If I went to work in a factory the first thing I would do is join a union.  - Franklin D. Roosevelt

World of Labor 7-24-10

July 24, 2010

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The World of Labor

By Harry Kelber

Metal Unions in Southeast Asia Agree on Strategy
Trade union leaders from four southeastern Asian countries met in Thailand from July 13-15 to discuss union-building strategies in a seminar  arranged by  their umbrella organization, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF)  The participating countries--Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam—adopted a strategic plan that aims to strengthen the trade union movement in their region and to build solidarity, locally, regionally and at the global level.

The seminar began with an evaluation of the IMF’s work in the region since the last congress in 2005. It showed that IMF increased its activities in organizing and union-building in the region. Yet, despite organizing new members,  this had yet to translate into a growth in IMF affiliations in the region. In fact, the level of new affiliations had decreased.

Representatives of the IMF’s executive committee members in the region (Australia, Indonesia and Japan) provided an overview of the different approaches and structures within the development of their own unions. Participants also shared information on organizing strategies and discussed how to build future sustainable approaches, despite each country having a different culture and each union  having a different history.

Russian Unions Fear Government Crackdown
A new law giving the Federal Security Service greater powers to combat terrorism and extremism could be used to target independent trade union activists, lawmakers warn.  The law, now awaiting President Dmitry Medved’s signature, would allow FSB officials to notify law-abiding citizens that their activities could lead them to commit a crime. The Duma passed the measure on July 16 and the Federation Council ratified it the following Monday.

“The Interior Ministry’s anti-extremism department is constantly inviting me in for talks,” Pyotr Zolotaryov, leader of the Yedinstvo  union at  Avtovaz car factory in Tolyatti, told The Moscow News. Often, these informal chats with police and prosecutors take place, based on a written order  from the regional FSB, Zolotaryov said.

Zolotaryou and his union petitioned Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday to raise workers’ basic average salary at Avtovaz from 10,000 rubles ( $333)  to 25,000 rubles ($842), citing new reports of profitability and Putin’s earlier measures to raise the basic part of the salary for workers in the Mezhdurechensk coal mine in the  Kuzbass, which was rocked by a deadly methane blast in May.

Hyatt Hotel Workers Hold  Protests across North America
Thousands of hotel workers in 15 cities across North America took to the streets on July 23 to protest the practices of the Hyatt hotel chain and its billionaire owners—the politically influential Pritzker family. Although the hotel industry has rebounded quickly from the recession into profitability, more than 115,000 jobs have been cut nationwide since  2008, including 46,000 in the first quarter of 2010.

As of March 31 of this year, Hyatt reported it had more than $1.3 billion in available cash,  its workers have endured staff cuts, reduced hours and excessive injury rates. In one case cited by the union, Hyatt fired the entire housekeeping staff from its three Boston-area hotels and replaced them with minimum wage workers from a subcontracting agency.  

This year, citywide contracts covering 45,000  hotel workers in 10 cities in the United States and Canada will expire, and workers, members of UNITE HERE  will be facing some tough bargaining. Protest actions are being held in Chicago, Honolulu, San Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Boston, Rosemont, Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San Diego.

150,000 Peruvian Construction Workers Take to Streets
Protests called by Peru’s FTCCP construction workers union federation brought 150,000 workers into the streets  of cities across the country on July 14 to demand wage increases and better safety regulations. More than 25,000 demonstrated in the nation’s capital Lima.

Since 2008, a total of 131  construction workers have died or been injured  at their  workplaces. Dependents of the dead workers have filed charges in court against the construction firms, but the companies were merely levied a fine that must be paid to the Labor Ministry.

In a press release, FTCCP General Secretary Mario Huamán Rivera said  that the protests “will demand of the Congress the passage of a law that  protects the lives of workers, that penalizes with jailing those businesspeople who provoke death or injuries to their workers.”

Traders Syndicate to Enroll Egyptian Street Vendors
The Syndicate of Commercial Professionals has been counting street vendors nationwide in an effort, along with the Ministry of Finance and the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) to enroll the numerous vendors as beneficiaries of the new insurance law. The syndicate will distribute membership application forms to vendors free of charge.

According to the syndicate, street vendors account for approximately 25 percent of Egypt’s irregular labor force and provide services that benefit all social sectors The laws that regulate their work need to be updated; some date back to 1885. Application forms will be distributed around major markets

The syndicate is preparing a bill that addresses the problems of street vendors, as well as their contributions to the Egyptian economy. Work on the bill will be completed in August, The hope is that this will protect the vendors and organize them for a better relationship with the authorities.
Hunger Strikes Deepen Labor Tensions in Mexico

Fired electrical workers Cayetano Cabrera and Miguel Angel Ibarra stopped eating for 90 and 86 days respectively, to demand the restoration of their jobs, which they lost last fall, when the federal government suddenly disbanded their money-losing and deeply-troubled utility, Luz y Fuerza del Centro, and dismissed the entire workforce of44,000 employees. Their  hunger strikes ended on July 23 after the Interior Ministry and the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (SME) agreed to hold high-level talks.

The hunger strikes marked the latest escalation of the ongoing protests carried out by members of the SME, whose reputation for low productivity and lavish salaries and benefits earned it the nickname, “The Divine Cast.” Mexican President Felipe Calderon moved against the SME  in October 2009, as he disbanded Luz y Fuerza, carried out in the  dead of night and highlighted by hoards of police officers taking over the company’s facilities.

The SME and its backers, who include leaders from Canadian unions, reject those claims, arguing the government was scapegoating the workers for a failure to properly invest in the electrical  utility and as improperly meddling in union affairs by failing to recognize the re-election of SME leader Martin Esparza. Luz y Fuerza was Canadian-owned  until 1960.