Tag Archives: Trade Unions

October 2nd: All Out for Jobs, Education, Peace and Equality!

Posted on September 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

The following statement is from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice (NFEJ):

October 2nd, 2010, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

The Network to Fight for Economic Justice (NFEJ) is calling on all affiliates and supporters to rally for Jobs, Education, Peace and Equality, on October 2nd in Washington D.C. Initiated by the NAACP and labor unions, along with hundreds of progressive organizations, this rally promises to be powerful. The NFEJ is an endorser and is calling upon our members and affiliates to promote and mobilize our unions, community groups, poor people’s organizations, and student groups. We want to build our own movement that brings real change to the society we live in.

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Posted in Action Alerts, Anti-War / Anti-Intervention, Black Liberation, Labor Movement, Political Economy

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25th anniversary of historic Hormel strike commemorated in Austin, Minnesota

Posted on August 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

The following article by Mick Kelly is from Fight Back! News:

Ray Rogers speaking at P-9 strike commemoration. (Fight Back! News/Mick Kelly)

Austin, MN – About 200 veterans of the famous Hormel strike – members of Local P-9, along with their families and supporters – gathered here at the American Legion Hall to commemorate strike’s 25th anniversary. Among those in attendance were P-9 President Jim Guyette, Vice-president Lynn Huston, Pete Winkles and Ray Rogers. The event was sponsored by the United Support Group.

Participants in the strike spoke about the necessity of it and of their pride in participating in this historic battle of labor. Many, who paid dearly for their efforts, said if given the opportunity, they would do it again.

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Colombian Mass Grave Of More Than 2000 May Be Civilian Trade Unionists, Not Military Casualties

Posted on August 9, 2010 | 1 comment

The following article by Conn Hallinan is from Alternet:

August 5, 2010 | If you want to understand what’s behind the recent tension between Colombia and Venezuela, think “smokescreen,” and then go back several months to some sick children in the Department of Meta, just south of Bogota. The children fell ill after drinking from a local stream, a stream contaminated by the bodies of more than 2,000 people, secretly buried by the Colombian military.

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What’s an ‘independent’ union? Imperialist strategy vs. worker militancy in China

Posted on August 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

The following article by  Deirdre Griswold is from Workers World:

Can it be just a coincidence?

After a wave of strikes at foreign-opened firms in China — strikes that were supported by the government and gained significant wage increases for the workers — the business media in the United States and other imperialist countries are complaining that China is taking an economic turn harmful to their interests.

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Posted in Imperialism, Labor Movement, Marxism-Leninism, People's Republic of China

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How the Communist Party of China Safeguards Workers’ Interests During Crisis

Posted on July 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

The following is the contribution of the Marxist Institute – Academy of Social Sciences People’s Republic of China, Prepared by Enfu Cheng and Shuoying Chen, researchers at Marxism Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, P.R. China, to the nineteenth International Communist Seminar on “The consequences of the economic crisis and the intervention of communist parties,” Brussels, 14-16 May 2010.

Since the global financial crisis broke out, the Communist Party of China has let government and trade unions play their full role in safeguarding workers’ interests with regard to employment and social security, etc.

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Posted in Labor Movement, People's Republic of China, Political Economy

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Colombian activist Liliany Obando’s trial postponed again

Posted on March 13, 2010 | Leave a comment

The following article by Angela Denio is from Fight Back! News:

The jailing and repeated postponement of trials of Liliany “Lily” Obando tells the story of a powerful woman. She is dealing firsthand with the extreme repression facing many Colombians who oppose the government. In Colombia there are over 7000 political prisoners. Colombian trade unionist Liliany Obando was arrested in the summer of 2008. Her arrest came during a string of attacks by the Uribe government targeting leaders of Colombia’s growing struggles for social change.

Obando is a typical Colombian. She has taken up the challenge to fight for the rights of the people – the ones who don’t matter to the rich in charge in Colombia and their puppeteers here in the U.S. government. Through her work with FENSUAGRO, a Colombian union, Obando championed the rights and welfare of Colombian farmers and rural wage laborers. Her work was transparent and legal under Colombian law, but Liliany Obando now sits in prison. Continue reading →

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Posted in Action Alerts, Anti-War / Anti-Intervention, Colombia, Women's Liberation

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General Strike in Greece: Plutocracy Must Pay for the Crisis!

Posted on February 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

The following article is from the website of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE):

The new 24-hour strike held on February 24th against the plans of the social-democrat government of PASOK to place the burdens of the capitalist crisis on the shoulders of the workers was a great success.

Millions of workers resisted to the intimidation by the capital’s parties (the social democrat PASOK, the conservative ND, and the extreme-right, racist LAOS) which argue that workers must submit in order to “rescue the country from bankruptcy”. The “patriotism” of these political forces has only one goal: to maintain and expand the profit making of the capital at the expense of the workers’ gains by means of raising the retirement ages, cutting salaries and pensions, further dismantling of the social-security system, deteriorating the working relations and increasing the anti-people taxes.

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Posted in Greece, Labor Movement, Political Economy

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Alabama: Campus Bus Drivers Fight for Living Wage

Posted on February 5, 2010 | 4 comments

The following article by Laura Langley is from Fight Back! News:

Tuscaloosa, AL – Bus drivers, with the support of students at the University of Alabama (UA), are organizing a union campaign to win a living wage. The bus drivers shuttle students, football fans and others around the UA campus. Student activists are riding the buses to sign up student supporters for the bus drivers. The 62 Crimson Ride Shuttle Bus drivers work for FirstGroup PLC, a huge British multinational corporation. The union drivers and students are exposing the British company’s big ripoff of Alabama workers and taxpayers.

The bus drivers, most of whom are African American women, make only $9.50 per hour. This salary puts the drivers and their families below the poverty line. In May of 2009, the Crimson Ride Shuttle Bus Drivers at the University of Alabama unanimously voted to join the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1208, but still do not have a contract. Without a contract there are few benefits. The drivers have no job security. There are no guidelines regulating termination. The drivers are paid nothing during university holidays. Many work two jobs to make ends meet.

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Posted in Black Liberation, Labor Movement, Student Movements

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Janitors Vote to Authorize Strike in Minneapolis

Posted on February 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

SEIU 26 janitors vote "yes" to authorize a strike (Fight Back! News/Staff)

The following article by Brad Sigal is from Fight Back! News:

Minneapolis, MN – On Jan. 30, hundreds of janitors, mostly Latino and East African immigrants, held a spirited meeting at the Minneapolis Labor Center and voted nearly unanimously to authorize a strike. When the strike vote was taken, the multinational crowd chanted and held up signs reading “Yes! Sí! Haa! Ee! Oui!” (‘Yes!’ in English, Spanish, Somali, Oromo and Amharic). With the strike authorization vote, the workers can now strike if the union’s negotiating committee decides a strike is necessary to win their demands.

The workers are members of the union SEIU Local 26, which represents over 4000 janitors who work for 18 different cleaning contractors, including ABM and Marsden. They clean office buildings in downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul, including offices for major banks, corporations and buildings such as Wells Fargo, US Bank, Target and the IDS Center. Their union contract expired Jan. 8, but according to union negotiating committee members, the employer is still uninterested in resolving negotiations quickly or listening to any of the union’s key proposals.

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Posted in Labor Movement, Political Economy, U.S. Oppressed Nations and Nationalities

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Super Criminals: Chiquita Lauded for Human Rights Abuses

Posted on January 13, 2010 | 2 comments

The following is from CounterPunch. For more on the Chiquita paramilitary case, see the documentary, Chiquita: Between Life and Law, as well as the material collected on the website of the Colombia Action Network:

Super Criminals
Chiquita Lauded for Human Rights Abuses
By DAN KOVALIK

In its most recent edition, the magazine, “Super Lawyers,” gave its cover story to the General Counsel of Chiquita Brands International, praising him for navigating the complex and difficult waters of Colombia. What it failed to mention is the trail of tears in Latin America left behind by Chiquita (formerly United Fruit, the architect of the 1954 coup in Guatemala as well as the 1928 massacre of striking banana workers in Cienaga, Colombia memorialized in One Hundred Years of Solitude). The following letter, by union labor lawyer, Dan Kovalik highlights the contradictions in the applause given to Chiquita. We note that, just after this letter was written, Chiquita also received (quite ironically) a “sustainability award” for its business abroad.

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Posted in Colombia, Imperialism, Labor Movement

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