Sadra workers go on strike and cut off the shipyard's electricity

Today, 14 May, the workers of Sadra Shipbuilding in Bushehr, southern Iran, went on strike. They managed to cut off the electricity supply of the Sadra industrial island, where the oil and gas platforms are built. As a result all production came to a standstill for a number of hours.

The main reason for this strike, which involved 500 people, was because the workers have not been paid last month's wages. After the electricity was cut off the shipyard's management held negotiations with the workers' representatives. The managers promised the workers that all their backpay will be paid by Monday [19 May].
After these negotiations the workers agreed to go back to work provisionally.

14 May 2008

Source: Report from a correspondent of Militaant, journal of revolutionary socialist youth in Iran.

For more information on the struggles of the Sadra shipyard workers refer to the shipbuilding feature page.

Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane workers go on all-out strike

According to reports received from Shush city around 5000 workers are now on strike at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Development Commercial Company

The strike has entered its sixth day and all three shifts, as well as all parts of the factory and cane fields of the company, are solidly behind the strike. The workers had warned that they would step up strike action if their demands were not met by the management of the state-owned company.

On 10 May many workers protested in front of the Governor General's office in Shush city, in Khuzestan province (southern Iran). This protest lasted many hours and a growing numbers of workers kept joining it. After six days of strike action the workers have not had any response from management about what is going to happen to their unpaid wages. Neither the general manager, Yaghoob Shafiee, nor anyone from the management committee, nor Zibdari, the company's security chief, have come anywhere near the factory or fields.

The workers went on strike demanding that the past two months' unpaid wages be paid. Their full demands are as follows:

• Payment of two months' unpaid wages.
• An end to the gathering of legal dossiers and summoning workers to court.
• Sacking the general manager of the company, a mollah named Yaghoob Shafiee, and the whole management committee.
• Sacking the security chief of the company, a person named Zibdari, who has had a direct role in the beating, spying and gathering of dossiers on workers.

During the past few days Intelligence Ministry officers have begun harassing workers by phoning or going to their homes in the middle of the night. We therefore must keep up the pressure on the management of this state-owned company and the Iranian government to accept all the workers' demands and to drop all charges against them.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
11 May 2008

Source: Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran

For further news on Haft Tapeh and how you can help see the special section.

In ganz Griechenland gibt es jetzt schon eine Treibstoffknappheit, da die Tanklastwagenfahrer seit einigen Tagen schon streiken und ein Ende noch nicht in Sicht ist.
Urlauber die mit dem eigenen Fahrzeug nach Griechenland einreisen wollen sind gut beraten, ihren Tank vor der Einreise noch mal zu füllen und eine möglichst sparsame Fahrweise zu benutzen. Darunter gehört unter anderem  schnelles Hochschalten in den für die Strecke höchstmöglichen Gang und nicht zu schnell zu fahren.

Wer einen Wagen gemietet hat, sollte sich die AGB´s des Vermieters nochmal anschauen und wenn möglich den Wagen nur mit vollem Tank annehmen oder wenn eine Stornierung unumgehbar ist, wenigstens stur einen guten Rabatt für die Tage ohne Kraftstoff auszuhandeln. Natürlich können die Mietwagenvermieter nichts dafür wenn kein Kraftstoff lieferbar ist, aber man sollte trotzdem einen Handel nicht unversucht lassen. Schließlich ist ja auch eine Ersparnis beim Verschleiß für den Vermieter drin, ob es um den Ölwechsel, die Reifen oder die gefahrenen Kilometer geht.

Ein weiterer Streik betrifft die innergriechischen Flüge der Olympic Airways. Hier streiken die Piloten der Propellermaschinen, da sie für den selben Lohn mehr Flugstunden leisten sollen.

Hoffen wir das die Regierung bzw. Arbeitgeber und Gewerkschaften schnell einig werden, denn solche Streiks schaden allen, vor allem aber dem Image Griechenland´s als Urlaubsland

An Injury to One Is an Injury to All -
Justice for the Freightliner Five!

Five members of the UAW Local 3520’s bargaining committee at Freightliner LLC, a truck manufacturing plant, owned by Daimler need your help. The Freightliner Five were fired a year ago for leading a strike in their plant over health, safety and other issues. May 9th is an international day of action for the Freightliner Five. Join them in Cleveland, NC for an 11AM rally in Cleveland Park OR organize solidarity actions at Freightliner/Daimler locations. Demand immediate reinstatement of the five with full back pay.

Download and distribute the flyer for May 9 action to support the Freightliner Five!

Although Freightliner opened the plant in Cleveland, a small town in “right-to-work” (for less) North Carolina, almost twenty years ago it wasn’t until 2002 that the workers there got seriously interested in a union. Workers had just taken a $1.15 an hour pay cut to cover their health care. However a UAW-recognized plant in nearby Mount Holly were protected by a contract, and therefore didn’t have their wages slashed. So when the UAW held a meeting three months later, workers in Cleveland attended. A core of workers set up a volunteer organizing committee, working out of the Methodist Church and planned an effective campaign that led to union recognition. Four of the Freightliner Five were members of that volunteer committee: Allen Bradley, Glenna Swinford, Franklin Torrence and Robert Whiteside. (The fifth member, David Crisco, joined the union later.)

Because of a merger a few years before, Freightliner’s parent company had already agreed to recognize the union when a majority signed authorization cards. The organizing committee didn’t know that a five-year neutrality agreement also guaranteed that when they came to the bargaining table there would be certain restrictions: no profit sharing, no cost-of-living wages, and no restrictions on overtime. So the committee did the best they could under the circumstances, and looked forward to the second contract.

Last spring when the local bargaining committee began to negotiate for a new contract, they found themselves hamstrung by Freightliner. By the time contract expired March 31st, the committee wasn’t close to a tentative agreement. The company told the committee to take the economic package back to the membership for a vote, saying that the unresolved issues, including health and safety grievances, would be discussed after the ratification process. The bargaining committee felt they couldn’t bring back a partial contract. The package was loaded with concessions, including the fact that half the membership wouldn’t have gotten a raise. There would be a two-tier health care plan whereby new hires would have a lesser level of retirement care than current employees. Retirees’ health care would also become more restrictive under the new contract.
The UAW International staff working on the negotiations left town for Easter vacation. They said that the company would extend the contract—but Freightliner disputed that when they cancelled the Good Friday holiday. Workers reported they’d been told their health insurance was cancelled.

Members felt only a strike would get the company back to the bargaining table; on April 2nd the bargaining committee voted to strike. They conferred with the local president, who supported the decision, and asked him to activate the union’s phone tree. Then they went into the plant and explained that the International had not sanctioned the strike, but that there was no contract and therefore it was not an illegal action. The strike was on!

However the president sent a message out to the membership that the strike was illegal and members should report to work the following morning, thus aborting the strike.

On April 3rd the local received a fax from the UAW International saying they had secured a contract extension. By April 18 a contract without the health care concession was submitted to the membership, but rejected. Then the UAW Region 8’s director sent out a flier to every member’s home and a re-vote scheduled. The contract passed the second time around.

Five members of the bargaining committee were fired for stopping production. Additionally six workers who walked off the job that night were also fired. Subsequently reinstated without back pay they are still being harassed by management.

Over the last several months, the Freightliner Five—three of whom are also on the local’s executive board—have spoken at union and community meetings throughout the country. They know that they will be unable to win their case against Freightliner unless they get national and international support from their union brothers and sisters. Their arbitration case will probably occur this June.
Last November the UAW local heard internal charges against them for leading an unauthorized strike; they were found not guilty. Then this February they were forcibly removed from a monthly membership meeting under the pretext that they had not properly informed the secretary that they wished to remain members, and owed dues. Allen Bradley was arrested as he left the union meeting. His crime? Taking a photo of a police officer.

Despite this harassment, the five are solid trade unionists who want to win back their jobs and continue to build a militant local. All five are members of the NAACP, and Franklin Torrence is president of the first chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists in North Carolina and a member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. He is chair of the local’s civil and human rights committee, Glenna Swinford is co-chair. Bradley, as skilled trades chair, along with committeepersons Whiteside and Crisco have focused on dealing with the plant’s serious health and safety issues.

These five people are the kind of folks needed to help organize the South. They are effective and knowledgeable, and they need your support. Come to the rally in Cleveland, NC or take action in your own area.

For more information about the Freightliner Five, go to www.justice4five.com.

Und jetzt? Jetzt haben sie sich geeinigt. Auf 4,6 Prozent Lohnerhöhung. Das ist nicht einmal die Hälfte der eigentlichen Forderung. Von zwölf Prozent ist keine Rede mehr . Ist Ver.di zusammengebrochen? Eingeknickt? Oder gab es einen Deal? So ein Deal im Hinterzimmer, zwischen BVG und Ver.di?

Jubeln tut jedenfalls keiner. Die BVG nicht, weil 4,6 Prozent auch ein paar Millionen Mehrausgaben bedeuten. Verdi nicht, weil das Ziel komplett verfehlt wurde. Die BVG-Mitarbeiter nicht, weil sie längts nicht den Lohn bekommen, den sie einst gefordert haben.

Und erst recht nicht die Fahrgäste. Die mussten in den letzten Wochen auf den öffentlichen Nahverkehr verzichten und dürfen dafür ab demnächst wieder höhere Tarife zahlen. Das nenn ich Betrug. Oder Beschiss. Oder beides.

Mexico: Corona bottle makers face redundancy for supporting independent union

Factory workers in San Luis Potosí in northern Mexico have been threatened by their bosses with the closure of their factory if they don't renounce their elected independent union in favour of the bosses' union.

The threat from Grupo Modelo in the Industrial Vidriera Potosí factory comes not long after the firing of over 250 workers for being involved with the activities of Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa IVP (SUTEIVP). SUTEIVP won union elections and recognition in 2007 against the charrista, state-affiliated Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) and are now headed by one Valentín Marín.

The threat comes on the back of the closure of the Grupo Navarra garment factory in Tehuacán, Puebla, also for the election of an independent union.

Curiously enough, the actual wording of the statement by Grupo Modelo - who manufacture a variety of beers, the most internationally famous being Corona - does not mention SUTEIVP, instead threatening factory closure if support is given to "an executive committe headed by Marín" himself, leading to various questions: to what extent is Modelo's beef with the independent union, as opposed to the individual union bureaucrat? Are Modelo and/or CROC optimistic about recuperating a possible post-Marín SUTEIVP?

As for the SUTEIVP, its protest encampment of the fired workers outside the factory gates still lacks legal recognition as a strike, although SUTEIVP members who managed to retain their jobs have been granted legal recourse to strike in the future, currently a very real option in the heightening tension. SUTEIVP have rather played down strike talk however, while admittedly it could happen imminently, claiming (rather bizarrely) a cease in production would accelerate the plant closure. Apparently, their priority is "defending our source of employment, our wage rises and contractural improvements".

Since when it was the business of workers to mediate with menacing union-busting tactics is unclear. Also unclear is the fortitude of the still employed SUTEIVP members to maintain a strike, especially with the continued hostility of the local labour arbritration organism, the Junta Federal de Conciliación y Arbitraje (JFCyA), which is also state-affiliated and runs in the same circles as the displaced CROC charros (corrupt leaders). In Mexico, a strike without legal recognition in practical terms spells impunity for sackings by bosses, assaults by police and kidnappings and disappearances by private gangs.

The role of SUTEIVP (more particularly, Marín) in this escalating conflict is still open to inspection.

Pro-SUTEIVP propaganda video (in Spanish):

Teil 1

Teil 2

The security forces arrested him during the recent strike and protests by Sadra shipbuilding workers. He has been held at the Information Ministry's Bushehr province HQ since early April and severely tortured. The authorities are putting him under pressure so that he admits to having had contacts with various oppositionist groups. They have charged him with a number of 'crimes', including taking photographs of the Sadra workers' protest in front of the Bushehr governor's office and filing a report; being in contact with oppositionist groups and spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

According to some unofficial reports Esmail Jafari is close to breaking point and may be forced into making a false confession. Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network will be campaigning for Esmail Jafari's immediate and unconditional release.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
27 April 2008

April 24 – hundreds of thousands to walk out

Employer attacks on workers' pay is the main issue at stake.

Teachers in the NUT are walking out over their pay deal which was supposed to be revised when inflation rose, but the government refused: effectively cutting their wages.

Over 100,000 civil servants in the PCS across ten government agencies are downing tools over sub-inflationary pay rises.

Nearly 30,000 further education lecturers in UCU are stopping work in support of a demand to win pay parity with school teachers, and against excessive hours.

20,000 Birmingham council workers in UNISON, Unite, GMB and UCATT are striking for two days over a "single status" pay review which will cut some staff's pay in half

Hundreds of staff at homelessness charity Shelter are walking out for two days against an unpaid increase in hours and further cuts in pay and conditions.

700 coastguards are walking out in their third 24-hour strike from 7pm 23 April - 7pm 24 April against low pay, and continuing a work-to-rule.

What you can do
We spoke to a local government worker and libcom member who told us "the best thing other workers can do to support these struggles is to organise to improve their own pay and conditions. Communicate your own struggles to other workers, using tools such as libcom.org.

"On April 24, people not officially striking can help by not crossing picket lines.

"Report on developments near you on this thread in our forums, with photographs if possible. If you can, visit picket lines and show your support. Talk to the strikers, ask about the dispute and report back so that other workers can learn from them.

"For parents with dependency leave, if schools are closed you can tell your employer that your childcare fell through at the last minute. This will save you money, give you the day off and help spread the effects of the teachers' strike through the economy.

"Help spread the ideas that we can only win these disputes by taking control of them ourselves. The unions have been helping impose pay cuts, we cannot entrust the fight to them."

Background
Tension is brewing across the whole public sector in response to a central government directive to cap annual cost of living pay rises to 2%. When RPI inflation – which includes housing costs – is running at over 4% this equates to annual real pay cuts of around 2%.

Local government workers are being consulted on a 2.475% offer. Last year the unions either recommended this pay cut (Unite and GMB), or called off strike action aimed at beating it (UNISON). This year many workers fear they will manage to repeat this sabotage.

These fears are not unfounded. As reported on libcom, UNISON is already due to recommend a 3-year package of pay cuts for NHS workers. UNISON is also disciplining several union activists who criticised the leadership over their complicity in last year's pay cuts. UNISON Health last year banned branches from recommending members reject pay cuts.

John Stevens

Smultron gibt es in der Version 3.5, die endlich nicht mehr hässlich bunt ist, dafür aber nicht mit meinem Tiger funktioniert.

China weist im Vorfeld der Olympischen Spiele ausländische Studenten aus.

IBM migriert zum Mac.

Und sonst noch nen schönen Tag! :-)

* Solidarité Ouvrière dokumentiert einen Text der GenossInnen von L'Etincelle zu der momentan ablaufenden Welle von Hungerrevolten auf Grund steigender Lebensmittelpreise, detailliertere Informationen zu den Hungerrevolten in Burkina Faso und Ägypten findet mensch auf LabourNet

* Pünktlich zum Papstbesuch streiken die LehrerInnen an den katholischen Schulen in New York

* In Britannien werden am 24. April sowohl die in der NUT organisierten LehrerInnen wie die in der UCU organisierten DozentInnen für höhere Löhne streiken,

Ein kurzer Filmbericht zu den steigenden Lebensmittelpreisen und Hungerrevolten in der Elfenbeinküste und im Senegal in französischer Sprache

Irgendjemand von VER.DI muss das gelesen haben und kann mich jetzt definitiv nicht mehr leiden.

Nur so kann ich mir erklären, dass meine vorgestern versandte Speicherkarte für's Handy noch immer nicht angekommen ist, der Poststapel im Büro aber das Prädikat "architektonisch wertvoll" verdient hat.

Der Bloggerkollege Martin Ritman hat ein sehr ähnliches Problem. Aber von alledem lasse ich mich auf keinen Fall ins Posthorn Boxhorn jagen...!

Special forces bulldoze their way into Kian Tyre and abduct 1000 workers

A special forces unit using bulldozers broke through the walls of Kian
Tyre (formerly Alborz Lastic) and abducted 1000 workers. The workers
were bundled onto awaiting coaches and taken away. This special forces
unit took just 10 minutes to beat up a large number of workers and
effectively to kidnap all the workers at this tyre plant. No one, even
their families, have any knowledge of their whereabouts.

Just five or six workers escaped, using the sewers to make their
getaway, and were able to telephone a report to a radio station. They
think that the coaches took the workers to somewhere in Karaj, 20 km
west of Tehran.

The workers of Kian Tyre in Chahardangeh, near Tehran, have not been
paid for five months and began the protest for payment of their unpaid
wages inside the factory on Wednesday 9 April. The special forces raid
and abductions took place on the evening of Saturday 12 April.

We urge all trade unionists, labour and human rights activists to help
us publicise this heinous act of the Iranian regime and to put pressure
on it to release the abducted workers immediacy and unconditionally.
Please begin your support by sending a protest letter (model letter,
http://www.iwsn.org/campaigns/kian-tyre-model-letter.htm).

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
13 April 2008

http://www.iwsn.org/campaigns/kian-tyre-12apr08.htm
--
Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
BM IWSN
London WC1N 3XX.
iranwsn@fastmail.fm
http://www.iwsn.org/

Ich habe mich ja schon zur Genüge zu meiner Einstellung in Sachen Tarifautonomie in good old Germany positioniert. Dass sich VER.DI nun aber auch noch einbildet, ungestraft die Friedenspflicht verletzen zu dürfen, bringt mir fast den Arsch Phrasenballon zum platzen. So viel abschließend zum Thema Autonomie.

Bildet er hentet fra NRK.no og den er da selvfølgelig postet på Orddelingsmafiaen.

Psst: Følg med på Orddelingsmafiaen, vi har en skikkelig godbit i morgen tidlig!

Der Verein, dessen Spieler noch auf ihr Gehalt von Februar und März sowie 70 Prozent des Dezember Gehalts warten, zeigte für das Verhalten seines Teams Verständnis und versprach Abhilfe zu schaffen. Nach einem Treffen mit der portugiesischen Profifußballer-Vereinigung beschloß das Team das unmittelbar bevorstehende Punktspiel in Guimaraes noch auszutragen.

Quellen:

• Fußball 24.de
• FOCUS Online

Updates on Mahmoud Salehi’s Freedom!
Messages of solidarity from around the world!

April 8, 2008- In his first interview two days after his release from prison, Mahmoud Salehi told a report from Dastranj (http://dastranj.ir) that the labour movement in Iran has been striving for achievement of its basic demands and that his activities during the past two decades have been for this purpose and despite many obstructions he has continued these activities for the realization of the working class goals and objectives. Salehi emphasized that such restrictions will not prevent or affect his efforts in defense of workers’ rights and demands.

According to Sharnews (http://www.sharnews.com), which is a news website operated in city of Saqez, “Mahmoud Salehi, a labour activist from Saqez, was released from Sanandaj prison on Sunday, April 6, 2008. He had been sentenced to a one year imprisonment last year for “acting against nation security”; however, after finishing his jail term, the court opened another case against him. . Salehi was taken to the branch one of Sanandaj’s Revolutionary Court on Sunday and was released after putting 40,000,000 toman (about $43,000) bail. Mahmoud Salehi, in same afternoon, left Sanadaj for Saqez where he was warmly welcomed by many families and friends who were celebrating his freedom and distributing sweets and flowers."

It’s important to report that almost all progressive and labour organizations inside Iran and abroad have sent solidarity messages for Salehi’s freedom. His freedom was reported by many international news agencies, such as BBC and Deutsche Welle, as well as numerous progressive websites, including LabourStart which has been organizing numerous campaigns for Salehi’s and Osanloo’s freedom. Labour organizations and unions around the world, from Pakistan and Australia to Geneva have expressed their support and joy for Salehi’s release. The ITUC, ITF and Amnesty International, who have also been campaigning for the freedom of both Salehi and Osanloo, today welcomed the release of Mahmoud Salehi. The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company have issued a solidarity statement for Salehi’s release, congratulating his freedom and expressing hope for the release of Mansour Osanloo, the president of the Vahed Syndicate, who has been in jail since July 2007 and sentenced to 5 year imprisonment.

We now need to redouble our efforts to ensure Osanloo is freed as soon as possible and that Salehi would stay outside prison and all charges against him fully withdrawn. Just today, two other members of the board of Vahed syndicate, Saeed Torabian and Mohammad Ebrahim Norouzi Gohari, were taken to the court regarding their union activities including the distribution of the union’s newspaper. They were freed subsequently and it’s not clear whether they would receive charges or not. These kinds of harassment and persecution of labour activists have become a routine form of control and repression.

Mahmoud Salehi is still facing additional charges; moreover, he has a three year suspended sentences effective immediately. He may have to appear for another court hearing. We need to be extremely vigilant about this to ensure that Salehi stays outside prison and finds an opportunity to receive appropriate and specialized medical treatments. There is a fundraising campaign in Iran and abroad to help with his medical expenses.

May Day is fast approaching and once again it will give an opportunity for workers in Iran to mobilize and intensify their efforts for the achievement of their long-fought struggles against the capitalists and their state for formation and establishment of free and independent labour organizations in Iran. Salehi’s freedom is a big boost to these class struggles.

Mandag kom, mandag gikk: man venter på fredag, jeg venter på Jon. Politiet kaller det å "forsikre seg mot at studentene finner på noe mer tull", men jeg lurer på om ikke man hadde spart både papir og blekk ved å bruke kortere og mer presise ord, og selv om dokpro ikke er enig med meg, velger jeg allikevel å foreslå "gisseltaking". Det er enkelt: så lenge myndighetene føler seg trua, forblir lederen for studentrådet bak lås og slå. Og er det noen som lurer på hvordan det er mulig å tvinge studenter tilbake til slitte skolebenker? -les avsnittet en gang til.

Så man venter på fredag og ser hva som skjer. Jeg venter på tirsdag, på besøk og hvis ingenting, er det fullt mulig at selvstudium som tidligere nevnt, blir bytta ut med hjemreise. Senegal er fint, jeg vil gjerne bli, men det får da være grenser for hvor lenge man skal gå rundt å lure på hva man skal gjøre neste uke, hvem man skal forholde seg til og hva man skal gjøre neste dag.

I tillegg til at studentene streiker har også resten av landet (og forsåvidt også resten Afrikas vestkyst: trykk her og her) begynt å murre over livet, og særlig kostnaden av det. Det er nemlig sånn at prisene stiger, stiger mye, stiger ofte. Vil du ha en kylling på markedet må du fort ut med 3000cfa (rundt 36 kr) og vil du heller spise grønt, får du værsågod betale 4 kr appelsinen. Med en gjennomsnittslønn på ca 3700 kr i året* er det ikke rart senegaleserne er lei, frustrerte og småsultne. Det er heller ikke rart at de demonsterer. De synger, kaster stein og politiet tar turen fra universitetsområdet, ned til sentrum, kun for å være med på leken.

Verden er stor, Senegal er lite, men det er allikevel vanskelig å få oversikt over hva som egentlig foregår. Selv om slagordet "ici, on ne rencontre pas des problèmes – que la réalité"** fremdeles står sterkt, virker det som om en del av landets befolkning synes det begynner å bli litt for mye av det gode. Og når man ikke kan ty til andre midler enn streik: da tyr man til streik og viktigheten av lønnsoppgjøret i Norge krymper i forhold..

Jeg skal ikke si at jeg ikke er skuffa over å (mest sannsynlig) ikke få studert noe dette semesteret, for det er jeg og supercalifragilisticexpialidociously sådan, men så er senegalesernes mulighet til gratis utdanning i eget land og råd til mat med ett viktigere enn mine lusne studiepoeng. Selv om jeg gjerne skulle hatt både dem og stipend fra Lånekassa..

*med hilsen fra Wikipedia og DnB NOR sin valutakalkulator.

**det finnes ingen problemer, kun virkelighet.