Ahoy, fellow workers & filthy bourgeoisie! Welcome to the thirteenth 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 LibCom and LabourStart.
Bangladesh: Garment Workers Under Attack: Oready Daily writes: “Hundreds of workers and their supporters battled police in the capital of Bangladesh on Friday in response to the beating death of one of their own by company goons. Libcom.org reports (see below) last Wednesday (30th Jan) two workers in World Dresses Ltd, Mirapur, Dhaka, The two were apparently almost the last of the workforce on the premises at 8pm, as they were washing themselves before leaving. Five officials appeared and accused them of loitering with intent to rob the company. They took the men to upper floor and started beating them mercilessly. Although they were seriously injured the garment officials did not take them to hospital immediately. One of the men died the other remains in the hospital in bad condition. The dead man was later identified as Mohammad Khokon, 23. The injured worker is Abdul Malek. Police said several officials and security guards of the factory were responsible for the beating. The unrest that the incident created led to work stoppage in many factories in the area. More than 500 workers tried to put up barricades on a busy highway that connects the capital with southern and western Bangladesh and were attacked by police.” (Infoshop News / Independent Bangladesh, 02/04/08)
Bangladeshi garment worker murdered by bosses – and other developments: Ret Marut writes: “Last Wednesday (30th Jan) two workers in World Dresses Ltd, Mirapur, Dhaka, were attacked and beaten by management staff at the end of an evening shift. Khokon and Malek were apparently almost the last of the workforce on the premises at 8pm, as they were washing themselves before leaving. Five officials appeared and accused them of loitering with intent to rob the company. They then beat the workers severely. As their condition deteriorated, the management staff eventually took them to hospital; Khokon died at 3am, while Malek is still hospitalised with broken limbs. A manager and security guard have been arrested, while police say they are looking for three others. The company has promised compensation to Malek and to Khokon’s family. Fearing unrest and attempting to hide the incident, management closed the factory on Thursday, falsely claiming a failure of power supply. When knowledge of the attack reached the company’s workers, hundreds demonstrated outside the factory on Friday morning and blocked the main road for two and a half hours. When police baton-charged the crowd they responded with stones and bricks. Ten workers were injured. As the para-military Rapid Action Battalion arrived in the area, workers dispersed.” (LibCom.org, 02/03/08)
Palestine: West Bank public sector workers strike: “Palestinian public service workers walked off their jobs Tuesday at the beginning of a two-day protest against their government’s efforts to force them to pay their utility bills. The new measure reflects widespread economic hardship in the West Bank after seven years of conflict with Israel, including international economic sanctions and tough Israeli restrictions. Many Palestinians are unable to pay even routine bills and have run up huge amounts of debt. The 40,000 workers are trying to force the Palestinian Authority to rescind the new requirement that Palestinians obtain a certificate showing they have paid their electricity and water bills before they can receive government services. West Bank citizens owe about $500 million in back utility bills. About 2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank.” (LibCom.org, 02/07/08)
Germany: Metal workers strike for higher wages: “Metal workers in Germany participated a one-day strike on Thursday to push for an 8% wage hike. Germany’s main metal workers union, IG Metall, estimates that up to 10,000 workers participated in the strike on Thursday, most of whom work in the major industrial region of the Ruhr Valley. The strike affected over a dozen plants, including the ArcelorMittal factory in Bremen, where 1,500 workers succeeded in shutting down the plant for the day. Oliver Burkhard, an IG Metall official in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia warned, ‘Today’s strikes are just a taste of what we could do, and will do if we need to, in the coming weeks.’ Unions are calling for an increase of 8% in the wages of 85,000 metal workers, as well as an extra €100 a month for apprentices and reduced workloads for older employees. The strike was called after recent negotiations between unions and employers resulted in deadlock. Further negotiations will begin on Tuesday until the 19th, during which time IG Metall has warned that further strikes could take place.” (LibCom.org, 02/09/08)
Hungary: rail workers’ strike becomes unlimited: Jef Costello writes: “Hungary’s largest rail union announced that its members would continue their current strike indefinitely. The strike began with a nine-hour stoppage on Friday, workers then recommenced action on Monday, practically paralysing Hungary’s rail network. After this second one-day strike it was decided to continue action. According to the state rail company (MAV) only one in five trains ran yesterday, with the captial, Budapest, particularly affected. Balazs Peter Barany, vice-president of the independent rail-workers’ union (VDSzSz) announced that action would continue until agreement was reached, after the failure of this round of talks. Workers are demanding a 10% pay increase and a bonus of 250,000 forints (£730), equivalent to two and a half months salary. The VDSzSZ union has been involved in several strikes since October, notably to protest against the closure of lines and the partial privatisation of the healthcare system.” (LibCom.org, 02/05/08 / Translated from Solidarité Ouvrière)
USA: Volvo workers strike for new contract: “Over 2600 workers at the New River Valley plant in Virginia began strike action on Friday. Negotiations between management and UAW local 2069 had begun on January the 8th, but with no new agreement in place by the end of the contract on Thursday at midnight the union began the strike that 95% of members had already voted in favour of. This morning 120-150 workers were at the plant picketing this morning. The plant employs 2900 people and produces 100 Volvo and Mack heavy goods trucks each day, the action has brought production to a virtual standstill. A spokesman for Volvo was unable to say how much the strike would cost the company which emplys 100,000 worldwide and makes sales of £20bn a year.” (LibCom.org, 02/04/08)
France: Unprecedented national strike hits retail sector: “According to unions up to 80% of workers in supermarkets across the country joined in the strike action on Friday. The strike was organised by the CGT CFDT and FO unions to pressurise management over pay and conditions, specifically part-time working and holiday working in a sector employing over 636,000 people. The strike was especially strong amongst till staff, with unions reporting 80% observance in hypermarkets, 65% in supermarkets and 20% in the smaller chains. This last figure being caused by low staffing levels, many of these stores have fewer than 15 employees and strong anti-union and anti-organisational pressure. Supermarkets and hypermarkets account for 65% of food sales in France. On the logistics side unions reported 50% observance amongst workers. The CFDT reported that 468 distribution centres were affected.” (LibCom.org, 02/03/08)
University of New Mexico Threatens Students and Workers: The Top Threat to Safety of UNM Students and Workers: UNM Management’s Campaign of Carelessness: This week will mean a return to campus for thousands of University of New Mexico students beginning their spring semester. Meanwhile, two former UNM employees will come back to UNM not to resume the jobs they loved, but to protest their recent terminations. They will gather with community allies, coworkers, and members of the IWW at the new George Pearl Hall located on the corner of Cornell and Central. There they will speak out about the lack of respect that UNM management has for university employees and what happens when workers speak up about health and safety issues. (IWW.org, 01/31/08 / Infoshop News, 02/01/08
Occupation of Ledco plant ends: Workers at the Ledco tool and die plant in Kitchener, Ontario ended a three day occupation after a judge ruled it illegal. Workers were locked out on Wednesday after refusing a 25% cut in wages and 20% cut in benefits. Ledco Ltd., which makes parts for GM, Ford and Chrysler, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday evening. Workers attempted to hold a vote on the wage cut early last week but did not have any support from the Canadian Auto Workers union. CAW leaders have instead discussed encouraging Ledco’s customers to fund severance pay, and to look into finding another company to take over the plant in order to keep it open. On Friday evening, around 30 workers occupied the plant, and were joined by dozens more on Saturday morning. However after the judge’s ruling they left the plant 90 minutes before the official deadline to avoid confrontation with the police. Workers will continue picketing the plant, but the local CAW president said they would not be blocking trucks from entering the plant to pick up owed inventory.” (LibCom.org, 01/28/08)
COLA, Starbucks Face Off In Union-Busting Case: Elizabeth Manapsal writes for the Cornell Daily Sun: “Companies are finding even more ways to screen job applicants — by checking club discussion boards. Starbucks Corp., the nation’s leading coffee retailer, is under scrutiny after a series of e-mails revealed the company’s anti-union practices. The pinnacle of the events in question came when Starbucks managers read through the discussion boards on Cornell Organization for Labor Action’s website in order to identify job applicants and current employees that were labor activists. In a series of e-mails uncovered by The Wall Street Journal, Starbucks managers pulled names from the discussion board and then cross-referenced them with an employee database. They found that three employees were members of the University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and active union supporters, and asked executives if they could inform local managers of the workers’ identities. Daniel Gross, an organizer for the SWU and a former Starbucks barista, testified that Jim McDermott, a Starbucks executive, admitted on the witness stand in a pending NLRB case that he had approved of these activities.” (IWW.org / Cornell Daily Sun, 01/28/08)
Poland: Budryk Strike Comes to an End: “An agreement was reached ending the strike in the Budryk mine. It had lasted 46 days. Workers will receive a pay raise of 490 zloties (135 euro) a month gross plus a one-time payment of 2200 zloties (600 euro) to compensate for low wages last year. This is less than the strikers were demanding. The main demand of the strike was to end wage discrimination by raising the level of wages in Budryk to that of other mines controlled by the JSW holding company. Budryk (which is owned by the State Treasury) was merged into the JSW holding group (also owned by the State Treasury) at the beginning of the year. The average level of wages in Budryk is the lowest among mines in the JSW group despite the fact that Budryk is one of the most profitable mines in Poland and workers achieve twice the national average output. A commission will be formed in order to examine how to raise wages in Budryk to the level of other JSW mines which the management of JSW promises to do by 2010. JSW also agreed not to prosecute or take other action against the strikers provided a court rules that the strike was legal. JSW has claimed it was not and has filed complaints with the public prosecutor’s office on at least two occasions. The last time was on Jan.30 when striking workers refused to let non-striking workers into the mine. The situation had grown extremely hard for the strikers who were tired after 46 days of the occupation strike. They had come under increased attack from not only the management of JSW but the government, media and the leaders of unions which were not striking in Budryk.” (Centrum Informacji Anarchistycznej, 02/01/08)
A massive strike left hundreds of thousands stranded in Germany’s
largest city Friday as bus, underground railway and tram drivers refused
to show up for work.
Walkouts Across Germany: Public Transit Strike Brings Berlin to a Halt “Unions in four different industry sectors across Germany striked on Friday. Hundreds of thousands of public transit passengers found themselves stranded in Berlin, while steelworks, department stores and one major electrical utility company also ground to a halt. With a slumping economy and the constant threat of mass layoffs, German unions in the early part of the decade shied away from lavish wage demands. But with German economic growth now so strong that it is even helping to bolster the euro zone, unions are demanding massive pay hikes — and responding with mass strikes if they don’t get what they want. On Friday, unions in four different industry sectors walked off the job, calling for salary increases of up to 12 percent. In Berlin, around 12,500 workers for the city’s BVG public transportation system — which is one of Europe’s largest and includes the German capital’s subway, buses and trams — stopped working for 39 hours beginning on Friday morning, largely bringing the transit system to a halt.” (Spiegel Online, 02/01/08)
Workers at German steel company Salzgitter AG hold a banner reading
“Give eight” (percent) during a warning strike in Salzgitter on Friday.
A Hopeful Year for Unions: The editorial board of The New York Times writes, “By virtually every indicator, 2007 was a dismal year for American workers. Job growth slowed, unemployment jumped and wages lost what little ground they had gained against inflation since 2003. There is one sliver of good news: the percentage of American workers who belong to a union rose for the first time in three decades.” (The New York Times, 02/07/08)
US Labor Leaders to Visit Colombia as Bush Presses for Vote: Doug Palmer, Reuters: “US labor leaders opposed to a free trade deal with Colombia will visit that country next week to press for stronger government action to stop killings of trade unionists before Congress votes on the pact.” (Reuters, 02/07/08)
This week’s Labor History Spotlight(s):
1998: Danish private sector strike: A short history of the massive private sector strike that gripped Denmark for 10 days in 1998. Although ending after negotiations between the government and union leaders left workers demands largely unmet, the strike, involving about 10% of the Danish population was nonetheless a spectacular show of workers’ strength. (LibCom.org, 01/27/08)
LabourStart: Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
This roundup was compiled by GNN contributor and blogger Nathan Coe. Nathan is a guerrilla journalist and activist residing in the mountains of Southwest Colorado, where he is a senior in college 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, East Is East, and If You Knew…