Without labour nothing prospers (2024)

23/09/2019

On this day, 22 September 1912, the syndicalist union the Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of the World Worker) was formed in Mexico, during the turbulent events of the revolution, and despite repression by the Madero regime.

20/09/2019

UK
Outsourced cleaners at the London School of Economics (LSE) struck for their rights. In their battle for the same pay and conditions as similar directly-employed workers. Over 60 people came out for early morning protests to give the picketing a flying start.
The workers were a part of the United Voices of the World (UVW) union. They have faced down management threats and derisory offers put forward in an attempt to get them to call of the action.
Cleaners at the London School of Economics finally won their fight to become in-house staff, vastly improving their pay and conditions. This was the result of a ten-month strike led by some of the most marginalized workers in the country. Their union, United Voices of the World, has also run successful unfair dismissal campaigns against retailer Top Shop and a London recycling plant. They also scored a win for cleaners working for a London council in their fight to receive the London Living Wage.

19/09/2019

United Arab Emirates
Strikes are technically illegal in UAE, but construction workers in Abu Dhabi refused to work until they were paid wages owed.
Workers took off their uniforms in July 2019 and threw a key to the construction site entrance in the sea. Witnesses described seeing about 300 workers walking off the premises. They were everywhere on the street just running around, not in one particular place; around other buildings in the area that were also under construction. The Police arrived 10 minutes later to deal with the dispute.
UAE authorities have taken an increasingly tough line against companies which fail to pay their employees on time.
Two years ago, the UAE Cabinet passed legislation allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.

18/09/2019

United States of America
The largest hotel strike in US history happened back in October 2018, when 6,000 Marriott employees in four states refused to go to work until the company agreed to give them a raise and increase their benefits. By the end of the two-month strike, a total of 215,900 work days were lost.
In December, about 2,500 striking hotel workers in San Francisco ratified a new contract with the hotel chain after months of tense negotiations, according to their labor union, Unite Here. It was the final deal reached during the stoppage, which had spread to 23 Marriott hotels in eight cities.
The strikes came at a time when the company was making record earnings. The hotel chain’s workers wanted a larger share of hotels revenue. They argued that servers’ and housekeepers’ low wages (which vary by city) make it impossible to live in some of the nation’s most expensive cities. They also asked the company to ease strenuous workloads that often lead to injuries, and for more protection against sexual harassment and violence.
The new union contracts vary by city, but their median hourly wage is $23, according to the New York Times. Retiring employees will also get a small pension based on how many years they’ve worked at the company.
Marriott also agreed to provide GPS-enabled panic buttons for housekeepers to alert security staff if a guest makes them feel unsafe while they’re cleaning a room.

17/09/2019

New Zealand
More than 50,000 primary and high school teachers have gone on strike this spring in the biggest industrial action ever seen in New Zealand’s schools.
Since a Labour coalition government took power in late 2017, teachers have held three strikes calling for pay rises, better working conditions and more respect for their profession.
The protesters have so far turned down three pay rise offers from the government of 3%, and say they want 15% or more to continue their work. But the government says it has no more money to give.
More than 700,000 children have been affected by the strike, with many parents forced to take time off work, or take children to work with them. Some local recreation spaces such as libraries and swimming pools were running programmes for children while others were joining their parents in the protests.

16/09/2019

Millions of people have been working without basic labor protections.

11/09/2019

On this day, 11 September 1928, the Port Adelaide strike began in Australia when waterfront workers refused to attend work in protest at new, inferior terms of employment. The strike spread to other ports, despite the union leadership calling off the action. The employers tried to draft an army of volunteer scabs, who were attacked by striking workers, their wives and supporters. While the strike largely ended by mid-October and scab workers abandoned, intermittent strikes and riots continued for the next three years.

02/09/2019

South Africa Federation of Trade Unions fights to set a new national minimum wage
The right to strike is entrenched in South Africa’s constitution, but recent amendments to labor laws there will make it more difficult to take strike action.
A new national minimum wage has been criticized by the South Africa Federation of Trade Unions ( ) as too low. South African workers took to the streets in April 2018 to demand a higher minimum, and SAFTU has pledged to maintain the pressure on the government with more protests in 2019.
SAFTU urged all workers to continue and intensify their solidarity action in support of their fellow workers in strike against intransigent employers. As a vivd example, the strike, by more than 17 000 drivers, has ground transport services to a halt in many cities across the country, leaving commuters forced to find alternative transportation.
As a result, the South African Department of Labour said that legislation and amendments governing the national minimum wage - the National Minimum Wage Bill, the Labour Relations Bill and the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill - were currently passing through parliament.

01/09/2019

Russian automotive company GAZ Group fights against US sanctions for their right to work
GAZ Group workers council formed their own anti-sanctional movement in April 2019 when impendence of shutting down the plants of the company has become inevitable because of US sanctions.
The workers council held a picket in June 2019 in front the US embassy building in Moscow demanding realizing from sanctions. About 30 GAZ employees shouted slogans “Sanctions against GAZ - sanctions against me and my children.” “Sanctions kill cooperation”, “Save GAS, save me”.
Month later workers council protested outside the US ambassador’s residence in Moscow on the 4th of July to oppose measures that the company says will lead to its bankruptcy. Moreover the workers of Yaroslavl Motor Plant and GAZ Nizhniy Novgorod produced rap-videos appealing to the United States to drop crippling sanctions threatening their livelihoods. The videos have been released on their YouTube-channel SaveGAZ.
Though, US state department says that sanctions are not aimed at the Russian people, working class suffers and still fight for their right to work in one of the oldest vehicle-engineering company in Russia.

29/08/2019

Labor union in South Korea goes on strike for job stability and better employee welfare

The Oracle Korea Workers Union was formed in October 2017 primarily as a response to unfair and non-transparent salary and compensation systems in the company. The average working hours at Oracle Korea are about 80-100 hours per week, yet most workers have seen no wage increase over the last 10 years. The company also unfairly dismissed about 100 workers in 2017, and has failed to recognize full time union officials. The labor union has been negotiating three points with the company. It has demanded job stability, it also demanded the company recognize the organization and improve employee welfare. With the decision to go on strike, employees who joined the labor union will stop work ranging from customer service to licensing.

Workers at Oracle in Korea continue their struggle for fair compensation, decent working conditions, and trade union rights in the IT software giant. The Oracle Korea Workers Union have now called their members out on strike since May 16. Necessary to admit, that It was a rare move among employees working for foreign IT firms in Korea to establish a labor union to fight for their rights.

29/08/2019

Strikes for higher wages at US factories in Mexico

At least 70,000 workers from 45 factories in Mexico —including tens of thousands of auto parts and assembly workers at companies that supply General Motors, Ford and Fiat-Chrysler—launched a wildcat strike in the US-Mexico border town of Matamoros in January 2019.
The strike was a rebellion against both the “maquiladora” manufacturing corporations and the pro-company trade unions. Over 1 million workers endure low wages and sweatshop conditions at the 3,000 “maquiladora” factories that line the Mexican side of the border and account for 65 percent of Mexican exports.

In defiance of orders by the union to stay on the job until Wednesday, groups of workers fanned out across the city to block the entrances to the shuttered plants and to stand guard both day and night. Workers have also set up common cafeterias and other amenities for strikers.

29/08/2019

Engineers’ protest in Pakistan against unfair service structure. ( French Yellow Vest impact)

Hundreds of engineers working in government departments staged a rally and a sit-in to protest for improving their service structure on 19th of December 2018 in Lahore.
Under the aegis of Punjab Association of Government Engineers (PAGE), the protesters demanded technical allowance, saying they would fight for engineers’ rights in Punjab. They also stressed for separate service structure for the engineers.

The demonstration led to severe traffic congestion on The Mall and adjoining roads for hours. Vehicular traffic flow was adversely affected on The Mall from High Court Chowk towards Regal Chowk due to protest at Faisal Chowk. Javed Saleem Qureshi, Chairman Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and other leaders demanded of the government introduce technical allowance for engineers on the pattern of other provinces.

29/08/2019

2018 has seen many working-class people around the world standing up for their rights and pushing back against injustice and inequality. Some of these fights have made the mainstream news in western countries, but many have not. As we reflect on the year that is ending, let’s not forget the struggles of working-class people and the successes of collective action and solidarity. Around the world, people have had enough of corporate greed and government inaction to combat inequality

Working-class people are taking action to improve their own lives and to challenge structures that maintain inequality and injustice, and hearing about the actions and success of others helps build workers movements. Stories from around the world show there is still power in unions and collective action. They also highlight the need for global solidarity.

29/08/2019

The yellow vest-protests in France against disproportionate burden falling on the working and middle classes

The Yellow Vest protests have been rocking France every Saturday for several months from the end of 2018 as tens of thousands of workers went to the streets to demand change.
The movement began in France in October 2018. After an online petition posted in May had attracted nearly a million signatures, mass demonstrations began on 17 November. It started as a protest against an increase in gas taxes and quickly grew into a much broader fight for improvements to workers’ lives, encompassing everything from immigration to the environment and housing. It claims that a disproportionate burden of the government's tax reforms were falling on the working and middle classes, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. The protesters have called for lower fuel taxes, a minimum-wage increase, the implementation of Citizens' initiative referendums, as well as the resignations of President Emmanuel Macron and the Second Philippe government.
What distinguishes the Yellow Vests in France’s long history of social movements is how they’re organizing—organically, across industry and ideology, outside of politics or formal institutions.

They’ve been able to grow and sustain their protest into a full-fledged movement by connecting issues they once fought for separately, arguing all workers suffer from the same economic and social struggles.
The largest "yellow vest" protest set an example for the rest of the world how to fight for their rights.

29/08/2019

On this day, 28 August 1844, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels met in the Café de la Régence in Paris and – although having met a couple years before – began their lifelong friendship and revolutionary work together. As Engels noted in 1885: "When I visited Marx in Paris in the summer of 1844, our complete agreement in all theoretical fields became evident and our joint work dates from that time." Here is the first joint work they embarked on: https://libcom.org/library/holy-family-marx-engels
Pictured is a cinematic recreation of the event in the recent film The Young Karl Marx

29/08/2019

Australia
Australia has seen a number of localized strikes and organization of workers throughout 2018, including the notable formation of the First Nations Workers Alliance (FNWA), set up to fight against the unjust Community Development Program — a ‘work for the dole’ scheme targeting Indigenous people in remote communities. Under the scheme, Indigenous people are expected to work for no pay and are penalized if they refuse to do so. They are not covered by occupational health and safety laws and do not receive other work entitlements. The FNWA has been campaigning around the country, creating solidarity with non-Indigenous workers and unions and empowering workers with information about their rights.

29/08/2019

India
The All India General Strike called by ten central trade unions and supported by many workers’ federations in finance and services sectors brought down economic and social life to a virtual halt in entire country on 8-9 January 2019. This became a complete Bharat Bandh with participation of many democratic organizations including those of students, youth, women and farmers.
This strike was a response to Modi government’s continued cronyism to few corrupt corporate houses and intensification of attacks on workers’ rights and livelihoods amidst a situation where economy has worsened to unprecedented scale. There was spontaneous response to the call of the strike from the workers in various states and various sectors of economy - from organised including state and central govt. employees to unorganized.

29/08/2019

Germany
Railway workers have been engaged in a national strike over pay.
Fights against Amazon – choosing the busiest days of the year to stage strikes and speaking out publicly against unsafe working conditions in Amazon factories. "No more discount on our incomes," the protest was organized by Verdi, a German labor union. Around 2,000 workers participated to call for collective bargaining agreements that would raise pay.

29/08/2019

Today, 30 July, is the 5th anniversary of the start of the Working Class History project! So we are launching a birthday appeal to try to make WCH sustainable in the long-term.
We started from a tiny page 5 years ago, posting a small number of anniversaries, mostly about white male workers in the US and UK. By 2018 we grew to over 100k followers. We then started a patreon which has enabled us to grow into a podcast and multi-channel social media project with over 360k followers, with diverse and global content which is seen or listened to around 11 million times a month.
Patreon is a platform which enables projects like ours to get financial support from our listeners/readers. In return patrons get exclusive content like early access to podcast episodes, bonus podcast episodes, and more..
To keep expanding, and improve our podcast, our tiny core team have been taking time off from our day jobs throughout 2019. Due to our financial circumstances (namely, we have to pay rent, bills and buy food) we are only going to be able to keep spending this amount of time working on WCH for a year. If we are to continue putting as much time and effort into the podcast, researching them, finding guests and writing scripts and narrative, and keep researching new and more diverse people's history, as well as working on numerous other projects, we need more support from you, our readers/listeners.
If just 1000 people (less than 0.3%) of our followers supported us, then our project will be sustainable in the long-term. We will be able to remunerate our core team with an amount around the minimum wage, which will enable us to continue spending as much time as we are now, and will be able to develop more projects like translations and a massive website with timelines and maps.
So if you appreciate what we do, and want to see us keep up our work educating and inspiring a new generation of activists, then please do consider joining us on patreon: https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory

29/08/2019

An exercise by the People’s Armed Police on Hong Kong’s border signaled Beijing’s willingness to intervene to end any serious threat to sovereignty.

29/08/2019

Working-class people are taking action to improve their own lives and to challenge structures that maintain inequality and injustice. Worldwide coverage of these actions helps build workers movements and change the system and existing unfair conditions. Stories from around the world show there is still power in unions and collective action. They also highlight the need for global solidarity.

Without labour nothing prospers

23/09/2019

20/09/2019

19/09/2019

18/09/2019

17/09/2019

16/09/2019

11/09/2019

02/09/2019

01/09/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

29/08/2019

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share