[Marxism] British Wildcat Strike Wave?

[David Picón Álvarez]

European immigration policy... It's hard to judge what's going on in the UK
from outside. Although I studied there for some time, I never worked there
and I have no idea how things work in regards collective bargaining
agreements, unionization, etc. Here in Spain, at least by law, a worker from
the EU should have the same rights and duties as a worker from Spain. I
think it was recently that the moratorium on the free movement of workers
from some of the new EU member states was lifted here, so it should apply to
all member states now. However, it's probably the case that certain EU
workers may be cheaper, because they may not be as willing to assert their
rights. To this the obvious answer is to try to stand in solidarity with
foreign workers, it's something that, even from a self-interested viewpoint,
should be clear enough.

It's also the case that many workers commute from Portugal, especially in
construction and the like (although with the housing crisis this is probably
no longer as common). This stuff has already been fought over in some cases,
I recommend for interested readers to check out the arduous legislative
journey of the Directive on Services in the Internal Market, better known by
some as Bolkestein Directive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_services_in_the_internal_market

This Wikipedia article is not very good, by the way, but in part because it 
isn't well finished it presents the picture of a directive which didn't have 
an easy process. It's ironic that Gordon Brown, who calls now for British 
jobs for British workers, or so we hear, strongly supported the enactment of 
this instrument back in the day...

--David.