From: New Worker Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 22:38:19 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [New-Worker-News] New Worker Online Digest - 13/4/2001
New Worker Online Digest
Week commencing 13th April, 2001.
1) Editorial - Sparks at Marks.
2) Lead story - Teachers demand 35-hour week.
3) Feature article - Celebrating Ushtiben.
4) International story - Bush "very sorry", China to release spyplane crew.
5) British news item - Consult the unions, Morris says.
1) Editorial
Sparks at Marks.
BRITISH High street retailing giant Marks and Spencer set the sparks flying
in Paris last week when the firm suddenly announced it wanted to close its
overseas shops. Seventeen hundred French M&S workers only learned of the
threat to their jobs on the radio news and protested angrily outside the
leading Paris branch of M&S at the lack of consultation and information.
The M&S management have been told in no uncertain terms that such
high-handed sackings are simply not on in France. French Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin backed the workers and said: "If French law on sackings has
been defied, we will take action." This was underlined by France's labour
minister Elisabeth Guigou who called for a Europe-wide trade union protest
and stressed that the holding of talks over proposed redundancy plans are a
key part of French labour law.
This is more than an industrial dispute in France. M&S stores in Spain and
Germany are also fearing the worst and the European Union is meanwhile
being urged to step up its pressure on the British government to accept a
proposed EU directive obliging firms to hold talks with trade unions before
redundancy plans are made. Up to now Britain has been reluctant to agree.
British TUC general secretary John Monks has welcomed the support for
French workers and the ruling of a French judge, Catherine Taillandier, who
said M&S had fallen foul of French labour law and that the closures were
illegal. And, of course, British trade unionists would expect John Monks to
say this at the very least.
Certainly, the British government should be put under pressure by British
trade unions to accept the EU directive on consultation and to implement in
full other EU rules such as the working time directive on hours.
But it should be remembered too that the EU is fundamentally a capitalist
body created by and for the capitalist classes of Europe. Such bits of
progressive social legislation it has are only on the books because of
working class pressure and successful struggles that have been waged and
won inside the EU member countries.
Some trade union leaders in Britain speak of the EU and the Social Chapter
of the EU's Maastricht Treaty as the answer to everything. That this
legislation seems such a big advance on this side of the Channel only
underlines the fact that Britain's organised working class has fallen
behind in the struggle.
To a large extent this is the result of Britain's draconian anti-trade
union laws introduced by the Thatcher and Major governments. The Labour
government has so far only amended a small part of this legislation and is
unlikely to move any further unless there is a renewed struggle demanding
change.
Of particular concern is the legislation outlawing solidarity actions.
This law has become even more crippling than when it was first passea
because the tidal wave of privatisations have broken-up industries into
numerous separate companies leaving the workers in each company unable to
take joint actions in support of each another.
The bullet has to be bitten. The bosses and their representatives in
Westminster and Brussels are not going to step back -- they have to be
shoved. Indeed, bosses in other parts of the EU will be looking to bring
European workers into line with the worst standards of labour law not the
best.
And when push does come to shove it is industrial action that counts and
the flexing of industrial muscle. In this, Britain's anti-union shackles
will only be broken when the laws that bind us are broken!
The whole history of trade union struggle over the 200 years since the
Combination Acts were passed has been one of battling to overcome bosses'
laws. When organised labour succeeded it was as a result of vigorous
working class action. For instance, the Trades Disputes Act of 1906
protecting unions from being sued for damages followed a mass trade union
campaign.
We need such a spirit today!
*********************
2) Lead story
Teachers demand 35-hour week.
by Caroline Colebrook
TEACHING unions are combining to demand a 35-hour working week and
considering industrial action to win it.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers unanimously passed a resolution
backing the demand at its conference in Torquay last week.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of
Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) are both expected to
support the call at their forthcoming conferences and so is the Welsh
teaching union UCAC.
This comes as industrial action by the NUT and NASUWT has been withdrawn
on the issue of teacher shortages. This action took the form of refusing to
cover for long-term absences and for unfilled teaching posts.
The unions are now satisfied after clarification of an offer made last
month by the National Employers' Organisation for School Teachers (NEOST)
ofa complete review of teachers pay and conditions.
NEOST suggested paying teachers extra -- up to £20 an hour -- to cover for
vacancies lasting longer than three days. This would still work out cheaper
for the employers than the £160 to £170 a day paid to employment agencies
for temporary cover.
It also said it was prepared to negotiate on maximum class sizes, limits on
workloads and minimum time outside the classroom -- vital for marking and
lesson preparation.
Both the NUT and NASUWT welcomed this offer as a positive proposal but
asked for further clarification before suspending the industrial action.
Last Monday NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy said that the NUT had
obtained enough clarification to make suspension possible.
"This decision enables the two unions to take forward their shared
objective for greater protection of teachers from excessive workload," he
said.
"The remedies found by schools and local authorities to restrict teachers'
workload as a result of our action will continue. The way will now be clear
for important negotiations with employers and the Government.
"These negotiations provide an opportunity to agree improvements which,
through the involvement of the Government, can go forward to the Teachers
Review Body this autumn."
NASUWT general secretary Nigel de Gruchy also welcomed the clarification:
"I'm obviously pleased -- it's a badly needed step in the right direction."
The unions are still wary that the NEOST offers of negotiation may simply
be a ploy to end industrial acnon In me run-up to the general election.
Bradford NUT secretary Ian Murch said: "We are in a position of strength
in relation to the Government in a run-up to the election and we have to be
very careful about what we do here. We cannot let it off the hook."
Indeed, the suggestions made by NEOST will not be easy for the Government
to implement until it has succeeded in recruiting a lot more teachers --
something that cannot happen quickly.
The Government is now boasting that it has met its last election promise
to reduce infant school class sizes. But in secondary schools classes are
now at their largest size for 20 years.
And in junior schools more than two thirds of children between the ages of
eight and 11 are being taught in large classes.
There has been a very small improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio in
secondary schools, from 17.2 pupils per teacher to 17.1. But the average
class size has risen by 0.3 percent.
Nigel de Gruchy said that the smaller infant class sizes have been
achieved "at a huge disproportionate cost".
The feeling in favour of industrial action expressed at the ATL conference
is a mark of the anger within the teaching profession.
ATL general secretary Peter Smith said the action would be a form of work
to rule, involving "civil disobedience" rather than an all-out strike.
Even this could put teachers in breach of their contracts, because
although they have a basic 1,265 hours a year on average, there is no limit
to the extra hours they can be asked to do now.
Peter Smith said the teaching unions are hoping to work towards the
current teaching agreement in Scotland where a 35-hour week is being phased
in.
In Scotland there is just one main teaching union -- the EIS and this
industrial unionism gives the teachers there greater solidarity and
industrial strength which has produced better terms and conditions.
The attacks suffered by teachers in England and Wales recently -- from
performance pay to the oppression by former Ofsted chief Chris Woodhead --
indicate that teachers here need the same kind ofindustrial clout.
Meanwhile teachers won an important court battle last week over the right
to refuse to teach a disruptive pupil.
The case concerned a schoolboy in Bromlev. south London. who had been
excluded last summer for disruptive behav iour.
When the governors overruled the head teacher and insisted the boy be
taken back, the NASUWT balloted for industrial action. The teachers voted
not to teach him and were sued by the boy's mother.
The teachers argued that the boy had threatened teachers, assaulted other
pupils and was unteachable in the classroom.
The school had taught the boy in isolation with a supply teacher at a cost
of around £600 a week for several months in the run-up to his GCSEs.
Both the court and the NASUWT expressed regret that the case had to be
resolved in this way.
Nigel de Gruchy said: "No one can feel any sense of satisfaction at having
this unfortunate case dragged through the courts ... The judge was right in
his belief that the real needs of pupils are unlikely to be met in the
courts.
"The NASUWT has secured another dramatic victory in the courts, not only
for its own members, but for all teachers, pupils and parents who believe
in insisting on civilised standards of behaviour in schools."
Once again the root of the issue is a teacher shortage. Decades of budget
cuts have forced schools to cut the number of teachers who perhaps could
have given this boy the extra time and attention he needed before he became
so anti-social that he had to be excluded.
**********************
3) Feature article
Celebrating Ushtiben.
by Renee Sams
MORE THAN 100 Roma people from this country and from the countries of
eastern Europe gathered in Parliament Square last Sunday to celehrate
Romani national day, which in their language they call Ushtiben (rising or
awakening).
It is a day of international solidarity, with major events taking place
all over the world, including a rally outside the United Nations in New
York, in Ghent, Vienna, Sydney, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia, Skopje and many
other cities in Europe.
On that day they also remember and pay their respects to the Roma who died
in two world wars and those who lost their lives in the Nazi death camps.
Roma organisations in many countries, including recently formed ones in
South America, want to use the day in an appeal for recognition of Roma
rights.
This call has been taken up by the Roma parliament which met in
Bratislava, Slovakia in March and by the Quito conference in Ecuador two
weeks later.
And the call for Romani national recognition by the UN will be taken to
the World Anti-Racism conference in Durban, South Africa, to be held at the
end of August.
Sections of the Romani movement have become noticeably more militant in
response to an appeal by Roma who have suffered "ethnic cleansing" in
Kosovo, which has left some 80,000 Roma refugees scattered all over Europe.
The Roma have suffered from discriminatory laws throughout the centuries,
since they arrived in Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries.
They become known as the "black people", speaking a strange language and
living a nomadic existence on the fringe of settled societies. They were
viewed with antagonism and mistrust.
During the 20th century they continued to live a precarious existence in
eastern Europe and Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the
nomadic Romanies under German rule were already subject to restrictions.
Roma were regarded as a race and they were made subject to the Nuremberg
laws of 1935.
When Himmler signed the Auschwitz decree in 1942, over 20,000 Romanies
ended their lives in the death camps. They were shot or gassed alongside
the Jews.
Throughout eastern Europe, Romanies were massacred by the thousand outside
the towns where they had lived.
The numbers of those who were murdered during the Nazi period can only be
estimated at between a quarter and half a million.
During the socialist era, Romanies enjoyed a period of safety with
guaranteed civil rights, homes and jobs.
But with the fall of socialism now the Roma are again being persecuted in
parts of central and eastern Europe.
Racism against the Roma has greatly increased since the collapse of the
eastern bloc and thousands have been forced to flee to save their lives and
those of their families.
Those who have sought refuge in this country have been far from made
welcome by things such as the voucher system and the vilification in the
mass media, which fuels racist attitudes and assists the Government in its
attempts to refuse refugee status to the Romany people.
It was this hostility to asylum seekers that won Britain the charge of
being the most racist nation in Europe in a report by the Council of Europe
earlier this month.
Asylum seekers are now getting more support from the Defend the Asylum
Seekers campaign and the Roma are being helped by the Gypsy Council and the
Romany Support Group, which was formed in 1998 in response to the arrival
of Roma seeking asylum due to the discrimination they faced in eastern
Europe.
*************************
4) International story
Bush "very sorry", China to release spyplane crew.
Chinese president Jiang Zemin said, following receipt of the US "very
sorry" letter, that "Out of humanitarian considerations, the Chinese
government has decided to allow the US crew to leave China". But he pointed
out that the incident is not "fully settled" and he expects the issue to be
handled "seriously" and "properly". The spyplane's future is not decided,
although a meeting concerning the plane is expected on 18 April. The
following, as we go to press, is a People's Daily reaction.
IN a commentary on the US government's letter expressing that the US side
is "very sorry" about that the Chinese pilot who is missing and "very
sorry" that the US surveillance plane entered China's territory without
approval on 1 April.
The firm struggle by the Chinese government and people against US hegemony
has forced the US government to change from its initial rude and
unreasonable attitude to saying "very sorry" to the Chinese people, said
the People's Daily commentary entitled "To Turn Patriotic Enthusiasm into
Strength to Build a Powerful Nation".
In handling the issue, the Chinese government has adhered to the principal
stance of safeguarding state sovereignty and national dignity and opposing
hegemonism and power politics, the paper continued.
Despite China's opposition, the United States has, for years, frequently
sent aircraft to conduct surveillance activities along China's coast, which
was the root cause of the incident, the commentary says, stressing that the
United States should take full responsibility for the "aircraft collision
incident".
What the United States has done is against international laws and commonly
recognised principles on international relations, and has infringed China's
laws and regulations, invaded China's territorial space and violated
China's sovereignty, and damaged China's national security interests, the
commentary said.
The Chinese government has voiced solemn and just requests and protests to
the US side and carried out ajustified, advantageous and restrained
struggle against US hegemonism, which has once again displayed the ability
to cope with complicated situations and to handle complicated issues of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Jiang Zemin at the
core, the commentary explained.
"Human life is the most valuable thing on earth," it emphasises. The
safety of the missing pilot is what the CPC and the Chinese government care
most about and what millions of Chinese people have been worrying about.
By 10 April, the Chinese Navy had dispatched 107 aircraft and 95 vessels
to undertake the largest-ever rescue effort in the history of the Chinese
armed forces.
The commentary points out that all Chinese people from every ethnic group
firmly support the solemn and just stance of the Chinese government and
have shown strong patriotic enthusiasm and high spirits.
The Chinese nation is a great nation which advocates justice and fears no
powers, it stresses. The anti-hegemonism struggle by the Chinese people has
won strong support from the international community.
It goes on to say that China has won initial success in its ongoing
struggle, noting that the struggle between the pursuers and opponents of
hegemony and the uni-polar world and the multi-polar world is a long-term
and complicated one. It will not be completed through one event or one
round of encounters.
China believes in the irresistible historic trend that justice and truth
will win, the commentary said.
The majority of American people are friendly to China, though in the
United States there are anti-China forces who are hostile to China and
interfere in China's internal affairs, it pointed out.
Improving and developing China-US relations are not only compatible to the
fundamental interests of the two nations but favourable to world peace and
stability.
Through the struggle, all Chinese people from all ethnic groups have
extended a common understanding that China needs development; the nation
needs reinvigoration; and society needs stability, People 's Daily said.
A strong will has formed to strenuously prosper the nation, strengthen the
Chinese nation, and strengthen national power, This is a very precious
spiritual wealth, People's Daily concluded.
*********************
5) British news item
Consult the unions, Morris says.
THE FIRST act of a new Labour government if it is re-elected, must be to
implement consultation rights for workers, Transport and General Workers'
Union general secretary Bill Morris told the annual conference of the
Scottish TUC in Aberdeen last week.
He said that although the general election was "on hold". the political
campaign to influence the programme for the next Labour government is
on-going.
"If there is one critical issue above all else," he said, "that demands
the Government's attention it's the issue of information and consultation.
"lt is entirely unacceptable for workers to be told that they have lost
their jobs through the medium of the press."
He called on a new Labour government to implement the European Union
Directive on Information and Consultation which has so far been ignored by
Westminster.
"The way the French prime minister, Mr Jospin, spoke up against the
British multinational Marks and Spencer when the management took the
decision to close its stores in France --- I just wish the British
government would speak up for British workers in circumstances of closures
or redundancies."
He also had some comments about the voucher system for asylum seekers:
"The voucher system must go and go now.
"We have seen the beginning of a new partnership between the Government
and the trade unions as witnessed by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. That
inquiry has done much to cast some light into the dark, dismal corners of
so many British Institutions.
"Now at the TUC, we have our own Stephen Lawrence Task Group, building a
positive approach to race and ensuring that equality works in practice as
well as in theory.
"On this. I know that the Scottish TUC is matching our efforts with its
own programme of activities and I offer warm support and congratulations
for that work.
"But I am disappointed by the Government's treatment of asylum seekers. I
am convinced that the voucher system is demeaning and an indictment to a
society which prides itself on the principle of social justice.
"As a movement, we say and say together the voucher system must go and go
now!" The conference debated an emergency motion on the foot-and-mouth
epidemic and an emergency motion on job losses in the new technology sector.
As the conference proceeded. Marconi announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs
worldwide, half of which would be jobs in Britain and most of those in the
Lothian region of Scotland.
STUC general secretary Bill Speirs called for urgent government action for
thousands of sufferers of asbestosis who stand to lose all compensation
after the collapse of an insurance company used by the employers.
Mick Rix, general secretary of the train drivers' union Aslef told the
conference it is time for the Government to "take back the track" and
renationalise our railways.
*********************
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