Philadelphia unionists to picket German consulate

Members of the Philadelphia General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World will picket the German Consulate at 1617 JFK Boulevard Friday, Jan. 29, at noon as part of an international day of action protesting escalating violations of basic labor rights in Germany. The IWW decided to picket the consulate when it declined their request to meet with a union delegation to discuss the issue.

Unions around the world are deeply concerned by recent court actions in Germany restricting workers rights to organize into unions of their choice, and to appeal to the public for solidarity as they struggle to improve their working conditions. Members of the Berlin local of the Free Workers Union (FAU) are under a December 11 court order (reaffirmed January 5) barring them from acting as a union or representing their members at the government-funded New Babylon Cinema, where a majority of the workforce has been engaged in industrial action through the FAU. Managers are now in court demanding that the union’s officers be jailed and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars because they have refused to abandon their union and its members.

Founded in 1919, the FAU has a long history fighting for the rights of German workers; a history that led to its suppression by the Nazi regime in 1933. Today, although the German government claims to respect labor rights, it is once again trying to destroy the FAU because of its commitment to workers’ rights and to independent unions of their own choosing. On Friday, January 29, in an international day of solidarity with the FAU, unionists around the world are protesting at German government offices demanding an end to these attacks.

More information on this dispute is available on the FAU’s web site (www.fau.org/verbot/en/); supporters have set up a site through which you can send English-language protest emails at http://fau.zsp.net.pl/send-a-protest-to-kino-babylon/emailpage/

phillyiww@iww.org