International unions

· Reza Shahabi still held incommunicado

· Osanloo sentenced to one more year prison

· Members of the Coordinating Committee targeted/jailed

· RMT campaigns for release of Iranian trade union leader, Reza Shahabi

· Report on leaflet distribution about Reza Shahabi’s arrest in Tehran

· Is Reza Shahabi being forgotten? By a group of workers and labour activists in Iran

· CUPW: Free Sakineh!

· Demonstration outside Iranian embassy in Paris

· Sample Protest letter (Please use to send messages to IRI authorities)

Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:42

Kalpona Akter

Recently we informed you about the intimidation and harassment of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity. On July 30, more criminal cases were filed against the BCWS staff and other worker leaders. Your urgent support is needed to stop the crackdown on the labour rights organisations.

Thousands of Bangladeshi Garment workers have taken to the streets in protest at the government's refusal to introduce a living wage. Demonstrations have erupted in rioting and the police have reacted with barbaric violence.

Reports of the demonstrations and rioting are available at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iX7VWn6VfLGZunZdPEhCC...
&
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/dhaka-garment-workers-violen...

Demonstrations at the end of June ended with police violently attacking children and women.

These protests come hot on the heels of the violent attack on a staff member of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS). The activist was detained and severely beaten by Bangladeshi security forces. This occurred just two weeks after BCWS was arbitrarily stripped of its legal status as an NGO.

Read on for info and action link:

Some solidarity action is being planned...update later..
Iraqi Union leaders taken to court for oil sector dissent

http://www.iraqoilreport.com/politics/oil-policy/union-leaders-taken-to-...

By Carmen Gentile of Iraq Oil Report
Published July 2, 2010

In the latest salvo of an ongoing battle over labor rights in Iraq's oil sector, the state-run South Oil Company has brought charges against two of Iraq's most prominent oil union leaders.

Since forming a union at Coca-Cola's bottling plant in the southern Pakistan city of Multan in June 2009, members have met with death threats, abduction, firings, extortion, forgery and fraud. Management's vicious response to the workers' fight for a union is a story drenched with violence, corruption, sleaze and escalating criminality.

IASWI condemns police violence against G20 protesters!

Parvaneh Osanloo: "Because of agents' assaults my daughter-in-law Suffered Miscarriage."

Iran-According to reports received by “Human Rights and Democracy activists of Iran Roya Samadi, daughter-in-law of Mansour Osanloo, president of the board of directors of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, was kidnapped and savagely tortured by three agents of Intelligence Ministry.

Four Leaders of the Syndicate are now in prison!

Campaign to Free Leaders of Tehran Bus Workers' Syndicate!

Mr. Reza Shahabi, a board member and Treasurer of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Vahed Syndicate) was arrested today, June 12, 2010. According to the latest news, Mr. Shahbi was on a sick leave for the past few days; when he returned to work this morning he was told to report to the Tehran Bus Company headquarter. After reporting to the headquarter he was arrested by four intelligence agents. Following his arrest, Mr. Shahabi was taken to his home where they searched his belongings and personal information including his computer and afterwards transferred him to an unknown location. His whereabouts has not been reported to his family.

If adidas can spend millions of euros sponsoring individual athletes and sporting events, surely it should value the women and men who worked for years producing its products in Asia. Yet it has failed to live up to promises made to workers at its suppliers factories in Indonesia.

Ask adidas to keep its promises to its Indonesian workers.
Take action today >>
http://www.oxfam.org.au/act/take-action/workers-rights/2010-05-Adidas-st...

From Clean Clothes Campaign:

After a campaign that lasted for over three years, the Indonesian garment factory PT Mulia Knitting Factory finally acknowledged the right of their workers to form unions of their choice. The factory, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, signed an agreement last Thursday with the union GSBI.

On April 23, 2010 a temporary restraining order was issued against more than 100 Triumph workers who are protesting against their dismissals since summer 2009. The women workers fear that a forced eviction will lead to serious casualties. Write to the Philippine authorities today!

Read on for more info. To take action visit:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/filipino-triumph-workers-figh...

We are the displaced workers of Triumph International Philippines Incorporated who were unjustly laid off by the company last June 27, 2009. Many of us have served the underwear company for more than 30 years before the lay-off.

For almost 10 months, series of meetings transpired in the National Mediation Conciliatory Board-Department of Labor and Employment. Yet, Triumph International has been blind and deaf to our just demands for higher severance pay and other benefits. Many of our colleagues were forced to accept the offered severance package because of hunger and poverty.

The embattled workers of Alta Mode Inc., a garments factory in the Mactan export zone and subcontractor for global brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, are appealing for solidarity. Since February 15, a hundred workers have camped out in the main gates of the Mactan export zone, one of the biggest in the Philippines, after they were locked out. The Alta Mode Workers Union, an affiliate of the Partido ng Manggagawa [Labor Party-Philippines], is demanding that they return to work. The workers have proof that management’s claims of monetary losses are lies. The Alta Mode Workers Union accuses the company of closing the factory in order to bust the union.

Take action at:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c...

- Joint Resolution for International Workers’ Day (Labour Organizations of Iran)

- First Official Statement from the Organizing Council of the International Workers' Day's Ceremony -1389

- Happy International Workers' Day! Mohammad Abdipour and Mahmoud Salehi

- Alireza Mahjoub and the Workers' House of the Islamic Republic of Iran-IASWI

Read on for statement from Iranian union organisations and action letters...

HTC Workers at Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) in Taiwan urgently request your support for their struggle to defend their union and basic labour rights against the company's union-busting actions and the Taiwanese government's negligence of the law.

Read on for more info and to take action:

Hundreds of cleaners launched a sit-in at Utrecht Central Station on Tuesday. They have remained there since, with some staying overnight as well. The station is becoming filthier and filthier, but most commuters support the cleaners, union FNV Bondgenoten reported. Many politicians, action groups and others have visited the station to express their support. Young musicians performed a free harp concerto for the striking cleaners.
The cleaners are now willing to settle for a pay rise of 2% per year in a 2-year contract, instead of 3% per year. The employers offer only 2.5% over a two-year period.

Tension is building to a crisis point at the notorious Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, as 4 elected union leaders continue to resist their illegal dismissal on February 24 by refusing to leave the hotel and union members and supporters maintain a vigil outside.

The sit-in and supporters' camp outside the luxury establishment have been continuously maintained for three weeks following the dismissal of four officers including the union President, Vice-President and Vice-Chairman. The dismissed leaders and the growing number of supporters outside have vowed not to move until the illegal dismissals are withdrawn and the hotel management agrees to negotiate issues unresolved at the hotel since 2002, including previous sackings of other union officers and members.

Bangladesh unions and international labour rights organisations are calling for immediate action from brands and the government of Bangladesh. A fatal factory fire killed at least 21 workers and injured a further 50.

From China Labour Bulletin

If you ask a factory worker or a waitress in Dongguan if they have had a pay raise recently, they will either stare at you blankly or just burst out laughing.

For all the hype in the Chinese and international media about 30 percent wage inflation and a "famine" (???) of more than one million labourers in the Pearl River Delta, the reality for migrant workers remains the same; low pay, long hours and no job security.

Thousands of garment workers have recently held protests about pay and conitions in Rangoon, Burma.

"On 10th February hundreds of armed police were told to monitor closely a protest by some 2000 female factory workers in the capital Ragoon demanding a pay rise and better workplace conditions."

Read more, click headline..

The U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has announced plans to encourage a massive growth in apparel production in Haiti.

It will be for radical trade unions like Batay Ouvriye and their supporters like No Sweat to ensure that the jobs created are jobs with justice.

"In unprecedented campaign, the metal workers of Bundy and Hitachi agreed that 1% of salary their salary go to Haiti"

Workers at General Motors are meeting in the next 11 days to vote donation

SOURCE: WWW.SINDMETALSJC.ORG.BR

Port-au-Prince, 27th January 2010 - Statement by the coordinating committee of progressive organisations (see the list of the participating platforms and individual organizations at the foot of the text)  
  
To all our partners  
   
On January 12th 2010 an earthquake of unprecedented force struck our country with dramatic consequences for the people of many areas in the west and south east, and for the country as a whole. The tremor registered 7.3 on the Richter scale, and the irreparable losses it

The Haitian trade union Batay Ouvriye, active in last year’s struggle for a higher minimum wage, has made an appeal for solidarity in the wake of the devastating January 12th earthquake in Port-au-Prince. The UK anti-sweatshop campaign No Sweat is collecting money for this appeal: You can donate by clicking on the "Donate to No Sweat" button here:
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/product
Please mark your donation "Haiti".

No Sweat will forward all funds received in this way to Batay Ouvriye via the New Jersey account listed below in late February. We have already raised a thousand pounds from ticket sales for our comedy fundraiser. You can help get that figure up and help shape a sweatshop free future for Haiti.

From China Labour Bulletin:

The New Year has already seen a number of announcements in the official Chinese media that seem, on the surface at least, to be good news for workers. Coal mine accidents are down, graduate employment is up, and the authorities in the central province of Hubei have launched a wide-ranging crackdown on forced labour. Of course, the reality behind these "good news" stories is not quite so laudable.

From China Labour Bulletin:

In December 2009, a magazine article exposed the extent to which labour relations in China had deteriorated over the last year, with enterprises deliberately taking advantage of the government's leniency during the global financial crisis to exploit their workforce. The writer called on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures, including the introduction of collective bargaining, to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management.

· THE WORKING CLASS AND EMANCIPATORY STRUGGLES OF PEOPLE IN IRAN
· Stop killings and torture!

· Farzad Kamangar in danger of execution!

· Free Haft Tapeh labour leaders!

From Workers Iran:

· Free Osanloo and Madadi now!

· The last of May Day 2009 detainees still in jail! Free Mehdi Farahi Shandiz now!

· Free Majid Hamidi now!

· Please use the Sample Protest letter and act now!

From the International Union of Food Workers

The strike by three thousand workers launched by the IUF-affiliated Food and Allied Workers' Union (FAWU) on December 22 at SAB Miller's ABI Soft Drinks Division has now entered its second month.