Archaeologists on strike

I dropped the ball on this one, but the Museum of London Archaeological Services (MoLAS) workers staged a one-day strike on the 9th.

A June 5th press release announcing the strike is on the Past Horizons' Weblog .

A letter from Anthony Francis, the Chair of the MoLAS branch of Prospect was posted on the British Archaeological Jobs and Resources Forum on the 12th, and I've quoted some relevant sections.

This was the first time the Museum's archaeology service (MoLAS) has ever gone on strike and the first time a strike has extended across the entire Museum of London group. The strike was over our pay award for the last financial year. It was 13 months late and less than half the rate of current RPI inflation. Ironically, our employer has the money to pay us more and wants to pay us more, but their hands have been tied by the government's 2% pay cap.
...
The strike closed at least ten MoLAS sites across the capital, including three sites where the entire archaeological workforce joined the union and went on strike. The few sites that did open did so with a much reduced workforce. A picket line was maintained at MoLAS HQ at Mortimer Wheeler House in Hackney where executive management contracted in extra (non-unionised) security to guard what was virtually an empty building.
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After the rally, many union members went to the TUC ' Speak up for public services event at Westminster. There we heard that there are hundreds of thousands of workers in the same boat as us, worried about housing costs, the cost of food and travel and also subject to below-inflation pay awards. The big unions are galvanising for further strike action later in the year against poverty pay . It is a fight for us all.

The full letter is here.

This reminded me of the nasty 1998 Indiana State University/Caesar's casino strike. So I went hunting through the HISTARCH archives. I found a couple of things, but I know there is more out there in the various listserv archives. Someday I'd like to write something up on that strike; something like that deserves to be remembered.

Field Tech Picket Shuts Down Caesars/ISU Site

Massive Firings on Ceasars/ISU Project!

Although the United Archaeological Field Technicians (UAFT) seems to be pretty much defunct, there have been rumblings to revitalize the field tech union, which I hope come through. While they were going, the UAFT put the fear of god into the CRM industry, but my sense is that those lessons are being forgotten. I am sure you can insert insert your own long rant about sleazy companies here.

In solidarity.