Nationalism and the union bureaucracy
Michigan’s right-to-work law
By Jerry White, December 13, 2012
The inability of the United Auto Workers and other unions to mount any serious opposition to the anti-worker legislation demonstrates the bankruptcy of these organizations.
An exchange on “Reject TUC’s phoney war”
April 21, 2011
Published here is correspondence on the SEP statement on the Trades Union Congress March 26 demonstration in London, entitled “Reject TUC’s phoney war.”
The Wisconsin struggle and collective bargaining
By Jerry White, February 22, 2011
In the course of the struggle in Wisconsin, the trade unions are focusing on the right to “collective bargaining,” even as they openly declare their willingness to accept all the concessions demanded by the Wisconsin governor.
Spanish unions and middle class “left” back state repression of air traffic controllers
By Alejandro López, Paul Stuart, January 22, 2011
Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero’s government imposed a “state of alarm” on 2,200 air traffic controllers December 4, subjecting them to military discipline to force them back to work.
British trade unions hold secret talks with government
By Robert Stevens, August 28, 2010
With the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government planning the most drastic attacks on the working class since the 1930s, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) is working to ensure they are imposed without opposition.
Canada: Vale-Inco strike now longest in Sudbury Basin history
By Carl Bronski, April 15, 2010
As the strike at Vale Inco’s Sudbury mine and smelter operations enters its tenth month, the transnational mining conglomerate is stepping up its scabbing operation.
Greece: The pseudo-left and the trade unions
By Ulrich Rippert, March 20, 2010
The petty-bourgeois political groupings that present themselves as “left” in Greece are, through their efforts to subordinate the working class to the trade union apparatuses, demonstrating their crucial political role in facilitating the drive of the European and international financial elite to impose historic attacks on working people of every country.
Greek trade unions close ranks behind PASOK austerity measures
By Robert Stevens, Marcus Salzmann, March 17, 2010
As the Greek government begins implementing its austerity measures, the two major trade unions federations, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the public sector confederation (ADEDY), are systematically demobilising opposition to PASOK’s assault on the jobs, employment conditions and living standards of working people.
AFL-CIO pledges all-out backing for Democrats in 2010 elections
By Patrick Martin, March 5, 2010
The AFL-CIO Executive Council announced this week that the union federation would provide even more financial and organizational support for Democratic Party candidates this year than in 2008, despite the anti-working-class record of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress.
The European strikes and the trade unions
By Ulrich Rippert, March 5, 2010
The response of the trade unions in all countries to the wave of strikes and protests across Europe has been to isolate and suppress the workers’ resistance to austerity measures, block the development of a European-wide movement, and close ranks with their respective governments and the European financial elite.
Britain: Post union president resigns from Socialist Workers Party
By Chris Marsden, December 3, 2009
Britain’s Socialist Worker newspaper acknowledged on November 29 that Jane Loftus, president of the Communication Workers Union, has quit the Socialist Workers Party.
Britain: Behind the disciplinary action in the Unison trade union
By Julie Hyland, September 28, 2009
The disciplinary action taken by the public sector union Unison against several of its members raises important issues of political perspective.
Follow the WSWS