on-the-job action
Employee sabotage in a copy shop
Alan, a shop clerk's account of unofficial wage enhancement in a Minneapolis photocopy outfit.
I've never dealt with so many fucked-up managers as when I started working at a busy, downtown Minneapolis copy shop. We had to do a lot of work, took a lot of shit from customers and got paid beans. Actually, it was one of the best jobs I've had because everybody that I worked with was really fun.
Resisting work in harvest time
Tad, a combine driver, recounts sabotaging machines in order to get a break from work on Texas farms.
I got a job with a custom cutter, the people who follow the wheat harvest from Texas on up to North Dakota every summer. The combines we were using were a new model series on loan from International Harvester. A fleet of eight or ten of us went along in a big row through the fields and checked out the new models to see how they were performing.
A bike messengers minor rebellion
Kenny, a bicycle courier, recalls taking direct action to get management to abandon a new work practice.
Being a bike messenger in Seattle is hellish, but we had it kind of cush. We had to work our butts off, but at least we got paid by the hour.
An account of unofficial action at Tower Hamlets College
A short account by a participant of a staff rebellion in 2009 against an enforced training session, which helped build workers' collective confidence prior to a big strike.
Some local supporters witnessed an open air meeting of our union branch on Friday 3rd July where we had to take the decision of what to do on the Monday of the last week of work. Monday was not a strike day because it was planned as something more important.
Subway workers hold 'no fare' protest and strike in Buenos Aires
This week employees on the Buenos Aires subway freed turnstiles for two hours in a move to press the government to grant legal status to their recently created trade union as well as taking strike action.
According to Argentine law only one union on each trade or activity can be granted legal status and therefore, participate in wage bargaining or legally call for a strike.
Sicilian bin workers on strike, Palermo drowned in rubbish
Fifty piles of rubbish were set on fire last night in Palermo and rubbish seem to drown the whole city. The city bin workers refuse to do extra hours work because they do not want to get on vehicles that do not abide by the security standards.
Ten days ago the refuse workers of Palermo decided to stop working extra hours because most of the vehicles used for rubbish collection do not abide by compulsory security standards. June wages are at risk but unions decided to keep on with the protest and be on "white strike" which means the strict respect of the security procedures.
1970-1972: The Lordstown struggle and the real crisis in production - Ken Weller
Fascinating pamphlet by Solidarity on the informal workers struggle against the frenetic pace of work at a General Motors plant, and the later co-optation of the struggle by the auto workers union.
This pamphlet is an attempt to document some important tendencies developing in the motor car industry but which are relevant to modern production as a whole. We feel these trends have important political consequences for revolutionary socialists.
Work-to-rule on Leeds bins
Refuse collectors and street cleaners in Leeds will be taking industrial action over the Christmas period.
The GMB union said its members would be "working to rule" from 27 December, with Unison members doing the same from 29 December.
Civil servants back industrial action over pay
A prolonged programme of industrial action, hitting civil and public services across the UK moved a step closer today, as PCS members backed strike action in a dispute over the government's 2% public sector pay cap.
80% of those balloted supported action short of strike, and 54% of those taking part in the ballot backed union plans for industrial action, which includes national civil service wide strikes, targeted strike action and overtime bans.
Work to rule starts to bite at Criminal Records Bureau
Industrial action by 450 workers at the Criminal Records Bureau in Liverpool is causing major backlogs in work according to managers.
It is understood that a report prepared for Home Office officials after the first week of a work-to-rule describes significant arrears in work which could considerably delay prospective nurses, teachers and social workers obtaining the necessary clearance to work with children and vulnerable adults.
The action has hit:
