Magón
13th September 2010, 21:08
http://libcom.org/news/spain-cnt-joins-call-september-29-general-strike-13092010
Spain: CNT Joins Call for September 29 General Strike
Submitted by OliverTwister on Sep 12 2010 23:47
tags: CNT Spain general strikes strikes
The Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union the CNT is calling for a nationwide walkout against the government's new labor law reform.
Their press release stated:
The labor reform that the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Party] intends to introduce will be the greatest act of aggression against the rights of workers since the transition to democracy.
We must use the one-day strike as a trigger for later and broader mobilisations.
A labor reform that they claim is justified by the crisis, but that in reality is only oriented to creating opportunities for employers to use irregular contracts, ignore collective agreements, and fire their workers more cheaply. A reform that will mean more temporariness and deregulation in contracting workers; a substantial reduction of the penalties for improper firings; enormous opportunities for employers to break away from agreements in matters such as wages, the working day, or guaranteed hours. More precarity, more insecurity, less income, less rights. This is how the PSOE governs.
Yet, in spite of all this, this reform is only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath lies the reality: the miserable working conditions in the immense majority of companies, the continual non-fulfillment of agreements, paying lower wages than stipulated, insecure work, working full-time on a half-time contract; the obligation to work extra hours if you do not want them to fire you, or skipping vacations or doing the work that they order you to do, even if you're not supposed to. All this if you don't want them to show you the door. Another piece of the reality is formed by the contempt with which we are treated by governments, politicians, and the media, in which they present us as lazy, unproductive, and useless. We, the workers, live knowing that we are interchangeable, that we are clutter who can only find work if we do it cheaper than whoever was doing it before. We live with the fear of not knowing if tomorrow we will continue to be paid, or even continue to eat.
And what are we going to do? Sit down to wait and see how everything turns out? Hope that maybe one day we will find good work? Elbow each other in a struggle to grab the last subsidy?
Anyone who wants to do this, go for it – you will be rewarded with nothing but misery. But the CNT is proposing something else to the working class: the struggle for our rights and our dignity. Without state financing [subvenciones], without union bureaucrats paid for by the companies [liberados], without mortgaging ourselves to the political system. Although we can't guarantee to anyone that we will be able to bury this reform, what we can guarantee is that we will give it everything we've got. We are calling upon everyone who wants to form part of this fight to come to our locals and organise themselves in the CNT.
Therefore we are calling for the General Strike on September 29th. Let this strike serve as a trigger for the mobilisations that lie ahead for the working class if we want to stop the Labor Reform. And regain our dignity.
Man I wish I was in Spain right now. What's everyone else's thoughts on this exciting news?
Spain: CNT Joins Call for September 29 General Strike
Submitted by OliverTwister on Sep 12 2010 23:47
tags: CNT Spain general strikes strikes
The Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union the CNT is calling for a nationwide walkout against the government's new labor law reform.
Their press release stated:
The labor reform that the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Party] intends to introduce will be the greatest act of aggression against the rights of workers since the transition to democracy.
We must use the one-day strike as a trigger for later and broader mobilisations.
A labor reform that they claim is justified by the crisis, but that in reality is only oriented to creating opportunities for employers to use irregular contracts, ignore collective agreements, and fire their workers more cheaply. A reform that will mean more temporariness and deregulation in contracting workers; a substantial reduction of the penalties for improper firings; enormous opportunities for employers to break away from agreements in matters such as wages, the working day, or guaranteed hours. More precarity, more insecurity, less income, less rights. This is how the PSOE governs.
Yet, in spite of all this, this reform is only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath lies the reality: the miserable working conditions in the immense majority of companies, the continual non-fulfillment of agreements, paying lower wages than stipulated, insecure work, working full-time on a half-time contract; the obligation to work extra hours if you do not want them to fire you, or skipping vacations or doing the work that they order you to do, even if you're not supposed to. All this if you don't want them to show you the door. Another piece of the reality is formed by the contempt with which we are treated by governments, politicians, and the media, in which they present us as lazy, unproductive, and useless. We, the workers, live knowing that we are interchangeable, that we are clutter who can only find work if we do it cheaper than whoever was doing it before. We live with the fear of not knowing if tomorrow we will continue to be paid, or even continue to eat.
And what are we going to do? Sit down to wait and see how everything turns out? Hope that maybe one day we will find good work? Elbow each other in a struggle to grab the last subsidy?
Anyone who wants to do this, go for it – you will be rewarded with nothing but misery. But the CNT is proposing something else to the working class: the struggle for our rights and our dignity. Without state financing [subvenciones], without union bureaucrats paid for by the companies [liberados], without mortgaging ourselves to the political system. Although we can't guarantee to anyone that we will be able to bury this reform, what we can guarantee is that we will give it everything we've got. We are calling upon everyone who wants to form part of this fight to come to our locals and organise themselves in the CNT.
Therefore we are calling for the General Strike on September 29th. Let this strike serve as a trigger for the mobilisations that lie ahead for the working class if we want to stop the Labor Reform. And regain our dignity.
Man I wish I was in Spain right now. What's everyone else's thoughts on this exciting news?