workplace activity
Articles, interviews and accounts about organising at work, problems people have come up against and lessons they have learned.
Anatomy of an Industrial Struggle: Chrysler Factory at Tonsley Park in Adelaide 1976-1978
An account of two years of struggle at an Australian Chrysler plant by one of the workers, including a detailed look at the role of the union.
Introduction
This article by Garry Hill, a worker at the Tonsley Park Chrysler plant near Adelaide in Australia, describes a series of struggles in which he was actively involved.
Low-level organising in a hospital
A hospital worker named Malcolm's account of collective organisation and counter-information in the workplace.
One day the three hospital workers I lived with showed me a memo the hospital put out announcing a picnic for the staff. It said you had to bring your own food. The administration thought they were doing all the workers a great favor sending them this invitation to a bring-your-own-food picnic.
Direct action against unpaid wages on a demolition site
Demolition worker Anthony's account of labouring in the New England winter, and taking direct action when his wages were not paid.
The wicked New England winter had set in. There was no more work haying fields or picking apples. There was food from our livestock and from what we could put away from our garden, but no money for anything else. My friends and I drove our beat-up station wagon to the nearby "city," population 5,000. We went to apply for food stamps and possibly general assistance.
Employee thieving at a discount chain store
Kmart worker Karl recounts his employment in the late 70s and early 80s, with his and his co-workers' unofficial way of supplementing their wages.
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.
Account of a well-prepared wildcat strike
Nick, an assembly line worker, recounts sabotage and a walkout at his factory when the workers contract expired.
I worked for a year in a typical World War II-style plant with a saw tooth tin roof and smoke stacks billowing oily gray smoke. There were 1,000 of us poor bastards working there, doing mind less arm and wrist repetitions thousands of times per day, producing a basic industrial product.
Shirking 9 to 5: diary of a reluctant temp
An agency worker recalls several years' temping in London, trying to help his co-workers and do as little work as possible.
An incomplete text, I will be adding to it in the coming days and weeks.
Introduction
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.
