international solidarity

  • Steelworkers Take Fight at Canadian Mine Global

    Steelworkers at nickel giant Vale Inco’s operations in Sudbury and Voisey Bay in Canada have been on strike since July. After rejecting contracts calling for deep concessions, Steelworkers (USW) members there find themselves in the midst of one of the largest battles in their history.

  • Outpouring of Protests, then Police "Payback" at G-20 Meeting
    Kipp Dawson, Al Hart, and Paul LeBlanc
    Sep 30 2009 - 4:28pm

    A summit meeting of the Group of 20 in Pittsburgh last week was faced with an outpouring of challenges from social movement activists, community groups, and unions.

  • Unions Leading Efforts To Return Ousted President in Honduras
    Judy Ancel
    Sep 2 2009 - 10:42pm

    In the early hours of the morning on June 28, the Honduran military shot off the locks on the back entrance to President Manuel Zelaya’s home in Tegucigalpa, dragged him out of bed, and whisked him out of the country in his pajamas.

  • Beyond ‘Buy American’: Sorting Allies and Enemies

    Author(s):
    Judy Ancel

    Excerpt:
    The rampage of job-killing is creating desperation among workers and their unions. They are being seduced by “Buy American” and steering toward economic nationalism—a giant distraction that only confuses workers about who our allies are, who our enemies are, and what will advance our own interests. . . .

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • ‘Manufacture American’ to Create Jobs

    Author(s):
    Al Cholger

    Excerpt:
    In the wreckage of this old economy, there is a vision of a new one worth fighting for. It is time for a new Social Industrial Revolution that fixes our bridges and builds our rail with concrete and steel made in mills in our heartland.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Workers in Ukraine Fight Privatization

    Body:
    Workers at the Vinnitsa Ball Bearing plant in central Ukraine have been locked in an eight-year battle to keep their jobs since their factory was privatized and sold to the Interprodukt Corporation.
    The conditions of the sale stated that the formerly state-owned factory would remain open and be modernized. After the switch-over, however, the plant was closed and workers found themselves out of a job. As the workers organized and picketed, Interprodukt’s agents attempted to enter the factory multiple times to sell the equipment for scrap. The striking workers resisted by blockading the factory and have prevented the factory from being gutted for eight years.

    Expiration Date:
    Thu, 10/30/2008 - 12:00am

  • Garment Workers Walk over T-Shirt

    Body:
    More than 3,000 garment workers in Bangkok staged a factory walk-out in support of their fired union president at the end of July. The striking workers stated that they refused to return to work at the Body Fashion Thailand Ltd. Factory until their union leader was reinstated.
    Body Fashion Thailand (BFT), a subsidiary of Triumph International, a large underwear manufacturer, removed the union president, Jitra Kotshadej, for wearing a controversial T-shirt. The shirt was printed with the quote “Those who do not stand are not criminals. Thinking differently is not a crime,” which supports the right to not stand while the royal anthem is played in Thailand.

    Expiration Date:
    Wed, 10/29/2008 - 7:00pm

  • Chinese Labor Activist Brutally Assaulted in Shenzhen

    Body:
    Workers’ rights advocates are calling on the Chinese government to investigate a ruthless November 21 knife attack on a prominent labor activist in Shenzhen, a major manufacturing center in southern China.

    Shenzhen labor activist Huang Qingnan was stabbed November 21. This is not the first attack on Huang. In 1999, then a rank-and-file activist in a food factory, Huang was permanently disfigured when acid was thrown on his face while he slept in the factory dormitory.

    Huang Qingnan works for the Dagongzhe Migrant Workers Center, a small group that counsels workers on their legal rights. The center has helped low-paid factory workers file hundreds of claims for injuries and unfair dismissals. Employers have been held liable for large amounts of severance pay, and it is assumed that an employer is behind the attack.

    Expiration Date:
    Wed, 01/30/2008 - 2:00pm

  • Help Mexico Teach North Carolina About Unions

    Body:
    North Carolina is under new scrutiny for its poor labor standards, this time from a foreign government. Under a side accord in NAFTA called the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, the Mexican government is challenging the state to implement collective bargaining rights for public sector workers. It has also requested a progress report on a recent inquiry by the International Labor Organization (ILO) into the state’s prohibition against bargaining.

    Earlier this year, the ILO ruled that North Carolina’s failure to comply with “freedom of association principles...has resulted in grievous working conditions for many public sector workers.” It called on the U.S. to ratify and adhere to the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which includes collective bargaining.

    Expiration Date:
    Mon, 12/31/2007 - 11:59pm

  • Pakistan’s Union Activists Face Death Penalty

    Body:
    Thousands of Pakistani citizens have been arrested for joining widespread protests against the declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan. When President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution, fired supreme court judges, and enacted martial law in early November, crackdowns on labor ensued as well.

    Two days after the decree, outspoken union leader Rana Ayub Aki was arrested and jailed. Aki is the leader of the 130,000-strong union inside the Pakistani Water and Development Authority. In the wake of these crackdowns, many labor leaders are being forced into hiding.

    Union members and other activists organized a protest in early November at the Karachi Press Club, where police violently disrupted the gathering and arrested journalists, lawyers, and two labor leaders. One, Liaqat Ali Sahi, a leader at the State Bank of Pakistan and in the Hotel Workers Solidarity Committee, has been charged with treason for calling for the return of democracy at the November 5 rally. Musharraf’s emergency rule has given military courts the power to try civilians, and Sahi and three others face the death penalty.

    Expiration Date:
    Mon, 12/31/2007 - 11:59pm