Global Union Launches Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) launched an international campaign for nuclear disarmament on July 11. The campaign is being run in cooperation with the  worldwide “Mayors for Peace” group, which covers more than 2,000 cities in 130 countries. There are currently about 24,000 nuclear weapons in existence, with a destructive power equivalent to 400,000 times  the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

“Peace and disarmament are founding principles of the ITUC, and while there are positive signs from Russia and the USA on reducing nuclear stockpiles, the international trade union movement is extremely  concerned about the prospect of further nuclear proliferation, particularly in North Asia,  South Asia and the Middle East,” said Guy Ryder, ITUC general secretary.

The ITUC campaign is a lead-up to the critically important  United Nations Review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in May 2010. A focal point of the campaign is a petition addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for strong and clear conclusions to the NPT Conference, and the signing of the treaty by all UN member states.

Pope’s New Encyclical Supports Workers’ Right to Form Unions

Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of the Catholic Church, declared that it is a matter of “moral imperative” to preserve the right of workers to form trade unions. In a new encyclical released July 8, he  also warns that workers face risks when they try  to organize into a union and seek economic justice.

The Pope also noted the difficulties facing unions because of  changes in the global economy and the current worldwide crisis. He mentioned, without naming any, that governments often limit the freedom of unions to organize workers and bargain in their behalf.

The Vatican and a wide variety of Catholic leaders have continued the Church’s policy of expressing support  throughout the year for workers’ freedom to form unions, and many Catholic scholars and organizations, like the Catholic Labor Network and Catholics for Working Families, have come out in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Mass Strike by Peruvian Transport Workers Leads to Negotiations
Unions representing 200,000 road transport workers who went on strike June 30 across Peru in a bid to see their working conditions improved have at last met with the authorities to discuss their demands. The strike, which affects the country’s bus and truck drivers, included a march in front of the national congress in Lima, the country’s capital.

The union, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), wants to see an 8-hour workday established as part  of efforts to regulate commercial transport in the country and to make the industry safer. Until the strike began, the authorities rebuffed every union request for a meeting to discuss working conditions of the drivers. But on the first day of the work stoppage, the unions were invited to attend a meeting with the ministers of labor and transport to discuss a review of transport legislation and better terms and conditions for drivers.

Antonio Fritz, ITF regional secretary, commented: “In Peru, most drivers work informally; they are forced to drive 16 to 18 hours per day and have no legal rights as workers. The government must be prepared to embark on a dialogue in order to establish a mechanism for regulating transport and reducing the number of casualties on the road. Workers are fighting for their rights, but also for the lives of their passengers.”

Women Earn More Money in Many Categories, BBC Survey Finds
Female clerical and administrative staff in 14 of 17 public sector grades were taking home bigger salaries than their male colleagues, according to new research by the BBC about the wage gap in the U.K.  Figures showed that, on average, women in these grades  were earning up to £350 ($567.50) a year more than men. But higher up the career ladder, it’s a more familiar story, with male earnings outstripping female’s, and men outnumbering women in senior management roles.

Although the wage gap has narrowed from about 45 percent in 1970, the Office for National Statistics suggests that men working full-time are paid an average hourly rate that is 17.3 percent higher than that paid to women. When part-time workers are taken into account, the figure rises to 23 percent, because there are disproportionately more women working part time.

TUC Senior Equality Policy Officer Sally Brett says: “I have known organizations try and present the positive pay gaps in lower grades as a good news story but this often reflects the lack of progression of many women.”  They are more likely to spend a long time stuck in a low grade job, while men may be in that grade a short time before they move upwards and into higher grades, Brett added.

Uruguayan Women, after Layoff, Run an Abandoned Garment Factory
The group of women cross this Uruguayan town every morning, some on bikes and some on foot, on their way to CODEMUR, a women’s cooperative that resurrected a garment factory abandoned by its owners. The women, between the ages of 40 and 60, are former employees of the once vibrant textile firm, Sirfil y Dymar. After the company closed the local plant without paying the employees the back wages and holiday and severance pay they were owed, some of the women created CODEMUR,

Because the women cannot use the old plant, as the case is still making its way through the courts, they found a new place to work. CODEMUR’s large workshop, which began operating in January, is located two blocks from the main street in this town of 9,500 people in southwestern Uruguay. It was rented to them by local businessman Jaime Goldansky, who gave the women their first order of work uniforms.

For now, the workers’ co-op is only producing  work uniforms and shirts, because “the machines we have aren’t suitable for working with finer materials. We plan on buying other machines, but that will take awhile,” says spokeswoman Cristina Pardomo, a 57-year-old textile worker, who, like a number of other members of CODEMUR, is drawing on more than two decades of experience in the industry.

Turkish Public Workers Secure Long-Awaited Wage Boosts for 2009
After months of tough negotiations, slowdowns and quarrels, the Turkish government and leading labor unions reached an agreement on July 7 for wage increases that will be in effect throughout 2009, The agreement will affect the wages of nearly 270,000 public sector workers.

The parties agreed there will be a 3 percent wage increase for public sector workers during the first half of 2009 and a 5.5 percent in the second half. Workers will receive a lump sum payment for the retroactive wages covering the first half of the year.

State Minister Hayati Yazici, who had taken part in the negotiations with the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Turk-Is), commented: “We did not want our workers to take to the streets again, even  if it meant having to cut from infrastructure investment expenditures,”