Ten thousand shut down work in Australia

By Cynthia Banham

Sydney, Australia, June 5— Ten thousand workers shut down building sites and brought city traffic to a standstill yesterday when they converged on Town Hall Square to protest against the Federal Government’s industrial relations reforms.

They then marched through the city to the Australian Democrats’ office in Phillip Street to demand that the party block the Workplace Relations Amendment Bill, which they say will effectively outlaw “pattern bargaining” — or industry-wide union campaigns.

The new laws would weaken union industrial muscle, restricting the ability of workers to bargain collectively with groups of employers or across an industry.

The rally, organized by the NSW Labor Council, started with a warm-up by an eight-piece Latin band and took to George Street after noon as marchers chanted “hands off the workers” and “just say no.”

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union’s State secretary, Mr. Andrew Ferguson, called the turnout “magnificent,” with “virtually every building site closed in Sydney.”

The union’s assistant secretary, Mr. Craig Bates, said: “Pattern bargaining is a legitimate form of wage bargaining in a lot of industries, and for the Government to outlaw it would be a significant disadvantage to all workers.”

As the marchers reached Bridge Street, furnishing industry worker and CFMEU official Mr. Brad Parker said: “I don’t think we’re going to convince Peter Reith. I think the Democrats are the ones. They said they’re there to keep the bastards honest. Let’s hope they do.”

A rock band and 10 mounted police were waiting for the protesters at the end of the march.

Source: Labourstart: www.labourstart.org

Wal-Mart's bully tactics backfire in court

Washington, DC, May 26— In its own backyard, a state court has put an end to the bully tactics of the biggest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart lost its bid to suppress employees’ basic workplace rights. Judge James Spears of Fort Smith, Arkansas today dissolved a temporary restraining order obtained by the giant retailer against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

Last fall, Wal-Mart used its size and influence to get its hometown county judge to ban the distribution of workers’ rights information to Wal-Mart employees nationwide. The judge was subsequently forced to recuse himself from the case after the UFCW challenged his close financial ties to the company and exposed his portfolio of more than a half a million dollars in Wal-Mart stock.

UFCW international organizers across the country had been banned from distributing workers’ rights information to Wal-Mart employees by the order of this Benton County, Arkansas judge.

Judge Spears, sitting by designation in the Chancery Court of Benton County, Arkansas dissolved the nationwide restraining order after an hour-long hearing this morning.

“A fair court has finally put a stop to Wal-Mart’s heavy-handed bully tactics and the irresponsible actions of Wal-Mart’s hometown judge. Wal-Mart may be a big company, but it doesn’t own the American legal system, it can’t sidestep the law and it can’t run rough-shod over employees,” said Mike Leonard, Director of the UFCW Strategic Programs Department.

The giant retailer relied on the suspect actions of the county court to prevent workers from receiving information about their rights on the job. The state court affirmed today that in this circumstance of this particular case, a county court ruling should not extend beyond the state line.

According to UFCW attorneys, Wal-Mart used the county court in an attempt to sidestep federal law that guarantees the rights of workers and the Bill of Rights that protects all citizens. During the civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s, small town judges used the same tactics to block actions to integrate public accommodations and to register voters.

Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest private employer with 900,000 employees. Wages at Wal-Mart are from $2 to $3 below average for the retail trades. Over 600,000 Wal-Mart workers are not covered under the company health benefit plan.

The UFCW is the largest organization of retail workers in North America, with 1.4 million members. Workers at retail food industry leaders such as Kroger and Safeway are members of the UFCW.

For more information, contact Jill Cashen (UFCW) at 202-728-4797.

Source: Corpwatch: www.corpwatch.org

ILO tackles impacts of globalization

By Gustavo Capdevila

Geneva, Switzerland, June 5 (IPS)— Globalization, and the inequitable distribution of its benefits and its impacts around the world, have dominated debate at the International Labor Organization (ILO) conference, which opened this week in the Swiss capital.

As a starting point for the discussion, ILO director-general Juan Somavia said “the hard reality is that the benefits of globalization are not reaching enough people.’’

The global economy “is not creating enough jobs, especially not enough jobs or sustainable livelihoods that meet people’s aspirations for a decent life,” he added.

The ILO’s Working Party on the Social Dimension of Globalization is dedicated to studying the challenges the new global economy will create for the 21st century.

With the same goal in mind, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) secretary-general Bill Jordan proposed that this group should be supplemented by an annual “Social Forum” to be attended by Ministers of labor and social security, members of academia and social thinkers, and representatives of workers and employers.

The ICFTU leader observed that globalization has meant that “the balance of power has been shifted significantly in favor of capital.”

“Labor and social groups are not only seeing their bargaining power eroded but their labor protection threatened — Venezuela is treading this dangerous path,” said Jordan.

Likewise, another workers’ central, the World Confederation of Labor (WCL), criticized the full frontal attack major employers around the world have launched against international labor regulations.

Willy Thys, WCL secretary-general, pointed out that this offensive has come up in all the ILO sessions, underway in Geneva through June 15.

Employers and certain governments are attempting to weaken the laws to the point of being ineffective, favoring the widespread exploitation of workers, he explained.

Somavia warned that “unless we tackle the growing disenchantment with the present form of globalization, the backlash will continue — the visible and vocal backlash on the streets and the silent backlash at home.”

Jordan referred to these protests as well, especially the demonstrations last December in the US city of Seattle, Washington, against the World Trade Organization (WTO), the institution seen as champion of the neoliberal ideas driving the globalization process.

The demonstrations, said the unionist, were “a final warning that unless the Bretton Woods Institutions (International Monetary Fund and World Bank) and WTO find a way of building a strong social dimension into trade liberalization, a wider more damaging backlash will severely set back the process.’’

The chairman of the ILO conference, Argentina’s Labor Minister Alberto Flamarique, also predicted that the process could deepen inequalities, as the protesters in Seattle, Davos (Switzerland) and Washington DC said they fear.

But in his opening speech last week, Flamarique had expressed hope that the changes brought about by globalization could be used “to build a more just and equitable society.”

Portugal’s President Jorge Sampaio, the conference’s principal guest speaker, accepted that these transformations have created unprecedented opportunities for development, but “have worsened the situation of injustice” in many regions and throughout vast sectors of the population.

Sampaio rejected the idea that “the imperatives of business competition can condemn us to choose — as if they were mutually exclusive possibilities -- between economic efficiency and social justice.”

Somavia pointed out that “the information and communication revolution, the driving force behind the globalization of production, is surely irreversible.”

But, he added, there is nothing inevitable about the policies that accompany globalization, in the areas of macroeconomics, finance, trade and social development.

The Portuguese president, in turn, said he opposed “the speculative logic of the financial markets” and called for an international discussion on “the formulas for regulating and discouraging the notoriously speculative movement of capital.”

The WLC secretary accused employers and certain governments of sharing the WTO philosophy that attempts to impose its trade norms above other international laws, “thus reducing development to the realm of international trade alone.”

Jordan expressed the concern of the union movement about the attitude of the Myanmar (Burma) government in “collaborating with the widespread use of forced labor.” Unionists also call for establishing a Commission of Inquiry into the situation in Colombia, where 125 trade unionists have been killed since June 1998, he said.

Korean unionists launch general strike concerning wages and hours

Seoul, South Korea, June 2— Tens of thousands of workers went on general strike yesterday, demanding a five-day workweek and a 15.2 percent wage hike.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) declared a general strike during a rally held at Chongmyo Park in downtown Seoul.

Some 20,000 protesting workers marched along the streets to regroup at Myongdong Cathedral in the evening, waving banners and chanting their demands.

KCTU president Dan Byung-ho said that KCTU member workers have launched the strike to achieve a cut in the workweek from the current six days to five and the double-digit pay raise.

He also said the work stoppage is designed to urge the government to give up its plan to sell the ailing Daewoo Motor Co. to a foreign firm.

In addition, Dan urged employers and government officials to stop unilateral corporate restructuring. He also called for a measure to protect the rights of irregular and temporary workers.

The KCTU claimed that more than 70,000 workers of 141 labor unions joined the general strike at major firms and hospitals, saying the collective action was being led by metal workers and nurses.

The labor group of 590,000 member workers originally expected that more than 100,000 unionists would participate in the full-fledged walkout.

However, the Ministry of Labor reported that only 26,400 workers of 65 firms and hospitals went on strike, adding that the number of striking workers will not exceed 36,000.

About 3,000 nurses at 18 hospitals belonging to the KCTU-affiliated Korea Health and Medical Workers’ Union staged a work stoppage. Patients were inconvenienced, but no major medical mishaps were reported.

The affected medical institutions included Seoul National University Hospital, Kyung Hee University Hospital and Ewha Women’s University Hospital.

Other striking workers are members of the Korea Metal Workers’ Federation, which boasts 174,000 members.

Industrial sources estimated that some 10,000 workers at 38 firms including LG Chemical and Kumho Tire launched general strikes, while 20,000 workers at some 65 companies engaged in a partial strike.

A Labor Ministry official said that many KCTU workers are staying away from the general strike as unionists of the nation’s four major automakers, including Hyundai Motor Co., have decided not to join the strike.

The Seoul subway trade union of about 9,000 unionists reached an agreement with management earlier this year that it would not engage in any walkout during the year 2000.

In addition, workers of state-run corporations such as Korea Telecom refused to take part.

The nation also managed to avoid the first strike planned by pilots of Korean Airlines as the government allowed them to form a flight crew union early yesterday morning.

The 1,200-member Korean Air Flight Crew Union had threatened to strike if the Labor Ministry refused to hand over a certificate giving the union legal status before the May 31 deadline.

Meanwhile, President Kim said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the government will positively study ways of introducing the five-day workweek in order to cut working hours from the current 44 hours per week to 40.

Kim’s remark is seen as a move to placate union workers one day before they kicked off the general strike.

KCTU president Dan urged the government to work out a concrete timetable for the adoption of the five-day workweek, welcoming the president’s remark.

Source: Korea Times