Discrimination at Work

GUEST WRITERS IN THIS ISSUE

Dennis Arnold is a researcher and activist with the Bangkok-based Thai Labour Campaign. He also participates in the Asian TNC Monitoring Network, coordinated by AMRC, as Southeast Asia Researcher.
E-mail: dennis@thailabour.org/dennis6272@yahoo.com
URL:http://www.thailabour.org

John Chen is an independent labour researcher on labour issues based in Hong Kong.
E-mail: duxiu@hotmail.com

Portent of things to come?
Several Asian countries built a textile and garment sector under a regime of quotas for exports to the US, EU, and Canada that began in 1974. The quota system ended on 31 December (see ALU 52). Many garment workers now fear for their future.
Orders stopped coming in to the Ho Hing clothing factory in Phnom Penh, which closed in November, leaving 600 unemployed workers.

Police block civil servants’ vote

Campaign to make James Hardie face responsibilities
Asbestos is a killer. It causes asbestosis, a lung disease that leads to death, and is linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer only caused by inhalation of asbestos fibres that attack the lung lining and causes death within six to 12 months of diagnosis, but can take up to 40 years before developing into the disease.

Pensioners demand better payments
On 22 October around 5,000 workers demonstrated to demand increased pensions. The workers who had retired from a large state-owned textiles factory in Bengbu city, Anhui province receive only 400-500 Rmb ($50-60) per month but are suffering from a seven year high inflation rate of 5.2 percent.

Standard Chartered makes redundancies amid record profits
The true face of so-called ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ revealed itself once again on 8 November when the Standard Chartered Bank informed 200 of its staff that they were no longer needed, despite the workers having contributed to record interim annual profits of US$746 million.

Wal-Mart contractor sacks en masse
On 14 July 2004 a trade union whose workers produce for US retail giant Wal-Mart made three demands to management. The workers wanted special leave for family events like weddings and funerals, more than three months maternity leave, and payment of arrears for social security insurance.

Wal-Mart contractor PT Idola Bangun Idea ignored these very modest demands. Later in July the union backed the demand with a protest action.

95,000 migrants flee in one month
During November 95,000 unregistered migrant workers, mostly from Indonesia had left Malaysia to avoid caning, fines, and imprisonment under Malaysia’s latest purge (see ALU 52). Caning for this ‘crime’ was legalised in 2002; fines can reach 10,000 ringgits ($US2,632); maximum jail sentence is five years.

World Socialist Web Site, 20 November 2004

Police/military kill sugar industry strikers
After 11 days on strike thousands of workers in dispute with former president Corazon Aquino’s family, the owners of the 15,000 acre sugar plantation and factory, Hacienda Luisata Incorporated (HLI) in Tarlac, Luzon, were attacked on 16 November when 1,000 police, with 230 army/air force troops, and security staff wielding tear gas, water cannon on four fire trucks, accompanied by a bulldozer and two V-150 armoured personnel carriers, attacked the protest that had stopped production at the mill.

Toyota exploiting the workforce
Toyota made US$10.5 billion clear profit in fiscal year 2004, a record the more remarkable by making Toyota the first company to surpass one trillion yen profit in a single year in Japan.