Australia Asia Worker Links

One worker was killed and another one injured in a bulldozing accident at the Freeport-McMoRan Inc giant Grasberg open pit copper mine in West Papua. Notwithstanding the huge and prolonged strike that workers carried out in 2011 (see here, here and here) such deaths are not isolated incidents. Last month, another worker was run over and killed by a mining truck at the company's power plant area in Kuala Kencana – a town located near Grasberg mine. In 2013, there was a major accident where 28 workers were killed when a tunnel collapsed.

The long running dispute of the dismissed Honda workers in Rajasthan, India continues amid strong opposition by the company and local governments. Due to the hospitalisation of some of the initial hunger strikers, new workers have taken their place in continuing the fast. Workers have also renewed their agitation among the industrial belts of northern India, leading the company to issue defamation writs against some of the workers. This struggle is continuing to garner international support.

Faremo International is a garment manufacturer that employs close to 1,000 workers in the Philippines Cavite Export Processing Zone. This week it announced it was going to relocate to Vietnam and Cambodia. In the weeks prior, it had shifted most of its machinery out of the factory and had given a list of union members to other garment factories in the area so as to blacklist the best organisers. The workers in this factory had fought long and hard under harsh conditions to organise and win a collective agreement. This move by Faremo International once again shows how companies will use their global reach to undermine local groups of workers. Only by organising and taking co-ordinated action across countries can workers begin to challenge the power of these global companies.

With the death of King Bhumibol on 13 October, the military junta has declared a month long period of mourning.  This involves encouraging people to wear black, a ban on most entertainment activities, and no criticism to be tolerated. Far right forces in Thailand are now trying to exploit this period by targeting people who they feel are not being respectful enough. A climate of fear is being created with far right mobs attacking alleged enemies of the king, with a minister calling for critics to be ‘socially sanctioned’. There have also been claims that far right Thai activists will travel to Europe to eliminate those exiles who have been accused of Lese Majeste in the past.

Free all political prisoners in Thailand!

Abolish Article 112!

End the military dictatorship!

This week saw the release of another damning report on the treatment of detained refugees in the concentration camp on Nauru. The Australian Government, as usual, denied all evidence, and promised to continue the harsh approach regardless of the costs to the people themselves. Resistance and opposition to these policies continues, whether by refugee activists or the refugees themselves. Health workers have now won the right to speak out. In the first week end of November, pro refugee rallies will occur in all major cities of Australia, see here for Melbourne event.

The occupation of Palestine by Israeli forces is so pervasive that acts of violence by military forces against Palestinians are a daily occurrence. This week, two young Palestinians, 15 year old Khaled Bahar Ahmed Bahar and 19 year old Raheeq Yousef, were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. In other incidents, hundreds of Palestinians were militarily forced from their homes and workplaces to make way for Israeli tourists. Meanwhile, hunger strikes against Israel’s repressive administration detention system continue unabated.

A major conference for health and safety representatives, will be held in Melbourne this coming Tuesday, the 25th of October. Workers all over the world share a common demand for safety in the workplace. Millions of workers die, get injured or suffer major illnesses every year due to unsafe workplaces. The conference aims to empower workers to be able to better fight for health & safety in their workplaces.

At the start of this month, new legislation came into effect in New Zealand effectively banning the importation of asbestos into the country. This is a major victory for the trade union movement in New Zealand who have campaigned hard to ban this hazardous substance. Unfortunately, globally, around 2 million tons of asbestos are produced annually, causing more than 100,000 deaths per year. As the experience of Australia shows, even once asbestos is banned, the toxic legacy of its use will continue to kill people for decades into the future.

This week, 22 migrant workers were killed in the eastern city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province when the four buildings they were sleeping in suddenly collapsed in the middle of the night. The buildings had already been condemned for demolition, but the owners were renting them out as sleeping quarters to migrant workers employed in the nearby factories. A tragedy like this once again highlights that the cost of China’s industrial expansion has been borne by its workers who are forced to endure long hours, low pay, and face hazardous conditions both at their workplaces and in their living quarters.

The first female president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Helen Kelly, has died at the age of 52.  Kelly started her career as a school teacher and became a union delegate on her first day on the job.  Kelly fought unrelentingly for health and safety in the forestry industry, which resulted in significant reductions in deaths at work.  She was diagnosed with lung cancer in February 2015, and while trying to access quality medical care, started campaigning for the right to die with dignity and for access to medicinal cannabis.  Kelly’s extraordinary legacy can be read in this obituary. She was a fighter til the end.  The movement has lost another comrade. Vale Helen Kelly.