Covid Gains.

      I keep repeating myself, this pandemic has been seized upon by the state and the corporate world. The state has seen this a an opportunity to increase population control, introducing a raft of measures, usually without any parliamentary scrutiny, which will be modified rather than eliminated, attempting to get people into a more receptive mode and more acceptable to total surveillance, scrutiny and a submissive attitude. While the corporate world grasp this as an opportunity to slash at workers wages and working conditions, while at the same time having billions of taxpayers money poured into their already well filled coffers. To the state and the big boys in the corporate world, covid19 has been a win-win situation. Only the concerted effort of the people can turn this round to an opportunity for the people to change that old normal, into a new normal that puts the people at the heart of fair and just society that sees to the needs of all our people and doesn't kneel before the altar off the economy and profit.

 Columbian mine.

This from LabourStart:

        Once again, a company has taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to attack workers' rights. This time, it's coal miners in Colombia who have had to go on strike. Workers at the Cerrejón coal mine are in the middle of bitter dispute with three multinational mining companies, Anglo American, BHP and Glencore.
When the pandemic broke out back in February the union, in good faith, withdrew its list of demands and suspended collective bargaining negotiations.
        When negotiations resumed in July, the company refused to respond to the union proposals, and instead demanded concessions in rights and benefits. Then the company unilaterally announced a radical shift change roster, without consulting the union and in violation of Colombian law. The new shift roster, which workers call the 'death shift' will lead to the loss of 2,500 direct and indirect jobs, will require workers to work an additional 72 days a year for the same wage, will cause turmoil in workers' family lives and will lead to an increase in fatigue and thus an increase in accidents. The company has boycotted the government labour ministry’s facilitation to end the strike, now in its fourth week.
        The union in Colombia and IndustriALL global union have a launched an online campaign on LabourStart in support of the miners. Please take a moment to show your support - click here.
       And please don't forget our campaign in support of miners in Ukraine, who have taken their fight for justice underground - into the mines. Learn more and show your support here. 

Ukraine striking miners.

 

       Please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Long Running Turkish Airline Strike.

More on the long running Turkish Airlines strike from Labour start.

   Turkish Airlines workers have been on strike for more than five months.
  Their employer is refusing to accept any of their collective bargaining proposals and refuses to reinstate 305 workers who were dismissed illegally for defending their right to strike.

Need I say more?
This is a campaign called by two global union federations, the IUF and ITF. Learn more about it and send off your message of protest here:

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=791

Please spread the word about this important campaign in your union.

Thanks very much.

Eric Lee

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Employers' Loyalty, Move The Plant To Cheaper Wages.

     An Appeal for solidarity from Labour Start:

 

     The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) is one of the unions that can always be counted upon when we need international solidarity.  

    As the head of the UCLA Labor Center put it, "The UE has been at the forefront of building international labour solidarity, especially worker to worker relationships."

 

Today, the UE is asking for our help.

 

     They're fighting the decision by General Electric to move nearly a thousand good union jobs from a factory in Pennsylvania to a non-union plant in the South where workers earn 40% less.

Please take a minute and click here to send a message to General Electric asking them to keep good union jobs in Erie.

 

     And then forward on this message to your friends, family and fellow union members asking them to do the same.

    We've been able to count on the support of the UE for so many of our campaigns in the past.

 

Now let's show them that we appreciate all they've done, and help them win this fight.

 

Because this is our fight too.

 

Solidarity forever!

 

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

Driven By Unbridled greed.

      Large corporations are having a field day, most of them are holding large volumes of cash but are still using the "austerity" plan as a method of making more. It gives them the excuse to lay-off workers by what ever means possible, it can be out-sourcing or efficiency cuts, the effects are the same, spreading the load over fewer workers, and/or lower wages, but to them more importantly, higher profits.

This appeal from Labour Start:   

      The FNV Bondgenoten is taking action in support of their members' demand for decent transfer conditions for service workers scheduled to be outsourced. Their terms and conditions under the new employer, catering and service giant Sodexo, will be severely degraded. Many of these workers, employed in catering, cleaning, security, and reception are long-serving Unilever employees. The union is demanding safeguards and compensation for being tossed on the outsourcing scrapheap - support their struggle.  Sign up to the IUF campaign by clicking here to send a message to Unilever. 

       In another 8 days we're closing down the 3rd annual LabourStart survey of trade union use of the net.  Fillling in the survey will only take you a couple of minutes and will provide invaluable information not only to us, but to the international trade union movement.  Please fill in the survey here.

       Finally, we need just over 500 more of you to send your messages of protest to the Turkish government following raids that resulted in the arrests of over a hundred trade union leaders.  If 500 of you send off your messages today, that will bring the total up to 10,000 -- a number which we hope the Turkish government will not ignore.  Please help us grow this campaign and spread the word in your unions.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

Eric Lee

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Which campaigns have I missed?  Click here to find out.

ann arky's home.

 

OUR WEAPON - GLOBAL SOLIDARITY.

      Across the globe state's do their damnedest to repress any attempt by the people to organise to protect themselves against the onslaught of corporate greed. The state's function is to act as population controller to allow the corporate greed machine to plunder and pillage the earth in the name of profit. Corporatism is global, we need our solidarity to be global.

This from Labourstart:

Last week, a court in Bahrain upheld the convictions of trade union leaders, sentencing Mahdi Abu Dheeb and Jalila al-Salman to five years and six months respectively.

 

Mahdi and Jalila, president and vice president of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association were arrested in 2011 after supporting calls for reform in Bahrain. Whilst in detention they were subjected to torture and forced to sign “confessions”.

 

In September 2011, a military court convicted them of attempting to overthrow the ruling system by force and inciting hatred of the regime. The report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry last year found that the authorities had grossly exaggerated, if not manufactured, many claims brought against thousands of ordinary people who had been caught up in the February 2011 protests. Mahdi and Jalila’s only “crime” was to have the temerity to promote respect for the values of solidarity, equality and democracy.

 

The Education International has issued a call for a large online campaign demanding the release of both Mahdi and Jalila.

Please take a moment to send off your message here.

 

And then please spread the word to your fellow trade union members.

 

In additon, please take a moment to learn more about the case of Kenyan trade union leader Francis Atwoli who was recently fined about £3,000 because he refused to call off a strike (two years earlier!) defending jobs in the Kenyan tea industry from mechanisation. Trade unions outside Kenya are trying to help raise the money to cover this fine and his legal costs.  Learn more here.

 

Thanks -- and please forward on this email!

 

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

SPRING HAS NOT YET SPRUNG!!

     Uprisings across the Middle East, sometimes popular uprisings of the ordinary people, but in most cases hi-jacked by Western interference with ulterior motives, or taken over by fundamentalists. At the end of the day they have usually ended up with another authoritarian power structure in place that sets about solidifying its position of power and doing its utmost to stifle any popular democratic challenge to its position.

This from LabourStart:

 

      Remember the "Arab Spring"?  It was supposed to mean a new era of freedom for workers.  But in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, union leaders and activists are being jailed and sacked in brutal attempts to crush independent trade unions.

      Global unions have launched online campaigns to protest and we need your support and the support of your fellow union members to put pressure on governments and companies in North Africa to begin to respect workers' rights.

       In Morocco, Said Elhairech, the general secretary of the Moroccan dockers union was arrested in Casablanca on false charges, including one relating to national security.  Nearly three months later, he's still being held, denied bail.  The International Transport Workers Federation has launched a global campaign to demand his release.  Send your message to the Moroccan government today by clicking here.

       In Egypt, transnational food giant Kraft has sacked five members of the board of the newly-created independent union at the former Cadbury chocolate factory in Alexandria following a protest over the non-payment of a government-decreed social allowance.  The IUF, the global union representing food workers, has an online protest here. 

      And finally in Tunisia, Zed Naloufi, the general secretary of the union at Kraft SAIDA, was disciplined and summarily dismissed following a membership meeting. His crime? Representing and meeting the members who elected him.  Support the IUF campaign demanding that Kraft reinstate him here.

     It will take you only a few minutes to support all three campaigns, but it's hugely important that you do so.

      And even more important that you recruit others to do so.  Let's flood the Moroccan government and Kraft with thousands of email messages in the next few days.

      And in doing so, let's help turn the promise of the "Arab Spring" into a reality for North African workers.

 

Thanks very much.

 

Eric Lee

ann arky's home.

THEY STILL SHOOT STRIKERS!!!

                An appeal for solidarity from LabourStart. There is a lot going on at the moment in the form of the Occupy movement, but we should not forget that there are other struggles that go on day in day out, as people fight for a decent living standard as the try to earn their crust of bread from a totally corrupt and exploitive system. We are fighting a festering marriage of state and corporate greed. Please give a few minutes of your time to send a message to Suzuki that we are that 99% and we can fight on every front.

Striking workers at Suzuki in India.

Seven thousand Suzuki workers in India need our help today.

      Following an intense, and sometimes violent, month-long struggle, they finally reached agreement with the employer at the end of September. But when they returned to work, it turned out that Suzuki had changed its mind, and was not going to abide by the agreement it had signed.

The result has been a resumption of the strike, with a violent reaction from management.

Shots have been fired at the strikers.

And the government is taking management's side, declaring the strike to be "illegal".

       Those workers, with the support of the International Metalworkers Federation, are asking for us to send messages -- thousands of messages -- to the company demanding that it stop the violence, and respect the agreement it signed with its workers.

Please click here now to send off your message.

And then forward this message on to your fellow trade unionists.

        We've also been asked by the International Transport Workers Federation to show our support to the Philippines airline union -- please click here to learn more and send your messages.

       Finally, UNI Global Union is running an online campaign in support of workers in El Salvador - you can sign up here.

Thanks for your support!

Eric Lee

 

ann arky's home.

MURDER OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS.

       Here in the West we tend to take trade union activity for granted. Agreed we do get hassle in many forms but we never expect to be murdered because our trade union activity. However, the same corporate capitalist system that exists here works hand in glove with violence across the globe. In most developing countries you can and do, face threats, intimidation, beatings and death, simply for standing up for your human rights.Today, in the 21 century, ordinary working people are being murder because the want a decent standard of living, that's corporate capitalism and the state working hand in hand, it is corporate fascism.

       This is an appeal from Labour Start.

Guatemala: End the murders of human rights defenders

        Idar Joel Hernandez Godoy, treasurer of the central executive committee of SITRABI, the banana workers union, was gunned down in cold blood on May 26, less than two months after the murder of another of his comrades, Oscar González Vázquez. SITRABI is calling for international solidarity as they demand justice. Guatemala is now sadly the second most dangerous country in the world in which to be a trade unionist. (Colombia is the first.) According to the latest annual survey of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), 10 trade union activists were killed in Guatemala in 2010 and 10 further killings have been reported so far in 2011. Learn more and send off your message here:

http://www.makefruitfair.org.uk/get-involved/appeals/guatemala-end-murders

Thank you!

ann arky's home.

WE ARE ONE.

      In most Western countries being a union leader or activist, can cause you hassle, but seldom your life. However, the situation is different in other parts of the world. In the developing world to organise to try to improve your conditions can mean harrassment, beatings and death. It is unacceptable in this day and age, that when ordinary people come together to try to better their meagre living conditions, they should run the risk of death. The following is a call from Labourstart, please spend a few minutes of your time in an attempt to stamp out this brutal intimidation of ordinary working people trying to survive in an unjust and exploitive system.

       This is not the first time I've written to you about Iraq - but I need your help again.

      We have just learned that Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, a leader of the Iraqi oil and gas workers union, has been forcibly relocated in an attempt to destroy the union. Please take a moment to learn more and to send off your messages of protest by clicking here. And please spread the word to your fellow union members.

     Meanwhile, we've learned some terrible news from Guatemala, where the banana workers union leader Idar Joel Hernandez Godoy has been murdered. Thousands of us need to send urgent messages to the President of Guatemala telling him to bring the perpetrators to justice. Click here to learn more and to send off your message.

     Thanks for your continued support. Eric Lee.

ann arky's home.