Oor workers, yoor workers, a’bodys workers
Twelve workers have occupied a small Dundee factory, Prisme, in protest at being made redundant in a scandalous manner. You can see a TV report here.
A number of Scottish Socialist Party members including Colin Fox, former MSP and Angela Gorrie, Maryfield by election candidate visited the workers today to show their support. And the other Scottish left party, Solidarity has the following report on their web-site:
Interview with Matthew – Young worker in the occupation
“On Monday we came into work as normal and the Managing Director came in and gave his letter of resignation. So we phoned the company secretary who was actually on holiday. We were told to speak to a guy called Alan Dand. On Tuesday he called us and an administrator came to look at the accounts. Then the company told us that they didn’t have enough assets to pay for the administrator and said “Looks like we’re just going to shut the door”.
“We were told that the director and a legal representative were coming to tell us our rights but in fact the legal representative was for the director and wouldn’t tell us anything. They won’t even tell us who owns the company! We demanded that we be given a letter how much we were entitled to in redundancy payments, our P45’s and statutory redundancy forms. When we received the letter it stated how much our statutory redundancy payments were and that we were entitled to wages, pay in lieu of notice and accrued holiday pay. Then the next sentence of the letter said “Unfortunately, we do not have any money to make these payments to you.”. They said there were other routes we could take to get our redundancy payments but all they have suggested is speaking to the Citizens Advice Bureau.
“After receiving these letters we were told to leave and come back at half nine in the morning but we decided we’re not leaving until we receive what we’re entitled to. We’re not giving them the opportunity to lock the doors while we’re out so we end up with nothing.”
victory to the prisme workers !
its cool to have an occupation 2 mins from my front door.
messages of support to matthewh@prisme.co.uk
Comment by graham — 6 March, 2009 @ 3:19 am
Why start the story with the arrival of the SSP byelection campaign?
The idea is to support the workers, from Wednesday afternoon people from Trade unions across the country have been helping them with press, with advice and with support. The workers there are well motivated, articulate and well organised and have a lot of support. Don’t try to turn this into a propaganda exercise for the SSP Andy.
Comment by Jim Monaghan — 6 March, 2009 @ 10:18 am
First of all I think the article is a fair report, highlighting the treatment of the workforce, mentioning Angela,who probably wont go far in Scottish Left politics as she is a helluva nice, articulate and intelligent person, and giving a link to Solidarity, even stevens on that account. The questions that should be asked is
1. Where is Labour?
2. Is the major role of the Scottish left to survive on industrial road kill?
I dont like the structure of the Left in Scotland though I admire the work of activists in all organisations, the National question has taken up far too much time and effort for any form of independance will mean a surrender to Salmond who behind his Social Democratic rhetoric has introduced a harsh regime based on the redistribution of poverty and not wealth, to the benefit of the affluent SNP areas over the working class and impoverished areas.
Well best of luck to the workers and hope they get something out of it.
Comment by Jim McLean — 6 March, 2009 @ 11:47 am
Might I be bold enough to suggest he probably just copied the paragraph from the Dundee SSP short post on the visit). But that’s irrelevent the important thing is supporting the workers, publicising their actions and showing others that you can fight back
Comment by Alan G — 6 March, 2009 @ 6:19 pm
Exactly Alan, supporting the wokers is the thing, members of trades unions have been doing so since Wednesday, members of scottish left parties have been helping with press, with advice on their rights, with resreach, and even sleeping in the factory supporting the sit-in. It is Andy who turned that into a match about what party is doing what. The ‘other socialist party’ as he refers to Solidarity had members in the factory from the start, and have been fully supporting the campaign. We havent hung a Solidarity banner on our work there as it IS about supporting the workers. This report is about promoting the SSP, as much as it is supporting the occupation. I would hate this fight to slip into that sort of sectarian promotion and no-one should be using the occupation in that way.
The Solidarity report doesnt shout about the involvement of our members it shouts about supporting the bold action by these workers. The SU report should have done the same.
Comment by Jim Monaghan — 7 March, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
Outrage as police threaten to confiscate strike fund
http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/outrage-as-police-threaten-to-confiscate-strike-fund/
Outside the Labour Party conference there were a number of protests about the organisation’s presence in the city, from those dressed as fat cats objecting to billions being given to the bunch of bankers, to Palestine Solidarity stalls.
Among them were members of the SSP and of Solidarity working together to highlight the Prisme occupation and raise funds for them.
The police, prompted by a “complaint” by a “member of the public” (most likely some Labour Party loyalist, approached each of these in turn to threaten them with further action should they not desist from their activities. The Palestine Solidarity Stall were spoken to for a while. The fatcat banker was warned over his possession of clearly fake money - something companies and churches use all the time for advertising and prosthletising respectively.
Most outrageously was the police action over the solidarity with Prisme workers. Those collecting were told that they must immediately stop collecting money. Their names, addresses and work details were taken. They were further informed that if they continued to collect money in a bucket they would be charged and that the money would be seized.
The rest is nonsense and worth fighting for a day in court, but the threat to seize donations raised for workers in struggle was believed to be most serious. The SSP unreservedly condemn the police decision in this case. Surely for one Tayside Police have better things to do such as continually and habitually break the speed limit without penalty, such as their 140MPH+ chief constable. Secondly the money is being raised for workers who have been treated appallingly by their employer.
We will continue to work with the striking workers and to raise money for them. Currently they have no mechanism for receiving donations other than directly in cash, so we will publicise any other ways to do so if and when they are available.
Comment by Eddie Truman — 8 March, 2009 @ 6:36 pm
On Saturday members of Solidarity and the SSP were working together, collecting money in the city square for the striking workers. “A member of the public” complained and the police threatened to arrest them and confiscate the strike fund if they continued.
http://dundeessp.org/blog/2009/03/08/outrage-as-police-threaten-to-confiscate-strike-fund/
The reason the police were there - the labour party conference. Presumably the complainer was a delegate to the conference of the party “at the forefront of improving the lives of ordinary Scots”
Comment by Alan G — 8 March, 2009 @ 6:38 pm