From kevin.brandstatter@bbsrc.ac.uk Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 17:51:16 +0100 From: BRANDSTATTER To: IWW List , Martin Howard , Shaun <100517.1573@Compuserve.com>, "raju600 (Mr D M Liddiard)" , Eva Durant , IWW List Subject: UK WOBBLY REPORT Resent-Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 13:29:38 -0700 (PDT) Resent-From: "X341697 (Deke Nihilson)" Resent-To: deke@wps.com FOR PUBLICATION IN THE GOB Below is a report of IWW activity this side of the Atlantic. This will be the last "UK" report as we are about to have a member based in the Irish Republic. Members of the union met in a very sunny and hot Edinburgh on 24 June. The meeting was hosted by the newly chartered Stevenson College Branch. Membership The treasurer reported 76 members based in the UK. Not all fully paid up however. Couriers Union The union has been holding regular meetings and while membership stands at 8 there is a growing list of contacts. The small membership has been very active giving out hundreds of leaflets and has thousands of stickers all over London in places where couriers congregate. The couriers union hotline has been very busy with calls for inofrmation, advice etc. Letters have been coming in to the new PO Box and the union has come to the attention of the owners with two bogus letters being traced back to the bosses. The union has now targeted a central London couriers firm notorious for its practices. For example a new member worked a twelve hour shift for five days and then got only 75 for 60 hors work after stoppages by the company for late deliveries etc etc. The members are currently working out the tactics and it further news on this front will be posted some time in the future. The union is currently having a banner made which will be featured on pickets, demonstrations etc. Education Workers - Stevenson College Members scored a big success recently despite small numbers. College management wanted to make a number of compulsory redundancies because of a cut in government funding. The "official" unions at the college appeared to accept this albeit with some muted protest. The IWW brnach however decided to put together a leaflet calling for resistance. The leaflet invited any employees of the college to sign up for strike action should there be any compulsory redundancies. Within a couple of days 50 signatures were gathered and the union posted notices around the building. Within a couple of days management called the "official" unions to a meeting and announced that there was no need for compulsory redundancies. They commenced discussions on job sharing, voluntary severance and other measures to avoid compulsory job losses. While not a complete victory the IWW activity upstaged the "do nothing" approach of the other unions and proved that industrial unionism works! The branch is now trying to organise action by temporary staff. A large minority of staff at the college are employed on very short term contracts which finish at the end of the academic year. The branch is writing to all those on these contracts inviting them to turn up for work on the first day of the new term and sit at the desk or in the office they last occupied... The branch also took part in the Scottish Miners Gala and recruited five new members taking Edinburgh membership up to 12 and laying the foundation for a GMB. Education Workers Swindon Meetings are now being held on a regular basis is some growth of the UKs second largest workplace branch is hoped for. Local groups Our Aberystwyth members are working very hard on the development of a correspondence course on the history of industrial unionism in all its variants. The course will be broken down into a number of freestanding sections, each of which will include a list of reading material. If everything is prepared a pilot course among current members might be run to sort out any problems. The group has also drafted a series of short lealflets explining the preamble to the unions constitution. These will either be published in their own right or be put together in an introduction pack. The "backbone" of which will be an introduction to the IWW. This has already been compiled and will be printed soon. Groups are now up and running in the West Midlands, London and Glasgow as well with many being involved in different forms of activity. We are to open up shop in Cork, southern Ireland in August so we will be truly "isles" based rather than UK or British! A mobilisation of the IWW is being called for 29 July in support of health workers fighting for a decent pay increase. 1% has been offered nationally with 2% locally in exchange for "productivity" and other cutbacks in conditions. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) with 300,000 members is urging acceptance of this while the other unions are totally opposed. One of these UNISON is organising the demo. We hope to produce some lealfets etc for the march and would really like to see an increase in our health workers membership The meeting in Edinburgh also discussed the case of Mumia Abu Jamal and many members expressed the desire to write letters etc. Now that they have their Industrial Workers with all the details this should soon bear fruit. The meeting also agreed to send to ballot two proposals on a revised dues structure and a conslutation paper on a regional organising committee constitution in order that it may be included in the November ballot of the IWW. The next open meeting is scheduled for 4 November 1995 in Leicester. Wobblies all over the world are invited to attend. Yours in solidarity Kevin Brandstatter IWW (east of the Atlantic)