Success.

Jailed Philip Morris Pakistan workers released!

       I have no doubt that solidarity won the day in this case, as it has done in countless thousands of cases around the world. The state apparatus, and its vile partner, large corporations, can pick off individuals and small groups with impunity, if we don't stand up and support those being abused, oppressed, and imprisoned, they win. We have the numbers to overcome all oppression, it just requires our coming together in solidarity, global solidarity.

This from IUF: 

On January 8, we informed you of the arrest and jailing of 35 workers who were peacefully protesting the brutal, illegal termination of 141 workers at the Philip Morris International factory in Mardan, Pakistan. Thousands of you responded to our appeal for messages, and we are very pleased to inform you now that the 35 workers with their union President were released from jail on January 10, and the union is determined to continue their struggle.  The union has warmly thanked the IUF and all those who responded to our appeal. We thank you for your solidarity and support.

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Union Struggles In Iraq.

       All the news we get from Iraq, that country that the "coalition of the willing" bombed, brutalised and destroyed, in the name of so called "Western democracy", is of death and roadside bombings. Our view gets distorted by this single line "news" that we get from that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. However, the people of Iraq are not all blowing each other up. People are working and fighting for better conditions, unions are organising to protect their members from the same exploitation that we get in the "Western democracies", they show the same solidarity in those struggles, the working class is universal, just as is the exploitation.

This from Industriall Global Union:

 

      According to the reports from FWCUI and the union of leather workers around 200 employees, including both daily- waged and contracted workers, have been dismissed without due notice by the administration of the State Company of the Leather Industries. Many of the workers have had at least six years long service by the time of dismissal. Workers and their union are mobilizing to pressure the administration to rescind this decision.
      As a state-owned company the employer responds to the Ministry of Industry, however when the workers contacted the Ministry they were told that it was the decision issued by the administration and not the Ministry.

Read the full article HERE:

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Workers Know Your History, Frank H. Little.

          A day late with this one, but it should not be forgotten. Our history is written in the blood of heroes, brutally shed by the defenders of capitalism.

      Forming a union where there was no union has always been a very dangerous activity. Through the years many have paid dearly for such a humanitarian desire. Some severely beaten, some brutally killed, all in the name of capital.

        August 1st. marks one such brutal killing in America, the vicious beating and lynching of IWW organiser Frank H. Little in 1917.

From wikipedia:

       In early July 1917, Little arrived in Butte, Montana, to help organize a copper miners' union and lead a miners' strike against the Anaconda Copper Company. In the early hours of August 1, six masked men broke into Little's hotel room.^[1] He was beaten and taken to the edge of town where he was lynched from a railroad trestle.^[1] A note with the words "First and last warning" was pinned to his chest, along with the initials of other union leaders, and the numbers 3-7-77 (a vigilante code famously used by the vigilance committee of Virginia City, Montana).^[1]
     It was widely believed that Pinkerton agents were involved, but no serious attempt was made by the police to apprehend Little's murderers. His funeral procession was followed by thousands as he was laid to rest in Butte's Mountain View Cemetery.

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THE MANY SHAPES OF VIOLENCE.

         Brutality and violence comes in many shapes and some capitalist bastards are worse than other capitalist bastards. 

From IUF.

Over 100 workers have been locked out from the CPM Rangitikei plant for 2 months by a vicious employer trying to starve them into accepting huge pay cuts and unacceptable changes to terms and conditions. Their union, the New Zealand Meatworkers Union, has requested the Employment Relations Authority to provide facilitation services.

To learn more and to send a message to ANZCO Foods urging the company to enter into facilitation and demanding an end to the lockout and a return to the bargaining table, click here.

Ron Oswald
General Secretary, IUF

International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF)

8, rampe du Pont-Rouge
1213 Petit Lancy, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 793 22 33
Fax: +41 22 793 22 38
website: www.iuf.org

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WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON ---???

  
       Union busting is part and parcel to the capitalist system, it is not one company nor one coutry it is the way the capitalist system works across the planet. The last thing the capitalists want is for the workers to be organised and work together to improve and protect their pay and conditions. A fragmented and unorganised workforce can easily be exploited, wages and conditions can be eroded when the workers don't stand together. It is obvious that it is in the interest of every worker to be an active member of their union and stand united in solidarity with all workers who find themselves in dispute with their employer.

Stand with Longshore Workers 21! HOORAY FOR UNIONISTS willing to be arrested! In a dispute raging through the summer in Longview, Washington, over 120 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have been detained by cops, including Local 21 President Dan Coffman and International President Robert McEllrath. The unionists are fighting to stop international conglomerate EGT Development from breaking a longstanding master agreement the ILWU has at the Port of Longview's publicly subsidized grain terminal. Members of the ILWU are contractually entitled to work the 50 jobs at the terminal, but EGT sued the port for the right to bring in nonunion workers, and inflamed tensions by importing members of Operating Engineers Local 701, who have crossed picket lines to work. On September 7, hundreds of ILWU members stood on railroad tracks to block a train carrying grain to the facility. Police in riot gear attacked protesters with clubs and pepper spray. The next morning, police reported that hundreds of ILWU members from Northwest locals and supporters broke down the gates of the EGT terminal, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain. Security guards retreated and no one was hurt or arrested. An emergency meeting of ILWU locals also shut down other Washington ports. THE ILWU SEES THIS BATTLE as critical to thwart unionbusting drives at other grain terminals. It is all that and more. The struggle at Longview is part of the nationwide resistance against the bosses' austerity attacks. It continues the mobilization begun in Madison, Wisconsin last year. Longview originated as a timber town and longshoremen have worked the Columbia river port for more than 80 years. The community and ILWU won't roll over for EGT, scabs or court orders. The challenge for the rest of organized labor is to mount real national support for this struggle, including stopping the Operating Engineers Union Local 701 from providing scabs. Readers can support these brave unionists by defending them in the press, and by sending donations and messages of solidarity to President Coffman, ILWU Local 21, 617 14th Ave, Suite B, Longview, WA 98632, or email: ilwu21@iinet.com. For background information on the struggle see: Here's why Longshore workers are so angry.

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