SAC votes to cut paid staff
Oct 22 2006
This weekend, 55 delegates from the Swedish syndicalist union SAC gathered for the union's 28th congress.
On Saturday, the congress voted to radically cut down on the number of staff in the union's central office in Stockholm. Six paid positions – half of the central office staff - were either made into voluntary positions, or gotten rid of altogether. The cuts in staff is not mainly motivated by economic considerations, but are part of the reorganization that the union has been going through in recent years. Advocates of the job cuts argue that fewer paid negotiators will lead to increased local activity, and a more self reliant membership.
For a short summary of the congress so far, see http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/newswire/display/6267/index.php
Oct 23 2006
#2
This is typical ploy by the bosses, announce 50% job losses, the reformist union (in this case the SAC) comes vowing to fight to the finnish to save all the jobs, agrees to a 25% job cut and calls it a victory.
Oct 23 2006
#3
25% cut would be a loss, 50% sounds more like it.
Will follow the development in next couple of years with interest.
Hope that editor of Arbetaren got the boot, any news on that?
Oct 25 2006
#4
The Arbetaren editors were reelected.
I'll update the summary on anarchosyndicalism.net with more reporting from the congress, but it's getting late, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.
Oct 25 2006
#5
fuck. was it because there were no other candidates?
thanks for the reporting. There hasn't been any updates on arbetaren page since sunday...
Oct 26 2006
#6
There has been some more updates on the Arbetaren site, but they didn't put them up on their special congress page. You'll find it on the main page: www.arbetaren.se
The only thing they said about the eletcions, is who were elected to what position, so I don't know how the debate went, or what the vote count were.
Oct 30 2006
#7
Quote:
fuck. was it because there were no other candidates?
Yes
Oct 31 2006
#8
JDMF wrote:
fuck. was it because there were no other candidates?thanks for the reporting. There hasn't been any updates on arbetaren page since sunday...
why is that bad? i know nothing about SAC and am trying to educate myself.
Oct 31 2006
#9
booeyschewy wrote:
why is that bad? i know nothing about SAC and am trying to educate myself.
those editors weren't exactly people with good politics, thats all 
Its not all doom and gloom though, but it would have been better if the editors of the external mag would have been some with solid anarcho-syndicalist internationalist politics.
The external magazine has a print run of well over ten thousand as far as i know (anyone know exactly?) so it is an influental mag.
Oct 31 2006
#10
Arbetaren sells less than three and a half thousand copies on average, I think.
Oct 31 2006
#11
Felix Frost wrote:
Arbetaren sells less than three and a half thousand copies on average, I think.
ah, ok, i think i got them mixed up somehow, or some old number in my head. Apologies.
So the internal mag has a bigger circulation than the external one? Thats wicked 
I quite like syndikalisten, good analysis on practical activities on pretty much every issue.
Oct 31 2006
#12
Felix Frost wrote:
This weekend, 55 delegates from the Swedish syndicalist union SAC gathered for the union's 28th congress.On Saturday, the congress voted to radically cut down on the number of staff in the union's central office in Stockholm. Six paid positions – half of the central office staff - were either made into voluntary positions, or gotten rid of altogether. The cuts in staff is not mainly motivated by economic considerations, but are part of the reorganization that the union has been going through in recent years. Advocates of the job cuts argue that fewer paid negotiators will lead to increased local activity, and a more self reliant membership.
For a short summary of the congress so far, see http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/newswire/display/6267/index.php
Hate to say I told ya so but fuck this is a timely example of why 'anarcho' syndicalist unions should not become employers.
JDMF, what planet are you on that you think its good a revolutionary union ended up in a position where its sacking people?
Oct 31 2006
#13
Boulcolonialboy wrote:
Hate to say I told ya so but fuck this is a timely example of why 'anarcho' syndicalist unions should not become employers.JDMF, what planet are you on that you think its good a revolutionary union ended up in a position where its sacking people?
http://libcom.org/forums/history/paid-workers-in-the-cnt-in-the-1930s
dont you think it is good if SAC is cutting the amount of paid staff? Or is this one of these "damned if you do, damned if you dont" situations?
Many of the positions have been temporary positions based on voting, so you needed to be elected to those positions to start with.
Oct 31 2006
#14
All these positions were up for reelection at every congress, and I think it's been common to only serve one term. So it's not a question of taking away people's livelihood.
Of course, SAC has some "regular employees" also: the journalists at Arbetaren, the people operating their printing press, etc.
Dec 1 2006
#15
booeyschewy wrote:
JDMF wrote:
fuck. was it because there were no other candidates?thanks for the reporting. There hasn't been any updates on arbetaren page since sunday...
why is that bad? i know nothing about SAC and am trying to educate myself.
Yeah one editor wrote a piss-awful article, what was it calling for people to support Hezbollah against Israel.
interesting comment:
"– Mitt ideal är de spanska syndikalisterna i CNT. År 1936 hade de två miljoner medlemmar men bara en anställd, och han hade samma lön som de lägst betalda arbetarna. Den federalistiska principen är helig för mig. Därför måste vi avskaffa tjänsten som förhandlingssekreterare och alla andra institutioner som sätter sig på LS, argumenterade Ruben Tastas-Duque, ombud för Västerorts LS."
Spanish CNT in 36 is the ideal model etc.
good news this. I know many of the radical locals were going for this.