International unions

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.

Last Thursday, French TV broadcast a documentary about the dreadful situation of Turkish factory and sweatshop workers employed sandblasting designer jeans (Levis, H & M among others).

Watch a video about the case here or at VJ Movement

Read on for a translation from the French summary of the show:

On November 14, Russell Athletic and the union representing the former workers of Jerzees de Honduras (JDH) have reached an agreement which, according to the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) represents one of the most significant advances for workplace rights in the twenty-year history of codes of conduct in the apparel industry.

Neil Kearney was General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers Federation.

Neil spoke at No Sweat events and was a lifelong socialist and champion of garment workers' rights. He died recently, whilst in Bangladesh, campaigning for improvements in the garment industry. No Sweat will miss him.

This is a reprint of an obituary that appeared in the Guardian by Doug Miller.

The Assembly of Delegates of International PEN, meeting at its 75th International Congress in Linz, Austria, 19-25 October 2009

Deeply Worried because the Cuban government continues its repressive policy against independent journalists, writers and librarians who try to exercise their right to freedom of expression, established by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cuba is party...

· An update by the IASWI; and Current situation and progressive practices:
· The launch of “Kargar (Worker) TV”

· A call for support and solidarity with Haft Tapeh workers (English translation of Ali Nejati’s second Open letter to all workers-Dated November 7, 2009)

· Open letter to International Labour Organization from The Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company

Sunday, 15 November 2009. From http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/900/

Hainan garment workers take on European lingerie giant ‘Triumph’

Women workers at a garment factory in Hainan, southern China, began a strike on Wednesday 11 November to press their demands on pay and vacations after management announced drastic cuts in bonuses. Around 3,000 workers at the Hainan Youmei Underwear Co., Ltd in Haikou City, the provincial capital, gathered outside the plant. The factory is wholly owned by German-Swiss lingerie giant Triumph International, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of women’s underwear.

Laid off Triumph International union members have transformed their action camp into a sewing factory producing panties under the label “Try Arm”. Since October 16, 2009 hundreds of workers have occupied the grounds of the Ministry of Labour to protest mass dismissals by Triumph International subsidiary Body Fashion Thailand.

The following is a flyer we distributed last week concerning rising quotas and increased exploitation in the factories in Haiti.

BATAY OUVRIYE

Port-au-Prince, October 16th, 2009

Comrade workers of the clothing and textile industries,

From United Students Against Sweatshops:

The Student/Farmworker Alliance, in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), is calling on food service industry leaders Aramark and Sodexo to do their part to end the exploitation of farmworkers in their supply chains! Add your voice to this call today by sending a message to executives at Aramark and Sodexo!

Posted to the IUF website 09-Oct-2009

Workers at Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co (Coca-Cola HBC), organized in the IUF's Irish affiliate SIPTU, have been walking the picket lines at 5 company distribution centers since August 27 in a tough struggle against a harsh attack on their working conditions.

Late on Saturday night, around 6,000 Mexican police occupied the various sites of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, central Mexico's state-run electricity company. Immediately following the occupation, President Felipe Calderón issued notice of the company's liquidation, with the termination of some 44,000 jobs.

Mexican legal experts have criticized Calderon's action as illegal, unconstitutional, and "an excessive and abusive use of power" because he by-passed Congress when he decided to close Luz y Fuerza and deploy the military and police against workers.

The government's official justification for closing Luz y Fuerza is that the company's operating expenses exceed those of other state-owned companies. However, Mexican Labor News & Analysis' Dan La Botz has a different perspective on the government's intentions...

From Clean Clothes Campaign:

Workers were confronted with police using a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)

On August 28, the Dusit Police Bureau in Bangkok issued arrest warrants against three union activists for their role in a peaceful demonstration against the dismissal of nearly 2000 workers at Body Fashion Thailand, a wholly owned subsidiary of Triumph International.

Take action now to prevent their arrest at:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/leaders-of-peaceful-protest-against-triumph-...

From the Clean Clothes Campaign:

The Clean Clothes Campaign is delighted to announce the closure of a year-long campaign against the DESA leather factory in Turkey following a protocol agreement signed by DESA and the Deri Is union. We hope that this protocol will mark the beginning of a constructive relationship between the two parties and will ensure good management of the DESA factory and improved conditions and rights for workers.

From China Labour Bulletin:

China's state-owned enterprises back in the spotlight
In the last two months, there have at least three major strikes at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China by workers protesting impending takeovers and privatization plans.

INN: On Friday 28 August, the Dusit Police Bureau issued a warrant for the arrest of the three leaders of Triumph International Thailand Labor Union (TITLU)’s protest action in front of Parliament, which occurred from 10am to 6pm on Thursday August 27th, 2009. According to police, the protest inconvenienced officials working inside the building throughout the day. Police Lt. General Worapong Shivapreecha, the Bureau head, named Sunthorn Boonyod (50 years old), Bunrawd Saiwong (33 years old), and Jitra Kotchadej (34 years old) as offenders listed in the warrant. He announced that these protest leaders had been charged with creating assemblies of 10 persons or more, inciting unrest in the city, and refusing to end their disruptive protest actions at the request of the police (Criminal Law Codes 215-216).

From the Colombia Solidarity Campaign:

Masked gunmen burst into a house in Gran Rosario indigenous reserve, Narino department, South Colombia, and opened fire indiscriminately, killing 12 community members including 5 children younger than ten years old, amongst them an eight-month old baby.

No Sweat supporters will remember the solidarity work our campaign has carried out in support of the workers at the occupied Zanon ceramics factory. Four years ago we ran a UK speaker tour with a worker from the factory. Now the workers have won a major fight over the legal status of their worker-run factory...

From Labourstart

In a scene all-too-familiar to people living under dictatorship, the police choose the early hours of the morning to break down the doors.

But what happened this morning didn't take place in North Korea or Burma.

It was Irish police who chose to raid the Thomas Cook shop in Dublin at 5 AM today to forcibly remove workers engaged in a peaceful protest.