Nationalism and the union bureaucracy
Britain: Behind the disciplinary action in the Unison trade union
By Julie Hyland, September 28, 2009
The disciplinary action taken by the public sector union Unison against several of its members raises important issues of political perspective.
Britain: Nationalist campaign by Unite union bureaucracy over Vauxhall-Opel takeover
By Robert Stevens and Julie Hyland, September 25, 2009
The sell-off of General Motors’ European operations, Opel and Vauxhall, to the Canadian-Russian consortium Magna has elicited a poisonous “us first” response by the trade unions involved.
What is the AFL-CIO?
By Barry Grey, September 18, 2009
At its convention this week, the AFL-CIO chose a new president. One measure of the decrepitude of the union federation is the fact that the leadership change barely registered on the public consciousn...
Vale Inco strike: Labour bureaucrats promote nationalism
By Carl Bronski, September 10, 2009
As the strike at mining giant Vale Inco enters its ninth week, union leaders continue to promote the illusion that the attacks launched by the transnational corporation on the 3,300 striking workers i...
Britain: Total Oil sacks 647 striking workers at Lindsey Oil Refinery
By Robert Stevens, June 22, 2009
On June 19, 647 construction contractors were sacked at the Lindsey Oil Refinery construction site, in Lincolnshire, England.
Britain: Van maker LDV sacks more than 800 workers
By Robert Stevens, June 16, 2009
Last week, administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers announced that nearly all 850 workers employed by the Birmingham-based van maker LDV are to be made redundant.
Britain: RMT Tube workers face union busting and organised scabbing by drivers’ union ASLEF
By Paul Mitchell, June 12, 2009
Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union workers yesterday ended a two-day strike on the London Underground against plans by the company and its parent body Transport for London to cut over 1,000 jobs...
The Opel fraud
Opel: Magna deal means layoffs, wage cuts and splitting of the European workforce
By Dietmar Henning, June 6, 2009
The German government, the IG Metall trade union and company works councils are attempting to portray the deal struck by General Motors, Magna and the Russian state bank Sberbank as a success, althoug...
New York Times on the UAW’s corporatism: a rewriting of history
By Tom Eley, June 4, 2009
A recent column by New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse portrays the UAW as an antagonist of the Big Three, capable of advancing the interests of its workers. The organization’s history o...
UAW, Inc.
By Jerry White, May 23, 2009
The transformation of the United Auto Workers into a business entity is the culmination of decades of betrayals and degeneration in which the UAW apparatus developed material interests separate from, ...
The Unite trade union “March for Jobs”
A PR stunt in the defence of British economic nationalism
By Robert Stevens, May 19, 2009
On Saturday, Britain’s largest trade union, Unite, organised a demonstration in Birmingham in the West Midlands which was attended by about 5,000 people.
The ETUC’s Days of Action—a cynical manoeuvre by Europe’s trade union bureaucracies
By Stefan Steinberg, May 19, 2009
ETUC protests on Saturday aimed at covering up their nationalist tracks. To this end, the union bureaucrats are quite prepared to utter denunciations of the finance markets, but these criticisms shoul...
