Back in April, Domino’s Pizza delivery drivers in Australia had their wages slashed by 19% — overnight. The driver’s union — the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employee’s Union (SDA), a yellow union which with 230,000 members is also Australia’s largest and functions as a sinecure for a small clique of right-wing Labor Party officials — agreed in May to accept this decision. The wages cut was then formally accepted at an industrial hearing at FWA in July, and further discussions between Domino’s and the union deferred until some point in the future. In effect, by not applying to have an earlier, outdated agreement rescinded, the SDA chose to actively support measures which prevented drivers from obtaining a national minimum award of $19 per hour.
While all this was going on and undeterred by the SDA, a group of Domino’s workers — members of the Brisbane branch of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation — decided to organise themselves to take action, eventually forming the ‘General Transport Workers’ Association’. After several months of rallies (May/June/July) at a number of Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Australia, last month the GTWA appealed for support from its international allies. On September 15, 2012, a Global Day of Action in solidarity with the GTWA and Domino’s drivers took place.
Below are very brief accounts of some of the events and actions organised in support; a fuller account is published on the International Workers Association / Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (IWA-AIT) blog.
Аustralia: Pickets and solidarity meetings in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Brazil: The Brazilian Workers Confederation (COB) organized solidarity actions in Porto Alegre and São Paulo.
England: The Solidarity Federation organised protests in front of restaurants in Brighton, Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester and elsewhere; the IWW held a picket in Sheffield.
Germany: Members of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) picketed Domino’s restaurants in Bonn, Cologne and Langenfeld.
Spain. Solidarity actions organised by members of the CNT took place in Barcelona, Gijon, Salamanca and elsewhere.
Other actions and events took place in Auckland and Wellington (Aotearoa/New Zealand); Vancouver (Canada); Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Paris and Toulouse (France); Amsterdam (Netherlands); Oslo (Norway); Warsaw (Poland); Moscow (Russia); Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Berkeley, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Minneapolis/St.Pauli, Providence, San Francisco and Tampa (United States).
Below is the text of a leaflet by a Domino’s driver in Brisbane, distributed at events in Australia:
To all fellow Domino’s drivers, those I know already & those across Brisbane I don’t – it’s great to hear you standing up for yourselves, making yourselves heard.
I’ve seen you working & I know when April came along you didn’t slacken off by 19%. You don’t deserve this. Your labour isn’t cheap but the bosses move was. Do you remember in training those flashy videos & an excited rep telling you how your wages were industry leading? Wages they were paying while making massive profits.
I bet they didn’t tell you even then they were fighting to cut it. No flashy video for your loss huh, just a photocopied memo left out for you on short notice. And for the worst of reasons – they thought you’d lie down & just take it.
Because you’re teenagers, because you’re foreign students, because for those reasons or others just as good you knew you’d need to keep the job. Because you weren’t organized and others were speaking in your place, hanging you out to dry.
I see their game, sucking all the dough to the top & letting the rest of us fight for the crumbs. Stuff that. We’re rough enough to deal with all kinds of attitude good & bad from customers, we’re rough enough to give it back to the boss.
I say if anything we deserve a damn raise. How many years have gone by without one? Still think you could get fuel for 70c/L like when we last had one? Think everything else you pay for hasn’t gone up in that time?
Together we’re undefeatable, together we’ll find the bosses pushovers. Next time you go out on a run have a chat with another driver in the carpark, see if they’ll tell you it ain’t so.
“While all this was going on and undeterred by the SDA, a group of Domino’s workers — members of the Brisbane branch of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation — decided to organise themselves to take action, eventually forming the ‘General Transport Workers’ Association’.”
Is this true? I thought the ASF formed the GTWA and then tried to recruit workers to it.
From what I hear (all second hand and hearsay) there is little evidence of workers actually participating beyond the most passive of roles in this campaign. Now that might not be a problem if this is part of a plan to build a union there in the long term, but I find the misrepresentation of what is going on increasingly hard to stomach. I hope I am wrong.
cheers
Dave
As far as I’m aware, yes: some Domino’s workers were members of the ASF-B, the wages cut was introduced in April, the ASF decided to contest it, and they then formed the GTWA — which openly declares its intention to recruit members.
That’s my understanding anyway: I hope someone directly involved will comment.
I guess it depends on what you consider a group to be! 2? 3? I would be surprised if the ASF had more than, what, 20 or 30 members nationally? If they did they would certainly win the much coveted prize of ‘biggest Anarcho-Syndicalist group in Australia since 1980’ – what a fluke that then 10% of their membership happened to work in the same place mere months after they formed in Brisbane!
Snarky tone aside, I have emailed the ASF and I do think they need to clarify what is going on and the actual level of self-organisation of drivers in this campaign. I think there is a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes going on here.
cheers
Dave
My rule of thumb is 3.
Total membership is prolly something like 20 or 30 but I dunno.
(Dunno about sit of ASF in Brisbane either.)
I’ve invited comment.
Sweet.
I have heard a number of different stories.
There is the promoted version which sees the GTWA arising out of the self-activity of the workers themselves and these are the people driving the campaign.
There is what I have been told by a comrade in the ASF which acknowledges that there are different levels of activity and passivity in the campaign but is generally positive about it all.
There is what I have been told by comrades in the BSN which says that it is non-driver comrades in the ASF that are the real force in this campaign and whilst some drivers may support these efforts they are very passive.
There are the photos of the pickets in Brisbane which (apart from the 1st one) seem to be made up of two people (and a third holding a camera).
cheers
Dave
The following is a full list of places where stuff happened. The WSA has published an acct of actions in the US here.
AUSTRALASIA (6)
Auckland, NZ: Auckland Anarchists, Auckland Action Against Poverty
Brisbane, Queensland: ASF
Melbourne, Victoria: ASF
Perth, WA: IWW
Sydney, NSW: ASF, IWW
Wellington, NZ: AWSM
EUROPE (33)
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: ASB, Anarchist Group Amsterdam
Besonne, France: CNTF
Bratislava, Slovakia: Priama Akcia
Brighton, England: SolFed
Bristol, England: SolFed
Bonn, Germany: FAU
Caen, France: CNTF
Clermont, France: CNTF
Cologne, Germany: FAU
Elche, Spain: CNT
Enghien-les-Bains, France: CNTF
Gijon, Spain: CNT
Leeds, England: IWW, AF
Lagenfeld, Germany: FAU
Madrid, Spain: CNT
Malaga, Spain: CNT
Manchester, England: SolFed, AF
Mataro, Spain: CNT
Moscow, Russia: KRAS
Nanterre, France: CNTF
Oslo, Norway: NSF
Paris, France: SUD
Pau, France: CNTF
Premia de Mar, Spain: CNT
Sabadell, Spain: CNT
Salamanca, Spain: CNT
Sartrouville, France: CNTF
Sheffield, England: IWW
Southampton, England: SolFed
South London, England: SolFed
Toulouse, France: CNTF
Vigo, Spain: CNT
Warsaw, Poland: ZSP
NORTH AMERICA (8)
Berkeley, California: IWW, WSA
Lansing, Michigan: Lansing Workers Centre
Long Beach, California: IWW, WSA
Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota: IWW
Missoula, Montana: WSA, Zootown Solidarity Network
Nanaimo, British Columbia: IWW
Providence, Rhode Island: IWW, WSA
Tampa, Florida: IWW
SOUTH AMERICA (3)
Porto Alegre, Brazil: COB
Rosario, Argentina: FORA
Sao Paolo, Brazil: COB