Labour Struggles

By Barry Sheppard, in San Francisco

During the 1980-82 recession, US car corporations were closing factories, reflecting growing international competition and overproduction. One of the plants closed was a large General Motors facility in the city of Fremont, California, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. This factory was reopened in 1984, in a deal between Toyota and GM. They formed a new corporation, New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI). Toyota held 70% and GM the rest, with management largely from Toyota.

By Ian Jamieson

Amid howls of protests by employers, their representatives, the media and politicians, Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) members employed in the offshore gas and oil industry are concluding protracted negotiations for an enterprise agreement that will substantially improve wages and conditions.

By Owen Richards

A significant blow against the Australian public school system was delivered on January 29 when the Rudd Labor government launched a website providing data on the performance of schools across the country — the much heralded “MySchool” website, hosted by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. It will dramatically deepen inequality in the education system.

By Barry Sheppard, in San Francisco

Less than two weeks before the first anniversary of US President Barack Obama’s inauguration, when the catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, immediately announced that no food, water or medicines would be delivered until “security” was established. The first order of business was to send in 10,000 US troops. A 9000-member Brazilian-led UN military force, which has been occupying Haiti since a US-orchestrated coup in 2004 removed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, made a similar announcement.

By Marcus Pabian

“How much longer are we going to allow transnational companies to come here to speculate with our prices?” asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on January 17, announcing the expropriation of the large Exitos department store chain—three-quarters owned by the French company Casino Guichard Perrachon, with a minority share owned by the Colombian company Exito SA — on his weekly TV and radio program Alo Presidente, after the company tried to take advantage of a currency devaluation. According to Eduardo Saman, Venezuela’s Minister of People’s Power for Commerce, “a refrigerator that they bought overseas for $300 or $400 is sold in Exitos for up to $4000”.

By Kathy Newnam

The defining feature of Australian politics today is the ongoing retreat of the organised working class. In the face of the serious economic crisis, there is no mass expression of a working-class alternative. The class-collaborationist leadership of the trade union movement is unwilling and incapable of challenging the ruling class “solutions” to the crisis: pay cuts, shorter hours and other measures demanded by the bosses, supposedly to “save jobs”.

By Barry Sheppard, in San Francisco

A militant struggle has erupted in the University of California, which comprises 10 public sector universities located in different cities across the state, with a total of 220,000 students and 170,000 faculty members and general staff. UC students have been hit by a sudden rise in tuition fees of over 30%. Both faculty and non-teaching staff face attacks on their pay and working conditions, as well as layoffs.

By Ian Jamieson

The November issue of the Maritime Workers Journal (MWJ), published by the Maritime Union of Australia, records a 25% growth in the union’s membership over the past six years. Nationally there are just under 12,000 MUA members. Most of the growth has been provided by the WA branch of the union, which is now the largest MUA branch in the country with 3000 members. At the time the current branch leadership was elected in 2003, there were less than 1200 WA MUA members.

Capitalism: A Love Story
Written & directed by Michael Moore
Runtime: 127 minutes
In cinemas now

Reviewed by Dani Barley

By Dani Barley

On September 16, members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) took to the picket lines for a 24-hour strike to protest conditions and secure new collective agreements at 16 universities across the country. The NTEU, which represents both academics and general university staff, is campaigning in a nationally-coordinated fashion to win the return of conditions abolished under the previous Howard government, including greater job security, better conditions for casual staff (which often make up the bulk of the undergraduate teaching staff), fairer workload agreements and an increase in pay.