[mobglob-discuss] World of Labor (2/3/06)

[Gordon Flett]

World of Labor (February 3, 2006)
By Harry Kelber

Police Take Over Jobs at Struck Indian Airports


India, Asia's third largest economy, has embarked on a plan to modernize and 
revamp its Soviet-era airports at New Delhi, the capital, and Mumbia, the 
financial hub. The move has angered nearly 23,000 members of the state-run 
airports authority of india, who have declared an indefinite strike to 
protest allowing private companies to take over and modernize the shabby, 
run down airports.

Police took over much of the running of the country's two main airports on 
Feb. 2", as striking workers protested for a second day over threatened job 
cuts because of privatization. Garbage bins were overflowing,, toilets were 
left uncleaned, and passengers had to walk to terminals in the capital, 
after strikers blockaded the main road to New Delhi airport.

"We're going to intensify our agitation until the government relents,"said 
Nilin Jadhav, general secretary of Airports Authority Employees Union. "It 
is a question of the lives of thousands of airport employees and their 
families."

Liberian Workers Stage Slowdown at Water and Sewage Firm

Hundreds of employees of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation laid down 
their tools on Feb. 1", demanding that the outgoing management settle '6 
months of cash incentives and other benefits due them.  The workers 
complained that management had failed for the past two years to remit money 
deducted from their wages to the National Social Security and Welfare 
Corporation.

"Many of us who have been working here for more than 10 years or more earn 
as little as $400 a month,"a spokesman for the workers said. On the issue of 
the go-slow action that began on Feb. 1", it would continue unless something 
impressive is done by management, he said.

Employees say that the salary structure of the corporation is among the 
lowest as compared with other public entities. Last year, four of their co 
workers died because of management's insensitivity to their plight.

The Dangerous Life of Ukranian Coal Miners

Ukranian coal miners suffered '57 deaths and 7,768 injuries last year, with 
the toll attributed to poor safety management, according to a recent study 
by Trade Union World. Thousands of retired miners, unable to live on their 
pensions, continue to go down into the pits.

Women and children work in the clandestine mines that are proliferation 
wherever coal can be found close to the surface. A group of unscrupulous 
businessmen have become powerful "oligarchs" by exploiting the numerous 
flaws in the Ukranian authorities' management of the mines, the study 
reported.

The Trade Union World Briefing sheds light on the disastrous social 
situation in the coal mining Donbass region of southeast Ukraine, where 
entire communities have been searching for a future since the closing of 
their pits.

Hundreds of Iranian Unionists Arrested in Bus Strike

Iranian authorities have again targeted trade unionists at Sherkate Vahed, 
Teheran's bus company, in the latest wave of brutal repression.  During the 
strike that began on Jan. 30, hundreds of union members and their families 
were arrested. According to diplomatic sources, more than 500 strikers and 
their supporters are thought to be in detention at Evin prison.

The strike was called to demand a collective bargaining agreement at the bus 
company and freedom for the union leader, Mansour Osanloo, who has been in 
prison since last Dec. 22. Eight members of the union's executive board were 
summoned to appear in court on Jan. 26 and have not been heard from since.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has sent a 
letter to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadjinejad in which it protests the 
surge in repression and violence being leveled against workers in Iran. It 
insists that as a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Iran 
has an obligation to  respect freedom of association and the right to 
collective bargaining.

New York City Urges Probe of Coca-Cola in Colombia
"The New York City pension funds are concerned about the allegations of 
alleged human rights abuses at Coca-Cola's Colombian affiliate," city 
Controller William Thompson said in asking for a shareholder resolution on 
the matter.

The resolution calls for an independent delegation of inquiry to visit 
Colombia to examine the charges of collusion in anti-union violence made 
against managers and officials of Coca-Cola's bottling affiliate, FEMSA, and 
that the delegation include representatives from U.S. And Colombian human 
rights organizations.

Since 1995, union officials and unionized employees of Coca-Cola's Colombian 
unit have been subjected to numerous attacks and physical threats from 
paramilitary forces. Allegations of collusion between officials of the 
affiliate and the paramilitarists have resulted in calls for consumer 
boycotts of Coca-Cola products in Europe and the United States.

Strike Forces Chad Government to Release Pension Funds

The Chad government has freed about $10.3 million for government workers' 
pensions that have gone unpaid for up to two years, meeting a top demand of 
the country's largest union, as it moved into the fourth week of its 
nationwide strike. Since Jan. 9, when the strike began, retirees, as well as 
widows of government workers, have staged demonstrations in the Chad 
capital, Ndjamena, protesting non-payment of retirement benefits.

Michel Barka, president of Chad's largest union, UST, commented: "We made it 
clear that these aged people are very fragile and not to pay their pensions 
would be a serious misstep on the part of the government." He said the 
payment of pension benefits would be a huge step forward.   Union sources 
say the government paid no pensions at all in "005 and only portions in the 
two previous years.

Chad is an impoverished, landlocked African country that is facing a thorny 
period as a rebel movement hovers in its volatile east border. The 
government is trying to settle a dispute with the World Bank, that recently 
halted all loans to the country and froze its oil escrow account.

Our weekly "LaborTalk" and "The World of Labor" columns can be viewed at our 
Web site: www.laboreducator.org
Harry Kelber's e-mail address is: hkelber at igc.org