Half the world away, but the same struggle

As I was writing the previous post, about the efforts being made by UNISON members working at Leicester's hospitals for Serco, ISS and Medirest to win their back-pay, I received this week's email alert from LabourStart. Every 4glengate.net reader is probably already familiar with LabourStart, the world's premier internet news service for trade unionists, and the online campaigning which they undertake on behalf of trade unions and workers. This week's email alert contained an appeal from Algeria, where workers living in tent cities provide sub-contractor services to a host of multinationals based in Hassi Messaoud, an oil fortress 850km south east of Algiers.

Two years ago, workers there decided that they needed to form a trade union: they worked weeks on end without a day off, their pay was low, the conditions lousy and the relations with the employer were poor. The company they work for is part of a global corporation itself, and one of the company's overseas managers intervened in the workers' efforts to establish a union, and triggered a long-running dispute which has seen the union smashed and the elected General Secretary, Yassin Zaid, suspended and charged with "slander on the Internet". One manager has even spuriously claimed that Zaid sent him death threats by email, although he has never been able to back up the allegation with a shred of evidence.

The workers in Algeria are now launching an international campaign to win Zaid's re-instatement, and the recognition of their desire to form an independent trade union. And the link with Leicester? Zaid and his colleagues in Algeria work for a company called Eurest Support Services, which itself is part of the Compass Group - which also owns the Medirest company which employs the catering staff at Glenfield hospital currently fighting to win their backpay.

When it comes to workers' solidarity, it really is a small world. Thanks to the work of LabourStart, and others, the Compass Group workers in Glenfield and those in Algeria can now find out about each others' struggles, and hopefully share information, ideas and inspiration.