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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.
70,000 Spanish truckers strike, blockade border with France: “French and Spanish truckers blockaded roads on the border of south-western France on 9th June in protest at rising fuel prices. In the latest show of distress with fuel prices, Spanish truckers on Monday began a blockade of their country’s border with France, lining up their rigs and slowing them to a crawl to protest the cost of fuel. The strike blocked the highway in both directions in southwestern France. The protest turned ugly when would-be strike-breakers in Spain found their windshields and headlights smashed and their tires slashed. But the Spanish drivers were not the only ones feeling the pinch. French drivers slowed traffic near Bordeaux to demand lower fuel prices, offering a foretaste of a planned national strike by truckers next Monday. Portuguese drivers blocked roads, and in Belgium thousands of labor union members demonstrated in Liège to protest the rising cost of living as a result of fuel costs. Fuel prices have been far higher in Europe than in the United States for many years, largely as a result of fuel taxes imposed after the oil shock in the 1980s. Taxes account for at least half the price motorists pay, and sometimes more than 70 percent.” (LibCom, 06/09/08)
The fuel strike continues in Spain, where fish stands have little produce for sale
[AFP]
Portuguese truckers end fuel strike: Al Jazeera reports: “Portuguese truckers are back at work after reaching a deal with the government to end their protest over soaring fuel prices. The workers voted on Wednesday evening to accept a government package of measures to offset high fuel prices, including tax breaks and lower motorway tolls. The truck drivers’ strike from Monday to Wednesday disrupted supplies of food and fuel across Portugal, and left one protestor dead. The country’s national association of petrol stations said it will take three days to replenish stocks after many pumps ran dry. Protesters were seeking a special diesel rate for professional hauliers, as well as a levelling-out of fuel prices with neighbouring Spain, where diesel is cheaper.” (Al Jazeera, 06/12/08)
Gulf Coast Guest Workers Rally in DC: “Facing South previously reported on the struggle of a group of Indian guest workers who walked off their jobs in Mississippi shipyards in early March. These workers say they became victims of human trafficking when they were brought to the United States under a temporary guest worker program. In mid-May, these workers launched a hunger strike in front of the White House. Hunger strikers and their allies are gathering today, the 29th day of the strike, in Washington D.C. and in solidarity actions sponsored by Jobs with Justice in ten other cities around the United States. The hunger strike is meant to pressure federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program, known as H-2B. These workers are also requesting a continued presence in the United States for the duration of the Department of Justice investigation into their case, and Congressional hearings on the abuses of the H-2B guest worker program. The Indian workers say they were deceived by labor recruiters as well as Pascagoula, Miss.-based Signal International, a marine construction company which had been recruiting extra workers because of a shortage of skilled labor following Hurricane Katrina.” (Facing South, 06/11/08)
New Orleans: Workers on Hunger Strike Say They Were Misled on Visas: Julia Preston writes for The New York Times: “About a dozen metalworkers from India staged the fourth week of a hunger strike here this week, camped under a shade tree on Embassy Row. One of the workers with a copy of the receipt showing his payment for work in the United States. The workers, who walked off jobs in Gulf Coast shipyards in early March, say they were victims of human trafficking when they were brought to the United States under a temporary guest worker program. The hunger strike is meant to pressure federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program, known as H-2B for the type of temporary visa the workers receive. The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States. In fact, the H-2B visas are for short-term contracts.” (The New York Times, 06/07/08)
Puerto Rico: Riot Police Protect SEIU From Striking Workers: Cal Winslow reports: “Puerto Rico’s shock troops, the ‘Fuerza de Choque,’ line up to protect Service Employees International Union (SEIU ) convention goers from the island’s militant teachers, the 40,000 strong Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR). Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila turned San Juan’s “convention center district” into an armed camp, cordoned off with metal barriers, armed police on horseback and a small army of private security guards, all to turn back teachers protesting an SEIU deal that would help Vila oust the teachers union and replace it with an SEIU affiliate, a deal Democracy Now’s Juan Gonzalez has called ‘arrogant and colonialist.’ Inside the barricades, SEIU, the fastest growing union in the US, with membership close to two million, was beset with problems of its own, chiefly an opposition led by its California affiliate, United Health Care Workers – West. The 150,000 strong local has challenged SEIU’s growth-at-any-cost strategy, particularly when this strips members and local affiliates of virtually all rights. Andy Stern, the Yale educated president of SEIU who dismisses the idea of union democracy, instead promotes regional mega-locals, served by national call centers, corporate-style ‘Member Resource Centers.’ This strategy is enhanced by backroom bargaining not only with employers but also with such US politicians as Governors George Pataki of New York and more recently the secret high-level deals with Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.” (Infoshop News, 06/12/08)
Worker and Human Rights Violations in Iraq: The Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO writes: “Despite kidnappings, murders, and other egregious human rights violations against union leaders and activists in Iraq, unions are continuing the fight to give Iraq’s least powerful and least politically connected workers a voice in their own future. Since 2003, dozens of union activists trying to build a new labor movement for Iraq have been kidnapped and killed. The most infamous instance was the brutal murder of international affairs representative Hadi Saleh, gunned down in Baghdad in January 2005. He had just returned with other Iraqi labor leaders from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) World Congress in Miyazaki, Japan, the first time Iraqi unions had ever participated in this gathering of the world’s trade unions. These assassinations and kidnappings are ongoing. No Iraqi labor federation is immune, and no Iraqi workplace is safe. During the first few weeks of 2007, Iraqi workers and unions were increasingly targeted in attacks on their leaders and headquarters. By the end of January, at least three Iraqi union leaders were dead and scores more injured. On March 27, Najim Abd-Jasem, general secretary of the Mechanics Workers’ Union and a co-founder of the Iraqi Trade Union Federation (now the General Federation of Iraqi Workers), was kidnapped in Baghdad. His body was found three days later, showing clear signs of torture. In spite of the constant threats to union leaders’ lives, as well as an unfriendly legal environment and the ongoing repression of independent unions, Iraqi unions are among the most active civil society organizations today. New, albeit small, labor organizations form regularly in virtually every sector of the economy, representing members at workplaces across Iraq.” (Political Affairs, 06/09/08)
In The ‘New Iraq’ There Is No Place for Workers Rights: Samir Adil, President of the Iraq Freedom Congress, writes: “The Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani has made a decision in which he ordered a relocation of members of oil refineries in Basra to the refineries in Baghdad. This decision comes within a series of repressive actions launched by the oil minister and his government to implement the occupation’s economic and political projects against the leaders and activists of the labor movement. This preceded the transfer of Ibrahim Radhi, one of the oil workers, from Basra to Nasiriyah (180 Km to the north of Basra) then issuing an arrest warrant against the President of Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) Hassan Jumaa and his deputy Falih Abboud, followed by issuing another arrest warrant against Subhi Al-Badri head of the anti Oil and Gas Law front and President of the General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq and his deputy Abdul Karim Abdul Alsada, known as Abu Watan, after sending a delegation representing the Minister of National Security, who threatened and intimidated the leaders of Basra oil unions and imposed what is the so called ‘Document of Honor’ on the union leaders. Today this minister, with his government, is trying to wage a fierce campaign against the labor movement which hopes for creating a humane and prosperous society that has been converted into a society of hunger, poverty, and terror by the occupation and sectarian groups. This government saves no effort in preventing elections in the unions of the public sector, it wants it to be carried out in the private sector only and under its supervision to impose a single state-certified union in Iraq this coming June. The attempts of the minister and his government have become overt and blatant and cannot oppress workers. We in Iraq Freedom Congress condemn these sorts of actions that are considered clear violations to the human and labor rights that are recognized by ILO. We will also fight by all means available to abolish these illegitimate decisions. Iraq Freedom Congress calls on all supporters inside and outside Iraq to organize a wide campaign of demonstrations in front of provincial buildings and embassies abroad, issuing statements denouncing such actions and holding press conferences to expose these practices. Iraq Freedom Congress will continue its efforts until the government’s practices against the workers are stopped. Long live the labour movement in Iraq. Down with All Anti-Workers Resolutions.” (Iraq Freedom Congress, 05/25/08)
Poland: Workers Initiative in Cegielski Plant: JU from Inicjatywa Pracownicza writes: “Since 2002 the Workers Initiative (Inicjatywa Pracownicza – IP) has been working closely with the workforce of Cegielski plant in Poznan, successively convincing the majority of the workers of its tactics. These tactics are based on several simple principles: end of the conciliatory politics towards the enterprise management which were conducted here by trade unions; assurance of full access of the workers to information on the situation of the enterprise as well as on the situation of particular groups of workers employed in Cegielski; assurance of worker participation in the taking of relevant decisions; finally, creation of the ground for direct and struggles controlled from below. In the period of 7-8 years IP succeeded to introduce all these principles into working life, what led to the situation that in fact for about 1 year the personnel of Cegielski conducts permanent protests, which have brought till now high increases of the salaries and, above all, the radicalisation of the workers’ attitudes within the plant. Cegielski plant is one of the most famous firms in Poland. It was founded in 1846. For now, Cegielski produces in the first place various types of engines, among them ship-engines (while Poland is one of the leading producers of ships worldwide), as well as waggons and trams. For many years, Cegielski had been one of the biggest work places in the western part of Poland. In the ’70s, the most productive years of the plant, more than 20 000 people were working here. Today, there are 2 800 employees here. Its size and the big meaning for the economy were some of the main reasons why the class struggle has always been concentrating in Cegielski. The first strike took place here in 1872. In the period between the world wars (1918-1939), the workers of Cegielski undertook smaller or bigger actions, strikes and demonstrations many times. The first strike actions after the war started already in autumn 1945, and in 1956 workers of Cegielski initiated the militant proletarian insurgence which held for a few days and took over the whole of Poznan. In the militant clashes with forces of the polish army and police around 70 protestors were killed. The next wave of protests went through the plant in the ’80s, however Cegielski did not play a leading role during the revolution of 1980.” (Abolishing the Borders from Below: Anarchist Journal from Eastern Europe, Issue #31, 2008)
Poland: Commentary on the strike in Budryk: Jaroslaw Urbanski of Workers Initiative and Anarchist Federation, section Poznan, writes: “The strike in Budryk was certainly one of the most important occurrences of the beginning of the year 2008, while one has to consider that Poland is generally not a very calm place nowadays. Polish liberal press described, with certain exaggeration, the contemporary wave of strikes and workers demonstrations as the biggest one since 1989, that means since the fall down of communist regime. This is not true. Poland was a place for a massive wave of protests in years 1992-1993, against the privatisation and effects of capitalistic transformation. In the years 2002-2003 another accumulation of protests (with a long struggle in Ozarow in the centre of them) was a reaction to the bankruptcy of many enterprises and on massive unemployment. The current wave of strikes has in the first line claims of character – workers are demanding better wages and better conditions of work. This is very new in the polish workers movement of the last 20 years. Particular workplaces or whole branches are winning increases of 30% and more of the wages, e.g. the health care workers recently. Strikes of the miners and health care workers, protests of the truck drivers, manifestations of the teachers, calls of trade unions to undertake the protests with demands of dignified wages for everybody, are bearing witness that social discontent is growing. Just few months after the parliamentarian elections the liberals which were going to elections with slogans of rescuing of the democracy, and which won (PO) against the Right (PiS), started to think now about how to deal with the claims of discontent with many workers environments. Leader of the liberals, and current prime minister, was not hiding his aversion to the trade unions already during the electoral campaign. Now these politicians are not hesitant to consider the use of more radical solutions, like throwing trade unions out of the work places – a fact very widely commented on by polish press these days.” (Abolishing the Borders from Below: Anarchist Journal from Eastern Europe, Issue #31, 2008)
Russia: Solidarity with Russian Nestle Workers: The following appeal for support for Russian workers in the city of Perm comes from the IUF: “Russian Nestlé workers still being denied the right to negotiate wages! 6 months into the conflict at the KitKat candy bar plant in the Russian city of Perm, the company still refuses to recognise the right to negotiate wages! The biggest food company in the world is taking the tiniest possible steps toward settling a conflict which began 6 months ago when the Nestlé Perm Workers Union first sought to negotiate a wage increase through the collective bargaining process. The company has finally come forward with a proposal for a modest wage increase which, however, remains below the rate of inflation over the past 6 months. This nevertheless represents some progress – due to the union’s determined struggle and the support of the international solidarity campaign. However, Nestlé remains unwilling to fully respect the trade union’s information and communication rights, by demanding that the union chairperson accept restrictions on these rights before restoring access to electronic resources. Even more importantly, management is trying to insert language into the settlement under negotiation that would reduce industrial relations to a process of ‘consultations’ rather than negotiations leading to mutually agreed wages and wage scales. For the future of Nestlé workers in Perm and elsewhere, we need to ensure that Nestlé fully recognises the union’s unqualified right to negotiate wages. The next negotiation is scheduled for June 11.” (Infoshop News, 06/10/08)
Home From Jordan, Vietnamese Strikers Face Off With Crooked Labor Export Firms: Jon Pattee writes: “The Vietnamese guest workers repatriated from Jordan this spring following a strike which gained the support of the international labor movement are following up with a petition for relief from debts they incurred to pay recruitment fees to crooked Vietnamese labor export firms. The workers, from a group of over 170 mostly female garment workers who battled the Taiwanese-owned firm W&D Apparel in a Jordanian industrial zone, have gone from fighting extended working hours and unfair wage cuts to struggling with the labor export firms. The workers had signed a contract with W&D Apparel that set their salary at US$220 per month, and had paid a Vietnamese labor export firm an advance of nearly US$1,600. However, once they were in Jordan, their employer confiscated their personal documents, worked them for up to 16 hours a day, and paid them only US$80-$150 per month. The workers struck for adherence to the original contract, and only after a long fight this spring, in which factory security guards assaulted the strikers, were they granted their wish to return to Vietnam. A pressure campaign on the company, coordinated mainly from the US by the national Vietnamese-American nonprofit Boat People SOS, to turn the tide. BPSOS assisted by bringing to bear the power of the US State Department, members of Congress, US clothing retailers and consumers, and the Jordanian government in order to help achieve a resolution. However, the battle continues, for upon their return to Vietnam, the workers have been confronted with debts claimed by the very labor export firms that got them into the mess in the first place. The new front in their struggle for justice is a petition to the Vietnamese government for relief from this crushing debt burden.” (Talking Union, 06/10/08)
Campaign wins justice for Vietnamese guest workers in Malaysia: BPSOS writes: “On February 19 of this year, Boat People SOS (BPSOS) launched a campaign to seek redress for around 1,300 Vietnamese-Americans guest workers who were being mistreated by Esquel Malaysia, a part of Hong Kong-based Esquel Enterprise Ltd., one of the world’s largest clothing manufacturers. Esquel, with annual sales of US$500 million, produces 64 million shirts a year for brand-name customers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, JC Penney, Aeon, Konaka, Aoyama, Lacoste, Banana Republic, Marks & Spencer, Brooks Brothers, Muji, Burberry, Nautica, Cortefiel, Next, Daidoh, Nike, Esprit, Nordstrom, Gant, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Right On, Ito-Yokado, Ted Baker, J. Crew, and Tommy Hilfiger. In 2007, Esquel hired 1,300 Vietnamese to work in Penang, Malaysia as guest workers, guaranteeing each individual a minimum pay equivalent to US$245 per month. However, when the workers arrived in Malaysia, their belongings and personal documents were confiscated by Esquel, and they were forced to work at much lower wages. BPSOS estimates that the workers were being paid as low as RM 8.90, which is equivalent to less than US$3.00. This small amount of income made it impossible for workers to afford food, and many survived on rice that was donated by Malaysian Good Samaritans. Those who questioned the unfair wages were abducted in the dead of night, detained at the company’s compound, and within hours repatriated to Vietnam. An estimated 300 workers who questioned their contract were sent back to Vietnam. Once home, they faced huge debts consisting of money borrowed from loan sharks to pay the service fees required by labor export firms. Those individuals who were left behind in Malaysia continued to work and live in fear.” (Vietnamese Workers Abroad, 06/05/08)
Six Nations and Canadian Auto Workers Alliance: “Last week the Brantford city government has threatened to call in the army to stop people from Six Nations from blocking developments taking place on their land. (approximately half of the 50 odd Six Nations land claims concern lands in Brantford) For the past several months, Six Nations protesters led by Ruby and Floyd Monture have shut down half a dozen construction sites and have dramatically slowed development and Brantford area. Last Friday over 300 people from Six Nations turned up to protest outside of the courthouse in Brantford as the city went to court with an injunction aimed at blocking native protests in the city and which also sought over $110 million in damages from the protesters. On Monday afternoon, the judge ruled in favor of a temporary application of the Brantford injunction, and this represents a major slap in the face to the people of Six Nations. As they consider what steps to take next, a very interesting development is now taking place in Brantford. Over 700 workers at the Brantford Casino, organized with Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), are now on strike, and many are wondering if the new injunction and city bylaws intended to stop Six Nations protests will be directed at the striking CAW workers who are ‘economically disrupting’ a major source of revenue for the city and the Ontario government. As Six Nations ponders its own response to the bylaws, Six Nation community members will support CAW strikers on the picket lines at the Brantford Casino starting this Friday at 8 a.m. So it looks like this might be the beginning of a very promising alliance between working-class non-native people and indigenous people in Brantford.” (Infoshop News, 06/10/08)
Canada: Autoworkers Blockade General Motors Headquarters In Oshawa: “In the wake of the recent announcement by General Motors that they plan to renege on a collective agreement signed only two weeks ago with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) that offered substantial concessions on the part of the workers in return for assurances of job security angry workers have blockaded the General Motors headquarters in Oshawa Ontario. In addition to the insulting lie delivered to the autoworkers at the very time when they were planning the closure GM has also reneged on an agreement with the government of Ontario that gave GM almost half a billion dollars in return for a promise to maintain a certain number of jobs in Ontario. The corporate arrogance is overwhelming. Quite frankly they think that they can get away with any crime. Molly will be blogging further on this breaking news in days to come. For now here is the story as transmitted by the business pages of the Globe and Mail.” (Infoshop News, 06/05/08)
Turkish Shipyard Workers Strike Against Workplace Deaths: Sevinc Karaca writes: Turkish National Shipyard Workers go on strike on 16th of June to stop workplace deaths in Tuzla, near Istanbul in Turkey. There have been 11 deaths since the Minister of Employment and Social Security promised the issue was going to be handled by the ministry and the workers would be listened to on 8th of September last and 82 in total in the last 5 years since the jobs were handed over to the subcontractors as part of government’s privatization programme. Limter-Is, the main union on the site, and the Shipyard Workers’ Council called for an open ended national strike to stop work place deaths in the shipyards due to the lack of safety equipment and reckless and arrogant disregard to safety regulations which is shown by the shipyard management, subcontractors and the Ministry authorities. The workers went on a two days strike action end of February after 5 deaths in that month alone. The fascist religious government and the national media remained silent on the deaths until they were confronted with further organized action, protest by the families of the deceased workers and huge national and international support. 70 workers were arrested and one worker was run over by a car belonging to one of the subcontractors in February. The police not only arrested the workers and all properties of the Limter-Is was confiscated by the police and union officials were arrested as well. The “not so media savvy” representatives of the subcontractors, who are responsible for these deaths, placed the blame on workers with idiotic conspiracy theories. The government backed right wing union appeared on the site after years of silence on the deaths to distribute membership forms and sat at the meeting with the minister and the representatives of the Association of Shipyard Subcontractors, a shady unheard group. Workers in Turkey face tremendous pressure to make demands for basic workers’ rights such as workplace safety, job security and better pay for a minimum standard of living. They face arrests, lock-outs and losing their jobs. The shipyard workers are taking this action to stop deaths face death themselves. Two officials and activist of the Turkish Syndicate of Transport workers TÜMTIS, were among the hundreds who were arrested during the May Day celebration this year in Istanbul.” (Infoshop News, 06/09/08)
Starbucks Fires Outspoken Barista for Union Activity: “Starbucks terminated a barista active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union today as part of its ongoing effort to combat a growing movement of employees pushing for a living wage and secure work hours. The barista, Cole Dorsey, was fired after two years of service while he was coordinating a union recruitment drive at Starbucks stores in Grand Rapids. Starbucks’ pretext for the illegal anti-union firing was that Dorsey was guilty of some months-old attendance infractions. The firing comes as a National Labor Relations Board judge is set to rule after a lengthy trial on the retaliatory terminations of three New York City baristas. Even before the firing, the NLRB was investigating whether Starbucks violated a settlement agreement entered into in Grand Rapids over anti-union discrimination. In 2006, Starbucks was forced to re hire two union baristas who had been unlawfully fired for union activity. This latest firing in Grand Rapids signals that reinstalled CEO Howard Schultz will not modify the company’s practice of terminating outspoken union baristas to intimidate workers from joining up. This firing in Grand Rapids is the same tactic Starbucks employed against a union member in Sevilla, Spain. On April 24, Monica was fired from a Starbucks in Sevilla for her activity on behalf of the Confederacion Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT). In response the CNT in Sevilla, along with the Starbucks Union in Grand Rapids, have announced a Global Day of Action set for July 5. Workers, students, and concerned citizens around the world will be confronting the global coffee giant on that day demanding an end to Starbucks union-busting policies.” (Infoshop News, 06/06/08)
Defend Independent Union at Mexmode Against Partisan Attacks: Report from the “Mexmode meeting” Conducted by Antorcha Campesina. Wednesday, May 21: At approximately 1:30 pm a variety of vehicles, including two buses with Antorcha Campesina logos and an ominous hearse, finished unloading several hundred people in the soccer field in front of Mexmode. The crowd was composed of between one and two hundred Mexmode workers (some no longer employed by Mexmode) , including about a one hundred Antorcha members of all ages (who could not explain why they were there except “to support”), Antorcha leaders and perhaps fifty to one hundred unknown men armed with sticks. These men drove around the neighborhood in cars, standing at the entrances and acting menacingly. Some produced sheets of paper and handed them to Antorcha leaders. The papers appeared to be copies of voting IDs and signature sheets with blank headings. After taking the signatures of the workers, Antorcha Campesina leaders proceeded to hold a meeting in which the participation of Mexmode workers was minimal. (Union Voice / Infoshop News, 06/05/08)
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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and in Belgium thousands of labor union members demonstrated in Liège to protest the rising cost of living as a result of fuel costs
actually, the protest was all over Belgium
20,000 protesters on monday in Antwerp alone
I had an exam that morning and a job interview in the afternoon, had to walk across half of the city ‘cause the public transport workers joined the protest…