solidarity network

Support Locked Out Auto Parts Workers

United Auto Workers Local 822 members in Bronson, Michigan struck May 1 after refusing to surrender major concessions sought by auto parts supplier Douglas Autotech. The company wanted to cut wages and reduce retiree benefits, but the 140-member local voted instead to strike after four months at the negotiating table.

On May 5, the strikers offered to voluntarily go back to work under the old contract and resume negotiations. The company, however, locked them out and brought in scabs from its two non-union plants in Kentucky.

Strikers have received support from their local community, although one of Bronson’s city councilmen is a manager at the plant and has thrown his weight behind the company. There has also been community solidarity and help on the picket lines from American Axle workers at UAW Local 2093 in nearby Three Rivers, Michigan. Truck drivers delivering parts to the plant have refused to cross the picket line.

The locked-out workers are currently receiving strike benefits and medical coverage, but when they start receiving unemployment, they will no longer be eligible for UAW strike fund money. To send donations or messages of support, contact Local 822 President Mary Ellis at 608 Union St., Bronson, MI 49028, 517-617-1012. Join strikers at a rally July 18 at 1 p.m. at the union hall. Letters of protest can be sent to Douglas Autotech’s parent company, .

Turks Strike Over Rising Shipyard Deaths

Turkish workers in Tuzla’s dangerous shipyards are protesting to save their lives. The Port, Shipyard, Ship Construction and Repair Workers Trade Union (Limter Is) called a one-day strike June 16 to protest the deaths of two shipyard workers on the job. Twenty-five workers have died in Tuzla in the past year in work-related accidents. Despite the high death toll, the government has only formed a commission to investigate safety standards and step up inspections of the shipyards.

The union struck for 48 hours in February over the same issues and faced repression from police and shipyard owners. Police beat protesters and took 75 union leaders and others into custody, but could not break the strike.

The union raised a dramatic slogan for its June strike: “Rather than dying one by one, kill us all on June 16.” Nearly 1,000 workers and supporters rallied in support of the union’s demands. Police prevented additional protesters and strikers from joining the rally by guarding the buses that brought workers to the shipyards.

Under Turkish law, both the February strike and the June strike are illegal, since the union cannot claim collective bargaining authority in Tuzla. Wide-scale subcontracting—300 subcontracted companies work in almost 50 shipyards in Tuzla—currently allows employers to deny both union representation and workers’ grievances.

Limter Is demands that the Turkish Shipbuilders Association (GISBIR) recognize the workers’ right to collectively bargain and end the subcontracting system that breeds deteriorating safety conditions.

Email messages of solidarity to shipyard workers at or . Pressure the Turkish government and the shipyard bosses to improve working conditions by contacting of the Labour Ministry or of GISBIR.

Shine Light on Colombian Repression

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Unions in Colombia, unions in the United States, human rights activists—they all opposed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. And remarkably, on April 10 the U.S. House of Representatives responded and blocked the deal. Though the pact is not dead yet, the victory was unions’ first against a long string of free trade treaties.

Building on that victory, supporters of human rights in Colombia are planning a session of the Permanent People’s Tribunal for July 21-23 in Bogota. At the tribunal, evidence will be presented against multinational corporations that have injured the Colombian people, among them Coca-Cola (where eight workers have been murdered), Occidental Petroleum, and Chiquita (which admitted to arming paramilitaries to clear an area the company wanted for banana cultivation).

Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world today for unionists, with 17 assassinated in the first quarter of 2008, a rate of more than one per week.

During the July tribunal, supporters will also protest at the headquarters of Chiquita in Cincinnati, Coke in Atlanta, and Occidental in Los Angeles. The boycott of Coke is still on! To get involved, contact the Colombia Support Network online or at 608/257-8753.

Zimbabwean Union Members Face Violence

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After a watershed election March 29 in Zimbabwe that observers said ousted longtime President Robert Mugabe, teachers and union activists are bearing the brunt of government repression.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by exiled former union leader Morgan Tsvangirai, is calling on Mugabe to concede the presidency, which he has held since 1980. Tsvangirai, who led the mine workers’ union, is planning a return to the country despite assassination threats. Mugabe’s ruling party lost parliamentary elections, and the opposition won a close election for the presidency, forcing a long-delayed run-off vote set for June 27.

Meanwhile, two leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe, have been imprisoned since May 8. They are accused of inciting political violence for speeches on May Day.

Immediately after the bail hearing for the ZCTU leaders, Raymond Majongwe, general secretary of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, was arrested without charges.

After international calls for their release, the two leaders of the ZCTU were allowed out on bail, but they remain under house arrest and are banned from attending political meetings. But Majongwe remains in jail.

Teachers face heavy intimidation in the lead up to the run-off election. The teachers’ union says more than 5,000 teachers have been beaten, at least 600 have been hospitalized, and about 230 teachers have seen their houses burned down.

Letters of protest to the Zimbabwean Embassy can be sent to 1608 New Hampshire Ave. Washington, D.C. 20009 or emailed to: info at zimbabwe-embassy.us.

Garment Workers Lead Fight in Bangladesh

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In Bangladesh, workers are engaged in a protracted battle for the restoration of union rights, which were suspended more than a year ago when the government declared emergency rule. Interim authorities used that power earlier this year to file criminal cases against dozens of union members, including leaders of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers’ Union Federation.

In a Dhaka shop operated by garment-maker RM Sweater, workers mourn the loss of a fellow worker, a 25-year-old man they called Russell. Though he complained of severe chest pains, management refused to let Russell leave work, where he collapsed and died April 1.

Demanding accountability and compensation for his family, Russell’s co-workers took to the streets in protest, as other garment workers had done in February after the murder of another garment worker, 22-year-old Mohammad Khokon. The Bangladeshi press reports that he and a co-worker were beaten by managers of the World Dresses Limited after hours at the manufacturing complex.

The continuing brutalization of workers by the garment industry and the emergency government has prompted demonstrations and riots. Factory gates and city streets have been filled with protests, the latest of which surround escalating food prices.

Dozens of garment workers, who operate Bangladesh’s largest export industry, went on strike in mid-April demanding higher wages to defray the rising cost of basic groceries. Protestors broke storefronts and threw stones, and several were injured when police charged and fired teargas into the crowds.

The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation reports that an average garment worker makes less than $1 a day in Bangladesh, a paycheck stretched even thinner by the 33 percent rise in rice prices since last year. The ITGLW is urging the government of Bangladesh to restore full union rights and raise wages for garment workers, who drive the country’s most lucrative industry.

Support the Bangladeshi garment workforce and the efforts of the ITGLWF by visiting ITGLWF and sending contributions to: International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers Federation, Rue Joseph Stevens, 8 B-1000 Brussels, Belgium.