Australia Asia Worker Links

With the uprising in Syria in its 8th month, the class divisions that are affecting the situation have become quite clear. General strikes are now very common in working class cities like Homs, Hama, Baniyas and Daraa, as well as in the working class suburbs of Damascus.

In addition, the rank and file layer of the conscript Syrian army faces increasing intimidation by the secret police. Desertions from this conscript layer to the Syrian Free Army are frequent.

The more class conscious layers of the uprising will need to form revolutionary councils and co-ordinating bodies to guarantee that the outcome of the uprising will benefit workers and their communities.

International industrial action and solidarity workshop 

International solidarity is built through solidarity messages, connecting struggles and joint industrial action 

We have been asked by the workers at Maruti-Suzuki in India, Hanjin in Korea and Freeport in West Papua for solidarity. We have been asked by the workers at Philippine Airlines to organise a solidarity rally. Can we do this?

6pm Wednesday 2 November - Evatt room, 1st floor Trades Hall, Lygon Street Carlton

download leaflet

As the All Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI) Freeport division and Freeport management were in another round of negotiations, three people were killed nearby. The negotiation, earlier this week, lasted nine hours ending without agreement. Freeport Vice Executive, Sinta Sirait, rejected a call by SPSI chief negotiator, Sudiro, for striking workers to be fully paid while on strike.

Earlier that morning gold panners were shot dead at a post called Mile 39, about 100 metres from Ajikwa river. The dead bodies of the two gold panners were found in their lodges. The third victim was identified as Alosius Margana, a driver who had been hired to replace one of the striking workers.

The success of the strike has forced management to try a new strategy, that of bribing workers to go back to work.

Download Freeport solidarity leaflet

A recent campaign by a number of migrant worker organisations to support migrant workers in Jordan has once again highlighted the terrible situation that thousands of workers face. Workers have reported that they have been raped, beaten, forced to work in intolerable and degrading conditions, and subjected to deportations at sweatshops in Jordan. 

Last year the case of the Sri Lankan maid that had nails hammered into her made the world headlines, but the reality is that until migrant workers are organised in trade unions that fight for their rights, they will continue be marginalised and endure terrible conditions. 

It is now over a month that almost 3,000 workers have been in a struggle with Philippine Airlines over the issue of outsourcing their jobs. They are staying strong and have received international solidarity. Actions in support of their stance are continuing, see here and here.

While action has been postponed by workers at Kuwait Airlines as most of their demands have been agreed to by the company, workers at Malaysia Airlines are facing the prospects of losing conditions due to a merger with a low cost airline. 

Over fifty workers at the Nescafé factory in Panjang, Indonesia were recently dismissed after the workers took industrial action in support of their collective bargaining demands. All these workers were members of the SBNIP. The workers have organised for five years to win their better conditions via a collective agreement.

In Pakistan, workers at the Kabirwala factory have fought for four years to organise contract workers and to press for their status to be changed to permanent. The company has in the past interfered in the internal organisation of the union, physically intimidated union members and is threatening to bring in strike breakers.

For information and solidarity on both disputes, read more here.

The Malaysian government wants to allow third-party intervention in the workplace where by companies can outsource their employment contracts and obligations to an outside third party.

This tactic is used worldwide to undermine workers ability to organise and for the employers to drive down wages and conditions by passing on the costs to smaller companies.

Unions and human rights organisations are campaigning against this initiative and are looking for international solidarity.

At two of the Kampana-Savranoğlu factories, makers of leather for the shoe industry, over a 100 workers have been fighting a hard battle for trade union rights. These workers, in Izmir and Istanbul, tried to organise a union with the support of the Turkish union DERİ-İş. They were met with intimidation and sackings, including the closure of the factory in Izmir. The workers have not given up, See ICEM for more information

The Progress Union this week announced that ten workers sacked in 2010 by the Everest Industries (P) Ltd., in the Katunayake export processing zone will be reinstated at the start of November. These workers will also receive six months back wages.

The Progress Union, with other unions such as the National Free Trade Union, are now planning a campaign to unionise workers in Sri Lankans Free Trade Zones, notorious for their anti union regulations. 

Amid a widely publicised release of prisoners from Burmese jails, news has reached us that seven trade unionists have also been released. Unfortunately many more still remain in jail.

Burma has a very bad human rights record where independent labour organising is virtually impossible. Independent trade unions organise at the border regions.