Inside LabourStart

Sherlock Holmes once told Dr. Watson that “on general principles it is best that I should not leave the country” because “it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes.”

I’m starting to feel the same way.

Forty-eight hours before my two-week vacation begins and we’re seeing a flood of new campaigns coming into LabourStart.

• The International Transport Workers Federation asked us to campaign in support of 120 sacked workers at UPS Turkey.  The campaign went live in English and French yesterday, and so far 45 people have sent off messages.  Today I sent it off for translation into 10 more languages, sent out a Tweet, wrote to the more than 3,000 people in our LabourStart Facebook group, posted it to the Wire on UnionBook, and made it a top news story.  I plan to publicize it to our lists in tomorrow’s mailing.  Those numbers will shoot up within twenty-four hours.
• Our friends in the UE in the USA have asked us to campaign in support of ongoing disputes in Mexico involving the electrical workers union and workers in Cananea.  We’re hoping to have the texts ready tomorow.
• The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has been asking for our support for a campaign but we’ve asked them to show some evidence of international support and they’re waiting for a statement from the ITUC Asia Pacific region.  It’s not clear that we’ll have this ready before I leave.

There are other requests in the pipeline as well.  And comrades, it’s August — in the northern hemisphere, most trade unions barely function, as everyone is on holiday (at least in Europe).

Our collective absences from our desks in this period does seem to cause an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes, er, the bosses.