Red Pepper News

Telefónica: what’s at the other end of the line?

With today's news that Telefónica has bid to take over British mobile phone operator O2, readers in the UK might be interested to find out more about the dodgy labour practices and anti-union strategies of the Spanish phone giant. You could do far worse, then, that read this article on the company by Gemma Galdon, first published in Eurotopia (a collective project involving Red Pepper and seven partner magazines from across Europe):
http://www.eurotopiamag.org/article.php3?id_article=8

Sacked by Gate Gourmet

The Gate Gourmet workers sacked in August have a website where you can pledge support and read workers' stories. It's well worth a look, and a dip into your pockets to help the hardship fund if you can. Corporate Watch also has an interesting interview with one of the sacked workers.

Over at British Airways (BA), where unofficial strike action was held in solidarity with the Gate Gourmet workers, two Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G) shop stewards have been suspended from work.

Taking on Wal-mart: some talk, little action

Oscar Reyes. Heard the one about the worldwide union mobilisation against Wal-mart, the global supermarket chain which owns Asda in the UK? Well, don’t hold your breath. A Union Network International (UNI) conference in Chicago, which brings together service sector unions from across the globe, has opened a ‘channel of communication’ with the company. Experience shows that this may not be enough to change the behaviour of a firm George Monbiot once called ‘the most ruthless employer in the world’, and whose own propaganda site dedicates considerable effort to bashing unions. But some positive initiatives have come out.

Locked out journalists strike back

Journalists locked out of Canadian public broadcaster CBC are striking back by creating their own alternative media source. 5,500 employees have been locked out by the stating, after they rejected management plans to put more staff on temporary contracts. In response, they have launched CBC Unplugged, which gathers dispatches from picketlines and uses blogs to gather lockout-related news and music. The site also raises wider issues about casualisation in the media industry.