision-merger-will-transform-video-game-and-techn

    Today’s announcement that Microsoft has completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard represents a milestone in the effort to improve working conditions in the video game industry. Under the terms of a ground-breaking, legally-binding labor neutrality agreement, Microsoft will remain neutral when Activision Blizzard employees express interest in joining a union, providing a clear path to collective bargaining for almost 10,000 workers.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #finance #acquisition #microsoft #activision_blizzard #syndicalisme

  • CD Projekt Red devs are forming a Polish games industry union after a wave of layoffs earlier this year | VG247
    https://www.vg247.com/cd-projekt-red-devs-form-polish-games-industry-union

    This year has been an incredibly rough one for developers across the board, with wave after wave of unnecessary layoffs across multiple major studios. CD Projekt Red was no different, with July seeing the third round of layoffs within three months at the Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 developer. Now, staff at CD Projekt Red have formed a video game union called the Polish Gamedev Workers Union that all members of the Polish games industry are encouraged to join. It has the express purpose of improving “workplace/industry standards in a way that has legal power and amplifies” voices of the workers in question.

    F.A.Q. – Polish Gamedev Workers Union
    https://gamedevunion.pl/?page_id=88&lang=en

    Q: Why did you organize a union?

    A: We started talking about unionizing after the 2023 wave of layoffs when 9% of Reds (that is roughly 100 people) were let go. This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response. Having a union means having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #cd_projekt_red #licenciements #ressources_humaines #syndicalisme

    • On entend beaucoup les winners de la désertion, dit-elle, mais pas celles et ceux qui n’arrivent pas à abandonner un peu de sécurité matérielle ; qui se plantent ; qui se lancent en auto-entreprise pour vendre le fruit de leur travail et se partagent des niches de consommation minuscules, luttant contre la concurrence des produits manufacturés ou de plus grosses entreprises. Ou qui ne réussissent à changer de métier que pour découvrir que tous les domaines d’activité sont taylorisés, soumis au contrôle et déshumanisés (elle mentionne à ce propos Xavier Noulhianne, chercheur en sciences de laboratoire devenu éleveur de brebis qui fait ce constat dans Le Ménage des champs (2)). Surprise... pour qui n’avait pris la peine de suivre aucune lutte autour du travail (3). Humbert cite même un conflit social lors duquel la seule à ne pas participer fut une future déserteuse. Elle critique le désinvestissement du collectif que permet, justifie et parfois encourage la désertion, geste très individuel. Le revenu universel a suscité les mêmes espoirs. La « grande démission » a apporté quelques réponses très concrètes, mais pas franchement positives, à ces rêves de changement social par la déstabilisation du marché du travail. Est-ce seulement un problème d’échelle si ces stratégies ne changent pas le monde ?

      #désertion #capital #syndicalisme #collectif #individualisme #libéralisme #Aude_Vidal ##Anne_Humbert #livre #recension

  • Entretien avec douze vétéran·es : « L’UTCL, un ouvriérisme à visage humain ! »
    https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Entretien-avec-douze-veteran-es-L-UTCL-un-ouvrierisme-a-

    Entretien avec douze vétéran·es : « L’UTCL, un ouvriérisme à visage humain ! »
    26 septembre 2023 par Redac-web-01 / 83 vues

    Les locaux d’AL à Paris 19e, une après-midi devant soi, un buffet campagnard, et le plaisir de retrouver quelques camarades qu’on n’a parfois plus vu depuis plusieurs années… Le 18 septembre 2005, douze anciennes et anciens prenaient part à un entretien croisé sur l’histoire de l’Union des travailleurs communistes libertaires. Dans une ambiance décontractée, sans esquiver les questions dérangeantes, les participants ont offert une image nuancée de ce qu’avait été leur organisation.

    Une explication de l’histoire quelque peu auto-centrée mais le travers est inévitable dans ce genre d’évocation. Pour autant, il n’y a aucune raison d’ignorer le rôle des « minorités agissantes » - avec tout ce que ce terme peut receler d’ambiguïté et de dérives - dans le déroulement des luttes sociales. Un des écueils du militantisme étant, qu’au nom de l’action, l’objectif de « l’auto-organisation dans la lutte », parte dans les limbes, happé par la routine quotidienne militante - notamment syndicaliste - dont le rythme fondamental est imposé par les institutions capitalistes. L’organisation spécifique serait alors précisément le moyen d’échapper à ce travers ? Peut-être. On appréciera d’autant plus l’humilité et la sincérité des militant.es de l’UTCL quand iels évoquent nombre d’erreurs et de dévoiements contre lesquels l’orga n’a été d’aucun recours.

    De mon point de vue, ce long témoignage mérite surtout d’être lu pour les problématiques - dont un certaines sont toujours d’actualité - ayant traversé le mouvement social et sa composante, dite révolutionnaire, et, en particulier, libertaire, depuis une cinquantaine d’année.

  • Transformieren, aber fair – Peter Nowak
    https://peter-nowak-journalist.de/2023/09/18/transformieren-aber-fair

    Quelques jours avant le congrès national du syndicat ver.di le parti de gauche Die Linke organise une rencontre de membres de comités d’entreprise et syndicalistes militants. Comme d’habitude les grands médias ont préféré ignorer cette rencontre. Le journal ND-online, l’ancien Neues Deutschland a ouvert ses colonnes à l’infatigable Peter Nowak. Voici son compte rendu de la rencontre sous le titre Berlin, Hauptstadt der Guten Arbeit ?! .

    Introduction

    «Klassenkampfstimmung brachten Kolleg*innen des Lieferdienstes Lieferando in die Konferenz, die mit ihren Streikwesten auftraten. »Wir haben keine Orte im Betrieb, wo wir uns treffen können, was die Atomisierung vorantreibt«, so Lieferando-Betriebsrat Leonard Müller. Damiano Valgolio nannte die Unterstützung der kämpferischen Rider*innen eine wichtige Aufgabe seiner Partei.

    https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1176357.konferenz-linke-und-gewerkschaften-transformieren-aber-fair.html
    On trouve des liens et infos supplémentaires dans la version de l’article sur le site web du journal ND-Aktuell.

    #Allemagne #Berlin #syndicalisme #gauche

  • Unruhe bei Gewerkschaft Verdi : Geld für Soziales, nicht Rüstung
    https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/wirtschaft-verantwortung/unruhe-bei-gewerkschaft-verdi-geld-fuer-soziales-nicht-ruestung-li.

    Le comité directeur du syndicat des employés du secteur tertiaire ver.di soutient la ligne de guerre du gouvernement allemand. Au congrès général de ver.di à Berlin un groupe lance une pétition auprès des délégués qui rappelle que le ralliement au gouvernement et le soutien de sa guerre anti-russe en 1914 ont menè à la catastrophe. Pour eux une guerre n’a jamais lieu pour la démocratie ou la liberté du peuple mais toujours pour les intérêts du pouvoir. Le groupe ne pense pas pouvoir obtenir le soutien de la majorité des élus pour cause de la peur des russes hériditaire très répandue en Allemagne.

    18.9.2023 von Michael Maier - Auf dem Bundeskongress der Vereinten Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (Verdi) wird lebhaft über die Haltung der Gewerkschaft zu Waffenlieferungen sowie die Erhöhung der Rüstungsausgaben und deren Auswirkungen auf die Sozialpolitik in Deutschland gestritten. Holger Griebner, Mitglied im Arbeitskreis Frieden von Verdi, sagte der Berliner Zeitung, es gäbe viele Wortmeldungen zu dem Thema und eine insgesamt neue Bewertung etwa von Waffenlieferungen an die Ukraine. Griebner sagte: „Viele Delegierte, die zu Beginn des Krieges noch für eine massive Unterstützung der Selbstverteidigung der Ukrainer gestimmt haben, sehen die aktuelle Entwicklung kritisch.“ Der Konflikt werde immer stärker zu „einer geopolitischen Auseinandersetzung und Deutschland zur Kriegspartei“. Viele Mitglieder wollten dies nicht – auch, weil die „Sozialkürzungen natürlich eine Folge der gestiegenen Rüstungsausgaben“ seien. Griebner: „Es gilt immer noch: Die Dividenden steigen, und die Proletarier fallen.“ Obwohl es viele Delegierte mit einer „friedenspolitischen“ Ausrichtung gäbe, sei es unwahrscheinlich, dass sich auch bei den einschlägigen Abstimmungen Mehrheiten gegen den Vorstand ergeben könnten. Dieser will sich im wesentlichen dem Kurs der Bundesregierung anschließen. Der als Antrag „E 096“ den Delegierten des Verdi-Bundeskongresses vorgelegte Antrag hält fest, dass der „völkerrechtswidrige Angriffskrieg Russlands auf die ­Ukraine (…) die europäische Friedens- und Sicherheitsordnung nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges massiv beschädigt“ habe. Indem Antrag heißt es, dass „gewaltsame Grenzverschiebungen nicht toleriert werden dürfen“. Es wird gefordert, dass „die finanzielle Ausstattung der Bundeswehr an dem zu bemessen, was zur Erfüllung ihrer Aufgaben in der Landes- und Bündnisverteidigung erforderlich ist“. Die Aufrüstung der Nato und der Bundeswehr dürfe allerdings nicht „grenzenlos“ erfolgen.

    Gegen diese Positionierung regt sich nun an der Basis Widerstand. Die Münchner Gewerkschafterin Hedwig Krimmer sagte der Jungen Welt: „Von unten, von Bezirks- und Landesbezirkskonferenzen, von Bezirksfachbereichskonferenzen bis hin zu Bundeskonferenzen liegen lauter Anträge vor, die sich klar gegen Aufrüstung positionieren.“ Ein Teil der Anträge richte sich „ganz klar gegen Waffenlieferungen“. Anstatt diese Anträge zusammenzufassen, habe der Bundesvorstand einen eignen Antrag mit völlig anderem Inhalt vorgeschlagen. Dieser sei „der finale Kniefall vor militaristischer Logik und das genaue Gegenteil von unserer elementaren gewerkschaftlichen Grundüberzeugung: Uns eint die Ablehnung eines Denkens in militärischen Kategorien“. Diese werde jedoch durch semantische Tricks in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt, in dem es nun plötzlich heiße, es gehe um die Ablehnung eines Denkens in „rein“ militärischen Kategorien.

    Krimmer will nun mit einer eigenen Petition einen Kontrapunkt setzen. Unter dem Titel „Sagt Nein!“ werden die Delegierten aufgefordert, den Antrag des Bundesvorstands abzulehnen. Hier heißt es: „Sagt Nein! Hebt Eure Hand nicht für einen erneuten Schulterschluss der Gewerkschaften mit dem deutschen Kriegskurs!“

    Und weiter: „Wir haben nicht vergessen, was 1914 geschah: Die Gewerkschaftsführungen in ganz Europa schickten unter Bruch aller vorherigen Beschlüsse ihre Mitglieder in den Krieg – angeblich gegen den russischen Despoten-Zaren, tatsächlich aber für den Profit von Krupp, Thyssen und Co.“ Und weiter: „Wer meint, es gehe bei den aktuellen Kriegen weltweit um Freiheit oder Diktatur, Aggression oder Selbstverteidigung oder gar um Völker- und Menschenrecht, ist der beiderseitigen Kriegspropaganda bereits auf den Leim gegangen.“ Um all das sei „es in der Geschichte noch nie“ gegangen. Daher möge Verdi fordern: Keine Waffenlieferungen, keine Aufrüstung, sofortige Abrüstung! Die Zukunft der Gewerkschaft solle „nicht an der Seite der deutschen Regierung oder irgend einer anderen Kriegspartei“ sein. Die Zukunft sei „an der Seite der Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter, die in Italien und Griechenland gegen Waffenlieferungen kämpfen“, sowie an der Seite der Kollegen „in Frankreich, Großbritannien und weltweit, die immer wieder gegen den Krieg und die Abwälzung der Krisen- und Kriegskosten auf uns alle streiken“.

    Dass die Petition eine Mehrheit erhält, gilt jedoch als unwahrscheinlich. Holger Griebner: „Leider hat bei vielen Delegierten die Regierungspropaganda verfangen – es herrscht die in Deutschland sozial vererbte Angst vor dem Russen. In diesem Sinne habe die Bundesregierung einen „Informationskrieg“ geführt, nach Griebners Einschätzung mit Erfolg.

    Am Montag kündigte Bundesverteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius ein neues deutsches Rüstungspaket in Höhe von 400 Millionen Euro für die Ukraine an.

    „Wir liefern zusätzliche Munition: Sprengmunition, Mörsermunition, Minenraketen. Denn Munition ist das, was die Ukraine in ihrem Abwehrkampf gegen den brutalen Angriffskrieg am dringendsten braucht“, sagte Pistorius der Bild-Zeitung. „Darüber hinaus werden wir mit geschützten Fahrzeugen und Minenräumsystemen helfen. Wir haben aber auch den nahenden Winter im Blick: Wir werden Kleidung schicken, aber auch Strom- und Wärmeerzeuger.“

    Auf dem US-Luftwaffenstützpunkt Ramstein in Rheinland-Pfalz beraten am Dienstag ranghohe Militärs und Verteidigungsminister aus zahlreichen Ländern über die weitere Unterstützung der Ukraine in ihrem Abwehrkampf gegen Russland. „In Ramstein prüfen wir zum Beispiel, ob wir bei der Ausbildung noch mehr unterstützen können“, sagte Pistorius. Pistorius musste seine Teilnahme an dem Treffen am Montagabend wegen einer Corona-Erkrankung absagen.

    Für die vornehmlich militärische Unterstützung der Ukraine hat Deutschland laut einer Übersicht der Bundesregierung in diesem Jahr insgesamt rund 5,4 Milliarden Euro vorgesehen, nach zwei Milliarden Euro im Vorjahr. Für die Folgejahre gibt es Verpflichtungsermächtigungen in Höhe von rund 10,5 Milliarden Euro.

    Unklar blieb, ob es sich bei der von Pistorius genannten Ausrüstung komplett um neue Ankündigungen handelt - das Verteidigungsministerium äußerte sich dazu am Montagabend auf Anfrage der Deutschen Presse-Agentur nicht. Die online veröffentlichte Liste geplanter deutscher Unterstützungsleistungen umfasst neben Munition bereits etwa 17 Feldheizgeräte und mobile Minenräumsysteme.

    Zur ukrainischen Forderung nach einer Lieferung deutscher Taurus-Marschflugkörper äußerte Pistorius sich erneut zurückhaltend. „Die Pflicht der gesamten Bundesregierung ist es, jede Waffenlieferung sehr sorgfältig abzuwägen“, sagte er. Dabei seien eine Vielzahl von politischen, rechtlichen, militärischen und technischen Aspekten zu klären. „Das ist nicht einfach. Ob die Bundesregierung Taurus-Marschflugkörper schickt, hat sie noch nicht entschieden.“ Zur Frage, ob Taurus ohne Hilfe von Bundeswehrsoldaten eingesetzt werden könne, sagte Pistorius: „Auch dies gehört zu den Fragen, die wir klären.“

    #Allemagne #syndicalisme #politique #guerre #Russie #Ukraine