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 For the third time in a decade, Thailand’s constitutional court has removed an elected government leader. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been ordered to step down on trivial charges of improperly transferring a bureaucrat. Thailand has a long history of military coups and the judiciary overriding the elected government. The situation for workers and activists in Thailand is precarious with the ongoing use of the Les Majeste laws to imprison activists. Tensions are clear within the red shirt movement, with calls for the working class to break away and build a force independent from Yingluck Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party.
AAWL calls for:
No military coup in Thailand
Immediate release of all political prisoners in Thailand
Abolition of Article 112 (The Lese Majeste law)
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 Twenty three bus workers were arrested at a demonstration in Azadi square, Tehran, and were immediately imprisoned. 1,000 protesters also managed to reach the Ministry of Labour, but several were arrested upon arrival. Even prior to May Day itself, Iranian intelligence broke into the homes of trade union activists and detained them, in an attempt to prevent protest action. On May Day, workers in Iran demanded the release of the many imprisoned trade unionists.
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 Twenty four officials of the Metal Workers Alliance of the Philippines were sacked on 5 May from NXP Semiconductors in Cabuyao, Laguna, for refusing to work overtime on public holidays, including Easter and 1 May. The union alleges that management fired the workers in an effort to thwart ongoing negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement. The union demands the reinstatement of the laid-off union leaders, resumption of collective bargaining negations, a significant wage increase and the regularization of contractual employees. You can sign a petition to stop union busting at NXP.
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 The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is calling for improvements in mine safety after the death of three workers in only three weeks. On 16 April two workers were killed when a mine wall collapsed 500 metres underground at a coal mine owned by Yancoal in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Then on 6 May a mine electrician was apparently suffocated from noxious chemicals at the Anglo-American grasstree coal mine near Rockhampton, Queesland. The CFMEU’s website is a moving tribute to these and other workers killed at injured in mines. The Australian government is putting the lives of workers at risk by attacking unions through the Royal Commission. Meanwhile Australian courts criminalise unions that strike for improved health and safety, by fining unions for taking industrial action.
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 In May 1948 more than 780,000 Palestinians (over half of the population) were ethnically cleansed from their homeland, and more than 500 Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed. Attacks on Palestinians continue to this day see here and here. There will be a vigil in Melbourne on 16 May to mark the Palestinian Nakba.
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 Workers have ended their hunger strike and returned to work, in the latest episode of an eleven-month long dispute at a Toyota plant in Karnataka, South India. The Toyota Kirloskar Employees Union is fighting for a wage increase and improvements to working conditions at the plant. In March 2014 Toyota locked the workers out after small-scale work stoppages and suspended 30 employees. Workers refused to sign a good behaviour bond and return to work, and instead began a hunger strike on 2 April, demanding government intervention. The workers returned to work in late April to continue negotiations, after a court ruled that the lock-out and good behaviour bond were unlawful. Toyota has factories around the world. A victory for workers in one production site is a victory for all.
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 Nepalese Sherpa’s are threatening strike action, after 15 climb support staff were killed in an avalanche on 16 April – including the vice-president of the Sherpa’s union, Dorje Katri. The Sherpa’s demands include compensation for the families of the workers killed, a well as improved pay and working conditions for Sherpa’s.
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 May Day has been celebrated internationally since 1886 as the day for workers to unite as a class. This year was no exception. Under increasing pressure by capitalists and governments all around the world, workers came out to demand better pay, safer workplaces and the right to organise without the fear of repression. In Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, workers came under sustained attacked by riot police. For compilation of photos and videos of May Day marches all around the world, click here, here, here and here.
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 The commemoration of May Day in Cambodia was another occasion for workers to come out to demand better pay, safer working conditions, shorter hours and the right to organise without fear of repression. Unfortunately, while thousands of workers marched in the capital Phnom Pehn, many were injured when police and security guards baton-charged part of the demonstration. Just a couple of days earlier, 20,000 garment workers went on strike in a special economic zone over unpaid bonus. Meanwhile, the campaign to free 23 labour activists arrested in January continues.
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 The industrial accident at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in 1984 is still an unresolved crime site. Over 25,000 people have died as a direct result of the accidents, but no one has been tried for murder and thousands are still without compensation. Latest environmental testing has shown that the site is still terribly polluted and is a constant danger for workers and their communities. The communities of Bhopal are still fighting for justice.
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