Some good news and some bad news, that's the way of workers lives. The good news usually comes from solidarity between workers across the globe, the bad news invariably comes from the state and/or big business.
2016 begins with news of yet another company responding to workers' attempts to organize themselves with mass dismissals.
In this case, it's a company in Turkey that's sacked 30 workers who dared to join a trade union. The International Union of Food Workers (IUF) has launched an online campaign demanding their reinstatement and a recognition of union rights. Please take a minute and add your name here.
Meanwhile, two of our campaigns launched in December closed down fairly quickly -- and for good reason.
A campaign we launched on December 14th demanding the release of Iranian teacher trade unionist Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi closed within a day after we learned that he had been freed. Mahmoud's hunger strike captured the attention of many human rights activists and trade unionists, and the more than 4,500 of you who sent off messages in that short time helped send a clear message to the Iranian government.
And just one day before that we learned that the deal between the Israeli and Chinese governments -- which would have led to the importation of 20,000 Chinese workers as bonded labour -- failed. The collapse of the deal came after more than 6,300 of you supported the online campaign we launched with our partners in the Israeli and Hong Kong labour movements. Full details are here.
These are both good news stories, and again I want to thank you for supporting our campaigns in 2015 -- as I hope you will do this year as well.
Eric Lee
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