Australia Asia Worker Links

It has been six months since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building killed well over a 1,000 workers.

While there have been many meetings and documents produced since that day, the daily reality for most garment workers in Bangladesh has not changed. In addition, most families of the dead and injured workers from Rana Plaza have yet to receive compensation. Again, this shows that only when workers are able to organise independent unions will they be able to improve OHS and gain a living wage.

Only in the last week, the Australian Government barred a Bangladeshi unionist from travelling to Australia to meet and link up with other unionists.

As reported last week, the Korean Teachers union was under intense political attack from the government over its defense of union activists.

This week, the Korean government has stepped up the fight by effectively declaring the union illegal and stripping teachers of their legal right to organise. This action is part of an ongoing assault on the whole Korean union movement. In another development, workers at the Seoul National University Hospital voted to go on strike for what will be a widespread campaign in defegnnse of the right to public health care.

While it has been two and a half years since the Tsunami severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan, radiation continues to leak out of the plant.

Unfortunately, the most severely affected by this are the workers who are trying to contain this disaster and stop it from becoming worse. A new report has revealed that companies are criminally sending their workers into areas where there is too much radiation, see also video.

Earlier this month, a 40,000 strong anti nuclear demonstration in Tokyo once again showed people distrust and opposition to the government’s nuclear policies.

While many countries have either banned asbestos altogether, or are implementing programs to curb its use, the reality is that in some countries the use of asbestos is still increasing.

This continued use will lead to the unnecessary death of thousands of workers and their families.

Join in the fight to ban all asbestos use in Asia and the rest of the world.

The popular and worker led uprising in Bahrain that started over two years has been suppressed by the government by continual attacks involving thousands of arrests, beatings and heavy use of tear gas.

A recently leaked report documenting an order for a huge amount of tear gas and stun grenades is a confirmation that the only solution from the Government of Bahrain is more repression. An international campaign has started to try and halt the shipment of tear gas to Bahrain. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is pressuring its government to stop Korean companies supplying the lethal chemicals. 

As previously reported, workers at Turkish Airlines have been on strike since 15 May 2013 because the company has refused to bargain with the union in their next round of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. 305 workers that were previously sacked over industrial action are still fighting to be reinstated. The ITF put out a call for international solidarity in the weeks between 7 and 20 October.  The two weeks of action were a huge success with joint leafletting actions in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, the Philippines, and of course, Turkey.  Outsourcing, failures of bosses to negotiate with unions, privatisation and sackings in order to increase profits, are all strategies that companies in the airlines industry use against workers everywhere.  This is one struggle that must be fought jointly, across the world.  Workers change the world. 

After bringing you a number of bad news stories in relation to Samsung Electronics in Korea (see here, here and here), we are finally able to bring you one small victory.  On October 18, the Seoul administrative court ordered that KCOMWEL, the quasi-government entity responsible for workers compensation, pay industrial-accident payouts to the bereaved family of a former Samsung Electronics employee who died in 2009 of leukemia. The ruling is a posthumous victory for Kim Kyung-mi, who had waged a long fight until her death four years ago.   We remember all the workers who have died at work, and we fight for those living.  We commend the tireless work of SHARPS for their unwavering commitment to exposing Samsung Electronics' murderous negligence.

Workers at an Ansell rubber factory in Sri Lanka’s export processing zone have been on strike since 11 October to oppose union busting tactics by the company. Ansell is a multinational producer of latex rubber products such as gloves, condoms and related products.  Parts of the company are incorporated in Australia and the United States. Click here to read more about the dispute.  The union representing these workers is calling for urgent and immediate messages of solidarity, which you can send here.

Wu Guijun, a migrant worker employed for 9 years making furniture at the Diweixin Product Factory in Shenzhen (southern China), has been detained since 23 May 2013 and faces criminal prosecution for defending the rights of his comrades and leading a strike. Since his arrest Wu has been denied contact with his family.   The International Union of Food workers as well as other solidarity organisations are calling for the release of comrade Wu.