Cabin crew at British Airways will start to vote today (Tuesday) in a fresh ballot for industrial action at the airline said their union, Unite.

Voting papers are being sent to more than 10,000 cabin crew at BA as the dispute between the parties deepens over punishments imposed on crew, a new tier of crew introduced on poorer terms but without the workforce’s agreement and concerns about an organised anti-union campaign at the airline.

Tony Woodley, Unite joint general secretary, said: “When this dispute started, the issue was making savings to help the company through a very difficult period for the industry. The union offered multi-million pound concessions which all but met management’s requirements. BA however preferred imposition, provoking a dispute which has cost the company vastly greater sums and done great damage to its reputation. The dispute has been prolonged by vindictive measures directed against cabin crew – in recent months, BA has put nearly 70 loyal workers through hell and sacked 13 of them because they supported their union. This is surely unprecedented in modern day British corporate life.

We have made every effort in prolonged negotiations with management to find an acceptable resolution to the outstanding problems but sadly find that we must now conduct a fresh ballot in order to defend our members.

BA knows what it must to do stop this dispute from escalating. The issues between us would cost BA not a single penny to resolve. It is now a matter of them showing the leadership to get back round the table with us to settle this through negotiation.”

Unite says the five issues between the crew and the airline are:

1. The immediate restoration of staff travel concessions, in full, to the crew from whom they were taken by BA.
2. Binding arbitration, through Acas, of all cabin crew disciplinary cases related to the original dispute, which led to 22 days of strike action between March and May 2010.
3. The restoration of all earnings docked from crew who were genuinely off sick during strike dates.
4. Full and proper discussion of the trade union facilities agreement at the company with the immediate removal of all threats and sanctions made by BA in relation to this.
5. The introduction of mixed fleet on different terms and conditions without the agreement of the trade union.

We’ll be using this blog as an online resource for people who want to make arguments that connect working-class struggles against cuts with working-class struggles against climate change. We’ll be reporting on class struggle in high-emissions industries such as aviation and energy generation as well as hosting debate and discussion about how to develop a working-class ecology when faced with the prospect of catastrophic climate change.

If you have something you’d like to see hosted on the website, email us at workersclimateaction.info@gmail.com.

(This article is written as a contribution to debate and does not necessarily reflect the views of WCA as a whole.)

Workers at Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston are set to take strike action over pay. A lunchtime protest on 23rd November was believed to be the first industrial action taken by workers in the company’s 50 year history.

Obviously this particular group of workers deserve to be viewed with a healthy degree of contempt by the rest of the labour movement. Their role in building the weapons of apocalyptic power is something many of us would struggle to live with. However, we should rise above our distaste for their job and extend our solidarity to a group of fellow workers in struggle against their management. We welcome their action and recognise that many workers, including workers in the atomic weapons industry itself, oppose such heinous instruments.

However they justify their work, the reality is that we will not stop making nuclear bombs simply through a individual acts of conscience. If we had a working-class movement capable of imposing a workers’ boycott on nuclear weapons, then that movement would also possess the power to create far more reaching social change.

As working-class activists and trade unionists we see that the most progressive and enlightened politics are made in the democratic forums of our trade union movement.  Despite all the political positioning and rows at union conferences (which are all very necessary) the trade union movement stands alone in society as a beacon for internationalism, peace, environmental sustainability, democratic freedoms and equality. We believe that if our movement grew, extended that level of democracy to wider layers of our class and eventually took power, that the causes of war and the divisions of nationality could be overcome.

Workers around the world do all sorts of unpleasant jobs when they take the bosses’ money. This strike at Aldermaston is the first time in 50 years that substantial numbers of nuclear weapons workers have defied their bosses and refused to follow orders. We hope that they enjoy that experience and repeat it in times to come.

Workers’ Climate Action is an organisation that argues for workers in polluting industries to take control of their workplaces and demand a just transition to environmentally sustainable work. We think that decisions about what we make at work are too important to be left to the rich. We look to the example of the militant workers at Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s who drew up Workers Plans for how to use their machinery for socially useful production. Instead of making components for fighter jets these workers took control of their factories and started making medical equipment and some of the first prototypes of renewable energy generation. Decisions about what we produce should be under the democratic control of workers and the communities that they serve.

We urge the workers at Aldermaston to follow in the footsteps of Lucas Aerospace, to organise and fight for a world were our workplaces are run on the basis of human need.

The savagely Thatcherite government of Nicolas Sarkozy in France has used police to break ongoing strikes at three oil refineries. All 12 of France’s refineries were blockaded by striking workers until riot police were used to break the strikes at depots in Donges, La Rochelle and Le Mans.

However, strikers at Donges were able to reimpose the blockade in the early hours of the morning. The strikes are part of an ongoing working-class campaign against Sarkozy’s plans to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62 and increase the age of entitlement for a full stage pension from 65 to 67. As a result of the strike in the oil sector, one in three petrol stations are reported to have run dry.

From the point of view of climate activism, these strikes reaffirm basic truths about high-emissions industries that Workers’ Climate Action has been stating since the network was created; firstly, that even the most polluting industries are not homogeneously evil blocs but riven with class antagonisms. And secondly, that the ultimate power and agency to shut those industries down resides with the people who work in them.

“Oil activism”, which continues to be a feature on the landscape of the environmental movement in Britain, needs to take account of the struggles of workers within the oil industry. Although the French strikes have no immediate ecological demands as yet, if they continue they will necessarily begin to pose societal questions about how production and distribution should be controlled. If oil workers win on pensions, and if radical climate activists engage with their struggles on the basis of solidarity, then when those societal questions are posed perhaps oil workers will use their power to reshape their industry on the basis of working-class ecology.

For more on the French strikes, check out LabourStart’s France page.

Should we support the introduction of all new technologies because of their potential capacity to reduce emissions, or oppose them because their implementation and maintenance often causes more emissions than they save? Or should the issue of emissions be secondary to the effect they have on workers?

To open a discussion, we republish this article by a tube worker member of the Marxist group Workers’ Liberty:

One of London Underground’s pretexts for cutting jobs and slashing ticket office opening times is that new technology, in the form of the ‘Oyster’ smartcard ticketing system, has significantly reduced purchases at ticket office windows. There are several reasons why this ‘reason’ is disingenuous:

* The number of transactions at the ticket office window has not reduced simply because of Oyster, but because of a deliberate policy by London Underground to drive business away. LU has, for example, imposed a £5 minimum Oyster top-up only at the ticket office window; has advertised alternative outlets such as newsagents; and enticed people to buy online by offering free iTunes!

• LU claims that transactions at the ticket office window have fallen by 28%, but measures this from early 2006, when it cut ticket office opening hours!

• It plans to cut ticket office opening hours by 35%.

• It has changed the measure by which it decides whether a ticket office is open in any particular hour from 15 minutes of ticket-selling activity to 30 minutes.

• The Oyster system has many problems and difficulties, and many passengers, for example occasional, foreign, disabled or elderly ones, may find it hard to use alternative outlets such as machines and prefer a personal service.

But beyond these immediate and specific issues, there are deeper issues about charging for public transport and about new technology.

If socialists ran public transport, we would make it free. So there would be no ticket offices or ticket-selling jobs. But we would not cut jobs overall; we would more staff in other areas of the station; we would build new lines and extensions which would need staff; and we would cut working hours.

But London Underground is not scrapping or even cutting fares. It continues to charge the highest fares of any European capital city, but is just making it harder to pay them at the station! The new Oyster system could have been used to reduce queues and improve the service; instead, it is being used as a pretext to cut it.

Transport companies often target new technology into ticketing, even while they leave safety and operational systems in the 19th century.

Improved technology should be able to make our life at work easier, perhaps reducing our working hours or lightening our workload. But the employers usually see it as an excuse to get rid of us, or attack us, instead.

So if new technology comes with attacks on our working conditions, should we oppose it?

Rail workers can hardly be against new technology as such, or we’d be demanding our own abolition in order to save the jobs of horse-drawn carriage drivers! In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx saw the “new technology” of railways as highly progressive. “The real fruit of [class] battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever — expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication…

“That union, to attain which the burghers of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, the modern proletarians [wage-workers], thanks to railways, achieve in a few years”.

And we’d rather work on new trains, in newly-rebuilt stations, with modern kit, than under old conditions. New technologies create new possibilities and make old things faster, more reliable, and often easier.

But in a capitalist, profit-driven society, new technologies are introduced in order to improve profits. What is introduced, and how, is decided by profitability — by how new technologies can help capital in its eternal quest to squeeze more work from us, and to increase management control.

Marx analysed this for the new technology of the 19th century — mostly steam-powered factory production. On the face of it, the new machinery eased labour, but it had actually helped the bosses to increase work rates.

The increased productivity of new technologies meant that the capitalist class could produce commodities with less labour-time. They needed less of the workers’ time to produce the goods to pay the workers’ wages. They could have cut working hours.

But instead, they kept people on the same hours and kept the money from the extra products for themselves. Less of your working day would be spent producing value to pay your wages, and more producing value to make profit for your boss. Capitalist new technology has an inbuilt drive to increase inequality. It also has an inbuilt drive to produce surges of unemployment. If new technology makes production faster, the bosses sack “surplus” workers.

Further, wrote Marx, “machinery… is the most powerful weapon for repressing strikes, those periodical revolts of the working class against the autocracy of capital”. It does that by making labour more easily replaceable.

But while doing all this, new technology builds up both the technical and the human basis for socialism. It means that when the working class takes control of society, we will have the resources available to meet human need and to abolish poverty. As Marx said, new technology “provides, along with the elements for the formation of a new society, the forces for exploding the old one”.

So? New technology — yes; but we have to fight for control over the terms and conditions under which it is introduced; for shorter hours and easier work conditions rather than job cuts and increased managerial control.

London’s Tory administration plans to cut thousands (1,600 to be precise) jobs from London Underground. This would effect passenger safety and the quality of services, not to mention thousands of workers’ livelihoods. If the tube becomes less safe and less reliable, that could force commuters back into their cars. And that’s bad for the planet.

WCA has worked with the main tube workers’ union, the RMT, to develop strategies for fighting for massively-expanded public transport systems that meet the needs of passengers, workers and the environment. Beating back the bosses’ cuts plans is the first step in that fight.

For more details, including info on how you can get involved in strike support, visit http://www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk

“In recent weeks, suspensions [of union activists] have escalated, with two reps recently suspended simply for attempting to represent other crew facing disciplinary action.  Around 80 crew have now been sacked or suspended, often for the most trivial reasons.

“It is now clear that agreed procedures are being abused for purposes of trying to destroy trade unionism among cabin crew.  It was my view from the start that this, not cost reductions, was BA’s real agenda and looking at the company’s recent actions unfortunately I have been proved right.

“This behaviour makes a mockery of commitments Willie Walsh entered into to ensure that disciplinary procedures would not be conducted in this way.  It undermines the credibility of all company commitments and is not the action of a management looking to resolve the dispute.

“This is no longer a matter for BA cabin crew alone.  If trade unionism is smashed among cabin crew, then we can be sure these methods will be extended to other groups of unionised BA employees.”

More here: http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/ba_united_we_stand/unite_press_releases/unite_to_consult_across_ba_m-1.aspx

The “Climate 9” trial has heard that commitment to a just transition was part of the motivation for closing down Aberdeen Airport in March last year. Nine activists are accused of breach of the peace and vandalism and face trial by jury in Aberdeen, where video evidence showed climate activist Dan Glass talking to police, citing the lack of investment in “green jobs” as one of his reasons for taking action.

On Thursday a video of the protest was screened to the Jury, who witnessed defendant Dan Glass informing the police cameraman of their objectives. Dan Glass stated that they were there to “close the airport for as long as possible; stop C02 emissions as they are dangerous; to stop airport expansion; to end short haul flights; to get people in high-emission industry into green jobs; to highlight the social disparity between those who cause the problems and those who suffer the impacts.”

Glass 26, a community worker from Glasgow said “There can be little doubt that capitalism is a cancer that robs people of their autonomy, as well as their labour. It relies on limitless growth, externalises costs, refusing to even count the things that matter and in the end there is simply no way to quantify the value of an ecosystem in terms of money, so this system must end if we are to save our planet. Yet if climate change activism is to be effective, moreover if we are to achieve a just transition, our community movements and climate change movements must effectively engage with workers movements in a spirit of solidarity.”

Speaking of the links between climate change and workers movement’s accused Jimmy Kerr, 35, from Paisley added, “The middle-class environmental movement has a culture of blaming workers within environmentally destructive industries for the existence of those industries, yet these workers are themselves fiercely exploited. A perfect example is in the airline industry itself, where workers at British Airways are being cruelly demonised for attempting to retain the conditions that they have worked for. It is clear that our common enemy is not workers, but British Airways, who pay shareholders and invest in perpetuating unsustainable air travel instead of using their multi-billion pound profits for green transport.

The fact is that all struggles are deeply woven with the struggle to stop climate change, simply because climate change has disproportionate impacts on the poor, their suffering caused and exacerbated by arbitrary and unnecessary divisions. The Gate Gourmet strike action in 2005 is a good illustration of how these issues are linked, yet it was two years after the industry was almost crippled in that display of togetherness, before climate activists closed Heathrow Airport as part of the camp for climate action. There is no logical reason for this, our enemies are the same and our struggle is essentially the same, albeit couched in a different language. It’s my opinion that with proper planning and genuine open dialogue, solidarity action involving all progressive movements are not only possible and desirable, but necessary if we are to have any future for our planet, but particularly if we are to see a just transition to a carbon-free economy,”

The court was packed with supporters all week, which is due to continue on Monday 21st June morning at 9am. The Climate 9 trial has received messages of support from individuals and groups worldwide. For a full list of statements of support go to www.climate9.com/statements-of-support/

“Climate change remains the biggest global threat we face – both environmentally and socially. Yet we still do not have any new international agreement to reduce emissions or a meaningful plan of action at a national level. The Climate9 refuse to stand by and ignore climate change so have decided to take on the responsibility that others are shirking. I applaud their campaign and hope others will be inspired to speak out and hold those damaging our environment to account.” Caroline Lucas, Green party MP for Brighton Pavillion.

“I support the actions of the ‘Climate 9; who caused no harm to anyone, did not endanger anyone, but did succeed in their mission to raise awareness about the Government’s plans to support further expansion of airports across the country. We all, as members of the human race, should applaud people who are prepared to raise public awareness of proposals which our own Government has identified as dangerous to the planet.” Dr Anne Taylor

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Other relevant links

Climate 9 http://www.climate9.com

Aberdeen Action http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7924952.stm

http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/news/detail.php?art_id=3230

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7924952.stm

For more information and interviews contact

Pressclimate9@gmail.com

• Dan Glass 07717811747
• Miriam Rose 07765501687
• Tilly Gifford 07717887221
• Jimmy Kerr 07856799449

The event was planned to coincide with the British Airways Cabin Crew strikes, but after a petty legal skirmish earlier in the week, it was not certain whether a Flying Bike Picket would actually being picketing anyone. The strikes were due to start on Tuesday 18th May, but BA won an injunction on Monday against Unite to stop the strikes. This judgment was won on a technicality; that Unite had failed to notify every member of 11 spoilt ballots. This injunction was perfectly timed to delay the beginning of the strike. Finally, the injunction was successfully appealed on Thursday, and Unite could then legally proceed with the strikes. But the strikes did not go ahead, and at time of going to press, BA and Unite were still in negotiations.

The legal debacle was clearly an attempt to break the workers, the Union and the right to strike. With this in mind, WCA decided that it was now, even more important to defend the right to strike and to go out to Heathrow to make sure the cabin crew were made aware of WCA’s support and to encourage solidarity action from the rest of the Heathrow workforce.

So, on Saturday afternoon in the afternoon sun, a critical mass of 25 cyclists set off for Heathrow airport. The mass started from Grow Heathrow, a community garden in Sipson set up by Tranisition Heathrow. A number of Sipson residents joined the mass too to show their solidarity with the cabin crew as well as a celebration of the plans to axe the Third Runway, which would have tarmac-ed their village and destroyed their homes.

The mass was a colourful and musical display of creative solidarity and highlighted the current threat to our collective right to strike. The bike were covered in slogans such as ‘Not the Courts, Not the State, Workers should decide their fate!’, ‘Abolish the Anti-Trade Union Laws’ and ‘Environmentalists want to defend the right to strike!’.

The mass cycled through the beautiful greenery surrounding the airport on the way to its first stop: British Airways HQ, where a local resident, who used to work for BA and lost his three-year-old child to aviation pollution, addressed the workers inside to support the cabin crew and fight their bullying boss Willie Walsh.

Next stop – Terminal 5. There were many BA workers by the entrance on smoking breaks, many of whom seemed pleased to accept this playful display of solidarity. Then the critical mass left the road and entered the terminal building, swerving passed dismayed security staff, cycled passed the check-in desks demanding protection of the right to strike.

The mass then continued on its course, visiting other parts of the airport and the surrounding villages to spread its message of solidarity and dissent, while simultaneously slowing traffic at every turn. The critical mass is currently the most effective and creative way to show your solidarity in a workplace such as Heathrow airport; it allows you to be mobile, avoid security and dissent in a fun and inclusive way.