Australia Asia Worker Links

After being on strike for over 9 weeks, 54 workers employed at the Bitzer refrigerator manufacturing plant in Melbourne, Australia, won their fight against the company. The management of Bitzer wanted to enforce a new agreement on workers that would increase their work days and decrease their job security with a very small pay increase. The workers stood united against the company, and faced with increasing support from unions and the community as the dispute continued, the company gave up trying to undermine workers’ conditions and wages. 

In the last few weeks, four workers were killed and others injured in a series of incidents at the Seiko Steel and Laskar shipbreaking yards. These horrific statistics are the direct results of the criminal neglect by employers of safe working conditions and the repression of independent trade unions. Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents and the shipyards of Bangladesh have a horrific record in terms of death and injuries of workers. Only through determined organising by workers, will condition improve.

Israel, over the last decades, has developed one of the world’s biggest arms industries in the world. Since the September 11 attacks in the USA, the military establishment in Israel has done even better business by exploiting the ‘global terrorism issue’. One of the selling points for these merchants of death is the fact that many of these weapons have been ‘tested’ against Palestinians. The documentary, The Lab, reveals how the Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank from an economic burden to a marketable, highly profitable, national asset.

The health and safety of workers in South Korea took a step forward last week with the recognition that Malignant Lymphoma is a disease caused by occupational exposure. This small win was the result of hard struggle by labour activists who have been campaigning for years against the practices of companies like Samsung. The difficulty of this struggle can be seen by the fact that a protest camp set up by labour activists outside Samsung headquarters has been underway for over 8 months.

The situation for refugees in Australia remains mired in the policy of repression from the two main political parties. A local artist’s exhibition vividly portrays this inhumanity, while a group of refugees have produced a video condemning the actions of the current immigration minister, Peter Dutton. In the offshore concentration camps of Manus and Nauru, the refugees themselves are staging around the clock, indefinite protests. There will be nationwide rallies in support of refugee rights on Saturday 18 June, see here for Melbourne details.

3CR Radio is an activist radio station based in Melbourne, Australia. This year marks its 40^th birthday. 3CR Radio is a unique radio station with union, worker, indigenous, women’s, ethnic, LGBTI, environmental, music and other community programs that are not heard elsewhere. Every week AAWL presents its Asia Pacific Currents program on 3CR Radio. 3CR’s programs are podcast to listeners around the world. 3CR relies on donations from its listeners. Donate to 3CR’s Radiothon fundraising from 6 to 19 June 2015.

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At the start of this month, Khalida Jarrar, was released from jail after 14 months of administrative detention. At her release, Khalida's message was that internationally, the Palestinian solidarity movement needs to devote more energy and campaigning on the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. At the same time Khalida was released, new arrests highlighted the reach of the Israeli state. Earlier in the year, Mohamed Nazal was abducted while living in Egypt, and Nasser Qaws, director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Jerusalem, was arrested last week.

Last week, workers and unions in Melbourne, Australia had a victory for workers to hold political views when Roz Ward, an academic at La Trobe University was reinstated after a short suspension. Ms. Ward is one of the co-founders of the Safe School curriculum which aims to promote acceptance of LGBTI students. Roz has been subjected to a sustained attack by conservative and reactionary forces that resulted in her being suspended at the university. A strong and immediate response by her union and other labour activists, led to her being reinstated after a few days, see video.

In a barbaric display of repression and intimidation, the Iranian Government carried out public floggings against 17 mine workers as punishment for them taking industrial action. The workers were employed at the Agh Dareh Gold Mine in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province. They had been protesting against the layoff of 350 of their fellow workers. Solidarity actions to protest this punishment were organised in Toronto, Canada. Other labour activists are still languishing in jail, with some on extended hunger strikes. The Iranian government actions are an attempt to suppress an increasingly restive labour movement that is trying to improve its conditions.

In conjunction with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in Dublin, Ireland, held at the start of June, airport workers in many countries (see here and here) staged protests in a co-ordinated Global Day of Action, (see here for pictures). In a globalised industry like aviation, workers and unions want airlines and airport owners to stop their race to the bottom that is slashing pay and conditions for all workers. This global day of action follows on from another global day of action that was held in September 2012. These international events are a reflection of the increasing linkages between workers in different countries. In our globalised world, only united and co-ordinated actions by workers can win.