German IWW and supporters take on Boesner art supplies chain

On June 7, Wobblies and supporters held loud and visible protest rallies at the stores of the art supplies chain Boesner in Colone, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna and Graz. With these actions, they protested against the management of the Boesner shop in Colone, who prevented an organizing drive of the Colone IWW by harassing workers who had tried to form a works council (Betriebsrat) there.

The german labour law guarantees the formation of works councils elected by the workers in shops with 5 workers or more and prohibits management action against the election process of these institutional bodies. When members and supporters of the IWW at the Boesner shop announced the elections for a works council the management began to panik. Workers were questioned and taken under pressure in interviews at the managers office. One day before the election should take place, the management held a meeting with all workers, where they threatened to cut wages and extend working hours if a works councils would be formed. The forced the workers to vote publically in front of the managers against a works council. Rustrated by the divisions succesfully made by these illegal employers actions, the IWWs withdraw their election announcement.

A few months later the management of Boesner Colone began to implement the first measures they had threatened the workers with: the extension of working hours by opening of the stores on saturdays (which hadn?t been the case before and obviously had been intended by them anyway. But neither did they employ more workers to staff the extra shifts, nor did they pay a weekend bonus, which is not uncommon for weekend work in Germany. The shifts should have to cope the extra-load of work with more intensified stress at work.

So the Colone IWW decided to call to action at the local shop and other Boesner stores in Germany and around. While the IWW branches in Colone and Frankfurt organized the rallies on their own, the Berlin branch of the FAU supported the move and held a rally in front of the Berlin Boesner store too. In Austria the anarcho-syndicalist Federation of Workers Syndicates (Foederation der ArbeiterInnen-Syndikate, FAS) where some austrian IWW members are also organized, held rallies in Vienna and Graz.

At the rallies, we got some very positive reactions from customers, who took the leaflets into the store and signed a petition to respect workers rights at the workplace. We used printed transparents with the motto ?Democracy for workers too!? which surely will be used for further rallies. Furthermore, we could make contacts to radical trade unionists and workers activists who supported the action. Pressure will be put on the company until they?ll finally back down. Our chances are not bad, as he Boesner company is strongly depenend on their image facade of a fair and friendly social responsible firm and can?t be interested in aerning a bad reputation as a union-busting sweatshop.

Lutz Getzschmann, x356711 - wobblies.de