Britain

  • British Postal Union Calls Off Strike
    Sheila Cohen
    Nov 21 2009 - 1:37am
    ** Print only

    Five 24-hour strikes in mid-October over speedup, harassment, and lost jobs brought down media and government accusations demonizing British postal workers for potentially denying the public “their Christmas.” Unnerved, postal union leaders cancelled further actions.

  • Support Fired Auto Union Leader Who Backed Visteon Sit-Down

    Body:

    Rob Williams, local convenor (chief steward) of the Unite union, was fired April 28 at the Linamar car parts factory in Swansea, Wales, for “irretrievable breakdown of trust”—that is, managers didn’t trust him to take their side. Williams had been active in supporting sit-downs at three Visteon plants in the U.K. (see page 16), and Linamar, which had bought the Swansea plant from Visteon, is now seeking pay cuts.

    As managers called police to escort Williams from the factory, he ran through the plant to the union office, which was quickly surrounded by workers who left their jobs on the line. The police backed off and management backed down—but only temporarily. They fired Williams again May 6 and removed the door to the union office.

    Expiration Date:
    Tue, 06/30/2009 - 11:59am

  • Auto Workers Occupy Visteon Plants in UK

    Body:

    Workers at a Visteon plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland, staged an occupation of their plant March 31 after management told them it would close in six minutes. Workers in two plants in England followed their lead, and soon 600 Visteon workers were occupying their factories.

    The plants were part of Ford Motor Company until a restructuring plan nine years ago, when Ford promised that Visteon workers’ contracts would always “mirror” Ford’s. Ford had promised “redundancy contracts”—benefits and pay workers would get if the plant were to shut down. Now Visteon is offering nothing, and workers fear they will lose their pensions as well.

    Expiration Date:
    Sun, 05/31/2009 - 9:59pm