Following on from the mass murder of workers at the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh earlier this year, there has been renewed focus on how companies search the world for the lowest labour costs. Companies race to have the lowest overheads like fire and other occupational safety in order to chase the biggest profits. Li & Fung is the largest sourcing and logistics company in the garment industry that helps companies set up in the most profitable countries. While Li & Fung is a global powerhouse in the garment industry, it is dwarfed by global logistics companies such as DHL, KUEHNE + NAGEL, and DB Schenker. Logistic companies constantly drive costs down in order to operate at a global level. As workers, we need to also globalise our structures and organisations to be able to defeat these giant corporations.

In a great example to other industries and sectors in our globalised economy, this week the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) came into force. The MLC represents a binding international legal framework that will immediately cover 30 countries, with more countries adhering in future years. The MLC guarantees workers the right to a safe and secure workplace; fair terms of employment; decent living and working conditions; access to medical care, health protection and welfare; and to freedom of association. It is up to maritime unions all around the world to make sure this convention is adhered to.

The disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactor was global news when it exploded over two years ago, but its ramifications persist as do continuing radiation problems. One of the issues for workers has been the dangerous levels of radiation that they have had to work in. For many months, workers have asked for greater health and safety conditions as well as an extra allowance for dangerous work. Now, after eight months of protests, the workers have won their claim. 

As previously reported, the hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners are just one of the many ways that Israeli occupation is resisted. Earlier this week, Israel targeted the prisoners support campaign by arresting three leading Palestinian women. For some of these women, it is not the first time that they have been arrested. An international campaign is underway calling for the release of these women and a halt to the repression.

As reported recently, workers in the car industry all over the world are feeling the pressure from the companies because of their desire to increase profits. This has led to factories being closed, cuts to workers wages and conditions, and strikes being defeated. A recent report from India has highlighted the inhumane working conditions that many workers are forced to endure in the globalised supply chain of the car industry (part 2 of the report). It is of major importance for workers to organise at a global level so as to defeat the ‘divide and rule’ tactics that the companies are imposing.

As reported recently, the repression by the military has targeted workers as well. More reports are coming out that strike leaders at the Suez Steel factory are being actively pursued by the police. In such a critical time, and with repeated repression against the workers movement, it is important for workers organisations to take the lead in the fight against poverty, repression and inequality.

In an incredible feat of endurance, two dismissed tutors, Oh Soo-young and Yeo Min-hee, have reached the 2,000th day of their aerial protest.  They are fighting against their dismissal by Jaenung Education in December 2007.  While their endurance is unprecedented, the use of aerial sit in protests is used in South Korea to highlight ongoing workers issues. For teachers and education staff, the struggle for better wages and conditions has been a long one.

Egypt’s military has demonstrated yet again why its rule of Egypt is not in the interests of workers and the people.  In the last week more than 500 pro-Morsi supporters have been murdered in the streets while protesting against the military coup of 3 July. At the same time, the Muslim Brotherhood has attacked Egypt’s minority Coptic population by burning down churches because of the Copt Leadership’s support for the military coup.  Communal violence divides workers and prevents us from organising in our own interests.  During the 2011 uprisings in Egypt, it was the entry of organised labour that ultimately saw the defeat of Hosni Mubarak.  And workers are still organising in Egypt.  Steel workers in the Suez are striking because the company failed to fulfil on a promise made during the 2011 uprising - workers’ equal share in the profits.  The same military that is said to have saved Egypt from Morsi’s Islamist government has arrested two of the strike leaders and encircled the factory. Workers’ mobilisations such as these, aiming to realise social and economic demands of the 2011 uprisings are what’s needed in Egypt today, not military rule and not religious communal violence.  

Four journalists have been killed and 15 have been injured in the crackdown by Egypt’s security forces in the past week.  The intentional targeting of journalists at this critical time in Egypt’s history is politically motivated and intended to prevent news, information and analysis of the situation.  The International Journalist’s Federation has made a statement about the killings and targeting of journalists in Egypt.