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Articles : InternationalLabor News Roundup
Ahoy, fellow workers & filthy bourgeoisie! Welcome to the twenty-second edition of GNN’s exclusive Labor News Roundup. Though labor-related news is neglected in both the mainstream and “alternative” news services, important labor stories are breaking all over the world every day. This roundup is but a small sampling. For more international labor news, check out Labor Notes, LibCom, and LabourStart.
Global Day of Action Against Starbucks: The Union of Commerical and Hotel workers CNT-AIT in Sevilla, Spain along with the Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union (IWW) have announced a Global Day of Action scheduled for July 5th. The two groups are asking social organizations, unions, and individuals from around the world to promote and participate in this day of action. On April 24th, 2008 a barista named Monica was fired for her union activity from a Starbucks in Sevilla, Spain. She was a member of the Union of Commercial and Hotel Workers of the Confederacion Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT). Now with the support of all CNT affiliates, the International Workers Association, and the Starbucks Workers Union (IWW) they are demanding justice for Monica. The treatment of Monica in Spain by Starbucks is similar to the charges of anti-union discrimination being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This new Grand Rapids investigation comes less than a year since Starbucks signed a settlement agreement with the NLRB claiming they would end intimidation against baristas interested in joining the Starbucks Union. The Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union (IWW) calls on everyone interested in social justice and worker’s rights to confront global coffee giant Starbucks on July 5th with international solidarity. For Monica in Spain, for baristas in Grand Rapids, and for coffee farmers around the globe. (Infoshop News, 05/31/08)
Mexico: teachers’ strike spreads up the Pacific coast while Oaxaca cautiously holds firm: LibCom reports: “The annual teachers’ strike in Oaxaca has been bolstered by soldarity strikes of other sections of the Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores en la Educación (SNTE) stretching up and down the Mexican Pacific coastline, while in Oaxaca itself, occupations and blockades continue apace in support. Most analysts however have already doomed the strike to failure. On Friday 30th, the strike by the Oaxacan SNTE local (Sección 22, around whose strike coalesced the 2006 revolt) entered its 12th day, with more motorways blocked, more tollbooths closed down and more education buildings occupied throughout the state. Teachers have also managed to close down various shopping malls throughout Ciudad de Oaxaca itself, while the occupation of the Zócalo (central square) is maintained. Encouragingly, the strike, supported since day one by SNTE members in the state of Michoacán, has also seen solidarity by other SNTE members in the states of Guerrero (directly to the north of Oaxaca) and Chiapas (directly to the south), although workers have now returned to classrooms in both states. In Oaxaca, the SNTE strike is now an annual event, yet some of the teachers’ demands (such as the democratization of the SNTE) are now being picked up by teachers in other parts of the country. In Tabasco, a caravan convoy of SNTE members has now departed for Mexico City, some 1500km away. In Oaxaca and Michoacán, responding to criticisms from some quarters which claim that the schoolchildren will lose out on their education, teachers have found various ways to avoid that scenario while maintaining industrial action.” An informative article about Oaxaca two years on from the revolt can be found here. (LibCom.org, 05/30/08)
Oaxaca in revolt again: the Zócalo reoccupied, motorway tollbooths liberated, roads blockaded: LibCom reports: “A 21 day series of strikes and occupations by the radical Sección 22 in Oaxaca of the Mexican teachers’ union Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores en la Educación kicked off in earnest on Tuesday. As of Thursday, the strike appears to be spreading – with popular support, solidarity and an increasing volume of activity. The teachers’ strike has various demands, although it’s mostly calling for the freedom for all political prisoners, an end to the arrest orders and ongoing intimidation by the judicial authorities against the movement, new elections within the SNTE, and the handing over of all Oaxacan schools controlled by the pro-government Sección 59. Sección 22 was instrumental in the 2006 revolt in Oaxaca, where they saw their strike betrayed by the SNTE national leadership in alliance with the Oaxacan state governor, one Ulises Ruíz Ortíz. Sección 59 was established by the priísta SNTE leader, Elba Ester Gordillo, as a rival local to Sección 22 in Oaxaca, and its members were promptly sent back to work as a means of breaking the strike. However this time round, there seems to be increasing evidence of the strike’s spread into a generalised movement within Oaxaca. On Tuesday, a building belonging to PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos – the state petrol monolopy which is on the verge of being privatised) was blockaded, while on Thursday various neighbourhood organisations within the city assisted in the occupation of a Centro de Atención Múltiple, the state institution charged with educating special needs children, which is controlled by Sección 59. A host of other state and municipal offices have been shut down by blockades, with the aid of various other groups and a tactic of “plantones rotativos” (rotating encampments), as well as part of the Zócalo (the main city square, the centre of the 2006 movement). On Tuesday, a tollbooth on the Oaxaca-Puebla highway was “liberated”, with motorists being granted free passage.” (LibCom.org, 05/22/08)
Victory for Tomato Pickers’ Fight Against Burger King: Katrina vanden Heuvel reports: “Now that a deal with Burger King has been signed, it’s time to go after WalMart, Whole Foods and the other big supermarket chains. In March 2005, I started a weekly feature called ‘Sweet Victories.’ The idea was to chronicle progressive victories — electoral wins, protests and boycotts, the launching of new ideas, fresh organizations and initiatives, and successful organizing efforts. I hoped that these stories would serve not only as a source of information, but inspiration. The victories might be small, but they were always sweet. On May 23, we celebrate a sweet victory for social justice. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) will join representatives of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Burger King Corporation at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol to announce that the corporation has agreed to work with CIW to improve wages and working conditions for the farm workers who harvest tomatoes for Burger King. This victory is testament to the tenacity and discipline of the Coalition, a community-based worker organization, which has exposed a half-dozen slavery cases that helped trigger the freeing of more than 1000 workers. It has also advocated for better wages, living conditions, respect from the industry, and an end to indentured servitude. In this last year, CIW scored victories in negotiating a penny-per-pound surcharge — so workers would receive about 77 cents per 32-pound bucket — with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands (owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC). (The corporations also agreed to work with the Coalition to eliminate slavery from the fields.) And the corporations — not the tomato growers — agreed to pay the 40 percent salary increase.” (AlterNet, 05/29/08)
Tomato pickers win victory with Burger King: “The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Burger King Corp. (NYSE:BKC) today announced plans to work together to improve wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who harvest tomatoes for the BURGER KING® system in Florida. BKC has agreed to pay an additional net penny per pound for Florida tomatoes to increase wages for the Florida farm workers who harvest tomatoes. To encourage grower participation in this increased wage program, BKC will also fund incremental payroll taxes and administrative costs incurred by the growers as a result of their farmworkers’ increased wages, or a total of 1.5 cents per pound of tomatoes. BKC also joins other fast-food industry leaders and the CIW in calling for an industry-wide net penny per pound surcharge to increase wages for Florida tomato harvesters. Together, BKC and the CIW have also established zero tolerance guidelines for certain unlawful activities that require immediate termination of any grower from the BURGER KING® supply chain. The BKC/CIW collaboration additionally provides for farmworker participation in the monitoring of growers’ compliance with the company’s vendor code of conduct.” (Coalition of Immokalee Workers, 05/23/08)
20 IWW Members Terminated at Flaum Appetizing: Flaum Appetizing, a kosher food distributor, terminated 20 IWW members last week. The IWW had a strong presence at Flaum, with about two-thirds of the warehouse being union members. Workers had been struggling for respect from the boss for almost a year before the firings occurred. The chain of events began last Thursday when the boss fired a woman known for being a strong union member. When her fellow workers decided to confront the boss about her termination, they were all fired on the spot. The IWW is putting up daily picket lines this week and will fight the terminations through direct action, media pressure, and legal action. (Infoshop News, 05/31/08)
Iraqi Trade Union Conference Demands Repeal of Draconian Labour Decrees: ICEM reports: “A critical multi-union trade union conference was held in Basra, Iraq, last week, 14 May, under the scope of the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). Chaired in part by Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the ICEM affiliate, General Union of Iraq Electricity Workers and Technicians (GUEWT), the conference produced a unified response to the Iraqi government’s call for union elections between June and August of this year. The demand called on the government to abolish 1987’s Public Law No. 150, a Saddam-era decree forbidding workers employed in the public sector from forming or joining a union. A statement issued to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that followed the meeting also called on it to abolish Decree No. 8750, the draconian instrument put in place in 2005 by the occupational forces. That measure effectively confiscated all trade union funds, and prohibited unions from collecting dues or maintaining assets. In addition, the 15 trade unions present issued a demand for revival of Article 22, Paragraph 3 of the Iraqi Constitution, which would guarantee Iraqi unions the right to form or join free and democratic trade unions.” (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions, 05/19/08)
Joint statement of workers in Iran for the release of jailed workers: “We demand the release of jailed workers and dropping of the cases against five Haft-Tapeh sugar cane workers. 14 days have passed since the detention of Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi (workers of Assaluye and members of the governing board of the Free Union of Iranian Workers) for their attempt to celebrate May Day. Until two days ago, the Intelligence Ministry in the city of Bushehr was refusing to reveal where the two were being held, thereby continuing to harass their families.” (Kargaran.org, 05/14/08)
Mansour Ossanlu (above)
Iran: Mansour Ossanlu: It could have been me: David Cockcroft reports for The New Statesman: “Mansour was snatched from a bus last year and beaten, and has been held in prison ever since. His crime? Being the leader of a peaceful trade union that the Iranian authorities do not recognise Mansour Ossanlu is the leader of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. At 7pm on 10 July 2007 he was snatched from a bus driven by one of his members, bundled into a car and beaten by men in plain clothes. He has been in prison ever since. Amnesty International believes he is a prisoner of conscience, held solely on account of his peaceful trade union activities, and that he should be released immediately and unconditionally. It is not the first time Ossanlu has been detained. In December 2005, bus drivers in Iran went on strike to call for better pay. Many union leaders, including Ossanlu, were arrested. He spent nine months in detention over the next year, and was reported to have been involved in a dispute with prison officials during which his head was struck, resulting in damage to the retinas in both eyes. He was denied treatment, and there were worries that he might go blind. It was only after a concerted campaign from Amnesty and trade unionists around the world that he was allowed treatment.” For more information and to take action visit: www.amnesty.org.uk/tradeunions (The New Statesman, 05/22/08)
Alon-Lee Green (above).
Marx and Engles would have been proud.
Photo: Jonathan Bloom
A tempest in a coffee cup: Israel’s Baristas Organize: Aryeh Dean Cohen writes for the JPost: History books don’t offer any clues as to whether Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels ever shared a latte or cappuccino. But it stands to reason that the authors of The Communist Manifesto would’ve been tremendously proud of Alon-Lee Green, a shift manager at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf café on Tel Aviv’s Rehov Ibn Gvirol, whose battle for social justice has planted the seeds of a revolution in the Israeli workplace. After all, it was Green, a 20-year-old member of the Israeli Communist Party, who decided enough was enough, and that his fellow café workers needed to unite in a struggle that has resulted in an incredible victory over an international conglomerate and a sea change in conditions for Green, his Coffee Bean chain colleagues, and potentially thousands across the country. Increasingly, they are taking Green’s lead in fighting for better conditions at low-paying jobs, with the aid of the Histadrut, potentially changing the face of employee-worker relations. From airline stewardesses to security guards, they’ve been inspired by Green, who never doubted it could be done. Green’s battle against the chain’s alleged exploitation of himself and his fellow workers included clandestine meetings, threats of dismissal, sidewalk confrontations with management and dreary demonstrations in the rain. (The Jerusalem Post, 05/22/08)
USA: Members question backdoor union deals: Stephen Franklin of The Chicago Tribune reports: “More than ever unions are making secret deals as a way to get their foot in the door at companies because without such deals they would not make much organizing headway. Boosting their membership numbers, they add, is a matter of survival. But such backdoor deals are causing an uproar within the unions themselves. Some unionists believe that the pacts take away workers’ rights to strike, picket or even exercise their freedom of speech and doubt that unions can grow when their hands are tied. That this dispute is taking place within the SEIU has some special irony. The union has acted as organized labor’s maverick, criticizing others for falling behind the times while boasting about its ability to sign up members. It led the drive that broke the AFL-CIO into two federations. Labor experts and veteran union organizers say secret contracts are becoming more common as unions have seen little, if any, gain from strikes or long-term legal battles. The biggest question unions have to ask themselves, they suggest, is what price they are willing to pay for such accommodations.” (The Chicago Tribune, 05/18/08)
Strikes over pension reforms grip France: Angelique Chrisafis report from Paris for The Guardian: “Hundreds of thousands of French workers took to the streets yesterday in a one-day strike over pension reform, just as the government moved to contain port and oil depot blockades by fishermen angry at rising fuel prices. France’s five main labour unions led protests against plans to make private and state employees work for 41 rather than 40 years before they are entitled to draw a full pension. The strike, which had been billed as ‘Black Thursday’, did not gridlock public transport – the unions themselves were split and Nicolas Sarkozy stood firm on his promise to reform a pensions system that France can no longer afford. He has argued that rising life expectancy and scant public finances made change inevitable.” (The Guardian, 05/23/08)
A fisherman throws a pallet into a fire at a roadblock near a fishing port in Boulogne sur mer, northern France May 20, 2008. Hundreds of French fishermen blocked ports and oil depots in France in protest against diesel fuel costs and fishing quotas they claim were killing their business.REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
French docks blocked by fishermen and port workers: Muriel Boselli reports for Reuters: “Protesting port workers and fishermen blocked harbours and fuel depots along France’s coastline on Tuesday in two separate disputes that are proving a headache for President Nicolas Sarkozy to resolve. Port workers, angry over government plans to privatise part of the ports’ activities, staged a one-day strike at the country’s largest oil hub, Fos-Lavera near Marseille, stopping 13 oil tankers from entering according to port authorities. Skirmishes broke out between strikers and police who tried to stop them from approaching Marseille city hall. The workers threw bottles and stones at police who fired back tear gas. Fishermen also shut off roads leading to Fos-Lavera and blockaded around 20 ports on the Mediterranean, Channel and Atlantic seaboards as well as at least five fuel depots. The fishermen, who staged similar protests last year, want government help to cushion the effects of surging marine fuel prices that have eaten away their profit margins.” (Reuters, 05/20/08)
French dock and port workers clash with riot police as they demonstrate in Marseille, southern France, May 20, 2008 to protest against French government’s plan to reform ports.REUTERS/Philippe Laurenson
Hunger Strikers Battle Their Own Union in Northern Ireland: The Oread Daily reports: “Two sacked airport workers in Northern Ireland are on hunger and thirst strike for the second time in a month in a protest now to get payment of legal costs and hardship money from their union. Their request to the union followed their victory in a landmark Employment Tribunal judgement in Belfast last year, which was won on the grounds that they had suffered discrimination on trade union and political grounds. Having suspended their hunger strike in April when the union agreed to pay their costs, Gordon McNeill resumed it again this week. Yesterday he was hospitalised but has since signed himself out of hospital and rejoined the action again today where he was joined by a fellow worker. The previous hunger strike ended with a promise from the union that they would pay the outstanding legal bill for the long court action taken by the sacked workers against their former employer, ICTS (Unite). Unite also said that they would make an offer of compensation to the shop stewards for the hardship which the actions of the union leadership had put them through. All this was to have been done by 30 April. The 30 April deadline passed without any movement by the Unite leadership on any of these issues. Instead, on 8 May, the shop stewards received a letter from the union solicitor which went back on all the previous promises that had been made. (Infoshop News, 05/20/08)
Stockton Truckers Call Out the Industry with 400 on Strike: J. Pierce with Adam Welch report: “Independent truckers in California’s San Joaquin Valley shut down their rigs on Friday, May 2nd declaring an open-ended strike. At $4.80 a gallon, sky-rocketing diesel prices top the list of grievances. As their main demand, drivers insist on doubling the rates paid for hauling a container. The second biggest demand is a fuel surcharge of upwards of 55%. The brokers currently pay surcharges varying from 30-40%. If drivers can keep the trucking bosses from stealing it, the increased surcharge would help place the burden back on those who can afford it.” (IWW.org, 05/20/08)
Grand Rapids GMB announces a Spring Offensive against Starbucks (SOS): “In March 2008 the Grand Rapids GMB of the IWW and the Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union announced the beginning of a ‘Spring Offensive against Starbucks (SOS)’ to increase local pressure on the coffee giant on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Starbucks Union founding, and in support of the new Unfair Labor Practice charges filed against Starbucks in Grand Rapids. Wobblies described S.O.S. as a ‘multi-pronged’ offensive where union members: would increase engagement with costumers about Starbucks’ union-busting and ‘fair tade’ policies, increase contact with local baristas about the demands of the SWU as well as invitations to social gatherings, and an increase in publicity and community exposure. IWW baristas honored MayDay 2008 with a press conference and celebration. At 4:00pm GMB members Jackie Wood and Chuck Neller posted in front of the Starbucks store in East Grand Rapids, with the branch banner, in preparation of the press conference. Union baristas then addressed the media with statements expressing solidarity with others struggling on the job, and announced a renewed commitment to fight Starbucks repression. At the press conference, barista and organizer Cole Dorsey mentioned fellow worker, Monica, who is a member of the CNT and was unlawfully fired by Starbucks in Seville, Spain on April 24th. Previously, in a show of solidarity the CNT of Seville published the situation faced by IWW baristas in Grand Rapids, along with links to starbucksunion.org and iww.org, on the group’s home webpage. In the spirit of MayDay, the Grand Rapids Starbucks Union paid for the first beer of every barista that attended the MayDay celebration whether they were members of the IWW or employees of Starbucks, or not.” (IWW.org, 05/10/08)
China: The Emergence of Real Trade Unionism in Wal-Mart Stores: “The trade unions in Chinese Wal-Mart stores are often dismissed as hollow shells set up by the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) without workers’ involvement. But through monitoring Chinese media and online blog discussions among Chinese Wal-Mart employees, CLNT has found workers who take an active interest in their store union, and at least in one case, of an elected rank and file trade union chair using the trade union platform to actively defend workers’ interests. While most – if not all – of the trade union branches are heavily dominated by Wal-Mart management or local governments, some workers have seized this union-building exercise and try to turn the unions into a body that they identify as their own to protect and to use in their struggle against Wal-Mart management.” (China Labor News Translations, 05/04/08)
This roundup was compiled by GNN contributor and blogger Nathan Coe. Nathan is a guerrilla journalist and rebel insurgent residing in the mountains of Southwest Colorado, where he has infiltrated a facility of indoctrination, targeted for revolutionary subversion, under the guise of a senior college student working on his Major in Humanities. He can be contacted at free_world_alliance(at)yahoo.com or via his blog at ShiftShapers.gnn.tv.
For more of GNN’s exclusive roundups of under-reported news from around the world, check out The Rebel Communiqué, Native News Roundup, Prison News Roundup, East Is East, and If You Knew…
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