Ahoy, fellow workers & filthy bourgeoisie! Welcome to a somewhat short but very special MayDay 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.

NYC: IWW to March on May Day: We march on May 1st to show our solidarity with working people everywhere. This includes immigrants, women, indigenous people, poor people, queer people, trans people, and people of color. We march on May 1st to commemorate those who came before us to demand dignity on the job, those who came together to win such rights as the 8-hour day and the weekend. Today we continue to fight as these rights slowly slip away. The Industrial Workers of the World believe that all workers can come together to create a better tomorrow. We believe in abolishing the wage system and empowering workers to take control of their jobs and their lives. (Wobbly City / Infoshop News, 04/29/08)

Clash Ahead Over Longshore Union War Protest: George Raine of The San Francisco Chronicle writes: “Members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union are proceeding with plans for a work stoppage at 29 West Coast ports on May 1 to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that union leadership has withdrawn its request to waterfront employers that they accommodate closure of the ports. Planning for the protest began in February when the Longshore Caucus, the highest decision-making body for the 25,000 members of the longshore division within the ILWU, overwhelmingly approved a resolution in support of a day of protest.” (The San Francisco Chronicle, 04/25/08)

Labor’s First Strike Against the War Gains Momentum: Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet, “The following is a release put out by the Vermont AFL-CIO, with thanks to reader Richard M. for sending it along: The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their ‘unequivocal’ support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq. The strike, being organized by the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), will seek to shutdown all west coast ports for a period of 8 hours on the day of May 1st 2008. The Vermont AFL-CIO is the first state labor federation to publicly back the Longshoremen; other state federations are expected to follow. The resolution, among other things, calls the war in Iraq ‘immoral, unwanted, and unnecessary,’ states that the vast majority of working Vermonters oppose the war, and contends that the war will only be brought to an end by ‘the direct actions of working people.’ Many other Vermont labor unions and organizations, including the Vermont Workers’ Center, have also made official statements condemning the war.” (AlterNet, 04/24/08)

Turkish unions combine May Day calls for public health, peace and democracy: On 1 May, in cities across Turkey, PSI affiliates will be calling for the withdrawal of the draft Social Insurances and General Health Insurance law, which increases the retirement age, makes public health services more expensive, and excludes society’s poorest from the health and social security system. Turkish trade unions are also calling for the removal of all barriers to the right to organise labour and to freedom of expression, as these contribute to limiting their struggle against privatisation and neoliberal policies. Despite the Turkish government’s opposition PSI affiliate SES (Trade Union of Public Employees in Health and Social Services) and other trade unions will take part in a demonstration on 1 May in Taksim Square, Istanbul. The demonstration, organised by the Confederation of Public Employee Unions (KESK) and the Revolutionary Confederation of Labour Unions (DISK), hopes to bring together three hundred thousand people. Celebrations in Taksim Square have a symbolic meaning because during a Labour Day celebration in the square in 1977, shots were fired into the crowd by unidentified gunmen, killing 35 people. Turkish unions are combining their demands in the field of public health with an appeal for a move towards permanent peace and democracy in their country, and they call on their fellow citizens to join them in demonstrating on 1 May. (Public Services International / Infoshop News, 04/28/08)

More MayDay:

• NYC May Day March » » »
• Ottawa MayDay Rally » » »
• May Day Portland 2008 » » »
• MayDay in Durango, Colorado! » » »
• TCEPSC Potluck and Film Night May 1 » » »
• May Day Callout from Solidarity Without Borders » » »
• May Day: For a World Without Bosses, For a World Without Borders » » »
• New Zine: Hurrah For Anarchy: Mayday as Celebrated by the Anarchists » » »

U.S. Labor Presses CAFTA Complaint Against Guatemala: Reuters reports: “Guatemala has violated labor provisions of its free trade pact with the United States by failing to seriously investigate murders and other violence directed at union workers, a US labor group said on Wednesday in a petition filed with the US Labor Department. The complaint is the first of its kind under the labor provisions of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, which the AFL-CIO labor federation bitterly opposed when it was approved by Congress in 2005. It comes as the Bush administration is pushing Congress to approve a free trade agreement with Colombia, which U.S. labor groups are fighting on the grounds that country has not done enough to curb violence against trade union members.” (Reuters, 04/23/08)

Labor Leaders Discuss Mexican Immigrant Workers’ Rights: Dianne Solis, The Dallas Morning News, writes: “It’s a critical time in the US with an enthusiasm for politics unseen in decades, and that’s given muscle to the Latino vote, said a US labor leader Wednesday at a conference of Mexican immigrant leaders. Organizing to defend immigrant workers – both legal and illegal – was a theme that’s being discussed often throughout the conference.” (The Dallas Morning News, 04/24/08)

Burger King Exec Uses Daughter’s Online ID to Vilify Labor Activists: Amy Bennett Williams writes: “As the Coalition of Immokalee Workers prepares to deliver more than 60,000 petitions to Burger King headquarters in Miami today, the daughter of Burger King’s vice-president Stephen Grover confirmed her father is responsible for online postings vilifying the coalition. The Immokalee-based group is asking Burger King to improve tomato harvesters’ working conditions and pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes, which could add about $20 to a daily wage of $50, workers say. McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, the world’s biggest fast-food chain and restaurant company, respectively, have agreed to the raise. Yum! signed on in 2005; McDonald’s in 2007. So far, Burger King has refused, while publicly saying it wants to work with the coalition to improve labor conditions.” (News-Press, 04/28/08)

NYC: IWW Workers to Ask Judge to Hold Wild Edibles in Contempt: Immigrant workers and their supporters from Brandworkers International and the Industrial Workers of the World will announce the filing of a contempt of court motion against seafood retailer-wholesaler Wild Edibles and its owner Richard Martin. The workers’ lawyers will allege that the company violated a preliminary injunction entered against it by federal court judge Louis L. Stanton. The injunction was supposed to protect workers from further retaliation for demanding their lawful overtime pay but the workers say Wild Edibles continued firing workers to deter them from asserting their rights. The workers will also discuss their public awareness effort which has seen six of New York’s top restaurant groups encompassing over twenty restaurants cut ties with Wild Edibles until the workers’ rights are respected. (IWW.org, 04/26/08)

French docks blockaded in strike action: “Workers at France’s seven biggest ports went on strike today to protest a government plan to sell dock-equipment management to private companies and take staff off public payrolls. Sixty-seven vessels including thirty-nine tankers stranded at the harbor’s entrance. Government officials, port managers and union representatives are yet to tally the costs of the strike. A 17-day walkout last year in Marseille alone cost Manutention Generale Mediterraneenne, the port’s biggest cargo- handler, €1.5 million ($2.4 million).” (LibCom.org, 04/23/08)

Panic at oil pensions strike: “Workers at the Grangemouth Ineos plant will strike for two days from Sunday and will shut down the Forties pipeline, which provides a third of the UK’s daily oil output. The government is warning consumers not to panic, as panic-buying of petrol has begun. The strike of Unite members is against attacks on pensions, including closing the scheme to new entrants.” (LibCom.org, 04/26/08)

More shoe factory strikes in Vietnam: Two more shoe factories in Vietnam were on strike this month, as 4,000 workers walked out in Ho Chi Minh City while 3,000 struck at a Taiwanese owned factory in southern Long An province. Rising food and consumer goods prices have led to a wave of strikes across Vietnam. The strike at Long An follows a strike and lockout of 17,000 workers in the same province last month. In November over 10,000 workers at a Nike factory struck in Ho Chi Minh city. Workers at Hanoi won a 38% wage increase, while those in Long An were still on strike for 10% at time of writing. (LibCom.org, 04/24/08)


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 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, East Is East, and If You Knew…