Ahoy, fellow workers & filthy bourgeoisie! Welcome to the fifteenth 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.

March of Sex Workers against Repression in Guadalajara, Mexico: Billy Kaye writes: “Five years of repression of sex workers in Guadalajara, Mexico, culminated in a march today. The march went to a government building where workers demanded that sex workers, arrested in a raid of the red district last week, are released immediatly and the rights of sex workers are respected in general. Anarchist sex workers were there to show solidarity. / Cinco anos de repression de los trabajodras de sexo in Guadaljara, Mexico ha culminado en una marcha hoy. La marcha fue a un edificio del gobierno donde los trabajadoras demandaron que trabajodoras fueron enviadas al penal tapatio la semana pasada son libertados inmediatamente y los derechos de trabajodoras sexuales son respectos en general. Trabajadoras sexuales anarquistas de los Estados Unidos fueron presente en solidaridad.” For more information email Red Mexicano de Trabajo Sexual [sorry, Spanish only]. (Infoshop News, 02/18/08)

France: workers strike, many win: Jef Costello writes: “Restaurant and tire workers have won strikes with a bus drivers’ strike ongoing. Michelin – Workers at the factory in Toul (Meurthe et Moselle) began strike action after plans were announced to close it down. As well as occupying and blockading the plant with pickets of burning tyres the 826 workers also confined two managers to their offices during the four-day strike. They agreed to end the action after Michelin and the unions agreed a deal which would add a payment of €2400 for each year of service and that each worker would be offered at least two jobs at other Michelin sites with a further promise of travel allowances. La Grande Armée – Nine undocumented workers appear to have won the right to stay in France after a five-night strike and occupation of the restaurant in Paris’ 16th district. The workers have been employed on permanent contracts by the restaurant for betwen two and nine years. Now that the threat of deportation cannot be used against them the workers are free to demand payment for overtime and refuse to work on their days off. The workers curent earn minimum wage for a 39-hour week.” (LibCom.org, 02/19/08)

Retail Workers Celebrate Million-Dollar Victory: Matt Schwarzfeld writes for City Limites: “Frigid weather didn’t stop employees of the Soho retail clothing store Yellow Rat Bastard from celebrating the $1.4 million in back wages they just won in a settlement by rallying outside the shop and marching up Broadway last week. Months of organizing by the Retail Action Project (RAP) finally paid off with an announcement by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last Monday that Henry Ishay – who owns Yellow Rat Bastard along with other trendy clothing stores in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn – would compensate for paying employees below the state minimum wage, failing to provide overtime, and illegally reducing hours and firing those who cooperated with the attorney general’s investigation. In addition to the wage settlement, RAP – which brought workers together and offered training and support – also helped workers acquire layoff protection in three of Ishay’s stores and focus attention on what many workers have described as unhealthy, unsafe working conditions. With this victory achieved for more than a thousand current and former workers, some wonder what’s ahead for this group and others like it. Like most of New York City’s retail workers, employees at YRB and Ishay’s other stores are not unionized, and therefore not protected by a collective bargaining agreement. RAP is not a union, but rather a grassroots advocacy organization fighting alongside workers to protect their rights.” (Wobbly City, 02/19/08)

Mozambique: wildcats and sabotage on the sugar cane plantations: LibCom reports: “The workers are demanding a wage increase of over 100%, from 1,100 to 2,500 meticais (from US$46 to US$104), as well as protective clothing, overtime for working on Sundays and the right to a day off in the event of the death of a family member. Last Friday, workers have caused serious damage to the company offices and the homes of company managers as well as set 20 hectares of sugar cane ablaze. The Friday and Saturday clashes resulted in injuries to 20 people, five of whom had to be transferred to Maputo Central Hospital. Xinavane bosses had hoped that workers would have returned to their jobs on Monday but the strikes continued with the strong presence of the riot police around the sugar factory and homes of managers, to deter a repetition of last weekends violence.” (LibCom.org, 02/20/08)

Mexico: Oaxacan teachers occupy secondary school: “Schoolteachers affiliated to the Sección 22 branch of the education union SNTE (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores en Educación) – the main protagonists behind the Oaxaca revolt of 2006 – have occupied a secondary school in eastern Oaxaca under the control of the Sección 59 scab union branch. The occupation started as of yesterday (15 February) and is a preliminary attempt to reclaim all the schools organised by the 5,000-strong Sección 59, created by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) Oaxacan state government and the SNTE leadership in Mexico City in an attempt to defeat the strikers in Sección 22 and thereby the 2006 uprising.” (LibCom.org, 02/16/08)

Panama workers, police clash; hundreds arrested: “Nearly 300 protesters were arrested in Panama on Friday as construction workers clashed with police for the third day running over the shooting death of a fellow worker earlier this week. A dozen police were injured in Friday’s protest, which kept much of the capital paralyzed, with piles of tires burning on busy roads and highways across the city. Police reported 286 arrests, bringing the number of people detained since Tuesday to around 780, police said. Protesters also threw stones at riot police in the affluent Paitilla area of the city, home to many of Panama’s glass-covered skyscrapers, local television images showed. It was the latest in a series of clashes since the fatal shooting of a construction worker from the SUNTRACS union during a demonstration on Tuesday over safety conditions.” (Reuters, 02/15/08)

5,000 auto-workers on wildcat in Vietnam: LibCom reports: “More than 5,000 workers in Hai Phong City, 60 miles south east of Hanoi began a strike yesterday. Yazaki Haiphong Vietnam Co, a Japanese car-part manufacturer, is based in Nomura Industrial Park, where 2,000 workers from different companies were on strike earlier this month for similar grievances. Wages were increased in January, but pensions and bonuses were cut. Workers also complained of lack of respect, bad food and unreasonably maternity leave requirements as contributing factors to the strike, according to the Thanh Nien news. The State run trade union, which has only a negotiating role in Vietnam and does not call strikes, is in negotiations with representatives from the company to end the strike. According to the union, there were 541 strikes in Vietnam last year, involving 350,000 workers. (LibCom.org, 02/14/08)

Germany: Public sector ‘warning’ strikes begin: Ret Marut writes: “Thousands of workers have participated in short nationwide strikes called by services union Verdi; described as ‘token’ or ‘warning’ strikes, they are in response to a deadlock in pay negotiations. With inflation at close to 3%, Verdi is demanding an 8-percent hike or a minimum increase of 200 euros ($290) per month over the next 12 months. Employers have offered a five percent raise, with the increase to be implemented in three stages, and are insisting that a new contract run for two years. They also want to increase the working week from 38.5 to 40 hours. Town halls, hospitals, child daycare centres, refuse collection services, police and state savings banks are among the institutions to be affected by the strikes, which are set to continue in different sectors in the lead up to the next round of negotiations on Feb 25th. Elsewhere; in western Germany thousands of steelworkers are striking for a similar 8% increase. Unions claim to be ready to massively increase the strikes if concessions are not made.” (LibCom.org, 02/14/08)

Victory for Brighton bin wildcat: LibCom reports: “After two days on wildcat strike, refuse workers at Brighton’s Hollingdean Depot have won their fight against management bullying. The striking bin staff had been complaining about management bullying after staff refused to double their workload due to lack of vehicles and under-staffing. As part of what workers called management’s “bully tactics”, four refuse workers had been moved onto different crews sparking anger amongst the depot and leading to the wildcat action. However, as of this morning, the four workers have been allowed back onto their old crews and management have started negotiations over staffing levels and vehicle numbers.” (LibCom.org, 02/15/08)

U.S. Allies Go on Strike in Iraq’s Diyala Province: Steve Lannen, writing for McClatchy Newspapers, reports from Baghdad: “Members of U.S.-allied citizen brigades, which are credited with helping to tamp down violence in many parts of Iraq, went on strike Friday in Diyala province, alleging that the provincial police chief there is running a death squad.” (McClatchy Newspapers, 02/08/08)

Bahrain: Over a thousand guest workers still on strike over pay, conditions: Dylan Bowman writes: “Over a thousand labourers working on a $6 billion manmade island project in Bahrain are still on strike demanding better pay and conditions. Around 1,300 employees of contractor GP Zachariades have been locked in their accommodation for four days now after refusing to go back to work until their monthly salary is increased to 100 dinars ($265.6) from 57 dinars, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News reported on Wednesday. Employees had planned to march from their labour camp to the Labour Ministry on Sunday, around 30 kilometres, but were locked inside the camp, according to the newspaper.” (ArabianBusiness.com, 02/13/08)

Bahrain: striking Asian workers vow to resist deportation: Begena P. Pradeep writes for Gulf Daily News: “Just under 2,000 striking Asian workers dug their heels in yesterday, vowing to resist any moves to pick them off in batches and deport them. The G P Zachariades workers said they would rather go home en masse than continue working under current conditions – but would resist any piece-meal deportations. Workers claimed they had been told there would be deportations every day unless the men went back to work. Trade unionists also accused company officials of trying to force the men to work by literally dragging them to their buses – an allegation which the company vehemently denies.” (Gulf Daily News, 02/14/08)

Quick Settlement of Mexican Wal-Mart Worker Strike Is Suspicious: In New West, Nick Gier says, “Every winter since my retirement I spend a month in Mexico at a timeshare in Cabo San Lucas. Over the years, I’ve seen many changes, and the most noticeable one is the Big Box stores going up along the 25-mile freeway between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.” (New West, 02/12/08)

Entertainment Writers Claim Victory in Deal Ending 14-Week Strike: “Entertainment industry writers are back on the job after overwhelmingly approving a deal that will eventually give them a percentage of revenue for work posted online. We speak to Michael Winship, president of Writers Guild of America, East.” (Democracy Now!, 02/14/08)

Women Add Union Sectors, Fueling Labor Revival: Writing for Women’s eNews, Sharon Johnson says, “Women are adding sectors such as home health care, child care and nursing to union ranks, helping to revive organized labor after 25 years of membership declines tied to losses in male-dominated manufacturing. The first increase in union membership in a quarter of a century was recorded in 2007 with employment sectors traditionally dominated by women driving the turnaround. Nearly two-thirds of new union members last year were women, who now represent 44 percent of union membership, an all-time high.” (Women’s eNews, 02/19/08)

This week’s Labor History Spotlight(s):

2000: Cellatex chemical plant occupation: An account of a group of 153 sacked Cellatex chemical workers in France who won a massively improved redundancy deal due to militant struggle, albeit one with some misguided tactics. (LibCom.org)

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…