Demand the reinstatement of the workers of Mink Tekstil and the right of freedom of association! Take action now at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/08-06-26.html#action

There will be a SOLIDARITY PICKET of STARBUCKS, New Oxford St, London (nearest tube Tottenham Court Rd) On SATURDAY 5th JULY at 1pm, to protest against the latest illegal firings of union activists in Starbucks organising for a better life in Michigan USA and Seville Spain.

The attack on labour rights today: Iraqi, US and UK union solidarity
against war, occupation and enforced privatisation

A meeting with Gene Bruskin Co-Convenor of the over 3 million strong trade union anti-war organisation US Labor Against War,

Her concern is to show how groups situated outside the AFL-CIO mainstream have struggled and organised themselves to achieve economic justice through the creation of ‘poor workers’ unions’ (PWUs). In so doing these independent organs have shown the wider labour movement a more expansive, democratic option that represents “the best possibility for the future” (229), a ‘social justice’ unionism which has now established a foothold in the mainstream. Within the hidden history she reconstructs Tait also points to the misunderstandings in our views of relations between labour and other social movements.

Leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions Hassan Jumaa Awad has sent the following message urging action against the decision of the Iraqi Oil Minister to transfer 8 union activists - a move which has been defined as 'a human rights crime'. This marks an escalation in repression against the Union which is a potent anti-occupation and anti privatisation force in Iraq This comes at a time when serious military, economic and political pressure is being exerted by occupying powers for the ratification of the Oil Law. More moves such as this can be expected and must therefore be resisted now.

On May 21, the Antorcha Campesina organization, linked to the PRI political party, attempted to take over the independent union at the Mexmode (formerly Kukdong) factory in Atlixco, Mexico.

The creation of SITEMEX, the independent union at Mexmode, was a huge victory for the Mexican workers movement and was a seminal moment in the development of the international anti-sweatshop movement. One of their activists toured the UK with No Sweat and we met with workers there on our return trip. Please read on and take action below.

Workers won big last week. After intense pressure, Burger King agreed to give Florida farmworkers a penny more per pound of picked tomatoes. That means an annual raise of 71% for the farmworkers who, on average, earn only $10,000 a year under the old wage, and are among the USA's most exploited workers.

From the Worker Communist Party of Iran:

Shush, Iran – Monday, May 19, 2008

Thousands of Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers marched again on Sunday and Monday through the town of Shush ahead of the sham trial of five of their colleagues tomorrow, which the workers are fighting to revoke. As in the last few days, the people of the town also joined the march today. At one point the workers blocked the main highway in the area.

Jean Paul Faubert started sacking workers in December 2007, and then he closed down the factory, just like that, on 26 March 2008. Around 800 male and female workers were left unemployed. He simply attached a notice on the gate notifying them to go and collect their pay at the Labour department of the Ministry of Social Affairs. To this day, those workers have not been able to get what they are legally owed, in spite of several television and radio reports concerning this case.

Workers in a number of cities in Iran held, or attempted to hold, May Day rallies despite a heavy clampdown by the government. Rallies were held in the western cities of Sanandaj, Kermanshah and Saqez. However, the planned rally in the industrial zone of Asalooye was broken up when the security forces moved in to arrest the organisers and remove placards. Those arrested include Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi, from the leadership of the newly formed Free Union of Iranian Workers.

From US Labor Against War www.uslaboragainstwar.org

U.S. Labor Against the War is pleased to be able to share with you two important communications from the working people of Iraq to the workers and people of the world. The first is a statement of solidarity from the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq to the members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in support of the decision by ILWU members to shut down all the ports on the West Coast as a demonstration of their opposition to the war and occupation of Iraq.

The second message is a May Day greeting from a broad cross-section of union leaders from many different unions and labor federations in Iraq as an expression of their appreciation for the solidarity demonstrated by organized labor, working people and all peace-loving people of the world in support of their efforts to end the foreign occupation of Iraq and the sectarian violence that occupation has spawned.

SOLIDARITY WITH BANGLADESHI TEXTILE WORKERS!

Picket Tesco!

Meet outside Tesco, Bethnal Green Road at 11am on Saturday 26th April

PlayFair 08 Industry Report

Did you know that a worker at a Chinese factory producing for one of Nike’s key suppliers would have to work 4,500 years at their current wage to earn as much as Nike CEO Mark Parker did in 2006?

By JEFF BALLINGER

The current strike wave in Vietnam can be traced to a seemingly benign statement by Adidas officials last year, attempting to explain a sharp increase in profitability. Since the German shoe giant's acquisition of the Reebok brand, it gained new leverage over supplier factories. This predatory relationship with the mainly Taiwanese and S. Korean sports shoe manufacturers collided with a rising rate of inflation, bringing the near-subsistence wage to a level workers would not tolerate.

BANGALORE MAHANAGARA PALLIKE GUTTIGE POWRAKARMIKARA SANGHA
(Union of Bangalore City Corporation Contract Streetsweepers)

An appeal for support

Friends,
There are more than ten thousand contract powrakarmikas (municipal workers) in Bangalore, employed to keep the city clean. Over 80 percent of them are dalit and women. They labour under inhuman work conditions. They work six days a week, through sun and rain, cleaning the garbage with their bare hands.

THE MOBILIZATION MUST CONTINUE

Widespread MOBILIZATION against the high cost of life has taken place in the cities of Cayes, Petit Goave, Jeremie, Port-au-Prince, everywhere… The people are fed up! We’re hungry, and poverty is finishing us off little by little.

Reports Batay Ouvriye

Cities threaten strikers with lockout

By The Copenhagen Post

Published 23.04.08 00:00

Local governments are ready to implement a lockout that would send all FOA union employees home.

[From Avaaz]

Even as the Zimbabwe crisis worsens, an extraordinary solidarity movement has taken hold across Southern Africa--sparked by a South African dock workers' union that refused to unload a Chinese shipment of Zimbabwe-bound weapons.

In its glossy and well-designed publications, Adidas expresses its commitment to improving its social and environmental performance, acknowledging its responsibility to "take action and encourage others in our supply chain to take action if we are to make a difference and become a sustainable business."

Now is the time for Adidas to take action in Indonesia, where systemic violations of international labour standards--like those at Adidas suppliers PT Spotec and PT Dong Joe--profoundly affect the lives and well-being of workers.

Take action now at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/08-04-09.htm#action

Court appearance of Mahmoud Salehi and referral of his case to prosecutor’s office:

According to news we have received, on Saturday 29 March 2008 Mahmoud Salehi appeared in court, where he made his final defence in front of the judge.

Read on for mor eon this case and to take email action to demand his release.

LONDON NO SWEAT FORUM

No Sweat activists will know about the New Era Caps dispute. We had a skype link-up with the workers in Alabama at our gathering back in December and picketed Foot Locker in support. Mark even chained himself to the Brighton store so they couldn't throw us out of the shopping centre!

Well it all paid off.

10,000 textile workers from Ghazl el-Mahalla took to the streets demanding raising the national minimum (monthly) wage to LE1200. Mubarak's Central Security Forces were out in full gear, and tried to prevent the workers from marching, but the workers managed to storm the company gates, chanting:
"Down Down Hosni Mubarak!"… "You, who's ruling us from (the Presidential Place in) Abdeen, your rule is shit!"… "They (the elite) are eating chicken and pigeons, while we are sick of eating beans"… "Gamal (Mubarak), tell your dad, the Gharbeia province (where Mahalla is located) hates him!"

On 20 November, Huang Qingnan of the Dagongzhe (DGZ) Migrant Worker Centre in Shenzhen, China was seriously injured after being stabbed by two unidentified men.

Take action now at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/07-12-13.htm

Shop workers are on strike in Berlin (and other parts of Germany) - a number of supermarket chains, department stores, the biggest
bookshop chain, and also H&M...

Help us press New Era and Foot Locker to stop union-busting in Alabama.