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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:51 pm Post subject: Poles are bringing solidarity back into fashion in Britain |
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Poles are bringing solidarity back into fashion in Britain
Employers who use east European migrants to undercut their existing workforces now face an organised challenge
Duncan Campbell
Wednesday December 6, 2006
The Guardian
As Woody Guthrie used to remind Americans in song, migrant workers are often the most exploited and the lowest paid, and the only way they can change that is to get organised. Events in Britain in the last few weeks indicate that that is just what may be happening here now. For the first time since the second world war a trade union branch consisting entirely of migrant workers has been formed in Britain. The creation of Polish branches in Southampton and Glasgow, with others to be launched across the country in the next few weeks, could have a profound and revitalising effect on the union movement in Britain and help to break down the barriers between the new arrivals and those who have voiced suspicions that they are being used mainly to undercut the existing workforce.
More than 200,000 Poles have registered to work in Britain since the EU expanded, and the actual number now working here is thought to be much higher. Many have found that employers try to pay them lower wages than British workers and take advantage of their ignorance of employment laws. Now unions, particularly those that recruit from the catering, security and building trades, are reporting a sudden growth in membership and involvement.
"This is very significant for the trade-union movement," says Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary. "It's not enough any more to think only about traditional workplace organising. We have to see what unions can do to reach out to vulnerable workers and find out how well they get their rights enforced."
It is not hard to see why some Polish workers might be examining the new Polish-language sections of union websites as they compare their payslips to those of British colleagues. Once the exhilaration of earning five times the average wage in Poland has abated, many of them realise that the cost of living here eats up most of their pay packet and the agencies that have found them work take their own handsome slices. |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1964807,00.html
I'm very heartened to see this. I'd love to see a resurgence of union power. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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As Woody Guthrie used to remind Americans in song, migrant workers are often the most exploited and the lowest paid, and the only way they can change that is to get organised.
http://fileanchor.com/83325-r |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, if you're going to make it a music thread...it wont be complete without a bit of Billy Bragg |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:23 am Post subject: |
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They should organize and remove the employment agencies from the formula. The Union should then become the agency or if I was a smart agency I would become the union.
cbc |
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