Industrial Workers of the World - German Language ROC

IWW stands in solidarity with Workers of Neupack Verpackungen!

IWW.org Editor — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:03:07 +0000

Workers of Neupack Verpackungen GmbH - a German Manufacturer of wrapping materials - are on strike for better working conditions and a labor agreement. They complain about unequal and generally low wages and an arbitrary and disrespectful management style. Even though they struggle for many weeks now, the company’s proprietors show hardly any willingness to make concessions. They have hired foreign strikebreakers and attack the striking workers with disciplinary warnings, dismissals and offence reports.

The German IWW supports the workers’ cause and asks you to show them some international support as well

They have launched an e-mail campaign and prepared some pre-formulated and addressed e-mails to selected recipient’s who have a significant role in this struggle. These e-mails are provided in English too and can be generated with a mouse click. All you had to do is to sign and send them off. You can of course change the content of the mails to personalize them if you like. It would be great if you added information from where you are writing.

The German Wobblies rely on many of you to participate for they are still small in numbers and their only strength is in their internationality. For many long weeks now, the Neupack Workers hold out in front of their factories in a grueling labor conflict. This campaign would only cost you a couple of minutes in front of your computer.

Link to english section of the campaign site: http://www.iww-hamburg.org/#english

Thanks for your solidarity!
Hamburg Wobblies

German IWW pickets against austerity measures outside the Frankfurter Stadtwerke [Municipal Services]:

x344543 — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 07:41:36 +0000

Translated by a member of the British Isles IWW Regional Organizing Committee (BIROC)

Today the IWW distributed the following flyer (image not included) in front of the Frankfurter Stadtwerke [Municipal Services]:

Training outside working hours - "but can they do that?" They keep getting more impertinent!

Today, on Saturday, colleges at EUREST have to work, because by now so many people have been made redundant that trainings can no longer take place during regular working hours. The Compass Group has right during the crises made fat profits - on the backs of their workers. Reduced staff, reduced shifts and unpaid overtime, that's their trick.

So, it's not a surprise that trainings are now happening during the weekend. The location of the Stadtwerke is not the first one where this is practiced. But, no manager has put pressure on the workers quite so shamelessly. He doesn't care, that you have kids you need to care for. He doesn't even care if you're on holiday. You need to show up or proof that you already booked some trip. But time off is time off, and to force colleagues who have taken time off to go to work is, simply put, illegal.

A person like Tobias Engel does not seem to know, that the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany also apply to Eurest. Therefore, it's not surprising that the IWW Union learnt that he recently opened the locker of a worker. How long do you want to take such infringements?

If you don't resist, you'll soon need to show up every Saturday, for a training, or to clean. And the worst is, that it seems the shop steward agreed to this. Why do the NGG-shop stewards do whatever Eurest wants?

The problem, of course, are not just the cuddly unions and shop stewards, who don't represent the interest of the workers. As a union we can insist on the compliance with legal protections and rights of employees. But their implementation depends on whether the workers in the company resist the dismantling of workers' rights.

If you are ready, we'll support you in a big way!

German IWW and supporters take on Boesner art supplies chain

x344543 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:55:44 +0000

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.

Solidarity in Germany for the Starbucks Workers Union

x344543 — Thu, 24 May 2007 05:52:00 +0000

The Duisburg local federation of the FAU-IWA had a stall in front of the new Duisburg Starbucks on Friday, 18th. Workers at Starbucks have been informed about the repression against their fellow-workers in the USA and about the SWU.

Many clients and people passing by were very upset about Starbucks anti-workers policy and told that they would not enter the shop again. People were as well upset about the presence of Starbucks in a brand-new luxury shopping mall in Duisburg, a poor industrial town with up to 20 percent of people without a job. Those who can read German will find more detailed information at the FAU website (http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_070519-064536) as well as some photos taken during the picket at Indymedia Germany (http://de.indymedia.org/2007/05/177523.html).