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May 10:Holyhead
worker victimised for speaking his own language
A Bangor Socialist
Party member
The front page of the North Wales Daily Post on May Day splashed a
story of a worker at the Holyhead Morrisons store who had felt compelled to
quit his job after being told not to speak Welsh. The last straw was when
he asked another worker in Welsh to move some items into the store warehouse,
when the store manager (who only speaks English) was passing by. The manager
asked him not to speak in Welsh as he thought the workers might be talking
about him. According to a Morrisons spokesperson the worker was having a conversation
with the manager when the incident occurred. On the face of it, this amounts
to bullying a worker into speaking a particular language.
The 2001 census showed that over 20% of the population of Wales spoke Welsh,
but this increases dramatically in North West Wales, with 69% and 60% speaking
Welsh in Gwynedd and Anglesey respectively. This means that Welsh is the first
language of a sizeable proportion of workers in the area. Indeed in the quarry
industry, which 100 years ago was the area’s main industry, the North
Wales Quarrymens Union conducted all its business in Welsh. Moreover, being
forced not to speak Welsh has echoes of the period of the emergence of capitalism
in Wales which saw English bosses ban workers from speaking the language in
order to maintain their dominance, and children who only spoke Welsh at home
forced to speak and study in English at school.
In the present case, the worker's trade union, USDAW, did not initially take
this issue up, although they are now investigating it. That was left to Cymdeithas
yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) who have organised a picket
outside the store to demand the right to work through the medium of Welsh.
They have raised the need for the Welsh Assembly to have legislative powers
over the Welsh language which should include the right to work through the
medium of Welsh. Whilst this is undoubtedly correct, it doesn't go far enough.
Under capitalist society there are plenty of rights on paper, yet often the
bosses can ignore them when it suits their needs. Workers have always had
to fight for their rights, such as the right to vote or the right to belong
to a trade union, which have been fought for. In reality, only workers organised
via the trades union movement can guarantee those rights. Workers should have
the right to communicate with people in any language that the person they
are talking to is comfortable talking in. They shouldn't be bullied into speaking
into any particular language just because a manager wishes to pry on their
conversation!
April 27:Gorseinon College - Still Fighting!
Ronnie
Job updates:
UNISON and other campus unions in Gorseinon College are once again having
to campaign against the effects of funding cuts. On Friday, April 24 union-organised
protests took place at the College’s outreach centre in Pontarddulais,
Canolfan-Y-Bont and outside Labour Party Wales Conference at the Guildhall.
We are still fighting despite the announcement from the Assembly of ‘additional
funding for Further Education’ made on April 15.
continued
on Education Page
May 26: Bangor
Socialist Youth Conference.
Young Socialists from North Wales received a
helping hand from comrades from the South for an all Wales day of action last
Saturday in Bangor. The day started with a successful ‘Youth Fight for
Jobs’ protest in Bangor.
Report by
Sarah Mayo
Workers and students stopped to take our bi-lingual leaflets and sign our
petitions and our well travelled ‘YFFJ’ banner attracted a lot
of attention (this banner has previously visited Cardiff, Pontypridd and Swansea!)
continued
May 26: Wales
TUC - victory for democracy.
The attempt to downgrade the Wales TUC was defeated
at the Llandudno conference. The proposal to replace the annual forum for
trade unionists with a biennial conference and a toothless 'Campaigning and
Strategy Forum'
The Socialist Party clearly emerged as the
leading force to the left of New Labour in the Welsh Trade Union Movement.
see full report
May 23: South Hook - Workers victory: Employers back down
Construction workers at the South Hook LNG (Liquified
Natural Gas) terminal construction site near Milford Haven have won a big
victory over employers by taking unofficial action in defiance of anti-union
laws.
Dave Reid
Solidarity action by construction workers across Wales and England has forced
Hertel UK to back down from its attempt to refuse to employ any more unionised
UK-based laggers on the site. The plant’s contract with Hertel UK is
“under review”. Clearly the prompt action across the country,
illegal under the current ant-union legislation,
was hurting Hertel and the industry as a whole. Hertel was forced to make
a humiliating climbdown.
Over 200 workers walked off the site when Hertel refused to employ any more
unionised UK-based laggers, members of the GMB, but instead brought in workers
from Poland.
continued
June 10: VICTORY
AT LINAMAR!
Following the workers'
threat of all out strike action, Linamar management has backed down and unconditionally
reinstated Rob Williams to his job and as Trade Union Convenor.
Rob would like to thank everyone for their support in helping him get his
job back at Linamar.
There will obviously now be no picket or demo but we will be celebrating appropriately
soon.
IThe victory completes a great hat-trick for the Socialist Party this week
along with the election of Joe Higgins to the European Parliament in Dublin
(on a workers' wage) and doubling the number of Socuialist Party number of
members on the Unison NEC to 6.
Along with the Visteon Convenors and the leaders of the Lindsey Oil Refinery
strike, Rob will be addressing the National Shop Stewards Network conference
in London on Saturday June 27th.
A VICTORY FOR WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY.
Thurs, June 18: PUBLIC MEETING - 'LESSONS
OF THE LINAMAR VICTORY'
7.30pm.
Dolphin
Hotel, Swansea City Centre.
June 21: Socialist
Party’s first North Wales District meeting
A demonstration of the growing support for the party in the
area.