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Sex Workers
Saipan
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:55.Saipan is one of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US protectorate in the western Pacific. Following the revelations of sweatshop conditions tantamount to slavery by US clothing corporations (see ALU 30), several TNCs have been taken to court.
In contrast to habitual denials about the use of sweatshop labour by US garment companies, nine TNCs had agreed to settle class action (collective) lawsuits by October 1999.
Thailand
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:54.Company fails to compensate explosion victims
Labour groups in Thailand and Hong Kong are campaigning for compensation for victims of the terrific blast in Lampoon, Thailand, which razed the factory where they worked (see ALU 32). 32 men and four women workers lost their lives in the factory blast on 19 September 1999.
The Taiwanese factory owner, Lee Hongtien, fled Thailand immediately following the explosion, and has been untraceable since that time.
Philippines
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:54.Valentine Day police assault
Dozens of pickets were injured when four trade unionists including two leaders were arrested on 14 February after police and security staff attacked demonstrators with broken blocks at the Manila Hotel.
Israel
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:53.Journalists fight for free press
Jerusalem Post newspaper reporters are under attack for writing articles which the management considers to be “politically incorrect”.
The Jerusalem Post was bought ten years ago by transnational corporation Hollinger, well known in media circles as a union buster. Since buying the newspaper, the company has sacked half its reporters.
Japan
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:52.Nuclear death
Hisashi Ouchi, a worker fatally poisoned in Japan’s worst nuclear incident ever on 30 September (see ALU 32), died in December. His death exposes corporate lies about the safety of the nuclear industry.
Hisashi Ouchi was one of three inexperienced workers injured at Tokaimura’s nuclear complex, JCO, a private daughter company of Sumitomo Metal Mining. On company instructions they were illegally mixing plutonium in buckets!
India
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:51.Military fail to break strike
Demanding a 100 percent pay rise, 100,000 dockers in eleven ports across India went on strike on 18 January after the government offered only 28 percent.
Negotiations had failed in December, prompting the strike. Union leaders met officials in last ditch talks between unions and the government but the talks collapsed on 17 January.
Hong Kong
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:50.Death in unregulated factory
Firemen removed three corpses from the roof area of a building on 12 February. The bodies were blasted to the roof by an explosion as the men returned to work after the Lunar New Year. Four others were hospitalised.
The factory was under contract to French company, Bachy Soletanche.
China
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:49.Workers face more unemployment - official
A National People’s Congress committee vice chairperson, Li Yining, said recently that society will have to adjust to a higher rate of unemployment as a result of increased competition after China becomes a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Aotearoa/New Zealand
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:46.Death on the picket line
In a dispute over contracting out work, Christine Clarke, a picket on a New Zealand Waterfront Workers Union picket line died on 31 December, two days after being run over on the picket line.
Christine Clarke, 45 and mother of two, had joined the port workers’ picket during a dispute at the Port of Lyttelton, near Christchurch, South Island. The company involved in the dispute, Lyttelton Port Company, had announced its decision to contract out coal loading.
Australia
Submitted by amrc on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 16:44.Child Labour
An estimated 70,000 Australian children as young as eight now work as home-workers for the garment industry as companies shift operations to the informal sector, says Australia’s Textile Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFU). They toil in backyard and home-based sweatshops under Third World conditions.
The TCFU says the problem is hidden behind a wall of fear caused by poor language skills, blackmail and a lack of understanding about workers’ rights.
