AUCPB-CLASS STRUGGLE 20 APRIL

Greece 12 April
ASSAULT BY POLICE SPECIAL FORCES ON UNEMPLOYED WORKERS OF THE PERAMA SHIP REPAIR ZONE (GREECE)

On Tuesday 12 April, the banks of Miauli in Piraeus turned into a battlefield. By order of the government, forces of suppression carried out a brutal repression and a pre-planned attack on the unemployed technicians at the ship repair zone on their way to the Piraeus Port Authorities Headquarters. Batons, tear gas and flash grenades were used at full strength. Within minutes the atmosphere was stifling. Seven bleeding workers were taken to hospital "Asklepion Vuly" after a "rain" of clubs, which fell on their heads, and chemical burns from tear gas. Two of the seven were in serious condition, one of them - with a brain injury. The others in a faint and dizzy fell to the ground due to lack of oxygen. To escape from the chemicals, the workers set fire to dustbins.

The PASOK government's decision to unleash "with fire and iron," its decision - to narrow the ship repair area, pushing up the unemployment and poverty of thousands of workers and their families, and, in general, to destroy the ship repair industry of the country, it became apparent.

Suppression forces attacked the workers, when they approached the building of the Piraeus Port Authorities Headquarters. Workers, united in class trade unions, shut down and at 3 pm, gathered in the square of the metro station of Piraeus. From there, they organized and united, they went to the building of the port authorities, to meet with its chairman, G. Anomeritisom.

http://rkrp-rpk.ru/content/view/5122/29/

http://vkpb.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=800:2011-04-17-09-14-33&catid=13:2010-07-08-15-41-24&Itemid=40
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ITALIAN STRIKE AT “AVTOVAZ” RUSSIA
Workers at “AvtoVAZ” staged a "Italian strike", demanding payment of bonus for two months. About 600 employees of the Volga car plant demanded management pay bonuses for "quality", averaging 20-30% of the earnings that the company has not paid them for two months. Workers refuse to work overtime and weekends. The Administration proposes to pay them 9% of the outstanding premiums, but the strikers did not agree to this.

The strike began when workers at one of the metallurgical production shops recieved account sheets for March and saw that they were wrongly underpaid bonuses for quality. Disgruntled workers staged a so-called "Italian strike". They go to work with everyone, but refuse to work overtime, weekends and holidays. Due to this reduced pace of work.

It is known that on Tuesday, April 12, the strikers met with the management of the automobile plant, but the parties failed to reach a compromise. The company offered to pay the disgruntled employees bonuses amounting to 9% of the bounus demanded by the workers. The strikers refused, as they see the blame lieing firmly on the shoulders of the employer for non-payment of bonuses.

The metallurgical shop carries out automobile welding, metallurgical and forging manufacturing, plastic products, and also has a paint shop.

"We do not know exactly what's happening now. I, as chairman of the trade union committee, have not been given a pass to the company's territory and I am strongly kept away from the workforce. I can only say that the issues of product quality arose because some workers may actually be making faults"- told Gazeta.ru, chairman of the trade union “Unity”, Petr Zolotarev.

The management of AvtoVAZ refuses to disclose any details. "The plant operates in normal mode, all lines of the conveyor are stable. A special working group has been set up, and if it decides that the decrease in bonues was unjustified, the money will be paid out,"- says the official press service of the company. Currently, workers have prepared a petition to the management of the company with the demand that it sort out the situation.

Source
Gazety.Ru
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IN KRASNODAR, CANNERY WORKERS DEMAND SALARIES

On April 14 at the regional centre, workers went on strike at SPK "Krasnodar". About a hundred people protested against unpaid wages amounting to more than four months arrears. Debt of the cannery to the workers amounts to 6 million rubles. Yesterday, workers downtooled and gathered in the street. For several months they have not been paid.

The management have two weeks to sort it out, during which workers will continue not to work
“It's all about tax," says Acting Head of the cannery. They calculated the plant debt to be 55 million ruble, went to court, and agreed - to pay into the treasury the money. Factory management decision was contested until the litigation took place, the debt rose to 160 million. The property was seized.
According to the court the plant should pay wages to workers. During the strike at the cannery, bailiffs arrived. They took the enterprise’s assets – cans with peas, tomatoes, pumpkin juice. The products are going to be sold, the proceeds then to be spent on salaries.

According to the bailiff Helena Veligotskoy, within two months, the goods will be sold out and people paid.

NTK News

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MOSCOW – 7 APRIL
WORKERS AT "HEINEKEN" HOLD PICKET IN MOSCOW
On April 7, 2011 in Moscow, outside the business centre "Northern Lights", where the office of the Dutch group of companies "Heineken", a picket took place against the violation of trade union rights of workers and the pressure exerted by the employer on the primary organization of the APK Workers' Union operating at the St. Petersburg brewery.

The reason for the picketing was down to the continuing and constant pressure from the employer on the union of the enterprise in St. Petersburg in order to weaken the organization and squeeze out from the brewery workers the abilty to unite and fight for their rights.

Since 2007, “Heineken Petersburg” has not stopped the spread of temporary agency work - the most ugly forms of contractual relationships in which the user of the company leases employees from employment agencies. At some section, the number of agency workers has already exceeded over half of the workers. In this case, agency workers do not have permanent jobs, fixed schedule, annual leave, and they are not covered by benefits. Wages are lower than those of regular workers. Replacement is done by laying off brewery workers union members, and a set of temporary workers taken on during increased production.

For over a year, the union has been trying to halt the destruction of full-time jobs, has been in talks with the management, but failed to achieve a result and was forced to start a public campaign.

During the picket, not one person from the management of the company "Heineken" come out to speak with the picketeers, despite the fact that the office staff intently watched the scene, standing on the sidelines. Nevertheless, union members of the St. Petersburg company delivered a letter addressed to the Director General of OOO "United Breweries, Heineken, where the document is accepted, but refused to register it, arguing that this "special documentation" that the Secretary has no right to register. Thus, the company's management has demonstrated that it is not going to enter into a dialogue with the union.

In the letter handed to management by the union members the list of demands were:
• to stop the violating Russian legislation at the enterprise (list attached);
• stop the pressure on the union and to restore the sacked union activists;
• arrange for permanent employment of employees performing work on a permanent basis;
• bring to justice those responsible for health and safety at the plant, in connection with an incident, which only by luck did not result in death;
• begin negotiations in good faith with the primary trade union organization at the "Heineken Brewery” in St. Petersburg.

Support and solidarity at the picket was given by the Moscow City and Saratov regional organizations and central office of union employees of the APK, as well as by the trade unionists at Efes-Moscow brewery and the chocolate factory "Bolshevik”

Source: IUF
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8 April – Russia - Vsevolozhsk
WORKERS ELECT MILITANT TRADE UNIONS

At the "Tu Ai Automotive” enterprise at Vsevolozhsk, workers have formed the primary organization of the Interregional Trade Union of the automobile industry workers (MPRA). The workers first entered into the union of Mechanical Engineering, but not seeing any real work of the trade union appealed to the MPRA to help create a real organization for the protection of workers' rights. Today, in the trade union there are more than 20 workers from the enterprise. Alexei Shvaiko is elected chairman.
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