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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Hour Headlines 6-15-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
16 Jun 2002
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. Britain's Privatized Mail Service Founders, ICFTU launches child labour campaign, Australian Riot Police Attack Steel Picket, Unrepresentative Chinese Labor Federation Elected to ILO, West Coast Longshoremen May Face Federal Intervention in Strike/Lockout |
Britain's Privatized Mail Service Founders
Britain's privatized mail carrier announced that they will fire seventeen thousand people after accumulating losses of one and a half billion dollars. In announcing the bad news, company executives announced plans to improve the company's performance, including changing the name of their company from Consignia back to its original name, Royal Mail Service, and they'll only deliver mail to home addresses once each day, rather than twice. The president of the Communications Workers Union said it will not accept layoffs, and he said that the company should have raised postage rates from forty five to forty seven cents, a move that the public supports, according to surveys. The losses and job cuts are the latest in a series of bad news for the private mail service. Earlier this year, the company announced that thirteen thousand people would lose their jobs.
ICFTU launches child labour campaign
On Thursday last week, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions marked the first World Day against Child Labour by announcing the launching of a five-pronged campaign to end child labor worldwide. The campaign will focus on agriculture, industry, domestic labour, sexual exploitation and trafficking. Recent figures from the United Nations' International Labour Organization showed over 250 million children to be at work, but across the sectors and around the globe, the trade union movement is leading the battle to offer them education and a future, not exploitation and danger. Agriculture is the sector where child labour apologists say that the least damage is done and that child labour is most needed, however it is also the sector where most children work. Of the 180 million children are believed to be working in the worst forms of child labour, most re in agriculture. With the world cup underway, the ICFTU admonishes the use of children in industrial production, such as the sewing of soccer balls in Pakistan and India. Trade unions across the world have taken numerous other steps to combat these practices, both at national and international levels. In Kenya, the trade union coalition COTU offers financial subsidies to families so that their children can go to school rather than to work. And in Peru, the ICFTU-affiliated CUT is helping to provide education and with it a future for children who work in markets in the capital, Lima. ICFTU spokespeople say that the problem is far from solved, and that it is no coincidence that when union rights for adults are denied, child labour is prevalent.
Australian Riot Police Attack Steel Picket
A strike at an Australian steel factory was attacked by riot police on horseback last Wednesday. The government's intervention in the strike on behalf of the company allowed steel to be delivered to carmakers for the first time in three weeks. About 300 members of the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union began blocking factory gates three weeks ago to protest plans by Australia's largest steel maker to fire maintenance workers and replace them with contractors. The police action came just hours after Australia's labour court gave the country's four car manufacturers permission to sue the unions if the strike halted steel production. The carmakers are subsidiaries of US giants General Motors and Ford, and of Japan's Mitsubishi and Toyota.
Unrepresentative Chinese Union Elected to ILO
International labor organizations have abandoned democratic workers' organizations in China, disappointing Chinese labor activists. The International Labour Organization elected the All China Federation of Trade Unions to the ILO governing body on June 10. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions expressed shock and disappointment at the ILO's decision to elect a labor organization controlled by the Chinese government and its ruling communist party, saying that the move marks a major defeat for workers in China who are struggling to achieve the right to freedom of association -- a struggle that has recently led to the imprisonment of two Chinese workers. The Hong Kong federation also says that the election raises serious questions about the strategy of the global labour movement with respect to China. On March 15, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions stated that the All China Federation is clearly not a genuine representative of workers in China and should not be treated as such. The All China Federation has sought a seat on the ILO for at least five years, intent on preventing criticism of the Chinese government and also to weaken the principles of the Internaitonal Labour Organization, making them dependent on the social and cultural practices of individual countries. The Hong Kong federation calls on the global labor movement to respond to the great challenge posed by the ILO's recent decision.
http://www.ihlo.org/item2/acftuilo.htm
West Coast Longshoremen May Face Federal Strike Involvement
Negotiations over a contract for 10,500 west coast longshoremen are heading into difficult territory with companies asking for more flexibility in their operations while the dock workers strive to protect jobs and benefits. If the parties don't settle their differences, a strike or lockout by one of the strongest unions in the nation could shut down shipping on the entire west coast, and that's leading to rhetoric that may allow the government to step in and potentially break any such strike. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that if an agreement isn't reached and shipping is shut down, the economic recovery, supposedly underway now, could falter, and the US could be forced deeper into recession. Cost estimates of a strike in teh tens of billions of dollars are being circulated, and university economists are commenting on how damaging a work stoppage could be. Due to an agreement not to negotiate in public, neither the union nor the companies are saying much about the negotiations, although spokespeople for the longshoremen say that their members are willing, but not eager, to strike. A showdown is expected at around the sixth of July, the date when workers might begin to slow down operations, leading to a lockout. President Bush has the authority to temporarily call off a strike, as he has done in airline negotiations.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/73906_longshore10.shtml
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See also:
www.labourstart.org
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