ADECCO is the largest employment agency in the world. Beside profiting on precarity and casualisation, ADECCO and other employment agencies are fast becoming the go-to source for scabs and strikebreakers. Case in point: At the Asea Brown Boveri factory in Cordoba, Spain workers have struck over pay and conditions.
Topping off a successful week that included an all day picket of the union-busting employment agency ADECCO, yesterday the North London local of the Solidarity Federation held our 2012 annual general meeting. Attended by about two-thirds of our membership, the meeting included a mix of long-term members (including one who was in Direct Action Movement before it became the Solidarity Federation) and others who've only joined in the past few months.
Red and black flags waved as a dozen people from the Anarchist Federation, Industrial Workers of the World, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Solidarity Federation and other individuals took part in a picket of the Glasgow premises of Adecco for one hour between 4 and 5pm on Friday 20th January.
On 31 January, workers in HM Revenue & Customs are taking strike action over the threat of privatisation. Their employer is bringing in private contractors Sitel and Teleperformance to hire temporary staff at vastly reduced rates of pay to take calls.
In solidarity with the sacked workers of EULEN-ABB in Spain, London locals of SolFed like our comrades in Brighton, took the streets today with a picket in front of Adecco’s London Bridge office. After a strike going on since last November, the Spanish employment agency EULEN fired all of the workers in the local strike committee, for the benefit of its contractor ABB. A global agency firm Adecco, a majority owner of numerous other brands in the industry, moved in supplying temp workers to scab the site -An attack against workers rights and an initiation rite for ABBs new program of union busting and a contract with Adecco’s local branch, EUROCEN.
At last night's National Delegate Council, Solidarity Federation delegates also agreed to endorse the international week of action called by the Ryanair Don't Care Campaign.
Liverpool Solidarity Federation had voted in December to support the week of action, issuing a statement which call on other Solidarity Federation locals, the International Workers' Association, and all who support the struggle of workers against exploitative employers, to take the following action:
Support the call-out for an International Week of Action against Ryanair, on the 12-18 March
Hold pickets of airports where Ryanair put on flights, offices of Ryanair and agencies / recruitment fairs through which they hire staff
Last night, the Solidarity Federation held a National Delegate Council, during which delegates from our existing local formally voted to accept our new Hull local's request to affiliate. We are pleased to welcome our new local into the national federation.
The affiliation of the Hull local is just the latest development in the expanding of the organisation. We are also in the process of actively forming locals in Glasgow, Chester, Hastings, Portsmouth/Southampton, Dorset, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Cambridge.
There was a great turnout for the short-notice picket of employment agency Adecco in Brighton today. Around 20 people stopped by, with picket numbers averaging 10-15 for the two hour picket. A division of Adecco has been hiring strike-breakers for the multinational corporation ABB and their contractor EULEN in Cordoba, Spain, where workers have been on indefiniate strike since November 28th. Around 400 copies of this leaflet were handed out. There were also pickets in Glasgow and London.
Today saw two members of the North London Solidarity Federation join striking gallery assistants and members of the public at a picket line rally at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The strike, over budget cuts and staffing levels, was scheduled to last only two hours and was planned to cause disruption during the Gallery's busiest time.
SolFed members in particular made an effort to flier potential patrons, explain the issues behind the strike, and request they refrain from entering the museum for the duration of the strike. After spending some time at the Gallery itself, the strikers led a short march to the to the Da Vinci exhibition which was taking place next door.
Workers at a Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) factory in Cordoba, Spain have been on indefinite strike since 28th November, camped out all day and night in front of the factory.
The strike was called in protest at plans to make workers redundant and replace them with non-union labour with no experience or qualifications, hired through EUROCEN - the logistics division of the ADECCO Group.
