Rank and File

Newsletter of the anarchist TRADE UNION NETWORK

"Trade unions are the natural organisations of the masses" - Bakunin February 2000 Free/Donation

This is from the very good LabourNet UK web site (http://www.labournet.net/): The Scottish TUC and shop worker's union USDAW are calling on union members to boycott Borders Books after they sacked five workers in Glasgow for eating without permission! The store has also banned sellers of The Big Issue from its premises. Borders are no strangers to such practices. The IWW in the States have been organising a boycott of the chain since 1996 when the company sacked IWW member Mariam Fried for organising a recruitment drive amongst staff. The American United Food and Commercial Worker's Union also report that the chain, which has two stores in London as well as Brighton, Leeds and York, pursue a range of anti union tactics aimed at preventing their staff organising - so buy your books somewhere else!

Recent reports about the National Minimum Wage (NMW) highlight what anarchists have long known: workers cannot rely on the state to improve their lot. When push comes to shove all governments are more concerned with keeping business rather than workers happy. The NMW is currently a pathetic £3.60 an hour (less for young workers). This rate was set in July 1998 and is due to be reviewed this April when unions hoped it would be increased to at least £4 an hour. However at the start of the year reports appeared in the press that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair plan to freeze the NMW at its current level meaning that despite rising prices Britain's lowest paid workers are unlikely to receive any increase in earnings until April 2001! Can you imagine how MPs would react if they were told that their pay would be frozen for three years? Before the NMW was introduced bosses squealed that having to pay their staff the huge amount of just over £6,000 a year would cost jobs. The reality has been, surprise, surprise, the complete opposite. The introduction of the NMW has coincided with the lowest levels of unemployment for decades. Could it be then that the real explanation for Blair and Brown's penny pinching is that they would rather see higher profits for bosses than a decent income for the low paid? Surely not!

Labour has been criticised by the TUC for opposing the introduction of Work Councils. Blair is seeking to block an EU initiative that would introduce worker information and consultative committees in all EU companies with more than 50 employees. Clearly Blair's vision of an inclusive society doesn't include bosses talking to their workers. You may, though, be interested to know that a recent European Court of Justice Ruling (Allen vs Amalgamated Construction, if you must know) means that employers will, whether they or Blair like it or not, have to consult with trade unions before any reorganisation affecting their workforce. Mind you we at the Anarchist Trade Union Network say why not cut out the middleman (and they always seem to be men) all together and let the workers run the whole thing in the first place?

At the start of the year Connex South Central were forced to cancel 380 services as train drivers took unofficial action. The drivers refused to work voluntary overtime because of a dispute over a shorter working week. Their union, Aslef, warned that "the company is facing a complete break down in industrial relations". Further action is due to take place at the end of this month. Elsewhere on the railways workers at the Docklands Light Railway were due to walk out in protest at a 3% increase in pay on January 24. While earlier in the month 1,000 postal workers walked out of Watford Sorting office. The dispute was sparked by management's refusal to introduce traditional Christmas overtime arrangements causing a backlog of work to build up. It is good to see that the cases of unofficial action reported in the November issue of Rank and File are continuing into the New Year.

More aTUN subscribers belong to the public service's union Unison that any other union(it seems that it's true that more anarchists work for the government than any other employer). The union's 1.3 million members will be balloted at the start of February for a new General Secretary. Below Martin, a Unison member gives his view:

"As anyone unfortunate enough to be in Unison is probably aware, Rodney Bikerstaffe has stood down as General Secretary and there are three candidates standing to replace him. One is Dave Prentis the management's choice. The Campaign for a Fighting Democratic Unison have put a Socialist Party (Militant) member - Roger Bannister, under the usual slogan of For a Fighting General Secretary on a Worker's Wage. Also one of the Hillingdon hospital strikers, Malkiat Bilku is standing. I have seen none of her campaign material, although I can imagine it to be highly critical of a union that refused to show any basic solidarity and is instead ruled by accountants and lawyers.

I would imagine that anyone on this list would probably be voting for Roger Bannister as the best chance of defeating the Stalinist-New Labour alliance that runs Unison in the interests of the bosses. One of the reasons that I have for some time been for CFDU is that for the first time in ages sections of the left have broken with the 'must vote Labour' ideology that dominates them. However this is tempered by the realisation that they are only calling for the Political Fund to be spent on 'pro worker' election candidates, ie., SP/Militant rather than for it to be spent on more direct forms of political campaigning.

It would be interesting to see what views other Unison (or indeed other union) members have on this election. I think that there are three areas of interest for anarchists:

The first has to be to use this election as a chance for free speech within our union. Recent events and branch suspensions where ever anyone tries to fight the 'privatise and cut' agenda of New Labour shows how little there is, at least compared to the far from perfect Nalgo I remember. In fact it's the worse of all worlds - Nalgo's high subs and Nupe's scabbing bureaucracy.

Secondly the CFDU has raised the issue of the affiliated political fund*. I would suggest we need to go further and argue that the non-affiliated political fund just doubles up as Labour propaganda as well - both should be reformed and used to fight politically against cuts and for public services. We all know that privatisation stinks - everyone does, yet still they push ahead with it. The political fund should be used to mount a concerted anti privatisation campaign.

Thirdly we should be quite clear that wherever workers do start to fight back they will be victimised by the union bureaucracies who are, in fact, medium sized corporations. While we should fight against this we should also prepare with real solidarity those who are forced out of the unions for defending their interests."

As mentioned above more network subscribers belong to Unison than any

other union. If you belong to Unison and would like to link up with other

anarchists in the union, Bill a Unison member and health worker is

interested in setting something up. You can contact him via the Derby

address or email.

Responses to Winning Friends and Influencing People

November's Rank and File contained an article by Bill Godwin on the role of anarchists in trade unions inspired by the discussion organised by the aTUN at last year's Anarchist Book Fair. This issue we print responses from two subscribes. Firstly, Babeuf, who responds to Bill's view that people do not want to be union reps -

"The false idea that 'no one wants to be the union rep' is an old one that fosters the belief that 'all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds' and the only people interested in such things are the unbalanced, outside agitators or 'reds'. Being an effective workplace rep' today is a responsible (to members) and demanding job. If there is a reluctance to take on the job of work place rep it is for this kind of reason, not apathy or contempt. Service style trade unionism uses these people as an insurance salesperson rather than organisers. Too often their time is taken up with petty-fogging FAQ type activity that leads no where. Reps need to work in a way that advances the situation at the workplace and leads to a position we can again hammer on the employers."

"Henri Lefebrve (1991), the French left wing intellectual proposed that people are situated in the space in which they must either recognise themselves or loose themselves (The Production of Space, Blackwell, p.35). In his contribution to the November issue Bill Godwin essentially recommended the option of recognising ourselves in the workplace by behaving disingenuously and manipulatively. Perhaps some readers, including those who regard themselves as being morally unacceptable, might prefer to recognise themselves in alternative ways. If so perhaps it might be useful for us to know them."

• Any further views on how, as anarchists, we should act at work and in our unions (if we are union members) would be very welcome, along with any experiences people have had. For what it's worth I've generally been pretty open about my politics and haven't had too many problems, but what about other people?

As France prepares to introduce a 35 hour week in a bid to cut its 11% unemployment rate a report shows that the average British worker spends 44 hours a week at work - four hours more than the European average. Long hours take their toll. Over the last seven years there has been a 122% rise in occupational injury and sickness costing business around £18 billion. Some 1.3 million workers report a work-related injury each year, 400,000 reporting stress related illnesses. So, as if you didn't know already: work is bad for your health. Incidentally France last reduced the working week in 1936 (to 40 hours) following a series of factory occupations. The current cut is being introduced by the government and unions fear that employers will try to cut wages as the shortfall in hours work will need, by law, to be made up by employing more staff. Time to reoccupy those factories again we reckon.

You may have missed this in The Guardian but a web site has been set up for people to report on how dumb their boss is (www.myboss.com). Here are a couple of examples - "my boss wanted to send a fax halfway around the world. He told me to turn off the lights to boost the power of the fax machine so the transmission would make it"… and… "my boss came out of his office stared at his in tray and then went back into his office. He did this every 10 minutes for more than an hour. Unable to stand it any longer the next time he emerged I asked him if he was expecting an important letter. He said 'No it's my computer. It keeps telling me I've got mail"

Preparations are well underway for the four-day festival of anarchist ideas and action to be held in London between 28 April and 1 May. Saturday and Sunday will include a bookfair, conference and workshops. aTUN is likely to be present at both the conference and workshops (and Monday's day of action). Any subscribers with views on what it would be useful to have a discussion about or who would be interested in getting involved or helping organise something please let us know - any input would be very welcome.

NEWSDATES

• On 29 January Richard Griffin is speaking at the London Anarchist Forum at 8pm Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London on 'Anarchism and Trade Unionism'
• We know it's rather a long way away but the TUC's annual Congress is being held in Glasgow from September 11 to 14 this year. If you think you may be going can you let us know please.
• Sunday 16 July is the date of this year's Tolpudldle festival (anyone going?)
• Recently released Cabinet papers reveal that trade union power and unofficial action almost destroyed Harold Wilson's 1969 government. Unions were responding with threats of strikes against Labour's proposals to outlaw unofficial action and introduce strike ballots. Workers were also frustrated by three years of pay restraint. Shame we couldn't see a bit of that now.
• The 10,000 strong National Union of Insurance Workers has merged with MSF, who themselves are in merger talks with the AEEU.
• Now here's a surprise - a study by the TUC has found that the key to increasing union membership is not cheap credit cards or discounts on holidays but organising by lay activists! The main reasons why people wanted to join a trade union it seems was to help with problems at work and to increase their bargaining power. Strangely a desire to form a partnership with their bosses didn't appear as a reason.
• Despite receiving 90,000 calls and 3,000 formal complaints to the National Minimum Wage Help Line just 20 enforcement notices were issued by October last year.
• At the end of January 170,000 dockworkers in India began indefinite strike action bringing the countries ports to a stand still in protest against low pay.

Contacting aTUN

• By post: Box EMAB (ATU), 88 Abbey Street, Derby, DE22 3SQ
• By email: williamgodwin7@hotmail.com
• Email discussion/news group, subscribe to: atu@listbot.com
• Website: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2522