Total workers win posted by Richard Seymour

The news is reporting that a deal has been reached between Total management and the workers undertaking wildcat strike action. This actually means that the workers got their jobs back and management caved in after losing 100m euros to the strikes. This is a stunning victory over a management that sought to break the strike movement by sacking hundreds of workers. It should be taken as a model of how unofficial action and widespread solidarity can win elsewhere - at Corus, for example.

Labels: strike, total oil workers, trade unions, victory, working class

Total workers strike posted by Richard Seymour

There's some good coverage of the strikes at the Lindsey oil refinery in Socialist Worker this week (not to mention the coverage of Iran, of which this discussion of the new student left is the pick). The last time Lindsey was in the news, there was a ferocious argument over the all too popular slogan 'British jobs for British workers'. This time it's much more simple. In order to defeat the unofficial strike wave that had kicked off among construction workers, the management decided to set an example by sacking hundreds of them. This has led to mass meetings campaigning for support, and unofficial walkouts and solidarity strikes across the industry. The GMB union is apparently going to ballot for official support for action by the whole union, but the workforce is way ahead of this. I particularly like this quote from the Unite shop steward:

“Would Total do the same thing in France?

“Absolutely not, because there wouldn’t be a tanker left on its four wheels.

“They’d all be turned over on their sides, blockading every road to this refinery, because the French wouldn’t put up with it.”

Not for the first time, I envy the French.

Labels: construction workers, lindsey oil refinery, strikes, total oil workers, trade unions, unite union, wildcat strikes